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Last revised:
09/08/1999

AMD Athlon/550 vs. Intel Pentium III/550 Performance
AMD Athlon/550 vs. Pentium III/550 Performance
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But bear in mind that for Winstone 99 under NT and 98SE, the test is measuring overall system performance. Remember the Athlon motherboard supports ATA66, while the Intel motherboard only supports ATA33. So perhaps it's the HDD that's giving the Athlon an edge, and not the processor. A valid point to consider, but let's look at some tests that does not measure the HDD speed.

Winbench 99 Highend Graphics/NT @ 32 bit

Winbench 99 Highend Graphics measures the overall video card performance under NT. Again, we see the Athlon outperforming the Pentium III in raw video speed. This test measures the speed of a system's video card only; the test does not take into account the speed of the HDD. So for this test, we can safely remove the margin of error for the AMD ATA66 vs. Intel ATA33.

Winbench 99 Business Graphics/98SE @ 32 bit
Winbench 99 Business Graphics under 98SE tells a similar story: the Athlon system managed to beat the Pentium III system.

From these basic tests, it's reasonable to conclude that the Athlon processor is probably faster than an equivalent Pentium III at the same clock speed. But there are many other factors to consider than simply raw system performance; for example:

  • Supply - Historically, AMD have had yield problems with their K6-2 and K6-3 processors: their factories simply could not meet market demand. Will AMD have the same yield problem with their Athlon processor? That remains to be seen...

  • Compatibility - Many companies still prefer to use Intel processors and chipsets, due to compatibility or technical issues. Switching over to the Athlon requires a new slot A motherboard, which currently uses the one and only AMD 75X chipset. Compared this to the Intel 440BX AGPset, which is a mature and stable chipset that's been on the market for more than one year.

  • Competition - Fact: Intel is a much bigger company than AMD. Intel is definitely NOT standing still while AMD surpasses them; Intel will introduce the i820 AGPset and their next generation Pentium III processor (a.k.a. Coppermine) by Q4/1999. This will bring to a system: ATA66, Rambus memory, PC133, and AGP 4X support, while the Coppermine will have 256K of full speed L2 cache.

    In conclusion, I'd make the following recommendations:

  • Hardcore gamers and engineers who want top-flight system performance NOW no matter what the cost, get the PREMIO Predator GXM with dual Pentium III/Xeon 550MHz 2MB L2 Cache.

  • Hardcore gamers and engineers who want top-flight system performance NOW but within budget, get the Athlon ... if you can find it.

  • Hardcore gamers and engineers who want top-flight system performance but are willing to wait two months, be patient and wait for the i820 & Coppermine system.

  • Everyone else: See the FAQ for Celeron/Pentium II/III performance comparison. Which I will summarize here: Intel Celeron systems for home/educational users and Pentium III systems for business/corporate users.

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