K6-2 vs K6-3

[Liko]

With the K6-2/550 being about $55, and the K6-3/450 being $60, which one is the better buy?

I looked (briefly) for reviews comparing this, but I didn't find any. The reason I ask is because most Socket 7 motherboards can handle either one, and I'm trying to figure out which is faster...the price doesn't matter really, because they're both about the same. The interesting point is that I'll be maxing out an old motherboard (which does support both), and I want the best performance. By the way, I currently have a AMD K6-2/350, so the upgrade might not even be worth doing.

Please share your thoughts...

Liko

 

[Felysium]

The K6-3 IS faster. I don't know the difference exactly, but I thought the K6-3 had much improvements over the k6-2. In terms of transistors/pipelines/ electronical bla bla..

For only $5 difference the choice is easy.

BTW where do you get those k6-3 from. I thought AMD stopped producing it..

 

[nickdakick]

I upgraded K6-2/350 to K6-3/450 about a year ago and it made a BIG difference in performance. Oc'ed it to 500, rock stable. BTW where can you buy K6-3's, didn't find it anywhere in stock ?

 

[BurntKooshie]

For many things, I'd say the K6-III. After around 400mhz or so, the scaling in frequency that the K6-2 gets is really poor, due to the L2 cache on the motherboard still running at 100mhz. The extra cache helps a lot.

Check out aceshardware. In some cases, the 428mhz (yes, it was a K6-III on a 95mhz bus) was faster than a 550mhz K6-2. In some cases, it was slower. A K6-III @ 450mhz, or better yet, higher, would do even better. While K6-III's weren't known to be the best overclockers, when overclocking with them, the bus speed should not be the primary concern, rather the clock speed should be, because the integrated L2 cache helps a lot.

I guess it depends on if you are going to try and OC or not, whether you realize that for another 100 bucks, you could get a duron + motherboard, and get much, much better performance. That is, of course, assuming you have an ATX powersupply, and PC 100 sdram. It also depends on the apps that you'll be using: if they are those kind of programs that can fit within the L1 cache of a CPU, or are bound by the speed of the FPU over all else, then the K6-2 550 will be faster. In things which are bandwidth bound, and are slightly larger in terms of memory footprint, the K6-III will be faster. But a Duron for 60 bucks, plus a motherboard for maybe a hundred or so, is a sweeeeeet upgrade.

 

[HiveTyrant]

Hey get the K6-3++ 450 at tigerdirect.com. I got mine 2 weeks ago for 50.00 plus shipping. I also think they have the 475 mhz for the same price. I too had a 350 K6-2 and have since sold it on peway.com for 35.00. It was a vast improvement over the 350. Also my motherboards max speed is 500mhz but thanks to a user named UART at AMDZONE.com's forum its overclocked at 600 rock steady. Just be sure to install his overclocking utility correctly. Mines running at 500mhz at bootup and switch over to 600 mhz during Halflife and Q3. its steady at 2.0 voltz.
have fun!!!

LMK if you get this deal to work for you

 

[Rapha]

<<
Also my motherboards max
speed is 500mhz
>>
Strange, if you set your clock multiplier to 2, your chip will run at 600 (2x=6x remapping whatever the motherboard can do).
Try to run your chip at 200 and see what happens !

 

[Rapha]

<<
With the K6-2/550 being about $55, and the K6-3/450 being $60, which one is the better buy?
>>
K6-III is faster and has less harware problems. You can get for 50$ the K6-III 450+ (0.18µ) that can be easily overclocked to 600 and more.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

All the k6-III has is l2 cache. It's just a damn k6-2 with l2 cache and thats it. Yes it's alot faster than a k6-2.