Sidebar Sidebar
Become a MacRumors Supporter for $50/year with no ads, ability to filter front page stories, and private forums.

AMD Power PC 604

pgwalsh

pgwalsh

macrumors 68000
Original poster
Jun 21, 2002
1,639
218
New Zealand
Maybe someone can explain this.

My Micro-Star International WMIinfo application reports my AMD CPU Family as a Power PC 604.

I know that AMD is based on RISC in the backend, but is it really that close to a 604e?

I posted all the info below.

Name : AMD Athlon(tm) XP 2700+
Description: x86 Family 6 Model 8 Stepping 1
Manufacturer : AuthenticAMD
Version : Model 8, Stepping 1
DataWidth : 32 Bits
Socket Designation : Socket A
Type : Central Processor
CPU Id : 0383FBFR00000681
CPU Family : Power PC 604
CPU Stepping : 1
Load Percentage : 100 %
Max ClockSpeed : 2019 MHz
Current ClockSpeed : 2019 MHz
Voltage : 1.6 V
External Clock : 166 MHz
Upgrade Method : ZIF Socket
L2 Cache Size : 256 Kb
L2 Cache Speed : 673 MHz
Display Availability : Running/Full Power
PowerManagement Supported : false
Status : OK
 
Originally posted by maradong
i think it is only the brand or model name of the cpu, as the architecture is clearly x86, as pointed above...
Click to expand...
Right, but we know it has a RISC backenda and a CISC translator in the front end. Maybe being in the PPC family would explain the performance differnce in mhz between Intel and AMD.
 
Originally posted by cubist
Why? I thought AMD processors were faster than Intel's.:D
Click to expand...
That's true at the same clock frequency by a long shot. Espcially since the 3200+ is at 2.4 Ghz and the P3 3.2 ghz are almost comparable in speed, but not due to the FSB.
 
Originally posted by pgwalsh
That's true at the same clock frequency by a long shot. Espcially since the 3200+ is at 2.4 Ghz and the P3 3.2 ghz are almost comparable in speed, but not due to the FSB.
Click to expand...
Intel beats AMD because of memory bandwidth.
 
Originally posted by pgwalsh
Right, but we know it has a RISC backenda and a CISC translator in the front end. Maybe being in the PPC family would explain the performance differnce in mhz between Intel and AMD.
Click to expand...

The RISC backend is actually Alpha based.
 
Originally posted by yzedf
Intel beats AMD because of memory bandwidth.
Click to expand...

wrong :D
intel beats amd, even if it s only for a small part, because of the quadpump technique. wich is only indirectly related to ram throughput ...
 
Originally posted by cubist
Why? I thought AMD processors were faster than Intel's.:D
Click to expand...

Depends on the program your running is and how optimized it is towards either architecture, the Athlon's shorter pipeline and design gives it a higher IPC than the P4 meaning clock to clock, it will be faster, however, the P4 can scale alot higher than the Athlon meaning it has a lot more clocks. Its sort of like saying the one Athlon MHz is the equivalent of two Pentium 4 MHzs but the Pentium 4 has twice the Mhzs of the Athlon. I can go into this a lot more, but I'm tired so I'll explain this in detail later.

Because of how different these two architectures are, it really boils down to the program being used to compare the two processors, branch heavy programs will favor shorter-pipeline architectures with little mispredict penalties like the Athlon. programs that don't have quite so many branches will favor architectures like the Pentium4 with it's high clock speed. Generally, business apps and most integer code is branch heavy which is why we see the Athlon dominate in this area, likewise, we see the P4 dominate in areas like content creation and encoding.

Current Situation:
General Usage: Athlon
Content Creation: Pentium 4
Games: Tie (Although the Pentium 4 is better in most games)
Video Encoding: Pentium 4
3D Rendering: Pentium 4
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Register on MacRumors! This sidebar will go away, and you'll see fewer ads.
Top Bottom
Back