TCD, If GHz sold, the P4 would be selling like hotcakes.
It isn't. It's had a clock speed advantage for 6 months now, but the word seems to be out that frequency != performance.
The A4 has a slight IPC improvement, reduced power, and SSE. I would't call it spectacular, but 'quite good'. I suspect that certain application / high memory bandwidth combinations might showcase the prefetcher better in the future.
Imagine if AMD had released the P4 with its devastating reduction in IPC and increase in power requirements. What would you be saying about it then?
Doug
p.s. Besides, if you're right, and GHz begins to sell, all AMD need do is run a few transistors of the chip at 1.5 times the frequency, use a 2/3 divider on the rest, and tout its next generation chip. "Sure, the IPC went down, but gosh, look at that frequency rating. And unlike Intel, our chip doesn't need more power!" |
