AMD Athlon processor
Hacker ApprovedRanked 10 of 16 processors by recommenders
Gave a large speed jump over earlier chips and stayed a good price-performance choice for years. Critics note the exposed die was easy to break during installation.
Gave a large speed jump over earlier chips and stayed a good price-performance choice for years. Critics note the exposed die was easy to break during installation.
13 people gave an opinion
- recommend it
- 10
- criticize it
- 3
- approval share
- 77%
Recommended in 5 of 13 months
- November 2025: not recommended
- December 2025: not recommended
- January 2026: not recommended
- February 2026: not recommended
- March 2026: recommended
- April 2026: not recommended
- May 2026: not recommended
- June 2026: not recommended
- July 2026: recommended
- August 2026: recommended
- September 2026: recommended
- October 2026: recommended
- November 2026: not recommended (month in progress)
Why it carries the badge
- 10 people recommend itNeeds 10 or more, met.
- 3.3 recommenders for every criticNeeds 2 to 1 or better, met.
- Recommended in 5 of 13 monthsNeeds 4 or more, met.
The same three rules apply to every product, and the badge can’t be bought. How the badge works
What people say about it
The reasons people give, with the number of comments that give each one. Open a reason to read what they said.
Why people recommend it
Each mark is one comment
Large speed jump over earlier chips
“one of the greatest jumps in floating-point performance per socket in the history of x86 CPUs”
Comment from 9 Aug 2026 in “The Alpha 21264 CPU: NT's Greatest RISC (1998)” “Going from 233 MHz to this was like going from walking to flying in a jet!”
Comment from 7 Mar 2026 in “PC processors entered the Gigahertz era today in the year 2000 with AMD's Athlon” “Easily the largest jump in performance of any upgrade I've ever done.”
Comment from 7 Mar 2026 in “PC processors entered the Gigahertz era today in the year 2000 with AMD's Athlon”
What people warn about
Each mark is one comment
Fragile die breaks during installation
“That Athlon die did stick out in terms of assembly "danger level".”
Comment from 23 Aug 2026 in “The End of an Athlon” “the die on these would break exceptionally easily such that it was a known issue at the time”
Comment from 23 Aug 2026 in “The End of an Athlon” “was perilous to install, broke one”
Comment from 23 Aug 2026 in “The End of an Athlon”
Other processors people recommend
The four most recommended other processors, with the same counts for each, so you can compare like for like. The tick on each bar marks the 2 to 1 line the badge needs.
| Product | Recommend | Criticize | Approval | Months | Owned | Badge |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Apple M5 | 48 | 14 | 77% | 11 | — | Approved |
| AMD Ryzen AI Max+ 395 | 44 | 14 | 76% | 11 | — | Approved |
| AMD Ryzen | 25 | 12 | 68% | 11 | 1.4 yrs3 owners | Approved |
| Intel N150 | 21 | 1 | 95% | 10 | — | Approved |
| AMD Athlon processorThis page | 10 | 3 | 77% | 5 | — | Approved |
What people said
12 of the 13 comments that mention it, newest first. Each links to the original comment.
“I can do whatever I need with the device, apart from Gaming.”
“Max Payne and Deus Ex played great”
“That Athlon die did stick out in terms of assembly "danger level".”
“was perilous to install, broke one”
“the die on these would break exceptionally easily such that it was a known issue at the time”
“one of the greatest jumps in floating-point performance per socket in the history of x86 CPUs”
“AMD CPUs were still a good price/performance choice well into 2010”
“The Athlon was solid but less reliable, various reboots and glitches.”
“Going from 233 MHz to this was like going from walking to flying in a jet!”
“Easily the largest jump in performance of any upgrade I've ever done.”
“its required fan was so loud that I was glad to get rid of it”
“I have very fond memories of my first dual-cpu Athlon machine.”
Counts come from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026. How we count. Report a mistake.