by Don_HH2K » Sun 05 Nov, 2006 4:18 pm
When companies specify a Pentium processor, it's often hard to understand exactly what is meant by the rating. In some cases, people use a Pentium processor line as a speed rating, while others actually refer to the optimizations on the processor. Speed is pretty straightforward: a P3 is faster than a P2, and a P4 is faster than a P3, and by the same means, an Athlon XP is faster than a regular Athlon, and an Athlon 64 is faster than an Athlon XP. An example of a case like this is Adobe's Photoshop Elements: the box states that it requires a P4, though it runs fine on a P2.
There are also different optimizations on both processors; the P4 has SSE2 extensions, and its AMD equivalent would be an Athlon 64 or higher. Meanwhile, a Pentium 3 or higher has SSE extensions, with an Athlon XP or higher being AMD's equivalent, and a Pentium 2 has MMX extensions and would require an AMD K6 or higher.
The Sempron is a lower-cost processor a bit like Intel's Celeron line. If you're looking to get the fastest, the Intel Core 2 currently outperforms AMD's equivalent (Athlon 64 X2/FX) chips, and they're a bit easier to find pre-assembled in PCs.
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