DSL | Do the Differences in CPUs Really Matter ?

Do the Differences in CPUs Really Matter ?

Would you like to
contribute to this site?
DSL Menu

Submit an Article
Submit a Tip
Place your Ad
Add URL
DSL Questions?
Contact Us

DSL Reviews and Comparisons

DSL Providers

DSL Companies

DSL Internet Services

DSL Service

DSL Availability

ATT DSL

Verizon DSL

Qwest DSL

SBC DSL

Yahoo DSL

Cheap DSL

Wireless DSL

Cable DSL

Cable Internet

Cable Modem

Free DSL

DSL Modem

DSL Router

DSL Speed Test

DSL Information

ADSL

T1 Provider

Dialup Internet Service

ISP Services

Wireless Internet

Broadband

Broadband Services

Broadband Providers

High Speed Internet

High Speed Internet By State

Return To DSL Article Archive

Do the Differences in CPUs Really Matter ?

By Jay Bauder

CPU manufacturing is one of the most competitive areas of computer world. In the end, the overall performance of your laptop or your desktop depends on your central processing unit. Parallel to the demands of the users, we can say that CPUs traveled a long way from 386s to P4s and AMDs.
The cache is generally the most decisive factor in the tradeoff equation between the price and performance. Considering the L2 cache on some of the chips, you can easily understand that Athlon, P4 and PIII, having 256K or more L2 cache are the once with higher performance, in other words power chips.
Looking at the budget chips, you immediately notice that Celeron has 128K and the Duron only has 64K. Celeron is actually almost like a PIII with half the cache disabled. These numbers shows that the main budget issue for CPU manufacturers is to put enough cash on the chip.
You should consider the difference between the bus speeds: in the case of Athlon and P4, the bus speed between the Cache and the CPU can be 200 or 400 MHz respectively. This can give your system a major boost when you are using cache intensive utilities. The new CPUs are coming out with quad speed pushes and base 200MHz which results with 800MHz FSB like the new P4.
The numbers you would see under the name 'Micron' in a CPU comparison table is basically the size of the transistors. As the number get smaller, the manufacturers can put more and more on the CPU die. The smaller transistors you have on your CPU, the smaller the CPU die becomes. The smaller the CPU die, less power is required and less heat is produced.
The CPU instruction set is the total code which tells your CPU how to process its data. The more sets you have on your CPU, the more efficient it is most likely to be. However, on this point Intel (Pentium) and AMD does not follow the same path. Intel made the first attempt to improve the basic instruction set by adding the MMX support for multimedia.
The differences between the CPUs are getting smaller as each company sees the advantages of their rivals technology and tries to either use or emulate it. It is really hard to choose which one is better. So a good advice would be let your wallet decide which CPU your system will use.

About the Author:

Jay is the web owner of http://www.dsl-in.com DSL, a website that provides information and resources on DSL, DSL Service, and DSL Service Providers. You can visit his website at: DSL Service

keywords: DSL | Broadband | Internet

Broadband Dsl Speed Test

Get your DSL questions answered... Subscribe to our
DSL
Newsletter FREE!

Your First Name:

Your Email Address:

Enter above security code

Home | DSL Blog | Ask the DSL Expert | DSL Archive | DSL RSS Feeds | Advertise | Sitemap