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From...
Graphics applications scream on Intel Pentium III
It's not a generational leap, but new CPU boosts software that's tailored to it.
February 15, 1999
Web posted at: 10:40 a.m. EST (1540 GMT)
by the PC World staff
(IDG) -- Intel has turned the crank again, and this month will release its latest microprocessor -- the Pentium III (code-named Katmai). The first of the new CPUs will run as fast as 500-MHz, and tests by the PC World Test Center rank PIII-powered systems as the fastest Windows 98 systems we've yet seen.
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But there's more to the PIII than raw megahertz. Intel has added 70 new processor instructions, called Streaming SIMD Extensions. Programs that take advantage of these new instructions get a sizeable performance boost. One graphics package tested 24 percent faster on a 500-MHz PIII system. Games, graphics, Internet plug-ins, and speech recognition applications can take particularly good advantage of the new instructions.
Intel's newest Pentium is not a generational jump from the PII. In fact, the 450-MHz PIII systems ran not much faster than 450-MHz Pentium IIs in our tests. The Pentium III is essentially a Pentium II processor, with the same 512KB off-chip secondary cache and 100-MHz system bus. The biggest speed boost comes when software is rewritten to take advantage of the Streaming SIMD Extensions. Existing software will run no faster on a PIII-450 system than on a PII-450.
But the 500-MHz PIII is a speed demon. Several new systems sporting this chip produced an average PC WorldBench 98 score of 235, roughly 10 percent faster than the fastest PII systems we've tested (which, at 450-MHz, scored 214).
Gamers in particular will appreciate the speed boost, especially with software tuned to the new instructions. Our tests indicated that a PIII system can handle more visual detail and higher resolutions at 40 frames per second.
Another notable feature is the unique, hard-coded ID number Intel assigns to each chip. Intel announced this Processor ID in January as a tool for corporate asset management and e-commerce, but privacy advocates cried foul. The company has since agreed to set the ID default to Off.