P4 v's AMD

[langdoguk]

Hi there , I'm getting my parts together for my soon to be cab , I bought a P4 2GZ and an ASUS board ,which I thought would be fine for most games (not bothered about chd's) , would I be better getting maybe an  amd 64 Athlon 3400+ , I plan to run Mame , and hopefully Daphne + N64.
 A few people have said AMD's are better for games than a P4 , I just don't have a clue about all the technical stuff  ,
Will my P4 do the trick for me or do I have to save up and buy a better cpu?

cheers 

[ChadTower]

Brand makes pretty much zero difference.  It either has the horsepower or it does not.

[Jeff AMN]

Brand makes pretty much zero difference.  It either has the horsepower or it does not.

This is true. You'll find a lot of people will tell you to go with AMD just because they like to think that AMD somehow performs better; but the truth is that either will do just fine. And yes, I've done comparison tests.

[langdoguk]

thanks , should I be able to run Daphne and N64 with my P4 2Gz then?

[xmenxmen]

Not sure about Daphne, but N64 runs perfectly on my Athlon 1800.

[RayB]

The only difference is price. AMD tends to be a bit cheaper. But they run hotter.

[steveh]

I usually buy whatever is cheeper.

compairing the 2 chips tho the amd 3500 would be faster then the p4 2.0

[ahofle]

thanks , should I be able to run Daphne and N64 with my P4 2Gz then?

Daphne should run fine on that P4 (it runs 100% on my Athlon XP 2000+ which is comparable).

[Chris G]

Now that we have that all worked out... what game is that in your avatar?

 
Chris

[ahofle]

 

[langdoguk]

Wonderboy   

A skateboard and an axe , all you'll ever need 

[ChadTower]

I was just repairing an SMS last night... came across a Wonderboy III cart that had degraded edge contacts and am trying to decide if it's worth the trouble to repair.

[Chris G]

Thanks, I'll check it out - I don't remember that one.  I'm assuming since you put it in your profile that it's actually a cool game.     Kinda looks like Athena...

[langdoguk]

I think it would be worth repairing wonderboy III , good game , the first one I think is the best ( it was in the shop across from where I grew up , plenty of hours spent there  ), the second one I didn't like.

[shorthair]

Wonderboy's okay.  The graphics are cool, but it's a little like Sonic, though before it, in that it's a little fast-paced.

On running things, my old 1.8 P4 runs all the way up to Mame before the video re-write, Daphne, and many many tables in VP. Hell, I have the new beta Daphne running just fine on my PIII 733mhz. Daphne doesn't seem to take much. VP, though, especially the newer tables - say, 95 or so and up - to not jitter during mult-ball, your P4 may not handle those. What WILL help is if you have an AGP 8x, or even better a PCIe, card added.

[bleugh]

For a given price.....................AMD is better than Intel

i.e. bang for buck, better pricing for AMD

[SavannahLion]

It's rarely an issue of Intel vs AMD anymore. Years ago, I would cite whatever was the best chip on the market that fit whatever needs I thought you had in mind. There are people out there that still do that. Meh, whatever. Now, it's less about CPU performance and much more about the total package.

I tend towards AMD, for some god forsaken reason, when I'm trying to shoot for stability and/or cost. Not that Intel is any less stable, but it just seems to work out that way. Almost all my Linux boxes are using or have used AMD.

When I want to overclock the sucker until plastic parts start to melt, I tend for Intel offerings. Again, it's all about the motherboard, not so much the CPU. My favorite board of all time is my poor forgotten BH6. Ran it so hard and for so long I damaged the plastic CPU clips, smoldered the GPU card, and ---fouled up beyond all recognition--- up some RAM timing thing with it. Poor thing.... 

Oh well  Pick the board first, then pick the CPU, that's my point.

