Thread: Celerons & Pentiums & AMDs, Oh My!!

Originally Posted by TopHatsLiberal

I have a question regarding processors. My laptop has some sort of Celeron. My games say in the minimum requirements that Pentium is needed. So how do they work on my laptop? What are the differences in Celerons, Pentiums & AMDs?

If I am not mistake, Celeron and Pentium are CPU's made by Intel.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is a different company entirely.

Wish I had time to give you more of an answer, but I'm still at work

Originally Posted by TopHatter

If I am not mistake, Celeron and Pentium are CPU's made by Intel.

Advanced Micro Devices (AMD) is a different company entirely.

Wish I had time to give you more of an answer, but I'm still at work

Yes, but if a minimum system requirement is a Pentium and I do not have a Pentium, then how are these games working on my laptop? I ask because I am looking at new laptops as my smaller room mate has found the enjoyment of Barbie, Nemo and Hello Kitty games as well as Disney websites and I think could benefit from learning to use her own computer, so she can have this one and I get a new one! I want to make sure that I do not go to something that is not going to work with my Zoo Tycoon or Missing!!

I am looking for pros and cons for each. I have been very happy with my current laptop (I bought an emachines M2105 2 years ago next month) for what I use it for (internet, games and party planning) and since my work supplies me with a laptop as well, I have MS Office if I need it on that one (I have Works on my personal laptop, I find the spreadsheet too different from Excel and I am not thrilled with the word processor) I am not too concerned with getting another one with Works instead of Office. My only real want is that it still would have the 15.4" monitor as I have gotten too acustomed to it. Oh and that scroll bar on the touchpad is nice, too. This one also has 4 USB ports (not that I have ever used them all at once, but it is nice to know I can if I want to).

So all I really want is a large screen, internal wireless card, excessive USB ports and the scroll thing on the touchpad.

All I really wanted to know, however, was why my games work without a Pentium, if they say they need one.

A celeron is a pentium with a smaller l2 cache which basically means absolutely squat in everyday terms. Just check the actual computer performances against various benchmarks.

Originally Posted by Officer of Engineers

A celeron is a pentium with a smaller l2 cache which basically means absolutely squat in everyday terms. Just check the actual computer performances against various benchmarks.

Celeron is a completely different architecture than the Pentium. They have the same arithmetic calculating cores, but other than that, they are not the same at all.
A 2.6Ghz Celeron has the same calculating POWER as a 1.7Ghz Pentium 4.
Speed and power are poorly measured by Ghz. Celeron is technically an 8-bit proccessor, whereas the P4 is a 32-bit.
The power rankings go like this (from slowest to fastest, all with the same Ghz)
1. Intel Celeron M
2. AMD Sempron Mobile (may be an M)
3. Intel Pentium M
4. Intel P4 M
5. PPC G3 (Mac)
6. Intel P4
7. AMD Athlon (Athlon XP is a more optimized version to work faster with Win XP)
8. PPC G4 (Mac)
9. Intel Core Solo
10. AMD Athlon 64
11. AMD Sempron
12. Intel Core Duo (a dual-core, low-power proccessor - only found in the new Intel Macs)
13. Intel Xeon
14. PPC G5 (64-bit, I have two of these in my computer - they're frickin' fast)
15. Intel Itanium (or whatever it is - it's really expensive, and is not in production yet)
This is a measure of computing POWER - trying to encode video to your iPod on a Celeron will be VERY slow. And you Will eventually do that.
The Intel Core proccessors you can either buy the chip and put it into your PC, or you can buy a new Intel Mac (which are SWEET).

My best recommendation is to get the new iMac with the Intel Core Duo in 17".
The computer IS the screen, which is 1.9" thick. Really nice, loaded with LOTS of software, and is reliable and fast as hell. If you want to go cheaper, then buy a Mac Mini (the new Intel version) for $600. However, you'd need to buy your own keyboard, mouse, and screen which will add you another $300-$600, depending on the screen you buy.
If you want a laptop, there is the MacBook Pro, the fastest laptop on the market today. Lots of cool features (like a built-in webcam); the trackpad is nice, as if you move two fingers on it, it scrolls. Oh, and it's indestructable as heck.
All computers that I mentioned have vuilt-in wireless and bluetooth (so you can communicate with phones and such).
If you want to play shooter games, get a friggin fast computer WITH a good video card.

Comparision here....
http://www.cpuscorecard.com/cpu_comp.htm

Pentium MMX
Celeron
Pentium II
Pentium III
Pentium III-M
Pentium 4
Pentium 4-M
Centrino
Pentium Xeon
Xeon
Xeon MP
http://www.cpuscorecard.com/cpuprices/head_intel.htm

The main architectural differences between Celerons, Pentium-IIs and Pentium-IIIs can be found on our Intel Stats pages. The performance differences between the Celeron-466 and the PentiumIII-450 can be illustrated using our CPU Comparator.

In summary, the main differences between Celerons and Pentiums are in the areas of bus speed and L2 cache features. Both Pentium-II's and -III's ship with 512kB of secondary (L2) CPU instruction cache.This allows the CPU to store recently used instructions close by and is responsible for much of their high performance.

