* The C64 was designed to be connected to a television (PAL: 50Hz, NTSC: 60Hz). The CPC was designed to be connected to a green screen or colour monitor.
* The C64 has a special seperate tape player. The CPC464 had a tape player built in, or for CPC664 and CPC6128 any tape player could be used with a suitable lead.
* The C64 has a palette of 16 colours. The Amstrad has a palette of 27 colours.
* The C64 has a 1.0MHz 6510 CPU (a 6502 based CPU). The CPC has a 4.0Mhz Z80 CPU.
* The C64 has a programmable raster interrupt. You can define the line at which the interrupt will be triggeredand you can do this multiple times during a frame. The CPC has 6 "raster" interrupts at fixed positions through the 50Hz frame.
* The C64 has 50Hz and 60Hz variants (for regions where PAL and NTSC are used), the clocks inside the C64 are based off this. The CPC is 50Hz only.
* The C64 can easily play music while loading from tape or disc and do other graphical effects at the same time. The CPC can play music during tape or disc loading but it's more processor intensive and is restricted to no other effects when this is done.
* The CPC can do overscan (rupture or 32K screen method), the C64 can do it, but only sprites can be displayed where the border was.