Which CPU is faster?

[drwho9437]

This is a bit of an odd question. My parents are still using an ancient Sempron 64 2800+ (1.6 GHz) based computer. At almost a decade old it is of course rather slow as the web gets more demanding.

Meanwhile I have an atom D510 just laying around. But the question is would that actually be faster particularly for people who don't multitask.

We are talking and out of order core at 1.6 GHz verse two in order cores at 1.6 GHz. Finding benchmarks to compare the two seems to be quite hard.

I was able to find ubiquitous SuperPI 1 Million numbers:

AMD Sempron 64 2800+ - 1:19
Intel Atom D510 - 1:17

But so far that is all. If anyone knows where I might find some vague idea of the speed of the two please let me know! I have checked the database here and many other places already.

 

[dguy6789]

The Sempron is an Athlon 64 with less L2 cache. Even though the K8 architecture is rather dated by now, it is probably still quite a bit faster than an Atom. Atoms are like pre-Pentium 4 performance and K8s were faster than Pentium 4s.

 

[drwho9437]

Yeah I kind of agree with you certainly per core it is a faster computer. I think of an Atom as a P5 more or less. So two P5 at 1.6 GHz verse a P6-ish thing at 1.6 Ghz.

One way the Atom might win is if the one core is able to take up the full OS and then the other just runs of one application.

The other factor is RAM. The old AMD motherboard supports either 3 single sided DIMMs or one double sided and a single. I really don't know where I can get a single sided (other than maybe eBay used). So 1 GB is all the AMD box has, meanwhile the Atom has 2 GB. With browsers easily taking 300 MB (can you believe that! I remember when I had 128 MB for everything okay I remember having 256 KB also... but I mean running GUIs), this could be relevant.

I'd just do an A-B test if I were living close to my parents but I am not right now.

Edit: I read up and the number of chips on the DIMM has nothing to do with number of sides (or Rank) so it might be possible to get a bit more memory in the old computer after all.

 

[dguy6789]

2GB ram dual core atom would probably provide a better overall experience today than 1GB ram AMD64 but neither would be very snappy.

 

[drwho9437]

Thanks for your opinion dguy. I agree, neither is snappy Though running Xubuntu on the Atom was fine when I used that (I felt). I hope someone knows where to get some quantitative numbers, since the CPUs are so far apart date wise I haven't as I said found anything.

 

[Cerb]

I don't think it would be worth the effort. A fresh Xubuntu install should be just fine on the Sempron, too. The Atom will multitask better, but both will be stuck in the mid to upper P4 performance range. Currently, no browsers are parallel enough to make slow web pages feel faster with more cores. Heavy/new/dynamic websites are just going to be slow, and that's all there is to it.

An Athlon II X2, Core 2 Duo, SB Pentium, etc., with an OK GPU (redundant for the SB Pentium), would make all the difference in the world. An Atom v. Sempron is one kind of meh v. another kind of meh.

 

[drwho9437]

Yeah. I mean I am considering spending the money on getting them a Sandy Bridge with 8 GB of memory. The trouble is that requires a new case or PSU and a new SATA CD, so the price comes to about 210 without an OS. The open question is would they be able/comfortable with Linux. These days I think Linux if fine for what they do, it seems silly to give 1/3 of the cost of a computer to MS just to run Office and Firefox (and GIMP equivalent).

Maybe I should give them an the Atom with Linux and see if they can figure out how to use it.

 

[soccerballtux]

if you can overclock the bus on that sempron to 250mhz it'll feel a lot faster. Also make sure they're using Chrome.

 

[pantsaregood]

D510 supports HyperThreading, I believe. It also sees significant gains if overclocked.

Honestly, the Sempron is significantly faster per-clock in single threaded applications, but we're at a point where most programs - and certainly modern operating systems - are quite good at scheduling multiple threads.

Windows 7 is quite snappy on an Athlon 64 3500+ and 2.25 GB of RAM. It should be able to run quite well on the Atom. Be sure Aero is enabled, as that takes a lot of load away from the CPU.

The only thing that I can see disrupting the PC's "smooth" feel is Adobe Flash. The computer mentioned above can choke on websites with lots of Flash ads in IE9 (which is actually a very good and lightweight browser); the simple solution is, of course, to block said ads. After doing that, you've got yourself a good PC.

 

[Ratman6161]

2GB ram dual core atom would probably provide a better overall experience today than 1GB ram AMD64 but neither would be very snappy.

At work we have a couple of netbooks with Atom N570's - these are dual core 1.6 Ghz but a newer generation than the 510. Still, with 2 GB RAM, these really are quite snappy for web browsing, email etc.

 

[bononos]

How fast is the Sempron 2800+ (1.6Ghz) compared to the AM2 Sempron LE 1150 (2Ghz)??

