John and all, Gamespot tests the 820:
gamespot.com
The article pits four systems against each other:
- Pentium III 733, VC820, PC800 RDRAM
- Pentium III 733, CC820, PC100 SDRAM
- Pentium III 733, VIA Apollo Pro 133A, PC133 SDRAM (CAS3)
- Athlon 700, Microstar MS-6167 motherboard
Overall, the 820 system with RDRAM scored on top in most of the benchmarks! Some quotes from the article:
What was really surprising was the performance of the Coppermine/Direct RDRAM combination. It's clear Intel needs RDRAM to remain competitive - even the VIA PC133-based SDRAM system lags behind Athlon. ...
It is looking like Intel's risky move to RAMBUS may just pay off. From our initial testing, it looks like an RDRAM-equipped system will have better overall throughput than one without RDRAM - even when using the same chipset, CPU, and graphics card. The question is: Will there be enough RDRAM to go around? As we've seen, even a 700MHz Athlon will outpace a 733MHz Pentium III running on SDRAM.
By the way, I was pleasantly surprised with how well the CC820 motherboard was keeping up with the competition, even though it supports PC100 SDRAM through the infamous MRH-S component. It fell behind the VIA chipset w/ PC133 SDRAM, but only by the slightest of margins.
Of course, the author did have a few reservations about RDRAM availability:
Although RDRAM-based systems will likely start appearing in November or December, it's probably going to be some time before upgraders can get their hands on them. Corsair, one of the more visible name-brand suppliers of SDRAM, has put its RDRAM product line on hold for the time being, because the company couldn't get a reliable supply of RDRAM at any speed.
Oh well, guess you can't win 'em all.
Tenchusatsu |
