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Megaflops???

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What are megaflops, i know they have to do with processors and that's what MAC's use. But what do they have in relationship to PC's. I looked up the name and it told me about millions of Floating operations per second FLOPS but what does this really matter to me. And should i find out which processor has the best megaflops and get that for my new computer.I have read that AMD has better MegaFlop ratings then INTEL, is this right and should i invest in a new AMD or stick with my INTEL chips. I also read that Supercomputers use GigaFlops and i guess thats pretty damn good. Ne help on this topic would be greatly appreciated.

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by thechas

Every task that the computer performs boils down to a mathmatical equation.
Floating point operations require more computing power than whole number calculations.
That is why gross computing power is measure in FLOPS, Mega-FLOPS, or Giga-FLOPS.This is a more valuable figure for comparing systems than CPU clock speed, as it measures the actual performance of the CPU performing operations.

So, the more FLOPS, the better the performance.

I have read benchmark test articles that show ittakes a 2GHz P4 to match the performance of a 1.2GHz Athlon.

The only application that the P4 excels at is processing Digital video.

I am building almost all of my new systems with AMD processors. However, for my needs, even a 800MHz system has more performance than is really needed. I can build a 1GHz AMD system for over $100 less than the comparable P4 system.
The cost savings increase as you get closer to the top end of CPU speeds.

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