The Celerons that Intel first introduced as a low-cost CPU alternative (266 & 300MHz versions) were basically just Pentium-II's without any L2 cache at all. This deficiency really punished Celeron performance when compared to competitive AMD and Cyrix chips. In response, subsequent Celeron versions (300A and up) were provided with 128kB of L2 cache. Though only one-quarter the size of the Pentium cache, it was built to run at the full speed of the respective CPU, rather than at half-speed as in the Pentiums. Due to its higher manufacturing cost and technical issues, the larger Pentium cache memory has always been set to run at only half the speed of the CPU itself. For a full-speed L2 in a Pentium design, you need to get into Intel's (much more expensive) Xeon line.

What Intel plays down-- but nearly everyone knows-- is that the full-speed, quarter-size Celeron cache gives them almost the same performance as the half-speed, full-size cache gives Pentiums. Thus you'll find that, for most applications, Celerons rated at the same MHz will equal or better an equivalent Pentium-II, for a much lower price.

For example:

Celeron @ 466MHz x 128kB L2 @ 466MHz =>
Pentium-II @ 450MHz x 512kB L2 @ 225MHz

Pentium-III's are given an added boost with an inherently faster system bus speed (100MHz vs. 66MHz for the Celerons) and Intel's new SSE 3D instruction set. This combination of hardware and firmware enhancements gives Pentium-III's a significant edge over the Celeron's smaller cache and slower bus.

Additional discussion on L2 cache can be found here, while more technical issues can be found at Intel's developer web site.

http://www.cpuscorecard.com/cpufaqs/sep99c.htm

Originally Posted by TopHatsLiberal

I have a question regarding processors. My laptop has some sort of Celeron. My games say in the minimum requirements that Pentium is needed. So how do they work on my laptop? What are the differences in Celerons, Pentiums & AMDs?

Hmm, intresting mostly the games should work. If its graphics intensive games then I suggest not to try them

There is a lot of misinformation here.

Celeron is just a name. Pentium is just a name. Anything and everything can be called Celeron or Pentium if Intel choose to.

The difference is in the core and the process it's made from. Different generation will support additional instruction sets.

Sempron and Athlon follow close to Celeron and Pentium in their naming convention. Anything and everything can be called whatever by AMD.

I am kinda busy right now so I can't go into details.

Please PM me or post your question on what you desire to buy and I'll try to get back to you as soon as I can.

Originally Posted by Jay

Hmm, intresting mostly the games should work. If its graphics intensive games then I suggest not to try them

I think I phrased my question wrong. I think it came across as "How well will they work?" when what I meant was "How is it that they are working?"

For Zoo Tycoon I did have to download Indeo, but other than that I have not had a problem getting any game to play on my laptop (except Myst, but no big loss there, and I think it was a problem with the CD anyway). I just want to make sure that if I buy another Celeron my games will still work - I am almost done with Missing:Since January and I am not going to start that thing over again, and I have a pretty good zoo going right now with Zoo Tycoon (girly games, I know ). Since all I do is play games, mess around on the internet and use it to watch movies during lunch @ work or on long car trips (the smaller room mate has a DVD player for the car, but if anyone has tried to watch Matrix on a 6" screen, you understand why I do not want to do that again) I don't want to go all out and but the best there is. My emachines I have now has never given me a problem and I have only good things to say about their customer service on the rare occasions that I have had to call them.

Originally Posted by TopHatsLiberal

I think I phrased my question wrong. I think it came across as "How well will they work?" when what I meant was "How is it that they are working?"

For Zoo Tycoon I did have to download Indeo, but other than that I have not had a problem getting any game to play on my laptop (except Myst, but no big loss there, and I think it was a problem with the CD anyway). I just want to make sure that if I buy another Celeron my games will still work - I am almost done with Missing:Since January and I am not going to start that thing over again, and I have a pretty good zoo going right now with Zoo Tycoon (girly games, I know ). Since all I do is play games, mess around on the internet and use it to watch movies during lunch @ work or on long car trips (the smaller room mate has a DVD player for the car, but if anyone has tried to watch Matrix on a 6" screen, you understand why I do not want to do that again) I don't want to go all out and but the best there is. My emachines I have now has never given me a problem and I have only good things to say about their customer service on the rare occasions that I have had to call them.

Quite simply, a processor processes instructions. How they do it may be different but as long as the game you're running is compatible with the operating system you intend to run it on you should be ok. Something that says you need an pentium 4 simply means you need a processor with roughly equivalent processing power as a pentium 4. It's more likely that your memory and graphics card will affect games performance than your processor as long as you have something fairly up to date.

For a mere $3200 this Mac seems pretty cool, but I don't know that I would want a Mac really. However the magentic power cord would be nice for I am constantly shooing away cats and my small room mate from the cord.

Review: Apple's MacBook Pro Is Fast Laptop
By MATTHEW FORDAHL, AP Technology Writer
Thu Mar 9, 8:44 PM ET

Apple Computer Inc.'s notebooks have long been highly regarded for their thoughtful designs and leading-edge features. But when it comes to performance, recent models have been lagging behind competitors that run Intel Corp.'s chips.

