AMD To Hide MHz Rating From Consumers

pezpunk writes: "Tom's Hardware is reporting here that AMD's next-generation Athlons will be identified by model number rather than Mhz rating. This means that an Athlon will be designated an "Athlon 1600" even though it's only a 1.4Ghz part. The true clock speed of the chip will NOT be shown either on the chip itself or even in the BIOS. Apparently, they're desperate to compete with higher-clocked Pentiums in the minds of consumers -- proof that even the underdog can pull dirty marketing tricks =("

Comments

Makes sense to me...

[FortKnox]

It makes sense to me. Lower MHz Athlons are always compaired to higher MHz P4's in benchmarking and stuff. It just proves the MHz isn't everything.

Which is the marketing scheme? The faster MHz? Or the better chip????

Re:Makes sense to me...

[keesh]

Yes. From experience (review machines) I can tell you that a top of the range Athlon 1400 is considerably faster than a top of the range PIV 1800. It's similar to Apple's GigaFlop machines, they weren't that fast at all.

Heck, since when did MHz mean something?

Re:Already Done

[Micah]

I think that was Cyrix. It was indeed the "speed of an equivelent Intel chip". Yuck. I don't know of that's precisely what AMD is doing here or if they're just pulling numbers out of their arses.

Either way maybe it's time to move back to Intel.

Kinda consfusing?

[Lxy]

I just assumed that "Athlon 1600" meant 1.6 Ghz. I like AMD's idea of ditching clock speed since it's irrelevant. I don't agree with a model number that closely resembles a clock speed. There are morons who work at Best Buy and other computer chains that are going to tell consumers that the machine is 1.6 Ghz. Why? Because it just makes sense and they don't know any better than the consumer. Then Best Buy will get sued for false advertising when someone figures it out. I would personally like to see model numbers like "A0108" (Athlon released Aug 2001). Any guess that it represents a 1.4 Ghz chip? Not really.