AMD Athlon 64 or Intel Pentium 4 HT?

[imperia]

Hi all,

Hope this hasn't been asked before, or too many times.

I am about to upgrade my computer, and was just interested in people's opinions on which CPU is the better platform for a DAW.

I know how much I want to spend, and I can get an Athlon64 3200+ or Pentium4 3.0 for the same price.

I use Sonar, Reason and your general audio processing tools... I'd also like to perform live with this rig one day. I do quite a bit of audio manipulation inside Sonar itself too.

So would an Athlon64 (with it's 64-bit architecture and HyperTransport tech) or Pentium4 with HyperThreading tech be a better platform for audio work? Athlon64's I believe perform generally a tad better than P4's, but would the stability and HyperThreading technology of P4 be more beneficial?

Any thoughts, ideas and comments appreciated..

Thanks peeps!

 

[radzikk]

On all the gamer boards they're saying the Athlon64 blows about any P4 away. The newer HP P4 are closer, but thee Athlon64 gives you like a 1600MHz FSB, and that is fast. The FSB (Front Side Bus) and the type of memory you use have become the major limiting factors in CPU speed at this point. Plus the Athlon's tend to overclock extremely well, you may find you can run in excess of 4GHz with some tinkering.
my 2 cents
-k

 

[minofifa]

yeah i could be wrong but hyperthreading really only becomes useful when you start to do a lot of multitasking. I like the AMD's better.

 

[Sangram]

On all the gamer boards they're saying the Athlon64 blows about any P4 away. The newer HP P4 are closer, but thee Athlon64 gives you like a 1600MHz FSB, and that is fast. The FSB (Front Side Bus) and the type of memory you use have become the major limiting factors in CPU speed at this point. Plus the Athlon's tend to overclock extremely well, you may find you can run in excess of 4GHz with some tinkering.
my 2 cents
-k

Not 4 GHz, but maybe 4000+ rating, in terms of clockspeed the realistic target is about 2.5 with air cooling, 2.2 with stock cooling and about 2.7-2.9 with super duper exotic cooling.

The A64 is up to the mark with current stuff beating everything clock for rating and a lot more, but be aware that 64-bit drivers for all devices aren't that mature - so the performance is only expected to increase once XP 64 ships and drivers mature. That's pretty good news, plus the systems are becoming cheaper. The older clawhammers have larger caches, but the new Newcastles are clocked higher with smaller caches. For DAWs caches are better, specially for running those big plugins.

HT is just a way of getting a second set of instructions into the pipeline. Faking it, so unless it's a fairly predictable process (like encoding/filters) it doesn't help much, on random activity which is the normal PC activity, it doesn't help much. Pro apps benefit more than regular windows work. Even though DAW is a pro app, but only when applying effects and mixing down - so it really doesn't help much.

 

[LRosario]

It depends on what you are using it for. It also depends on how much you are trying to spend.

If it's for video, I hear gamers love AMD because of it's cheaper design (dosn't mean it's better or worst).


If your doing audio, you're going to have to consider alot more than just your CPU(s). Things like memory, motherboard technology, HDD speeds.

This is where you start entering the realm of the Workstations.


Lee

 

[BrettB]

Some software can't use the hyper threading of the P4, like Pro Tools f.e.

The AMD 64 uses the 64 only on dedicated software, so even the 3200+ from AMD may still be an option for you.

 

[Sangram]

If your doing audio, you're going to have to consider alot more than just your CPU(s). Things like memory, motherboard technology, HDD speeds.Lee

^^^^^^^^

What he said.

Which is why the AMD 64 makes a lot of sense, specially if you have the cash for a 939 system. 64-bit is only one part of the story for this breed of CPUs. The HyperTransport tunnel, Native SATA, integrated memory controller (the northbridge does not control the memory - so latency is very low and you get killer memory performance) really make it the platform of the future. The only gap in current AMD 64-bit systems is PCI express and x16 graphics, and as I speak there may be boards out with those as well. The HyperTransport takes care of PCI, delivering enormous bandwidth between the CPU and the peripherals.

Sounds very technical - but it's really fast, and not because of 64 alone. It runs XP and games waay better than Athlons (32-bit) and Pentiums, because the architecture is superior.

Oh, and if you still decide on Pentium with HT, do yourself a favour and get the 865 or 875 chipset based board. They're faster than the new 915/925 chipsets. Also get the older Northwood CPUs. Prescotts have heat problems still, and at least in our country, nobody's buying.