Cyrix?

[bot2600]

Has anyone seen rc5 numbers for the newest Cyrixes? I have heard tales of the 700s doing 1 gig. And these new ones dont use the PR rating do they? They might be good at rc5 since it is a new core and rc5 just uses integer. I was just wondering as I have a couple of extra socket 370 boards and was thinking of dropping these cheap chips in there if the performed well.

Bot

 

[BurntKooshie]

They don't use PR because if they did, it would be the opposite PR of the M1/M2 series, ie, the performance rating of a 700mhz chip is more on the order of a 500-600Mhz Celeron, depending upon the app (and even a 300-400mhz Celeron in FPU tasks).

Anyway, this is based off of the Winchip4 design, which is a scalar, single issue design. I'm relatively sure it does rather poorly in RC5.

You'd be better served to get some of the higher end Celerons with those slockets - or just sell 'em.

 

[networkman]

According to the info I'd "glanced at" a while ago too, BK is absolutely right(as usual).

 

[kmmatney]

I have an old Cyrix M2 266 MHz doing RC5 and its pretty decent for its speed. It gets just over 600 kkeys/sec. Apparently, the new ones don't scale up so well.

I also have a Winchip 225 Mhz doing RC5 and it isn't too good. It only gets 293k keys/sec. I'll probably retire the WinChip, its not worth running.

 

[bot2600]

I agree with the lack of umph especially in 3d apps, but in office apps and whatnot, some of the benches look quite nice and the reviewer often says it is the cache, or the integer unit. If noone can give me a definitive answer I am going to go buy one of these to find out. $35 is a small price to pay to know the truth.

Bot

 

[BurntKooshie]

The M1/M2 were decent for the frequency - but if you compare their PR rating (266mhz being ~PR333, or 366 if you go by some Cyrix docs), it's around where a K6 is....which is pretty dismal. But if you take it per clock, which, IMO, you should (always taking its frequency into consideration though), Cyrix's aren't bad. Of course, the new idea is to hope that mhz sells.

As for the FPU of the new "Cyrix III" chips (which are of winchip design), the FPU, litterally, is half-clocked. That is to say that it is the exact opposite of the P4 which has "double pumped" ALUs. The even funnier way of looking at it is that the FPU is full speed (350Mhz), and that the rest of the chip is "double pumped" at 700mhz .

Not only is the winchip single issue (meaning, one integer pipeline, and one FPU pipeline), it is also in-order. This doesn't hurt a lot of FPU code, but it does hurt integer a lot, and some FPU code, of course, takes a huge hit as well.

All in all, it's not a bad chip for really cheap boxes, if the chip can be found for really cheap prices.

 

[mechBgon]

Somehow, when I saw the title of this thread, I knew BurntKooshie would be all over it.

 

[BurntKooshie]

It feels like old times

 

[bot2600]

BK has ~3200 posts, is there anything he isn't all over? J/K. Thanks for the info. I didn't realize the integer units were so crippled. I am going to get one anyhow, just to get some concrete numbers. God knows I have wasted more than $35 before...

Bot

 

[BurntKooshie]

I may have ~3200 posts, but my posts/day is lower than yours

Cool beans about the Cyrix purchasing though. I'm sure there are many of us that will be begging you for benchmarks, of all sorts, with varying memory settings

 

[AppleTalking]

Yeah, these processors might be cheap, but $35 will also get you a Duron 750, which will undoubtably be better at RC5.

Of course, bot2600 has Socket 370 boards, which obviously won't take a Duron, but for anyone else considering buying a Cyrix, it's worth a second thought.

Nick

 

[bot2600]

true, if I didnt already have the 370 boards we wouldn't be having this conversation, but why waste the boards? some could always be generous and send me about 5 celerons and then we wouldnt be having this conversation either... and BK, I noticed about the post per day thing right after I stuck my foot in my mouth, but was hoping noone would notice. no such luck... heh

Bot

 

[BurntKooshie]

No harm. Two weeks ago, my post count was a full half point lower.....I've probably beeen posting well over 8/day lately :Q

 

[bot2600]

and the celerons would go towards our newest mini-team, team klingon, see stats below. we are already at over 500,000 blocks on our first day...heh


Edit:first day as a miniteam, not first day cracking....hehe


Bot