blog好き

Oct 15 2003

Categories: life

1 Comment »

It’s been almost two weeks since I shipped my poor laptop off for repairs. I am optimistic that I will get it back this week and end my withdrawal. I have even started looking around to buy another computer, and that’s when I took a different take on the Intel/AMD war. If you know anything about computers, you know that Intel’s top chip is the P4 EE with one of those E’s being our favorite word at tranquility (well, maybe it’s neck-to-neck with “chix0rs”). AMD slugs it out with the Athlon64 which I think sounds like a failed videogame console (yes, despite having one solid game, it’s still a failure compared to the PS1 and DC… I will not argue this.).

Ok, I have seen the benchmarks, and you Google until sunrise for more benchmarks and framerates up the Yahoo. The trend that I notice is that neither chip really outpaces the other. The P4 EE has its strong suits, mainly hyperthreaded programs, and the Athlon64 has its strong suits, like distributed apps. So if I buy a computer in the next two months or so, which processor would I choose? I would base that decision solely on the programs that I use. Let’s do a rundown:

• GunBound— the limiting factor is the slowest PC of all the players. With either processor, I doubt you’ll be the slowest… for like at least four years. When I log on with my P3-900, I still whoop most people’s butts in loadtime. Then again, the P3 mobile processor is one of the greatest processors that Intel has ever released. Great core, great performance/power… but I’m disgressing here.
• Frozen Thone— there’s a framerate cap built into FT so neither processors will even come close to realizing their full potential. However, for those tower defense maps with good lightening towers, you do need a good DX8 videocard, but the processor is still mostly irrelevant.
• DivX Playback— my P2-266 laptop plays back DivX flawlessly. I don’t think I need to say anything more…
• DivX Encoding— the P4 EE blows away the Athlon64 with its hyperthreading, and by “blows away” I mean 10-20% improvement, which is actually a lot in the semiconductor industry considering that going from .15 to .13 micron process will cost over a billion dollars yet only yield 10% faster chips.
• Photoshop— P4 EE with hyperthreading wins again. Athlon64 can catch up if there’s a 64bit version of Photoshop, but, alas, there isn’t. 64bit Windows is still a year away, and do you really want to use a version 1 operating system?
• BitTorrent— it uses like no CPU cycles. Non-issue.
• Nero— limited by burning speed.
• Firebird— I’m going to justify a fancy processor because I want my web browser to run faster. All of my friends will laugh me out of the room.

I think in all, the processor is not my bottleneck. I think more will be gained by buying either a standard P4 or AthlonXP for less than half the price of either newfangled processor and rolling the money into other devices. For instance, an 8X DVD burner will burn a DVD in under 10 minutes for $100 more. Does the P4 EE or Athlon64 increase my save-to-jpg in Photoshop by more than 10 minutes, since that’s the time I save over a 4X burner? Also, an upgrade from a Radeon 9600 XT to Radeon 9800 XT will yield huge improvements in framerate for Half Life 2, yet only be a $300 upgrade… which is still less than jumping from an AthlonXP to Athlon64.

While I think they’re both good for technology in general, it’s easy to fall in love with the newest and greatest things. But remember, they’re not always needed or will be needed for some time to come. For instance, there’s no 64bit apps, and no 64bit OS for at least half a year, and knowing MS, it’ll be closer to a year before Windows XP 64. Then maybe another year after that for apps, and most likely, games in 3-4 years since game publishers like to make their games run on as many systems as possible. (Yes, even Doom 3 will have dumb-down features for non-DX9 cardholders.) By then, the Athlon64 will be cheap with everyone clamoring for those Athlon128s. Yet there’s no 128bit OS, and the cycle continues. I honestly can’t think of any app in the next two years that will require 64bit computing. I mean, it’s good to buy ahead sometimes, if you can see a need in a year or two. But over two years and no need? Time to rethink the purchase. If you can, leave a comment… and be sure to leave what you think the price of the Athlon64 will be two years from now. Cuz the difference between that and $700 is what you’re throwing away by buying one now.

(I just know I’m going to end up buying one… because I like setting my money on fire too.)