Why Do Intel CPUs run better at the same frequencies of AMD

[amd freak]

This has always been an issue I have had with AMD. Their prices are amazing but their clock speeds do not mean much in comparison to an intel chip at the same frequency. Does anyone know why this is? As far as I can tell, both the Phenom II and the i7 have 6MB of cache, 45nm technology yet the 3.4GHz AMD Phenom II 965 only runs about as well as the Core i7 2.66 GHz 920. Also with the new Phenom II X6s and the Core i9s(i9s are gonna be ridiculously expensive). Should I switch to the X6s or should I just wait till the i7s go down in price as they may still be more powerful?

[andamus]

Go for i5

[Thandor]

This is because the Core i7 can do more instructions per second (== more instructions per MHz). In a way the Core i7 is somewhat more advanced which allows the CPU to overclock one core is the other three aren't used. This enhances speed as well.

It's just like back in the old days with the Pentium 4 (or Intel 8088 and NEC V20) and the Pentium III and the Athlon. The Pentium 4 was quite a lot slower per MHz compared to the Pentium III and the Athlon. In benchmarks you often see an Pentium III-S or Athlon 1400 outperforming a Pentium 4 1400 or 1500 (or even 1700).

To decide which CPU to choose check out some benchmarks and compare prices of an AMD setup (motherboard, RAM, CPU combination) with an Intel setup .

[Fred Jodry]

If you want to win the race get a better motherboard for the same CPU. I call it my milk truck method. A peachy motherboard that interleaves fast memory rails then has other busses all over the place that are about as wide, high bandwidth as the rear bumper of the milk truck rolling by in the morning will see no one pass him. It doesn`t matter that the driver gets pulled by a Covic or Divco engine or by a horse with quiet hard rubber shoes. Geting up early enough in the morning and flooring the old beast if needed does the job. A solid state scsi HD if a HD, or puppy linux or other custom software does jobs amazingly quick too.