firingsquad.com just published a comparison between PeeIII-660 (overclocked) and Athlon 600. Here is the conclusion chapter:
So who's the baddest kid on the block?
Well, as you can surmise from our tests, the AMD Athlon still holds the record as fastest x86 processor under the sun. The Pentium III does have its moments, though. In our tests of 4 independent 600s, with sufficient cooling (and we're not talking about Intel's crappy retail heatsink/fan combo), each and every processor was able to reach at least 660MHz. At this accelerated speed, the Pentium III was able to make a stronger showing against the Athlon, but still couldn't top it in most tests.
If AMD does release a 650MHz version of the Athlon, it will most certainly beat out the overclocked Pentium III at 660, as well as a "real" Pentium III 650 at (6.5 x 100). The big question now is: Will there be a 100MHz FSB P3 650? 600 has long been determined as the end of the line for the Pentium III, as Intel moves on to the 133MHz 820 chipset and RAMBUS DRDRAM. With the looming threat of a performance leading AMD processor, will Intel prolong the life of the 100MHz bus and push out an even faster incarnation to stay abreast with AMD?
FiringSquad's prediction is no. AMD has shown that their processor can stay at least one speed stepping above Intel's best effort, and releasing a 650 or even 700MHz processor will still leave them falling short against an Athlon 600. Right now, Intel's best bet is to focus on 0.18 micron and the 820 chipset. Though Athlon is fast, its mass produced scalability has yet to be seen, and if Intel can regain a competitive edge with a faster bus and high bandwidth RAMBUS memory, they may still be able to hold the lead once production, and yields ramp up. Of course, the same holds true for AMD, who are looking not only to .18 micron, but also to faster copper interconnects as opposed to the current industry standard - aluminum.
At the very least, the next few months are going to be an interesting time indeed, as age old Intel adheres to the precepts of slow, steady, and reliable growth, versus (yet another) young upstart, claiming a new technology with meteoric rises in performance. For now, AMD is king, and we're going to have a good time seeing how badly they want to keep the crown.
|
