[H-GEN] CHIP SPEED

Byron Ellacott s337166 at student.uq.edu.au
Wed Feb 11 21:23:35 EST 1998


On Thu, 12 Feb 1998, BRAND, Frank wrote:

> 	Pentium 166 (64 MB memory)  	7 min 15 sec
> 	AMD K6-166 (64 MB memory)	6 min 12 sec
> 	Pentium II 300 (96 MB memory)	2 min  43 sec
note that the pII, with the best time, has the most memory.  For a kernel
compile, the processor is actually in use for a very small percent of the
time.  *THE* most important factor is memory.  When you do a kernel
compile, it grinds your HD away .. the more memory you have, the less it
has to do so.  A fast HD, a caching controller, etc will also improve
times.  A better processor, in general, will not.

> Certainly some evidence in confirmation of the folklore that says an AMD
> chip is faster than the equivalent Pentium. Some folklore says that AMD
> is faster than the equivalent P (II) but I have not found strong
> evidence for that.
A K6 gives you more speed per $ than any pII.  When 100MHz bus mbs come
out, K6 (and Pentiums) will improve in speed by a factor of 2 to 3,
whereas the pII will barely change, due to the cache styles.

When the K6 3D [+] arrives, floating point will become impressive for AMD
at last.

If you want better system performance, buy lots of good quality SDram and
run yer system at a 75MHz base rate (more, if it's still stable).  Don't
buy a pII - they're a poor investment.

:)


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