I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it to be honest. You'll have seen my benchmark results in the other thread comparing a Pluto 700MHz chip against a Thunderbird 700MHz chip in 3DMark (with a Voodoo3 3000), and while the Thunderbird is faster as I would expect, it's not a huge jump.

If I recall, the Pluto has twice the amount of L2 cache as the Thunderbird but it's not on the die, and runs at a slower speed. The Thunderbird has on-die L2 cache, but only half as much of it. But because it runs at full speed it tends to mean the processor does better in some tasks.

I'd buy the best you can find today and not worry too much about it 😀

At 700-800Mhz, Thunderbirds are not worth it.

Shadzilla wrote on 2024-04-25, 07:40:

I wouldn't lose too much sleep over it to be honest. You'll have seen my benchmark results in the other thread comparing a Pluto 700MHz chip against a Thunderbird 700MHz chip in 3DMark (with a Voodoo3 3000), and while the Thunderbird is faster as I would expect, it's not a huge jump.

If I recall, the Pluto has twice the amount of L2 cache as the Thunderbird but it's not on the die, and runs at a slower speed. The Thunderbird has on-die L2 cache, but only half as much of it. But because it runs at full speed it tends to mean the processor does better in some tasks.

I'd buy the best you can find today and not worry too much about it 😀

Yes I have seen your benmarks in the other thread. The difference was not big enough to go the extra miles for finding a early thunderbird. the Pluto Athlons are available at a good price . So they are the most logic choice to be honest. I just wanted to make sure if it might be worth the extra mile trying to find a early Thunderbird.

Good to to know that my initial gut feeling was right.

@The Serpent Rider Thx as well for the information.

Voodoo 3 stops scaling well except in fringe cases like Deus Ex (in which you can benefit from going up to a 2GHz AthlonXP) beyond Athlon/Pentium III 800 so if you get something in that ballpark you will not experience any bottlenecks.

appiah4 wrote on 2024-04-25, 11:07:

Voodoo 3 stops scaling well except in fringe cases like Deus Ex (in which you can benefit from going up to a 2GHz AthlonXP) beyond Athlon/Pentium III 800 so if you get something in that ballpark you will not experience any bottlenecks.

Thanks for the info. Then the K7700MTR51B I have just ordered should suit me very well then.

Deus Ex is indeed a very demanding game. it was not running well on my first version of the V3 System with Pentium 3 800mhz despite my system being beyond the recommended System specs. I wonder how well it will run on the Slot A....

I'd say, aim to pick up a 1200 / 1266 with 133/266 FSB .. it's away from the expensive hotspots like 1.4Ghz fastest or magic 1Ghz.... will be 9x or 9.5x then you can run it at 900/950 and most boards are quite comfortable at 115 if you want the Ghz. Then you know the CPU okay is to shoot the moon at 124 to 133+ if you can tune your board to do it.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-04-25, 14:45:

I'd say, aim to pick up a 1200 / 1266 with 133/266 FSB .. it's away from the expensive hotspots like 1.4Ghz fastest or magic 1Ghz.... will be 9x or 9.5x then you can run it at 900/950 and most boards are quite comfortable at 115 if you want the Ghz. Then you know the CPU okay is to shoot the moon at 124 to 133+ if you can tune your board to do it.

Unfortunately none of that will work in the Slot A board the OP has purchased (the mention of Socket A in the first post is a mistake).

Gah, yah anything to go in a slot is nasty spendy, the 600s were hailed as the overclockers though if you wanna multi clock them to something decent.

Yes my bad for the typo. I have corrected it it already. @Shadzilla Thanks for mentioning it. @BitWrangler Thanks for your recommendations . Not viable unfortunately due my typo.

I have not researed about the possibility to overclock the Pluto Athlons but I will read into it. Maybe worth a try. I have been active into overclocking as of now but it is a topic I want to learn more about in the future.

Snagging a first-gen Athlon with the Pluto core sounds like a solid plan, especially if they're easier to find and at a good price. While second-gen Athlons (Thunderbirds) might offer a tad more oomph, the difference might not be huge for your retro gaming rig

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-04-25, 14:45:

I'd say, aim to pick up a 1200 / 1266 with 133/266 FSB .. it's away from the expensive hotspots like 1.4Ghz fastest or magic 1Ghz.... will be 9x or 9.5x then you can run it at 900/950 and most boards are quite comfortable at 115 if you want the Ghz. Then you know the CPU okay is to shoot the moon at 124 to 133+ if you can tune your board to do it.

Are Thunderbirds 1400's (A1400AMS3C) pretty expensive these days?

zuldan wrote on 2024-04-26, 06:39:

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-04-25, 14:45:

I'd say, aim to pick up a 1200 / 1266 with 133/266 FSB .. it's away from the expensive hotspots like 1.4Ghz fastest or magic 1Ghz.... will be 9x or 9.5x then you can run it at 900/950 and most boards are quite comfortable at 115 if you want the Ghz. Then you know the CPU okay is to shoot the moon at 124 to 133+ if you can tune your board to do it.

Are Thunderbirds 1400's (A1400AMS3C) pretty expensive these days?

Nope, the 266 FSB models are pretty cheap, one up right now for 20USD with crazy cheap shipping, its the Thunderbird 1400 A1400AMS3B 100 FSB model thats expensive and kinda hard to find.

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-04-26, 06:44:

Nope, the 266 FSB models are pretty cheap, one up right now for 20USD with crazy cheap shipping, its the Thunderbird 1400 A1400AMS3B 100 FSB model thats expensive and kinda hard to find.

Interesting. Why is that version desired?

zuldan wrote on 2024-04-26, 07:01:

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-04-26, 06:44:

Nope, the 266 FSB models are pretty cheap, one up right now for 20USD with crazy cheap shipping, its the Thunderbird 1400 A1400AMS3B 100 FSB model thats expensive and kinda hard to find.

Interesting. Why is that version desired?

Its rarity is more due to very few were made before AMD switched to 133/266 FSB than people wanting them over the faster FSB ones.

goofyahhuncle wrote on 2024-04-26, 06:22:

Snagging a first-gen Athlon with the Pluto core sounds like a solid plan, especially if they're easier to find and at a good price. While second-gen Athlons (Thunderbirds) might offer a tad more oomph, the difference might not be huge for your retro gaming rig

Thanks for your reply. I am not against to idea to get as much power as possible. But everything has price. The 700mhz Athlon I have ordered offered the best bang for buck so to speak. I have read that 700mhz athlon should be very good partner for a Voodoo 3 and I do not want to pay a Premium when it is uncertain if the power difference is really noticiable for the games i wanted to play.

I am rather certain that I will be very happy with my choice.

My retro budget is also limited and I have decided not to re use the audigy card from my first v3 build but go for Aureal Vortex card instead. From a historical point view Aureal Vortex and V3 should be really good game. I also want to have a ad3d card in my collection.

Nothing wrong with EAX and the audigy card. though. The audigy is going to be re used in my upcoming p4 system.

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-04-26, 07:07:

zuldan wrote on 2024-04-26, 07:01:

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-04-26, 06:44:

Nope, the 266 FSB models are pretty cheap, one up right now for 20USD with crazy cheap shipping, its the Thunderbird 1400 A1400AMS3B 100 FSB model thats expensive and kinda hard to find.

Interesting. Why is that version desired?

Its rarity is more due to very few were made before AMD switched to 133/266 FSB than people wanting them over the faster FSB ones.

Ok thanks. I thought I may have been missing out on something.

Keep in mind that all high-end Thunderbirds have unlocked multipliers. So your limitations in only motherboard mutlipliers.