LET’S TAKE A WALK
If a child and an adult are walking together, the child needs to take more steps to keep up with the adult. Since the adult has a longer stride than the child and travels further with each step. The child has to work harder—by moving faster—to try and keep up.

The same holds true for processors. Some processors have to have faster speeds (measured in Megahertz or Gigahertz) than others, just to do the same amount of work. When it comes to your computer, it really doesn’t matter what pace your processor runs at, but rather how much work it does per stride.

THE FAST AND THE FURIOUS
Two cars are in a race. The Blue Car has a 6-cylinder engine while the Green Car has a 9-cylinder engine. While the Blue Car’s engine works hard in terms of high RPMs, it doesn’t actually go all that fast down the road.

In contrast, the Green Car’s more powerful engine doesn’t have to run at high RPMs. Yet on the road, the Green Car blows the doors off the Blue Car. The more powerful Green Car engine is designed to run efficiently and to deliver a faster, more powerful driving experience.

That Green Car is built just like the AMD Athlon™ XP processor: a more-powerful, well-balanced machine will always deliver better performance, helping you win every race, every time.

STAYING AFLOAT
You and a friend are out on the lake in a rowboat. At some point, you both notice that the boat is taking on water. Your friend starts bailing water with a cup while you start bailing water with a bucket. In a panic, your friend bails faster than you. But since your container is larger, you end up bailing more water in the same amount of time.

The same can be said for microprocessors. A computer with a processor that does more work per cycle, like an AMD Athlon XP processor, can out perform a computer with a faster but less efficient processor. And that helps you stay afloat.

TOUR DE PERFORMANCE
Two cyclists ride together on 10-speed bikes. One cyclist uses the 10th gear, pedaling slower but moving faster down the road and covering more distance with each stroke. The other cyclist uses 1st gear and has to pedal like a lunatic to achieve even close to the same speed on the road and cover the same ground.

Processors work like this as well. While some processors spin their wheels trying to look fast, other processors, like the AMD Athlon XP processor, actually get the job done because they are more efficient and are built to offer the best possible over-all PC performance.