Of course, you’ll have your reasons for telling us that “this one isn’t the best” or “that other one was much better” than the ones we’re going to give you, and you’re probably partly right. However, we once again emphasize the fact that we are going to compile what, in our opinion, have been the best processors for having marked certain milestones in the industry, since they have been the trigger for a forward and a Afterwards for the reasons that we are I will explain each of them.
AMD Athlon 1000: the first to break the 1 GHz barrier
The first of these “best processors” that we are going to talk about is the AMD Athlon 1000, launched on March 6, 2000 as the fastest processor in the world, and not without reason since it was the first to exceed 1 GHz, although It must also be said that three days later, Intel launched the Pentium III, also clocked at 1 GHz, but AMD was ahead and so we wanted to pay this little tribute to the Athlon 1000.
AMD Athlon 64 3000+, the big step towards 64 bits
Once again we have to talk about AMD with its Athlon 64 3000+ processors, because shortly after Intel and AMD broke the Gigahertz barrier, the two companies launched another rather different competition; At that time, the x86 architecture was only 32-bit, and in 2001 Intel introduced the 64-bit Itanium architecture… for servers, and it was also not x86 and therefore could not use of x86 software.
The above is important to mention because it is what prompted AMD to create its 64-bit version of the x86 architecture, called AMD64. The AMD Athlon 64 series of processors was released for desktop computers in late 2003, with the Athlon 64 3000+ once again defining a new era, that of 64-bit. Of course, Intel then replicated this with the Pentium 4, but AMD beat them to it yet again.
Intel Core 2 Duo E6300, one of the best processors in history
It was the turn of Intel and its already legendary Core architecture, which debuted in 2006 for laptops and a little later for desktops with the Core 2. Among them there were several processors remarkable, but if we have to name one, it’s the Core 2 Duo. E6300, one of the bestsellers in its history because it was a chip with excellent performance at a relatively moderate price for the time, and also one of the favorites of overclockers.
With this processor, Intel hit the table and managed to steal the desktop processor hegemony from AMD.
The Intel Core i5-2500K almost bankrupted AMD
Over the next few years, AMD and Intel maintained a sort of secret war in which Intel managed to gain a certain advantage thanks to its so-called “ticking” manufacturing process, in which it launched a new architecture, then a revision of the previous one. -this. , then a new one, like that constantly. Among these, the Sandy Bridge architecture processors stand out which, although they do not constitute a huge advance compared to the Core 2, represent a huge leap in terms of performance and functionality, and always at prices quite affordable. made acceptable.
The most notable member of the Sandy Bridge processors was the Core i5-2500K, a high-frequency processor with an unlocked multiplier for overclocking and a price tag below $200 at the time, making it the new bestseller . from the throne of performance and sales “considerably”. In fact, in the industry it is considered that this generation caused the near bankruptcy of AMD, and what is true is that they had to make a series of quite drastic decisions and internal changes to move forward .
AMD Ryzen, the resurrection of AMD
Of course and after the setbacks received, AMD did not give up and with the mandate of Lisa Su they will rise from the ashes with the first generation of Ryzen processors, which offered performances similar to those of Intel at the time, inferior in many cases. but at prices low enough to make it a commercial success, partly because Intel considering itself at the top, they took advantage of it by increasing the price of their processors. The first AMD Ryzen marked a turning point in which AMD was crowned as the manufacturer of processors with the best quality-price ratio.
If we have to highlight a processor of this first generation Ryzen, it is the AMD Ryzern 7 1700, a bestseller for those in red because, although it is not the most powerful processor of this generation, it was the most balanced in terms of performance/price and became very famous among the gaming public.
Intel Core i9-12900K, Intel’s return to the top
AMD Ryzen has dominated the market for several years and generations, with Intel almost crawling in an attempt to eat up market share. However, when they launched the Alder Lake generation, they managed to achieve their goal, thanks to their first heterogeneous architecture processors that offered a level of performance that represented a huge leap forward, partly also because they were the first to use DDR5 memory. . .
At that time, AMD was very strong in the market with its Ryzen 5000 series, but the 12th generation of Intel Core processors helped those in blue return to the top and take a big piece of the pie in terms of market share that At the time, time was eating away at AMD. Of note is the Core i9-12900K, which with its eight P and eight E cores was much faster than the Ryzen 9 5950X, AMD’s top of the range at the time, returning performance hegemony to Intel.
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