If its not too dissimilar then the AT benches might be useful-
http://www.anandtech.com/bench/Product/44?vs=110

 

[frozentundra123456]

If you shop carefully, especially with black friday coming, you could probably get a prebuilt dual core athlon or pentium for 300 to 350 dollars. Something like that would be great for them.

I am using an old system right now with an athlon xp2600 and 1gb ram with Win 7. Sometimes it feels OK, but sometimes is feels really slow. And this is compared to only a dual core conroe system. If you got them a low end dual core entry system, they would be set for many years. That would be my suggestion.

 

[Blastman]

Superpi is single threaded and heavily favors Intel processors so it's not an ideal comparison.

The Atom D-510 is a dual core with HT, so it has 4 logical processors. The Sempron 64 2800+ is a single core processor. In single threaded application the Sempron will be quite a bit faster than the Atom, but in multithreaded stuff the Atom will be faster.

Anand has CPU benches for a Sempron LE-1150 which is a single core clocked 2.0Ghz and should be a little faster clock/clock over the Sempron 64 2800+ … and it’s also clocked 25% faster.

Atom D-510 vs Sempron LE-1150 (2.0Ghz)

Cinebench R10 single threaded … (higher is better) …

Atom D-510 … … … … … … … 709
Sempron LE-1150 (2.0Ghz) … 1830

multithreaded …

Atom D-510 … … … … … … … 2024
Sempron LE-1150 (2.0Ghz) … 1830

In most of the multithreaded benches the Atom D-510 is faster than the 2.0Ghz Sempron LE, so the Atom will definitely be better overall in a multithreaded environment than the Sempron 64 -- I think a good step up overall even though the Sempron is quite a bit faster single threaded application.

I would probably lean towards the Atom, I think the multithreading ability will more than make up for the slower single thread performance, and also since it has 2GB ram vs the 1.0GB of the Sempron. I can't even surf these days without going over 1.0GB.

 

[MustangSVT]

I would think both are fine for your parent's internet usage.
If its sluggish, its mostly bloatware and crap on their computer. Only thing that might be out of reach could be HD content on youtube or such.

I say use atom and o/c a bit and they should be fine.

Im still using good old EEE netbook with single core atom on winxp and it does everything fine at 2.1ghz. Even 720p mkv with coreav. but it chugs at HD flash stuff.

 

[sm625]

1GB of RAM is a problem for users who cant manage memory. It will end up constantly swapping out memory, and the system will run slow as dirt just because of that. But the atom is still faster, even without factoring the memory capacity. It is gonna have lower latencies and much better burst thread handling. The casual user is going to immediately think it is a LOT faster. And like others have said, you should be able to overclock the atom by quite a bit.

 

[jacktesterson]

I think the Sempron is faster (off top of my head)

You can buy a Sempron 140 (which a ton of them unlock) and a Really cheap 760g or so motherboard... Be quite a bit faster.

I've used them for "tiny budget" internet builds for people before. I've used a sempron 130 in a HTPC before that could handle 1080p playback on a single core.

 

[Zap]

I'd go with the Atom just to get the 2GB RAM.

If you shop carefully, especially with black friday coming, you could probably get a prebuilt dual core athlon or pentium for 300 to 350 dollars. Something like that would be great for them.

This is a great idea!

 

[jacktesterson]

I'd go with the Atom just to get the 2GB RAM.



This is a great idea!

me too

 

[formulav8]

I would think both are fine for your parent's internet usage.
If its sluggish, its mostly bloatware and crap on their computer. Only thing that might be out of reach could be HD content on youtube or such.

I say use atom and o/c a bit and they should be fine.
.

The bloatware is yes. The Atom is no. I've been on one before and its a dog. Sempron overall would be a better experience imo. I've been there and done that. If you/parents don't care about nothing more than email or whatever then either will fulfill that.

You can also get a cheapo $20-$30 Athlon64 and make it even better than the Sempron. I think I even have one around.

Either way, if they have a Sempron, a dualcore Atom definitely won't be much of an upgrade. Unless they truly multitask. You would be better off to overhaul the pc or upgrade to a Athlon64 and memory. Just my honest opinion. Atom is a NoNo if you truly want an upgrade.


Jason

 

[drwho9437]

It is an interesting split opinion in the end. I maintain the computer when I do go home. There is no bloatware. It had 512 MB last visit and it was just FF/Flash sucking all the life out of it with memory leaks and just memory use having my nieces play flash kid games on it.

I put in 1 GB in place of the 512 and of course that helps a lot because the slow part was mostly swapping but the thing is still ancient.

For about 300 I could whip up a sandy bridge with 4-8 GB of RAM. If only SSDs were cheaper I could add that also. I am still on the fence about it. The atom would have required an ITX case, so I think I will just eBay that. I stuck the ram in my Core 2 box to give it a more healthy 4 GB.