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AMD Ships K6-III

New cache is fast, but Intel�s PIII wins this round of the race.

By PC World staff   

The PC World Test Center's benchmarks of a preproduction, 400-MHz K6-III PC from CyberMax found the system ran noticeably (12 percent) faster than 400-MHz K6-II systems. These tests used standard business applications, which don't support AMD's 3DNow instructions.

But AMD claimed the new CPU (formerly dubbed Sharptooth) would outrun a PIII-450; this K6-III-400 system didnt. The PC World Test Center needs to evaluate more K6-III PCs for further comparison.

On the bits-and-bytes level, the K6-III doesn't differ radically from its predecessor, the K6-II. But AMD placed 256KB of secondary cache on the K6-III chip itself. As a result, the cache runs at the chip's full core speed instead of at half-speed, as is the case with the off-chip secondary cache in Pentium II and upcoming Pentium III chips. The K6-II's secondary cache runs at 100 MHz.

The K6-III continues to use AMD's 3DNow CPU instructions to accelerate enhanced applications such as games and graphics titles. The instructions haven't shown up in many business apps yet, but they're gaining popularity among game makers.

PC World Test Center evaluations of CyberMax's $1799 Enthusiast KIII 400 produced a PC WorldBench 98 score of 202, which is plenty fast for business apps. By comparison, 400-MHz Pentium II machines with 128MB of RAM average a similar PC WorldBench score of 203; 450-MHz PII machines average a faster score of 214.

K6-III vs. PIII

PC World also compared CyberMaxs Enthusiast KIII against similarly configured PIII-450 and PIII-500 systems that are priced higher. The PIII-450 systems ran business apps 8 percent faster, and the PIII-500 systems were 17 percent faster than the CyberMax.

In the PC World Test Centers standard graphics tests, which do not yet include any applications enhanced for 3DNow, CyberMaxs system could not keep up with the PIII PCs, although its 16MB STB Velocity 4400 graphics card is no weakling. The CyberMax did match the PIII-450-based Micron Millennia Max 500 on one game, Incoming.

Tests of a 3DNow-enhanced version of Quake on the CyberMax showed a speed improvement of about 6 percent over the game's standard version.

The CyberMax Enthusiast is generously configured: 128MB of RAM, a 16MB STB Velocity 4400 graphics board, 13GB hard drive, 19-inch monitor, 4.8X DVD-ROM drive, V.90 modem, 3D audio sound card, and Altec Lansing speakers and subwoofer. This may not be the fastest system on the road, but at $1799 it's a good buy, given its configuration.

Some of the K6-III's speed is credited to AMD's new TriLevel Cache, a design that boosts the speed at which the chip can process instructions, according to AMD. The TriLevel Cache design features a full-speed 64KB Level 1 cache, an internal full-speed 256KB Level 2 cache, and a 100-MHz bus to an optional external 3 cache on the motherboard. AMD claims its K6-III's combined cache size delivers up to 2.5 times more total system cache than Intel's Pentium III.

Several other vendors announced their plans for using AMD's K6-III processor.

Compaq will use the K6-III in its Presario line of personal computers, according to AMD. PowerLeap Products, which provides upgrades for personal computers, announced a K6-III upgrade kit for existing Intel Pentium and AMD processor-based chips. The kit will be available in the second quarter and range in price from $100 to $350, according to PowerLeap.

Watch for K7

Stay tuned for the next round, however: AMD expects to release its next-generation K7 processor around midyear. The new chip will debut at 500 MHz or faster, and its accompanying chip set will support an impressive 200-MHz system bus.

Unlike AMD's K6-III, the K7 chip is a complete redesign of the processor built from the ground up, say analysts. One key advantage is a 200-MHz bus, twice that of the 100-MHz bus used by Intel's Pentium III.

AMD's aggressive chip development, particularly in the K7, represents a threat to Intel's technical leadership, say analysts.

"Intel has always been the technology leader. It will be crushing if Intel surrenders the title to AMD," says Linley Gwennap, analyst at Micro Design Resources.

But AMD has challenges, such as meeting chip demand. Compared to Intel's half-dozen chip factories, AMD has one.

--Tom Spring, of PC World, and IDG News Service reports contributed to this story.