Athlon '1800' - 1545MHz?

[Terry Pinnell]

It's taken me a few years to notice, but I've just realised that my
PC, an 'AMD Athlon XP1800+' actually runs at only 1545 MHz. (That's
from Mother Board Monitor 5.)

If it helps, other key specs are: 512MB PC2100 DDR memory, m/b = ASUS
A7A266-E, BIOS = Award Software with ASUS A7A266-E ACPI BIOS v 1009,
System Chipset = M1647 ALiMAGiK 1 AGP System Controller, Buses =
AGP/PCI/USB, L2 On-board Cache = 256kB ECC synchronous write-back.

Why am I not seeing 1.8 GHz please?

 

[John]

It's taken me a few years to notice, but I've just realised that my
PC, an 'AMD Athlon XP1800+' actually runs at only 1545 MHz. (That's
from Mother Board Monitor 5.)

If it helps, other key specs are: 512MB PC2100 DDR memory, m/b = ASUS
A7A266-E, BIOS = Award Software with ASUS A7A266-E ACPI BIOS v 1009,
System Chipset = M1647 ALiMAGiK 1 AGP System Controller, Buses =
AGP/PCI/USB, L2 On-board Cache = 256kB ECC synchronous write-back.

Why am I not seeing 1.8 GHz please?

All AMDs are like that. My 3800 X2 dual runs at 2000.
AMD adopted some rating system that made it more equivalent according
to them , to the Intels I think. There was a big hubbub about how the
avg consumer out there went by gig ratings as the ultimate guide in
choosing processors. So someone would think an Intel or whatever rated
at 3000 was better than an AMD rated at 2000 though the claim was it
doesnt only depend on gig ratings. So they adopted this rating
system.

 

[Jon Danniken]

It's taken me a few years to notice, but I've just realised that my
PC, an 'AMD Athlon XP1800+' actually runs at only 1545 MHz. (That's
from Mother Board Monitor 5.)

If it helps, other key specs are: 512MB PC2100 DDR memory, m/b = ASUS
A7A266-E, BIOS = Award Software with ASUS A7A266-E ACPI BIOS v 1009,
System Chipset = M1647 ALiMAGiK 1 AGP System Controller, Buses =
AGP/PCI/USB, L2 On-board Cache = 256kB ECC synchronous write-back.

Why am I not seeing 1.8 GHz please?

It's because the 1800 doesn't refer to the CPU speed in megahertz. Instead,
it is the nomenclature used by AMD to refer to the equivalent chip speed (in
megahertz), compared wth how fast the non-XP line of chips operated
instructions.

The reason for this is that the XP and subsequent lines of AMD processors
use optimized instructions, which makes them execute instructions more
efficiently than the previous line of chips. So, while your chip actually
has an internal speed of 1545 MHz, it is equivalent to if the chip was
actually running at 1800 without the optimizations.

Jon

 

[DaveW]

AMD cheats in it's naming of CPU's. It lists the number name as the MHz
speed of what they feel is an Equivalent Intel CPU.

 

[Paul]

It's taken me a few years to notice, but I've just realised that my
PC, an 'AMD Athlon XP1800+' actually runs at only 1545 MHz. (That's
from Mother Board Monitor 5.)

If it helps, other key specs are: 512MB PC2100 DDR memory, m/b = ASUS
A7A266-E, BIOS = Award Software with ASUS A7A266-E ACPI BIOS v 1009,
System Chipset = M1647 ALiMAGiK 1 AGP System Controller, Buses =
AGP/PCI/USB, L2 On-board Cache = 256kB ECC synchronous write-back.

Why am I not seeing 1.8 GHz please?

Here is a colorful table of "P.R. rating" versus actual MHz.

http://web.archive.org/web/20041024052945/http://www.qdi.nl/support/CPUQDISocketA.htm


The "1533 (1800+)" entry, means the actual speed is 1533MHz
and has performamce equivalent to a 1.8GHz Pentium 4 processor.
So the "1800+" number was invented to make it easy to compare
your processor to an Intel equivalent.

In other words, everything is working as it should.

HTH,
Paul

 

[kony]

It's taken me a few years to notice, but I've just realised that my
PC, an 'AMD Athlon XP1800+' actually runs at only 1545 MHz. (That's
from Mother Board Monitor 5.)

If it helps, other key specs are: 512MB PC2100 DDR memory, m/b = ASUS
A7A266-E, BIOS = Award Software with ASUS A7A266-E ACPI BIOS v 1009,
System Chipset = M1647 ALiMAGiK 1 AGP System Controller, Buses =
AGP/PCI/USB, L2 On-board Cache = 256kB ECC synchronous write-back.

Why am I not seeing 1.8 GHz please?

Because you bought a system with an XP1800 instead of a
Pentium 4 1.8GHz. If XP1800 had meant 1.8GHz, they'd have
called it an Athlon XP 1.8GHz.

Be glad, it cost less than the 1.8GHz P4 in it's day and is
faster at most tasks.

 

[Terry Pinnell]

Because you bought a system with an XP1800 instead of a
Pentium 4 1.8GHz. If XP1800 had meant 1.8GHz, they'd have
called it an Athlon XP 1.8GHz.

Be glad, it cost less than the 1.8GHz P4 in it's day and is
faster at most tasks.

Thanks all, understood and reassured.

 

[dannysdailys]

Terry Pinnellwrote
It's taken me a few years to notice, but I've just realised that m

PC, an 'AMD Athlon XP1800+' actually runs at only 1545 MHz. (That'
from Mother Board Monitor 5.

If it helps, other key specs are: 512MB PC2100 DDR memory, m/b ASU
A7A266-E, BIOS = Award Software with ASUS A7A266-E ACPI BIOS 1009
System Chipset = M1647 ALiMAGiK 1 AGP System Controller, Buses
AGP/PCI/USB, L2 On-board Cache = 256kB ECC synchronous write-back

Why am I not seeing 1.8 GHz please

Yes, this is correct. And, it also shows you how much more efficien
the Athlon's are

These ratings are used because they get the performance of the highe
number, without having to clock up to that rate. Intel has sinc
stopped using gigahertz as the title of their processors. AMD wa
showing, just by using Intel's own naming convention, too clearl
just how inefficient Intel processors are

Anyone with half a brain, could have easily seen Intel's problem
coming

Intel changing the name hasn't help them however. It is seen as a wa
to hide their obsolete designs, while still making power hungr
smokestacks. Marketing won't help Intel at this point

What's more revealing is the new X2-4800 plus. It gives you hug
performance and only runs at 2.4 ghz. That would mean an Intel, i
it could run at 4800, is exactly 50% less efficient. Intel ha
nothing they can clock to 4800, they melted down at 4000. So, i
seems, AMD has kept the naming convention to more clearly realize ho
far they've left Intel in the dust

You know, kind of like a "bitchslap." LO