Introduction

Duron vs. Thunderbird

This content was originally featured on Amdmb.com and has been converted to PC Perspective’s website. Some color changes and flaws may appear.

There are now four major branded CPUs for the user to choose from. Two of them from Intel, and two of them from AMD. All of the processors have their high and low points, more some than others. We are here today to discuss the AMD CPUs, the Athlon Thunderbird and Duron processors.

Duron vs. Thunderbird - Processors 14
Duron vs. Thunderbird - Processors 15

Both of these processors are the Socket A format, a design similar to that of the Intel Coppermine and the days of the Socket 7. In this article, we will be comparing various aspects of each of these two components including price, performance and value. Price and performance are very easy to distinguish. We can look at a price guide and run benchmarks to verify those stats. It is the value category that is always left open ended and is very ambiguous to users and reviewers, such as myself.

What do we know right off the bat? The specs: The only difference between these tow processors is their amount of L2 cache. The Thunderbird has 256K and the Duron has only 64K. The prices: The CPUs used in this article are a Duron 700 MHz, priced at about $99.00; the Thunderbird 800 MHz runs the buyer about $183. So you can see that the Thunderbird processor is priced higher than its Duron counterpart, but is there a performance difference in the processors enough to validate the extra cost? That’s what we are here to find out.

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