AMD + DDR or Pentium 4 + RAMBUS???????

[jhp]

I do run fortran programs on windows 98 demanding a lot of RAM (1.5-1.6 G, Just near the limit !), I need some recomendations about which hardware to choose for adquiring a new computer:

1. AMD K-7 XP 1533 Mhz with DDR RAM
2. Pentium 4 2000 Mhz with RAMBUS RAM

Regards

[Steven_L_Intel1]

You would be better off with Windows XP rather than Windows 98. Understandably, I'd also have to recommend the Pentium 4, which has a much higher memory bandwidth than the Athlon XP, though how your application uses memory will affect whether or not you notice.

Steve

[jhp]

Steve,

About windows XP, would it work similar than windows 2000 at least for this fortran programs?

About Pentium 4 and RAMBUS, how to know if my aplication would take advantage of higher bandwidth (The main task of the aplication is inversion of sparse matrix)??. Of course I am interested in overall performance of the aplication and what I do not know is what to expect, if it will benefit from RAMBUS, or it would just be a difference based on processors. If in my aplication diference is expected only on procesors would Pentium 4 still being the best option against AMD K-7 XP, any comparisons available?
Regards

[Steven_L_Intel1]

Yes, Windows XP and Windows 2000 are similar in this regard.

You can find lots of comparisons between Athlon XP and Pentium 4. They'll all show that the actual performance is very much dependent on what your application does. Inversion of sparse matrices does sound bandwidth-intensive to me, however.

I am not an unbiased observer here - I work for Intel. You might want to look at some comparisons done at anandtech.com and tomshardware.com, but keep in mind that the majority of the tests they run are games and multimedia, not scientific applications.

Steve