Hey guys, gotta question for ya. How does the Sempron 2600+ compare to the P4 3.0 GHz without Hyperthreading? The reason I ask is because I just built a new system for the first time 3 or 4 weeks ago. I bought everything locally. When I went into the shop, I asked the tech if he had any P4 processors that were 3.0GHz. He said he didn't, but he had an AMD Sempron 2600+ that would emulate a 3.0GHz processor. Is this true??? When I built the system, and got Windows on it, I went to System in the Control Panel, and it said the speed was only 1.60GHz. I was shocked. The computer is the fastest one I've ever used though. But if you could clarify this for me, I would be grateful.

If sales reps are very good at one thing, it is; telling customers what they love to hear, unfortunately your 1.6GHz Sempron 2600+ is no match for a 3Ghz P4.

In other words, he lied to you.

I agree; computing.net does need an edit button.

Thanks so much for your reply, Sabertooth. That's what I figured. It would be interesting to hear jam's view as well as the others about this.

A sempron 2600 is no match for a pentium 4 3.0ghz. True, however, if comparing to a pentium socket 478 3ghz with no hyperthreading, the sempron doesn't get "that behind", at least in some aspects like gaming. I used to own a sempron 2400+, 512 of ram, and a radeon 9200SE (the worst card ever). And a friend of mine owned a pentium 3ghz prescott+hyperthreading socket 478, 512 ram, and the same disgusting video card. Of course he was much more GPU bottlenecked than me, but games like half-life 2 played just the SAME in both computers. The fastest AMD (the fx) has 2800mhz. Most pentiums have the same or more clock speed... but the FX kicks every single pentium's ass in the market. Not that the sempron enters in the same analogy, however I belive a sempron 2600+ matches easily a Celeron 2.5ghz.

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There are differences in CPU architecture/technology so you can't directly compare AMD & Intel based solely on CPU clock speed. AMD CPUs are much more efficient, so even though the clock speed is slower, they can perform as much work as a higher clocked P4. That's why AMD CPUs are performance rated. A 2600+, even though it runs at 1.6GHz, it roughly equivilent to a 2.6GHz P4, so the sales guy was incorrect in telling you it's equal to a 3.0GHz P4.

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You don't know grateful I am for your inputs! That puts my mind at ease. Thanks!