[ale] best 32bit cpu

[dittmeb at mail.rockefeller.edu (Bjorn Dittmer-Roche)]

On Tue, 11 Nov 2003, Stephen Turner wrote:

> ok so its obvious i dont know much about processors :-p whats the best cpu
> out there? mac, intel, amd.... and why? i doubt id do much with any 64bit
> but the mac velocity engine codec thing sounds interesting.

Someone pointed out that the right answer requires lots of benchmarking
with your particular aplication(s).  That said, I have yet to see any
evidence that there is a significant difference between AMD and Intel. My
understanding of the G5 (which IS 64 bit), is that it is probably faster,
but some of that performance gain is not taken advantage of by compilers.
(eg, I believe the Velocity Engine still requires writing code in
assembler.)  Could someone correct me if I'm wrong?

I would go with AMD if cost is an issue and G5 if it isn't.

	bjorn