cache questions

[isaacual69]

so i here that pentium chips are slower because of there larger l2 cache. is this true which explains there much lower fsb speeds, and since amd such as the 3800 x2 has two 512 kb l2 cache for a total of 1mb at 2 ghz per core, would this run faster than a pentium d 940 which has 4mb of total l2 cache at 3.2 ghz per core. both are around my budget, which dual core wold be better and why? thank u for you opinions, and if amd, should i shoot for the am2 platform, or just stick to the 939.

 

[Cromewell]

The X2 has a better design than the 940. It will run cooler and perform better.

Larger cache helps hide memory latency, it doesn't make a chip slower.

Going with AM2 will have some advantages later when DDR2 gets cheaper and new AM2 CPUs are released right now it performs about the same the 939 varient.

 

[fade2green514]

it's got to do with the chip design, not the speed of the L2. larger L2 is generally better though. it gets into the way the chips are designed inside... microelectronics. basically, the P4 is designed to run at higher clockspeeds (the reason they switched to it from P3), but lower performance per clock...