|
News Headlines
|
Reviews
|
|
|
|
| Page 7 of 8 |
Benchmarks
Note that faster CPU clock-rates at the expense of memory timing, doesn’t necessarily translate to better performance in all cases. Hence, I’ve opted to compare settings against a slower CPU clock-rate under optimal memory timings, both with & without the FreeSpeed Pro.
Sisoft Sandra 2000
From the above graph, a few observations are apparent:- Just like the VIA Apollo Pro 133A series of motherboards, the KX133 also exhibits weak memory performance. Even at a clocked timing of 141MHz, it loses out to a plain vanilla 100MHz based Athlon 600! Hopefully, VIA will address this in their next chipset release…
- The rest of the results are expected, with CPU and FPU scores on the higher-clocked Athlons racing away from the competition.
WinBench 99/3DWinBench 2000 Scores
The WinBench scores are more revealing. Although the 824MHz Athlon predominantly screams ahead in most benchmarks, the slower Business Disk WinMark99 and 3D WinMark 2000 scores reflect the importance of memory bandwidth at higher CPU speeds. In particular, detailed breakdown of every 3D WinMark 2000 score (tested at 1024x768/32bit) shows a slower offering for the 824MHz CPU against its 702MHz counterpart, which was running at optimal memory speed. Thus, it should be emphasized that especially in 3D intensive apps / games at high resolutions, there is no point trying for optimal CPU clock-rates at the expense of stability and precious memory bandwidth needed for large AGP textural transfers. Similarly, this is echoed in the 3D WinBench 2000 Processor test, where the 824MHz CPU produced the highest score, only when screen draws and AGP texture transfers aren’t utilized.
Q3A 1.16n Benchmarks
(Vsynch Off/LightMap/Marks On Walls ON/32bit Textures/Bilinear Filtering/Max Texture Detail)
Although it is less obvious here, comparing the Athlon 702 vs 754 scores show how memory speeds play a discernible role in the intermediate-high resolution benchmarks. Despite having a lower clocked setting, the Athlon 702 edges out the 754MHz purely based on faster memory timings alone!!
| | | |
|
|
|
Reviews
|
