What is the difference between AMD and Intel processors?

They are competitors.

The main difference between AMD and Intel processors are that AMD processors have a 10 step execution process which doesn't allow as fast of a clock but AMD's counter that by being able to do more operations per clock cycle. Intls on the other hand have a 20 step execution proccess which allows much higher clock speeds but they have fewer operations per clock. Thats why a 2.08 Ghz AMD barton can perform at levels like a 2.8 GHz Pentium 4. Another difference between the processors are the sockets they use. AMD's generally use Socket A (462 pins) while Intel generally uses Socket 478 (478 pins). Other differences include supported chip sets, AMD motherboards generally use SIS, VIA, or N force chip sets while Intel motherboards use Intel, SIS, and most recently ATI chip sets. AMD is a favorite for over clockers because with minor modifications the FSB multiplier can be unlocked while Intel multipliers cannot be unlocked (Not to say that AMD is used exclusively by over clockers, because it is not, but this ability to be unlocked is a plus). Also as of now Intel processors have the largest L3 cache at 2mb while the largest for AMD is 1mb

INTEL processors: Intel was the first major brand for desktop CPUs, they survived a lot of competitors. The CPUs they manufacture are always a bit more expensive than AMDs. Because of their market shares, Intel was able to force some "gadgets" onto the market. Until 2002, all CPUs were classified by the speed (for example 2GHz - so 2000MHz). Intel lost some influence on the desktops CPU market because of AMDs techniques - they used not only pure speed but a more specific command kernel. By that the CPUs (i.E. AMD Athlon XP) were slower, but provided the same results as a faster Intel CPU (remember? AMD at 1.666GHz was the same as a INTEL on 1,8GHz). Intel provides most of the "normal" server CPUs today. Private users often choose AMDs for their machines to save costs. Intel supports the classification by the pure speed of a CPU no more. The introduced new numbers for the CPUs which represent the speed, the advanced features, the cache etc. for a certain CPU.


AMD: AMD concentrated on the PC and consumer market and cut the costs for their CPUs in order to be more competitive. Nowadays the AMD CPUs are hotter than Intel CPUs, therefore you will need a better cooling and your system will be a bit louder. AMD provides a dual core CPU for PCs longer than Intel and guess they have more experience with these features.