AMD CPU's, Athlon vs Thunderbird

[Wilbus]

Ok, wich AMD CPU is the Fastest, I know the Duron isn't, and I don't consider any of the older K6 modell or prior to that at all. It is between the Athlon and Thuderbird but I have never understood the difference bewteen these two, If I am not misstaking the Thunderbird came out later then the Athlon?

All help appriciated  

[AKDejaVu]

The duron is the "celeron" of Athlons.  The Athlon 4 is the latest and greatest.  Basically, if its just called "Athlon"... go with the fastest clockspeed.

One thing to be wary about... the XP stuff is named differently than its clockspeed.  The XP 1500 is really a 1.33 GHz processor that is renamed to show competitiveness with Intel stuff.  A better breakdown of naming is shown here.

AKDejaVu

[Wilbus]

Thanks  

What about the Thunderbird? What exactly is it? Allso, what would be the best "speed for budget" choíce, don't wanna go with Duron although it is alot faster and cheaper then the celeron. Want something with 266Mhz BUS speed. 1000Mhz athlon?

[AKDejaVu]

go to pricewatch and check on the values.  The spendiest Athlon (non-MP) is selling for around $115... and that's the 1.4GHz.  I don't suppose its really that much of an issue in regards to bang-for-the-buck.

AKDejaVu

[bloom25]

Hopefully I can help you a little guys:

"Athlon" is a generic name for the current AMD desktop CPU.  In the industry CPUs rarely called by this name, rather they use a code name for the core design they use.

For example with the AMD stuff the "thunderbird" is the socketed .18 micron Athlons with the L2 cache "on-die."  This is opposed to the older slot processors with the L2 cache ram on seperate chips.

Other examples are (please excuse my terrible spelling   ):

Intel-
Kallamath (major sp error) - early P2 (233-333)
Descutes - 350 - 450 P2 core
Medocino - Celeron core (266 - 500 Meg)
Kataimi (sp) - early slot P3s (450 - 600 Meg)
Coppermine - P3 design (600meg - 1gig)
Tualiatin (sp) - new .13 micron P3s (1.13 - 1.26 GigHz)
Willamette - Current P4 core
Northwood - future 478 pin, .13 micron P4 core
McKinnley - Itanium future core design

AMD:

Thunderbird - current socket Athlons
Palomino - Athlon MP, Athlon 4, Athlon XP (due out in 2 weeks at 1.533 GHz, likely called Athlon XP and rated at something like "model 1800".)
Spitfire - Durons up to 933 Mhz
Morgan - Palomino derived Duron ( 1 GHz and up )
Barton, Mustang, Sledgehammer are all future AMD processor design code names.

 

[Wilbus]

Thanks you two  

[airspro]

Yes many thanks , understand it better now .