Kealoha, Paul and All, re: Cyrix M2 performance vs. Pentium II,
The M2 as being touted as competing with Pentium II in performance. However, we saw a few months ago how AMD used non-comparable configurations to get its processors to pump up their benchmark numbers. Perhaps Cyrix is doing the same.
To add to Paul's comments [post #23396], I don't know what configurations Cyrix is using for its claims, but here are some Windows/NT benchmark results from Tom's hardware page. [CAVEAT: the configurations used are NOT all identical - for example, much faster memory and a larger cache is used for the AMD K6 than for the other processors under Windows/NT.]
sysdoc.pair.com
The single most significant figure is for Windows/NT CPUMark32 (the ZD processor-only test created from profiling of 32-bit applications). [The various Winstone tests are useful for determining overall system performance - unfortunately, a significant part of this is disk and graphics adapter performance, which masks the processor's abilities in processor-bound cases.]
Here we have the following Windows/NT CPUMark32 results for Cyrix vs. Intel:
Cyrix M2-PR233 [187.5Mhz/75MHz bus]: 490
Pentium II-233: 632
So, according to these runs of Tom's, Pentium II-233 is 29% faster than Cyrix M2-PR233 under Windows/NT CPUMark32, when the same speed memory is used in the runs.
Note also that Tom comments that IBM was having trouble with stability of the 200MHz version of the M2, and so it was not being used yet. [That is NOT the "PR200".] Also note that the M2/187.5 [PR233] runs used a 75MHz bus, vs. the 66MHz bus of the Pentium II-233.
Also note that Tom also gives MMX benchmark results [also CPU-only] which show the Pentium II running considerably faster than the M2.
[Note: The relationship of Cyrix M2 processor PR numbers to clock speeds can be found in the following link: www8.zdnet.com - the results there are not apples-to-apples comparable, due to substantial differences in the peripheral configuration.]
Of course, ultimately the highest performing processor is not a question of a "PR" game. Intel has sacrificed some performance per cycle in order to increase clock rates substantially and for greater performance scalability. Therefore, to more properly compare performance, one probably compare Intel's fastest current processor (Pentium-II 300MHz) to Cyrix's current fastest processor (M2-187.5MHz). This, of course, widens the performance gap much more than 29%.
Based on all of this, for now it appears to me that, in performance terms, Cyrix M2 competes on absolute processor performance most directly not with Pentium II, but rather with Intel Pentium/MMX [and also with the AMD and IDT offerings], and primarily in the less CPU-critical Windows/95 market. [As for price/performance, all of these processors will be, of necessity, 25% cheaper or more on a price/performance basis, so that is a marketing matter.]
Best regards,
Arno |
