AMD K6 2-3D: good idea?

Any thoughts on this chip with a Monster 3D for running F1RS & GPL? I've seen some reviews that make it sound awesome, but with hype being what it is, I remain unconvinced. A K6 2-300 with 100mhz motherboard for under $300.00 with P2-400 performance makes me really want to be convinced. Also, I know DirectX 6 will be optimized for this chip, as will Glide and OpenGL, but these all seem to be written for the Voodoo 2. Will there be any drivers for the original Voodoo? Larf

> Any thoughts on this chip with a Monster 3D for running F1RS & GPL? I've > seen some reviews that make it sound awesome, but with hype being what it > is, I remain unconvinced. What's the word on floating point performance? This has been the problem with non-Intel processors for a long time. Larry

As I understand it, the floating point performance meets and indeed exceeds that of a similarly clocked PII, and for winstones and especially 3Dbench scores a 300mhz K6-2 equals or exceeds a 400mhz PII. > > Any thoughts on this chip with a Monster 3D for running F1RS & GPL? I've > > seen some reviews that make it sound awesome, but with hype being what it > > is, I remain unconvinced. > What's the word on floating point performance? This has > been the problem with non-Intel processors for a long time. > Larry

> As I understand it, the floating point performance meets and indeed exceeds > that of a similarly clocked PII, and for winstones and especially 3Dbench > scores a 300mhz K6-2 equals or exceeds a 400mhz PII. < Snip > I've been waiting for someone to challenge Intel. So far I haven't been able to recommend a non-intel chip. Perhaps this is it. I would suggest posting to comp.sys.intel, and getting as much info as you can. I assume you have run the costs, how do they compare? What feature set does the "3D" in the name imply? Anyway, good luck, keep us posted. Larry

Tom's hardware site has a review of this chip. http://www.tomshardware.com/k6-2.html Jeff > > As I understand it, the floating point performance meets and indeed exceeds > > that of a similarly clocked PII, and for winstones and especially 3Dbench

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> > scores a 300mhz K6-2 equals or exceeds a 400mhz PII. > < Snip > > I've been waiting for someone to challenge Intel. So far I > haven't been able to recommend a non-intel chip. Perhaps this > is it. > I would suggest posting to comp.sys.intel, and getting as > much info as you can. I assume you have run the costs, how > do they compare? > What feature set does the "3D" in the name imply? > Anyway, good luck, keep us posted. > Larry

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>> Any thoughts on this chip with a Monster 3D for running F1RS & GPL? I've >> seen some reviews that make it sound awesome, but with hype being what it >> is, I remain unconvinced. > What's the word on floating point performance? This has >been the problem with non-Intel processors for a long time. > Larry

Well, from what I've heard the performance will be better than a PII of similar clockspeed *when* the program utilizes the 3D Now! instructions (along the same vein as MMX). Supposedly the actual FPU is little changed from the regular K6. On Tom's Hardware, a regular K6 at 300 mhz was getting smoked by a P2/233 in Quake 2, but when using the 3D Now! optimized 3dfx driver with a K6-2 it was a bit faster than the P2/300. Thing is, sounds real good in theory, but I heard all this about MMX, so I'm a bit leary. And the drivers don't seem to be out for 3dfx. But, may work out well, DirectX 6.0 is supposed to support 3D Now, and I'd imagine we'll get the 3dfx drivers with support too. Gonna wait to actually see one of these puppies in action before passing judgement, seems to be slightly faster than a P2/300 except in one test showing on dual Voodoo 2's at 1024x768 where it was like almost twice as fast as the P2/300, but the P2 score seemed low and the K6-2 score was FASTER than at lower resolutions - not gonna believe that until I see it. But if true, it'd be cool to get that performance cheap. Ken

>Thing is, sounds real good in theory, but I heard all this about MMX, so I'm >a bit leary. And the drivers don't seem to be out for 3dfx. But, may work >out well, DirectX 6.0 is supposed to support 3D Now, and I'd imagine we'll >get the 3dfx drivers with support too. Ken, what do you mean, the drivers don't seem to be out for 3Dfx? I'll probably be ordering a K6 2/300 and Epox 100mhz motherboard shortly. I'll try to post some comments when I get it. -- http://www.users.fast.net/~fusion1 (dirt bikes, rat bikes, rental car abuse...)

I have one and haven't had any problems running any games or software that I have. I also like the fact I saved alot of money buying this chip vs. a pII.

Do it! I'm very interested in it. One question about the "floating point section", which should be very important to 3D-Games (and is bad in the old K6-CPU): What is when I'm using a 3Dfx-Card (like Monster 3D)? Do I need this performance really? Greetings, Axel -------------------------------------------------------------- - Axel Schlueter - Fax: (02361) 374058 -

>>Thing is, sounds real good in theory, but I heard all this about MMX, so I'm >>a bit leary. And the drivers don't seem to be out for 3dfx. But, may work

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>>out well, DirectX 6.0 is supposed to support 3D Now, and I'd imagine we'll >>get the 3dfx drivers with support too. >Ken, what do you mean, the drivers don't seem to be out for 3Dfx? >I'll probably be ordering a K6 2/300 and Epox 100mhz motherboard >shortly. I'll try to post some comments when I get it.

3dfx hasn't released them where I can download them. They're made, yeah, but the public doesn't have them AFAIK. Beta drivers used by AMD to hype their product and the version I myself can download to test it out may be 2 different things. I'd like this to succeed, but quite skeptical about hype is all. We'll see. Ken

>> I'll probably be ordering a K6 2/300 and Epox 100mhz motherboard >> shortly. I'll try to post some comments when I get it. >Do it! I'm very interested in it. I got it today, and put it together. I actually didn't expect it until next week, so I didn't pick up a 100mhz DIMM for it yet. The Epox board only has 2 SIMM slots, and I had 2 8's and 2 16's (48 meg) in my old computer. I threw the 2 16's in the Epox. Haven't had a chance to play a lot of stuff, but GPL is absolutely fluid with everything on. I just got the demo on a magazine CD, and it was the first time I tried it. I'm not sure how demanding it is. I did notice the flat crowds and trees. Other than that, it looks pretty demanding. I'll be re-installing GP2, as well as SODA and a couple other racing sims, and I'll post my findings. I don't have Quake2, but I did the Quake timedemo 1 test on it at 640x480 accellerated and unaccelerated. Unaccelerated was only about 17fps. GLQuake was 25. Not stellar, but totally playable. Hopefully, I can find a 100mhz rated 64meg DIMM tomorrow. -- http://www.users.fast.net/~fusion1 (dirt bikes, rat bikes, rental car abuse...)