[langdoguk]

thanks for the replies , the board I bought is a Asus P4PE (i845PE) Motherboard , read its an okay board ( might not be  ) . The more I read the more it looks like I should maybe use an earlier version of mame , I've got version 0.89 on disks , was this a good version ? I know the more ram the better but how much is enough , without adding for no reason ?

cheers 

[Tiger-Heli]

For a given price.....................AMD is better than Intel
i.e. bang for buck, better pricing for AMD

generally true.

I do think that a P4 does better in MAME than an AMD at same relative rating - i.e. a P4 3.2 Ghz will likely outperform an A64 3200 - it costs 4 times as much as well.

OTOH, the Core2Duo is the fastest CPU out currently, and the E4300 ($124) can be easily overclocked to qx6700 ($999) performance, which you can't say for AMD.

[Tiger-Heli]

The more I read the more it looks like I should maybe use an earlier version of mame , I've got version 0.89 on disks , was this a good version ?

Actually, you can get any version off www.mame.net, the more important question is what versions you have correct roms for.  0.89 is sortof middle of the road - 0.53 was pretty fast, and 0.99 or so get the latest golden Tee games.

I know the more ram the better but how much is enough , without adding for no reason ?

MAME really doesn't need a lot of RAM.  XP likes more RAM than Win98.  For an XP system, I wouldn't use less than 512M.  I run 1.5G in my home PC b/c one stick of 512 died so I added a 1G replacement.  I would say anything over 1G is just gravy.

TigerDirect has 1G DDR for $50 after rebate fairly often.  I got my rebate very quickly from them, but in the past they had problems (another discussion.)

[destructor]

I was just repairing an SMS last night... came across a Wonderboy III cart that had degraded edge contacts and am trying to decide if it's worth the trouble to repair.

Worth? You must repair it. It's excellent game, different than other Wonder Boy parts. Currently I play on this game for MARP first position. 14 levels with excellent graphics and music and bosses.

[ChadTower]

I'll chuck it back into the repair pile, then.  I'll probably have to run some jumpers from edge contacts into scraped off areas of trace, I think.

[rdowdy95]

I have always been an AMD kinda guy.  I have always built all my systems with AMD chips, and I have built about 20 for family/friends/customers.  They work great.  Intel is prolly good too, just never built one.  I have used Intel Core 2 Duos at work.  They operate pretty good.

[RayB]

I do think that a P4 does better in MAME than an AMD at same relative rating - i.e. a P4 3.2 Ghz will likely outperform an A64 3200 - it costs 4 times as much as well.

You're comparing two different speed chips! A few years ago, AMD stopped numbering their CPUs based on the speed! A 3200 does NOT operate at 3.2 ghz (as you are probably assuming).

My system has an AMD 2400+, but it's speed is 2ghz.

[SGT]

[You're comparing two different speed chips! A few years ago, AMD stopped numbering their CPUs based on the speed! A 3200 does NOT operate at 3.2 ghz (as you are probably assuming).

Yeah two different speeds, but that is the way AMD wanted it to be compared. They claimed that a 3200 would be equal or out-perform an Intel 3.2 ghz. 

[blueznl]

The jury is still out on this one. In my personal experience the AMD64 was definitely faster, cheaper, and cooler, than the P4, but I've seen people claim otherwise.

I guess it depends a lot on the mainboard and all other components, more that people (or tests!) like to admit. When you see magazines with mainboard comparisons they claim little to no speed difference, but I've seen much larger differences, albeit in cofigurations much more different than often compared in those tests.

For example, I got a home build XP2500 and a Compaq Presario with the same CPU. My homebuild is seriously faster (and more stable, but this specific model of Compaq is known to be a disaster in the reliability department).

[Tiger-Heli]

[You're comparing two different speed chips! A few years ago, AMD stopped numbering their CPUs based on the speed! A 3200 does NOT operate at 3.2 ghz (as you are probably assuming).

Yeah two different speeds, but that is the way AMD wanted it to be compared. They claimed that a 3200 would be equal or out-perform an Intel 3.2 ghz. 

That is why I picked those two chips.  I did know that the A64 3200 was not a 3.2 GHz chip.