Question : Problem: Different CPU's

What do the following mean?

Celeron

Pentium M Processor

AMD Athlon


I understand Pentium, Pentium II, Pentium III, and Pentium 4, but I am not sure where these 3 fit in the scheme of things.  For example, what is a Celeron chip?  Is it a P III, or a P 4 or some weird hybrid?  Very confused.

Thanks,

Answer : Problem: Different CPU's

Hi knowlton,

To simplify it for your easy understanding:

The below is to my understanding,

Intel consist of 2 main types of processors (though there are even newer ones now but let's get the basic first)

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1.) Intel Pentium (Faster Processor Chip)

2.) Intel Celeron (Slower Processor Chip)

AMD too consists of 2 main types of processors (same as there are newer chips now)

1.) Amd Athlon Xp (Faster Processor Chip)

2.) Amd Duron (Slower Processor Chip)

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It actually depends on what is being compared here,

Generally, if you talk about speed,

GOOD POINT:
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Amd Athlon Xp is known to be faster (with xp installed) or equals to the speed of Intel Pentium processors (Comparing faster processor)

As Amd Athlon Xp chips are designed specifically for AMD chips, without Xp installed, it would not optimize it's speed to it's best, hence might be equal or lose in terms of speed to Intel Pentium processor in this case.

BAD POINT:
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Amd chips are known for heat issues. (For both AMD Athlon and Duron chipsets) If the CPU chip for Amd is overheat to a certain extent, the chip will burn up and you will see smoke surfacing from your system. (This is actual facts) But when a Intel Pentium chip gets too hot, the system will hang OR shutdown and Intel Pentium chips aren't having heat issues.

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The comparison will therefore be the same for AMD Duron and Intel Celeron as above as both are consider the slower chipset. In this case, installing Windows Xp for AMD Duron will not speed up much as this chipset is designed for normal usage unlike the Amd Athlon XP.

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AMD Duron and Celeron are of cheaper chips. AMD Athlon is not quite cheap though. But it's cheaper than Intel Pentium processor no doubt.

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To answer your last question, if you are using a Intel Celeron 2.2Ghz, you can somehow see some diference in terms of speed comparing to a Intel Pentium III 800Mhz. Somehow or rather, it will out perform the Pentium III 800Mhz. My engineer colleagues tried tests on Intel Celeron 1.8Ghz and Pentium III 800Mhz and most of them actually told me that there's only very minimal differences on the speed that a person will observe.