Unable to beat 'em, Apple last year announced plans last year to join 'em. It recently began shipping its first Intel-based laptop, the MacBook Pro, which looks a lot like the old PowerBook G4 line it's replacing.

Like the iMac desktop that also got a silicon brain transplant, the new notebook is fast, with decent battery life.

Also like the old PowerBooks, it includes some very nice touches, such as an impressively bright screen, stylish aluminum body, a video camera built into the display's frame, a keyboard that lights up in a dark room, and built-in Wi-Fi and Bluetooth transmitters.

The initial MacBooks, all with a 15.4-inch widescreen displays, start at $1,999, for a 1.83 gigahertz Core Duo microprocessor, 512 megabytes of memory and an 80 gigabyte hard drive. The $2,499 model has a 2 GHz processor, twice the memory and a 100 gig drive.

I reviewed the higher-end model with a few extras tossed in — including a faster 2.16 GHz chip, faster hard drive and the maximum 2 gigabytes of memory. Besides its appearance and performance, there's something else that's breathtaking: its $3,199 price tag.

Still, it boots up in about 20 seconds. Programs launch without hesitation. The 69 megabyte, high-definition "Cars" movie trailer played flawlessly, to the delight of our toddler, even with other programs running in the background.

To execute instructions at maximum speed, Intel-based chips need "Universal" software that's adapted to it. Older software written for the PowerPC chips supplied by IBM Corp. and Freescale Semiconductor Inc. also can be used, but there is a speed penalty. So far, more than 1,000 programs have been "Universalized."

What about the all-important battery life? Starting with it fully charged, I surfed the Web, listened to music and engaged in other regular tasks for an impressive 3 hours and 10 minutes before the system went to sleep. Once plugged in, it woke up in seconds, exactly where it stopped.

The run time was slightly longer than for an older PowerBook, which I tested under similar under similar conditions a year ago. In that case, the battery fully drained in just under three hours.

The MacBook's result is even more impressive because the Intel chip runs two computing engines at once, instead of just one on the PowerBook's G4 chip. The MacBook's processor also runs at a faster clock speed.

But in another test, where I continuously played a "Thomas the Tank Engine" DVD, the fully charged battery lasted a little over two hours before running out of steam. It's basically the same result I had with the PowerBook G4 I tested a year ago.

Another noticeable difference is in the power cord. Rather than snapping into a socket in the laptop, it attaches magnetically. If someone trips over the cord, it will just break away, leaving the MacBook on your lap rather than the floor.

It works as advertised, though it also had a tendency to pull out while I was surfing the Web on the couch. This is where the longer battery life pays off.

Apple also ships the MacBook with a remote control and its Front Row software, a program designed for watching movies, viewing pictures and listening to music from a distance. The notebook also can be connected to an external monitor or TV, using a built-in DVI port or other optional cables.

One particularly neat feature, made available through a software update last week, allows music and pictures stored on other computers to be remotely accessible through Front Row. It uses Apple's Bonjour technology, which is arguably the easiest networking technology ever.

Still, there are some downsides to the MacBook.

Apple has switched to a slightly slower optical drive for reading and burning CDs and DVDs and it's also dumped the built-in modem, which might be an inconvenience to anyone without broadband. It's also increased the size of the power adapter.

Still, those are minor quibbles. The new notebooks may have a new name and brain, but they haven't lost the Apple shine.

Zoo Tycoon will run very well. I don't forsee Half-Life 2 or Quake 4 in your future, so a celeron is more than enough. As for the Macbook Pro, it's a little beyond your needs. The iBook replacement will be along soon enough and it'll have the magsafe connector as well. You'll miss some of the joys of a windows machine like spyware, viruses, and bad microsoft programming though.

Originally Posted by BenRoethig

Zoo Tycoon will run very well. I don't forsee Half-Life 2 or Quake 4 in your future, so a celeron is more than enough. As for the Macbook Pro, it's a little beyond your needs. The iBook replacement will be along soon enough and it'll have the magsafe connector as well. You'll miss some of the joys of a windows machine like spyware, viruses, and bad microsoft programming though.

I was kidding about the Mac. Those reasons are why I would not want to go to a Mac - even if it has a cool magnetic power cord.

You could get a Dual Core Pentium with a 1GB Ram and a decent 128MB video card for around $1200-$1300. Check Dell Lappys!

THL,
Often times the requirments the games ask for is for optimum performence. Every game needs a min of speed/memory/videocard to run without getting choppy or too slow for meaningful live action play. The games always opt for the faster chips as they don't want to hear of poor performance complaints. Usually, the deciding factor on whether or not a given game will work on a given computer is the level of software (as in the OS.) If your machine is running windows 95 and the game says "windows XP" you may get lucky, but most likely your S.O.L.

BenR,
I have been running with Macs for twenty years. I haven't missed windows yet (unless you mean, "with every bullet so far") MS has been doing software for macs for a long time. MS word was origionally made for Apples. I find being able to do documents on MS office and working seamlessly with the enemy (PCs) does come in handy from time to time. Other that that, MS can kiss my a.. I don't need the aggravation.