AMD explains why the Durons are locked

[JimMc]

Modus--

<< Thorn is absolutely right: anything faster than a Duron 600 is currently useless, except in professional applications. >>



<<Sigh>>


Thorn, you mention UT as a gaming yardstick, consider the following:

PIII 1000 1024X768 32 bit color 69.1 FPS
PIII 933 1024X768 32 bit color 67.1 FPS
Athlon 950 1024X768 32 bit color 64.7 FPS
Athlon 800 1024X768 32 bit color 55.9 FPS
PIII 600 1024X768 32 bit color 53.4 FPS
Duron 600 1024X768 32 bit color 47.4 FPS

About a 22 FPS increase, not too shabby. Is video bottleneck an issue? Somewhat. The scaling is not linear, but it is equally clear that a GF 2 does benefit from more CPU horsepower in gaming situations(other than QIII) than a Duron 600 provides. The next generation of video cards will have more bandwidth potential and will continue to benefit from higher Mhz CPUs even while T&amp;L assists the CPU handicapped/Modus devotees.

47 FPS isn't bad, certainly playable, but I'd prefer 65=70. Would I pay $1000 for a PIII 1000? Nope. But I would pay $250 for a cBO 700 that will O'C to 933 Mhz or so and smoke that Duron 600. 20 FPS is 20 FPS, there is no way to argue around that.

 

[Thorn]

Yes, but is spending hundreds of $ more for such a diminishing return a valid reason for the average user to buy a 800MHz+ CPU? No.

We have to remember, only 1 in 10,000 (or less) OC their CPUs (or even know about OCing). We seem to forget that we don't drive this industry, we're only a &quot;fringe&quot; group.

I did misspeak, UT isn't a good example because of the stress it places on the CPU in other ways. Remember when we thought 30FPS in Unreal was incredible? It's a nice game, but poorly written.

Q3A 1024x768x32bit

Duron 600 - 78.3FPS
P3 1000 - 83.3FPS

5 FPS for $900 in Win98?!? 3 FPS in Win2K!?!?

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1277&amp;p=14

On a side note... that's on-topic for once. Maybe someone could design a &quot;GFD&quot; of sorts that looks like the Neo-S370 (fits between the CPU and the socket). I don't see why they couldn't.

 

[Thorn]

OMG... I cn't believe I've got Modus on my side. I'll surely burn in hell for this one.

 

[Soccerman]

here's the thing, noone know's for sure whether or not the AMD cpu's are indeed clock locked.

Tom's Hardware seems to think it may be true, in which case AMD's processors will not run much faster then their rated speed (unless you go fsb overclocking). now then, that means that you can get an Intel processor that overclocks like nuts (Cel2) but mhz-mhz, the AMD proc will win. therefor, it might be cheaper to get the AMD processor, rather then buying all this cooling equipment, and overclocking, becuase the AMD processor is cheaper, clock for clock against the P3.

however Duron prices are another question. how high are they compared to high end Cel2's? if a Cel2 hits 850 and barely beats a Duron 700 performance wise, what costs are we talking about for each system?

so really, the systems are competitive overall. however AMD also has the UPGRADE advantage. So, there really isn't a clear winner, but if you're building a new computer, go AMD, if you only want to upgrade your existing one, it's your choice..

 

[da loser]

I think only the unreal engine is like thht now (using cpu for more fps), but lots of games will be based on it. I would like to see someone pay for a gts but not for a p3 or thunderbird. I tend to agree with Thorn though, in that currently a 600mhz is enough for games, everyone here pretty much overclocks their newer cpu past 600. Within 18 months, I think you'll need a 1 ghz because games will start putting in more crap and 256mb will be needed to just run word because it'll be online so microsoft can purposely slow down your computer and say its for the advanced ai involved in having a stupid robot that interrupts periodically just to ask if you've been online today, haha.

also over at vr-zone some japanese guy overclocked his duron 600->900 1.85v with an AZ-11. &quot;He mentioned that in AZ11 motherboard, circuit pattern &quot;OVERRIDE&quot; is connected to BP_FID so he set jumper switch in this area.&quot; I wonder if he had one like Tom's unlocked chips. Also i think at insanehardware or maybe amdzone, some guy had a chip manufactured before Tom's which would be unlocked, i doubt there's unlocked and locked chips. so hopefully abit and asus will still have unlockers, otherwise its off to Saturn we go.

Did anand do this, i didn't really read the article after he said it didn't work .