Athlon XP 1800+ not a 1.8Ghz processor?

by nmr - 11-Feb-2002

What?! The Athlon XP 1800+ runs at 1.53Ghz? My friend recently called me up and told me that he just bought a new PC with an AMD Athlon XP running at 1.8Ghz. An Athlon XP 1.8Ghz? Tthe fastest Athlon XP was running at 1.6Ghz during that time, how the heck could he have gotten an Athlon XP running at 1.8Ghz. After of the phone for a couple of minutes, I realized that it was the Ahlon XP 1800+. How could that happen? That my friend of mine was a well informed buyer (not too well informed though). So what would happen to the average buyer?

Why pay more for a P4 1.8Ghz when you can get an Athlon XP 1.53Ghz with the same performance or slightly better in certain departments. Concluding from all the facts and benchmarks laid in front of me. I can confidently say that the Athlon XP performs as good as the Pentium 4. But the fastest Athlon XP 2000+ running at 1.67Ghz still lacks in certain departments compared to the fastest Northwood Pentium 4 running at 2.2Ghz. Logically it has to because of the major clock speed difference. Check out the full comparison and benchmark from Tom's Hardware.

As you can see, AMD is back with the PR (Performance Rating) system. AMD's PR rating system dated back a long time ago. Everything started and ended with the AMD K5 microprocessors and soon, Cyrix followed with its 6x86 PR system. The K5 PR rating system had already brought confusion, Cyrix added salt to the wound. Cyrix's processors were inferior compared to the K5 and Pentium processors.

Now, AMD has returned with its latest PR system used for its Athlon XP processors. The reason is that processor performance now days is thought to be measured  according to its clock speed. And this is totally bullshit, I say. Below is a formula for real performance.

 Instruction(s) per second =  Instruction(s) per cycle X Clock speed hz

Using the formula above, the large the number, the better the processor performance. I'll give you a simple example why clock speed does not matter. If a processor runs at 1Khz or 1000hz and processes  1 instruction per cycle, the performance would be 1000 instructions per second. Another processor running at 100hz and processing 10 instructions per cycle would also perform at 1000 instructions per second.

 The reason why AMD reincarnated the PR system is because PC buyers who are not knowledgeable chose microprocessors based on the clock speed. And while Intel had already released it's 1.8Ghz P4 the Athlon was still running at 1.4Ghz. Although the Athlon's architecture allowed it to process more instructions per second than the Pentium 4, non-informed buyer would still go for the processor with the higher clock speed. AMD was loosing its customers. So to even-up the battlefield, AMD introduced the new Athlon XP line of processors, with the new PR system.

Although this was good for the non-informed buyer, from my point of view, if later on the buyer finds out the true clock speed, he would think that he had been cheated. The informed buyer who knows that the AMD Athlon produces more instructions per second may be slightly confused at the beginning. But, from what I hear, so far, AMD is doing quite well with the new PR system.

More information:
OnePC_NET  - Athlon XP The Name Games, Second Take
LostCircuits, AthlonXP Rating
Tom's Hardware Guide: Pentium 4/2200 vs. Athlon XP 2000+

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