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So what is the AMD-K6-III processor with 3DNow! technology? Well, AMD describes it as "the ultimate sixth generation processor for home PC enthusiasts and business power users. The AMD-K6-III processor combines 3DNow! technology with AMD's new TriLevel Cache design to deliver exceptional performance on leading business and consumer software applications. The key to this enhanced performance is our innovative TriLevel Cache design, which provides the largest total system cache for desktop PCs-more than four times the size of other competing system designs." Basically this means that the AMD-K6-III is an AMD K6-2 that has 256 L2 cache on the CPU.
What is a PowerLeap adapter? This device from PowerLeap allows socket 7 and socket 5 motherboards to have clock multiplier speeds up to 6.0x, even if you original motherboard has a maximum multiplier that is lower. Additionally, this adapter will also provide you with the proper split voltages for all AMD, CYRIX and Intel MMX processor to work on your system. Once the Powerleap adapter is installed you are only limited by your BIOS.
Because my original motherboard does not support AMD Processors or 6.0x
clock multipliers I needed to use the PowerLeap adapter in my tests.
But as you can see below this combination has given me a dramatic increase
in speed over my original Pentium 133 that came with my system.
The results below show the performance of AMD K6-2 and AMD K6-III 400 MHz processors on my own Packard Bell System. I performed the tests both with cache on the motherboard and without cache on the motherboard to show what types of improvements the extra cache will give.
| AMD Processor | K6-3
(512 Cache) |
K6-3
(No Cache) |
K6-2
(512 Cache) |
K6-2
(No Cache) |
| CPU Integer (MIPS) | 1088 | 1001 | 786 | 580 |
| Memory (MB/S) | 690 | 326 | 546 | 261 |
| CPU Floating Point (MFLOPS) | 480 | 480 | 480 | 479 |
As you can see from the results, AMD K6-III out-performs the AMD K6-2 in the CPU Integer test no matter how much cache the system has. However, the Floating Point Integer remains the same across all tests with or without motherboard cache. The area most affected by the amount of cache is the memory test. As you can see, the more cache, the higher the memory score. This is to be expected because cache is a form of memory which will increase this score.
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Below are more results showing the AMD CPU results for both video and disk performance.
| AMD Processor | K6-3
(512 Cache) |
K6-3
(No Cache) |
K6-2
(512 Cache) |
K6-2
(No Cache) |
| Direct3D (MPixels/s) | 56 | 53 | 55 | 52 |
| VIDEO 2D (MPixels/s) | 41 | 38 | 36 | 34 |
| Cached Disk (MB/s ) | 68 | 57 | 30 | 19 |
| OpenGL (MPixels/s) | 5.6 | 4.5 | 5.5 | 4.7 |
| Uncached Disk (MB/s ) | 2.3 | 2.2 | 2.2 | 2.1 |
Of course, the most dramatic figure that stands out in the graph is the cached disk. The AMD K6-III beats the AMD K6-2 hands down. The extra 256K L2 cache on the CPU makes a big difference when the system caches data from the disk. The Uncached Disk results were flat, showing the AMD K6-2 and AMD K6-III performed identically without cache.
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The Video 2D results were higher on the K6-III, the extra cache looks like it makes a bit of a difference with the 2D Video. Again the AMD K6-III wins.The Direct 3D and Open GL were not that much different between the AMD K6-III and the AMD K6-2.
- "The AMD K6-III A Solution for Computers without L2 cache"
- Want to know more about Powerleap Adapters, Click here.
- "Powerleap PL-ProMMX AMD K6-III/400 Adapter", the newst revision of this popular product.
- Back to my Upgrades and Reviews Section