Processor differences: AMD 64 Vs. Intell Dualcore

[The_Fire]

As the title implies, I'm trying to get back in the saddle, spec wise, before buying a laptop for working on.
One of the laptops I'm currently ogling, has an Intel 1.66 GHz Dual Core chip while the other has an AMD64 3.20 GHz (1.6 GHz) single core chip. The AMD one is slightly cheaper, due to other hardware I suspect, so I'm contemplating that option (Granted, we are talking a few months out in the future here, but still).

Now, please correct me if I'm wrong, but the only real difference I see here is that the Intel chip have this entire "Siamese Twin" going on with basically 2 32 bit chip in the same block of silica (hence "dual core") while the AMD chip is a pure 64 bit chip with the lower speed of 1.6 GHz when running 32 bit apps.

Am I reading it correct here? And if so, which chip would, prizing aside, be the better of the two?


Let it also be known that the AMD one is running Vista while the other is running XP home (yes, I was planning on upgrading it to pro.....).

 

[Daald]

I would go for the Dual Core Intel chip. They should both be able to run 64 bit code but from what you are describing the AMD chip seems to be single core. I can't tell you anymore unless you specify exactly which processors you are talking about.

 

[Soapy Sam]

The mag articles I've read consistently rate the Intel dual core chips ahead of AMD for performance and power economy.

What do you want to do with the laptop? If by "Work" you mean run office applications, I would ignore both of the top end type processors and buy a pentium M with a Gig of RAM. It will save you a ggod deal of cash and run XP Pro like a champion.

If you want a games machine, get the dual core- but why buy a laptop as a games machine?

 

[The_Fire]

The AMD is a Sempron, the Intel is a Centrino.

The specs on the 'puter doesn't say if the Sempron is a dual or single core though.....

 

[The_Fire]

The mag articles I've read consistently rate the Intel dual core chips ahead of AMD for performance and power economy.

What do you want to do with the laptop? If by "Work" you mean run office applications, I would ignore both of the top end type processors and buy a pentium M with a Gig of RAM. It will save you a ggod deal of cash and run XP Pro like a champion.

If you want a games machine, get the dual core- but why buy a laptop as a games machine?

Well, I'm going to be running several apps as the same time, most of the time being:
Photoshop (several layers), A development web server, Dreamweaver, A database application, Flash development (all though that one is rather rare for me) and Word plus the usual google-fuu in the background for references.

And perhaps the occasional game........When the boss isn't looking, that is .

 

[Soapy Sam]

2 Gig of RAM then.

 

[stormer]

If you are thinking of only buying in a few months, I would suggest you just wait and not worry about it now.

Intel is scheduled to release their new notebook platform, codenamed "Santa Rosa", in April. This platform will bring a jump in performance (the Front Side Bus, FSB, will increase to 800 MHz) battery life (the power dissipation of the processor will be lower) and it will have other technology increases like the internal graphics core will be DirectX10 compatible, better power management, etc, etc.

As usual when a new platform is introduced, the older platforms drop in price, both for the introducer and the competitor. Make a choice then. And please go for a dual core processor, as Photoshop is multi-threaded and can make use of the power of dual processing.

As for Sempron, it is AMD's lower cost processor which only has a single core. This is similar to Intel's Celeron line. AMD's Turion is the same level to Intel's Core.