Microprocessor Comparison Chart

There are many microprocessors available to the public. Not knowing the differences can be quite frustrating -- especially when it means saving or spending a couple hundred dollars.

Below is a chart that compares and contrasts important features found on some of the more popular chips in the market today.

Celeron Pentium II Pentium III Pentium III Xeon AMD K6-III Athlon (K7) PowerPC G3 PowerPC G4

Transistors 7,500,000 7,500,000 9,500,000 28,100,000 21,300,000 22,000,000 6,500,000 10,500,000

CPU Speed 333 MHz - 500 MHz 300 MHz - 450 MHz 450 MHz - 866 Mhz 500 MHz - 800 MHz 400 MHz - 450 MHz 500 MHz - 1 GHz 233 MHz - 333 MHz 400 MHz - 450 MHz

L2 Cache 128 KB,
full speed 512 KB,
half speed 512 KB,
full speed 512 KB - 2 MB,
full speed 256 KB,
full speed 512 KB,
half speed 512 KB, 1 MB,
half speed 1 MB,
half speed

Front-Side Bus Speed 66 MHz 100 MHz 133 MHz 100 MHz 100 MHz 200 MHz 66 MHz 100 MHz

Floating Point strong strong strong strong weak very strong very strong very strong

Integer strong strong strong strong excellent very strong NA NA

Now that you know the differences among the chips, you still may not be too sure how to interpret the information. If so, then read BuyBuddy.com's Processors Buyer's Guide. It provides a clear, easy-to-understand explanation of all these features.

For more in-depth technical specifications on these chips, visit SandPile.org.

Also, check out HardwareCentral's CPU section for articles, opinions, reports, and tutorials.

If you're looking to buy a CPU and want to know where to get the absolute best price, visit SharkyExtreme's Weekly CPU Price Update. Page contains prices and vendors for almost every PC CPU on the market today.

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