AMD Athlon64 X2 vs. Intel Pentium D Presler

by Marco Chiappetta — Wednesday, March 15, 2006, 10:30 AM EDT

Not sure we agree with Hardcoreware.net's contention that "the playing field is level" now that AMD and Intel both offer dual-core processors, but if you want to see how the Athlon 64 X2 stacks up against a Pentium D, they've got some benchmarks for you to chew on. When you're done though, make sure to check out our Athlon 64 FX-60 and Pentium Extreme Edition 955 articles as well.

"Deciding between an Athlon64 and a Pentium 4 used to be a generally tough decision. AMD was easily faster in games, but the Pentium 4 was always backed by superior platforms (Intel's own chipsets), better multitasking performance thanks to HyperThreading, and generally better audio and video encoding performance. Now that the playing field is even with both products supporting dual cores on a single CPU, it will be interesting to see how they compare. Today we're looking at a couple mid-to-high range and a couple high end CPU's from both Intel and AMD to see how they compare, in our first AMD vs. Intel Dual Core Battle."

Tags: AMD, Intel, Athlon, X2, Pre, ium, Pentium, pen, AM

Marco Chiappetta

Marco's interest in computing and technology dates all the way back to his early childhood. Even before being exposed to the Commodore P.E.T. and later the Commodore 64 in the early ‘80s, he was interested in electricity and electronics, and he still has the modded AFX cars and shop-worn soldering irons to prove it. Once he got his hands on his own Commodore 64, however, computing became Marco's passion. Throughout his academic and professional lives, Marco has worked with virtually every major platform from the TRS-80 and Amiga, to today's high end, multi-core servers. Over the years, he has worked in many fields related to technology and computing, including system design, assembly and sales, professional quality assurance testing, and technical writing. In addition to being the Managing Editor here at HotHardware for close to 15 years, Marco is also a freelance writer whose work has been published in a number of PC and technology related print publications and he is a regular fixture on HotHardware’s own Two and a Half Geeks webcast. - Contact: marco(at)hothardware(dot)com