AMD athlon vs Pentium 4

[satch_1]

Hi
Im thinking of getting a new PC to encode xvid movies into mpeg2/DVD , & i have found AMD Athlon 3100 , so is it worth it or should i get pentium 3.0 Ghz ? is there a big difference in encoding time ?

system spec.
AMD Athlon 3100
256 RAM
HDD 80 GB
MSI DVD Writer 4X-R , 4X+R

[Craig Tucker]

If you search the forum you will find many AMD vs Intel threads, including a couple on the phantom 3100 chip. No such thing produced by athlon, seems to be an overclocked lower speed processor.

If you are prepared to spend the money, the top of the range intel has the edge over the AMD chips, but for value for money i.e comparing like for like processors and their price, AMD wins.

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=210997&highlight=athlon+3100
https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=210270&highlight=athlon+3100

[rallynavvie]

Actually I think AMD and the Opterons have the edge over Intel for the now. We won't see any turnabout until the 64-bit Xeon release this summer. However the high-end Xeon workstations do seem to edge out even the Opterons in video work. I'll be damned if I'm going to spend $1000 per CPU though

[little Mick]

Pepsi or coke????? I don't think it really matters.........not really

[Piccoro]

Buying for now, check the benchmarks and look what does best with the exact programs you use. There are some encoding programs that favor a P4 while others favor the Athlon 64 (even considering the P4's HT).

A nod to the P4 for HT and SSE2 in supported apps and 3d rendering...
to the Athlon 64 for ondie memory controller,cool&quiet and added SSE2 for gaming/compiling/decoding/office apps
Encoding/Other apps are mixed.
Price/Performance ratio goes to A64.

If you are buying in the future then:
Intel says "No" to 64-bit Pentium 4 in Retail
AMD Rejects DDR2, Gives Additional Speed Headroom for DDR

[Cobra]

Craig is right I think, the 3100 definitely does not exist - it has to be a lower processor that's been clocked up. Full explanation in my overclocking guide, down the bottom:

https://www.videohelp.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=213341

I personally would go for an AMD chip as they offer a lot more bang for your buck, and the Athlon XP2500 Barton is very overclockable (as covered in the link) so you get a lot more processing for your money.

Having said that, Intels are also overclockable, and are in some ways more sophisticated chips. Just very expensive.

Cobra

[RabidDog]

Warning *controversial*

Amd likes XVid ... Intel Likes DIVX....VIA...likes time[/quote][/list]

[satch_1]

3100 AMD is overcloacked as some of you said & all AMD`s comes with built in mother board in my country , but now its out of stock . anyway i found AMD 2400 which is also overcloacked ( was 1.9 ) but in comparison with celeron 2400 & pentium 4 2.0 ghz which one is better for encoding mpeg2 ( im using dvd2svcd bundle) ? there`s no difference in the price with the previous 3 so i want to take the best system from them .
another question will it differ in encoding if i upgrade the ram from 256 to 512 ?

[flaninacupboard]

an AMD 2400 runs at 1.9Ghz. model number and core speed are not the same with AMD's.

This page suggests the athlon 2400 would be a better purchase than a P4 2.0Ghz.

http://www20.tomshardware.com/cpu/20030217/cpu_charts-26.html

RAM upgrade will make no difference to encode speed, but will be helpful if you're planning on using the machine for other things while encoding.

If it were me i'd spend the few extra $ and get an Athlon 2800, think that's about the sweet spot for CPU's at the moment.

[mujahid7ia]

Warning *controversial*

Amd likes XVid ... Intel Likes DIVX....VIA...likes time

[/list][/quote]

What does that mean? THat those CPUs are better at encoding w/ those codecs?

[Piccoro]

Link

[mujahid7ia]

Link

oic
but not that big of a difference...

[Piccoro]

The only one that does stand out as a big difference is XviD.
Just about anything you are creating from Mpeg2 does very well on an athlon 64 machine.
Going to mpeg2 is mixed.

[RabidDog]

Actually the software you use has a greater impact .. even a P4 HT enabled tmpeng is never gonna approach the speed of CCE on an athlon .. simply bcoz CCE is 3 or 4 times faster.. proc diffs tend to be in 10% or 20%. Encoding requires high clock speeds ergo a celeron @ 3.0ghz will easily beat a p4 @ 1.5ghz . All encoding is running some simple calcs millions of times

imagine 720x576 = 414,720 pixels x25fps =10mil per sec (roughly)
600mil per min.