VOGONS


First post, by King_Corduroy

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Thinking about upgrading my old Packard Bell corner PC, purchased a mobo that'll let me install those options at the top end of what it can do but what should I choose? Which is truly the best performance?

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Reply 2 of 21, by clueless1

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Depends on what you want to do. Do you only care about top-end performance, or are slowdown options for older games important too?

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Reply 4 of 21, by Koltoroc

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pretty certain the Pentium. The K6 is close in integer, but the FPU is significantly weaker. The Cyrix is not even close to either.

Back in the day the K6 was only superior in one metric over the Pentium, price.

Reply 6 of 21, by gdjacobs

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clueless1 wrote:

Depends on what you want to do. Do you only care about top-end performance, or are slowdown options for older games important too?

^ This. Also, specific games and/or drivers sometimes perform better with either Intel or AMD chips.

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Reply 7 of 21, by King_Corduroy

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Don't really care about slowdown options since the games I'm playing are all 90's games. I'm really wondering about performance in running demanding things like photo viewers and editors. I've also read that because it cannot do the lower voltages I can't run anything that is above the 233mhz k6 or the 300mhz Cyrix processor. What about a 300mhz cyrix vs a 233 Pentium or k6?

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Reply 9 of 21, by meljor

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The k6 is pretty close but you need a 266 or a bit better to match the 233 mmx. Cyrix is extremely weak in games, other things go well.

asus tx97-e, 233mmx, voodoo1, s3 virge ,sb16
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Reply 10 of 21, by clueless1

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King_Corduroy wrote:

Don't really care about slowdown options since the games I'm playing are all 90's games. I'm really wondering about performance in running demanding things like photo viewers and editors. I've also read that because it cannot do the lower voltages I can't run anything that is above the 233mhz k6 or the 300mhz Cyrix processor. What about a 300mhz cyrix vs a 233 Pentium or k6?

I agree then, the 233MMX is the fastest of the three. Also, they can overclock to 250+Mhz if you have 75 or 83 Mhz bus options on your motherboard.

I do want to say though, that many "90's games" require slower cpus to run properly. Particularly, games from 1990-1993, and even a few in 94-95 (see this page for examples). If your 233MMX supports Test Register "TR12" options, you've got an easier road to slowing down if necessary, thanks to setmul.

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
OPL3 FM vs. Roland MT-32 vs. General MIDI DOS Game Comparison
Let's benchmark our systems with cache disabled
DOS PCI Graphics Card Benchmarks

Reply 11 of 21, by appiah4

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Ampera wrote:

That's the song that AMD has sung it's entire life.

Eh? Someone must have missed the whole Athlon 64 era.

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Reply 14 of 21, by dexvx

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Richo wrote:
*cough* athlon XP *cough* :lol: […]
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Ampera wrote:

That's the song that AMD has sung it's entire life.

appiah4 wrote:

Eh? Someone must have missed the whole Athlon 64 era.

*cough* athlon XP *cough*
🤣

Athlon XP was the underdog compared to Northwood (especially C) almost its entire life. Only really shined against Willamette.

Reply 16 of 21, by Koltoroc

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Ampera wrote:

I more meant they always sold cheaper than Intel. Only in the spawn of the Athlon 64 did they have an upper hand in performance too.

I think you forgot the original Athlon. The PIII was completely outclassed by it.

Reply 17 of 21, by mv_cz

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K6-2 is not an option? If the motherboards support 233MMX it will go as low as 2.8V but maybe lower, like 2.5V (as is for example listed on my mobo as supported voltage for K5s) or even lower as an undocumented setting. Then K6-2 which interprets 2x multi as 6x multiplier would work. So 400 MHz (6x66) would be possible, 6x75 or 6x83 is also an option 😎

Reply 18 of 21, by King_Corduroy

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We are talking about a Packard Bell PB820 motherboard to be specific. It can't do the lower voltages iirc. I've read it definitely cannot do the 2.2v CPUs.

Here's where I got my info: http://www.uktsupport.co.uk/pb/mb/810.htm

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