Athlon 500 + G400(201/151) = Sweet Combo

[LoGIc]

I've recorded some scores with my Athlon500 + G400 combo for those interested in getting the AMD Athlon processor.

System Setup:
AMD Athlon 500 (OEM)
Microstar MS-6167 Mainboard
G400 SH 32MB (overclocked to 201/151 via entech's Performance Tuner)
PowerDesk 5.21.017
128MB PC100

All tests were ran 3 time with the highest score chosen. All test were using 16bit color. Vsync, of course, was disabled.

3DMark 99 Pro:
800x600 5259 3DMarks
8987 CPUMarks
1024x768 5183 3DMarks
8943 CPUMarks

Rage's Incoming:
139.69 IncomingLuxEtRobur V1.01

Forsakin 'Ship Demo':
240.95

Rage's Expendable(EMBM Disabled):
640x480 51.5
1024x768 48.0

Quake2 Timedemo:
640x480 86.7
800x600 83.1
1024x768 65.9
1600x1200 31.9

Quake2 Crusher:
640x480 44.0
1024x768 39.2

Quake3 Test 1.08:
Fastest 62.0
Fast 53.4
Normal 48.0
High Quality 42.6

Well there you have it. The AMD Athlon is trully a good performer. Once Matrox tweak their OpenGL drivers, the G400 should best the TNT2/Utra with this combo.

BTW, for those wondering where to get the Athlon/Motherboard combo, I got mine at Himemsys Corp

[Marmita]

I must admit I love the Athlon. It's a great competitor for the Intel PIII chips but I also must say that these scores disappoint me a little. First I read at Tom's Hardware that it's almost impossible to o/c the athlon you have to alter the PCB to do so which I dont intend to do ! and secondly my scores on a PIII-500 @ 575 and G400 32MB o/c to 150/200 is
800x600 - 3DMark: 5647
CPU 3DMark: 8834

as u can see I get a little better 3DMarks and my CPU 3DMark is almost as high as urs...
I am not moving to athlon yet... (although I have now $3000 to spend...)

[Marmita]

WOW I didn't read ur 3DMark score correctly !!! mine is MUCH higher ! How did that happen ?!?!?! mybe the athlon motherboards are still crappy ?!? I got my score with 5.21 as well.

Did you leave any program in the tray ? It's hard to believe that an Athlon will score 5200+ and my PIII scored 5600+ .

[Marmita]

Just test Q3Test 1.08 with th 5.21 drivers:

Fastest - 59.6
Fast - 50.0
Normal - 45.1
Hi Quality - 42.8

(High Quality uses 32bit)
PIII-500@575 G400 32MB @ 150/200 and I used High Quality sound in quake and didnt alter the game options.

[Guyver]

Here you go... 1024x768 (32Bit - not 16bit)
Original CD drivers (didn't have time to update), Original BIOS, no tweaks (heh-heh, other than the 89Mhz AGP Bus caused by 133FSB )


Project Settings (Template):
Rendering Platform: Internal (Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English)
Resolution: 1024*768
Color Depth: 32-bit Color
CPU Optimization: Intel(r) Pentium(r) III
Z-Buffer: 32-bit
Frame Buffer: Triple buffering
Refresh Rate: 84 Hz
Looping: Disabled
Texture Format: 32-bit, 8888 RGBA
Run Tests: Once
Title Screen: Shown

Test Results:
3DMark Result : 4,399 3DMarks
Synthetic CPU 3D Speed : 9,509 CPU 3DMarks
Rasterizer Score : 1,721 3DRasterMarks
Game 1 - Race: 41.4 FPS
Game 2 - First Person: 46.9 FPS
Fill Rate : 155.9 MTexels/s
Fill Rate With Multi-Texturing : 185.4 MTexels/s
2MB Texture Rendering Speed: 192.6 FPS
4MB Texture Rendering Speed: 139.0 FPS
8MB Texture Rendering Speed: 118.4 FPS
16MB Texture Rendering Speed: 90.2 FPS
32MB Texture Rendering Speed: 54.8 FPS
Bump Mapping Emboss, 3-pass: 42.6 FPS
Bump Mapping Emboss, 2-pass: 61.1 FPS
Bump Mapping Emboss, 1-pass: 126.8 FPS
Point Sample Texture Filtering Speed: 116.2 %
Bilinear Texture Filtering Speed: 100.0 %
Trilinear Texture Filtering Speed: 72.6 %
Anisotropic Texture Filtering Speed: Not Supported
6 Pixel/individual: 2,499.5 KPolygons/s
6 Pixel/strips: 3,474.5 KPolygons/s
25 Pixel/individual: 1,163.3 KPolygons/s
25 Pixel/strips: 1,195.4 KPolygons/s
50 Pixel/individual: 770.7 KPolygons/s
50 Pixel/strips: 801.4 KPolygons/s
250 Pixel/individual: 279.7 KPolygons/s
250 Pixel/strips: 294.1 KPolygons/s
1000 Pixel/individual: 93.8 KPolygons/s
1000 Pixel/strips: 97.5 KPolygons/s

System:
Windows Version: Windows 4 A , Build 2222
DirectX Version: 4.06.03.0518
Bios Version: Award Modular BIOS v4.51PG
Bios Date: 03/01/99
Total Physical Memory: 128 MB
Free Physical Memory: 24 MB

Processor:
Processor Type: Intel Pentium III
Processor Speed: 600 MHz
Processor Caps: MMX SSE
L1 Cache Size: 32 KB
L2 Cache Size: 512 KB

Desktop:
2D Display Adapter Name: Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English
2D Display Adapter Driver Date: 5-21-1999
Monitor Name: MAG DX715T
Monitor Driver Date: 4-23-1999
Desktop Resolution: 1024*768
Desktop Color Depth: 32-Bit Color

3D Accelerator:
Name: Matrox Millennium G400 DualHead - English
Driver Name: G400DD32.DLL
Driver Version: 4.11.01.1110
Total Video Memory On Card: 32,697 KB
Total Texture Memory: 83,897 KB
Bus: AGP

Supported Features:
16-bit Rendering
32-bit Rendering
Point Sampling
Point Sampling With Mip-Mapping
Bilinear Filtering
Bilinear Filtering With Mip-Mapping
Trilinear Filtering
Specular Gouraud Shading
Vertex Fox
Table Fog
W-Fog
Sub-Pixel Accuracy
Alpha Blending
Addivitive Alpha Blending
Multiplicative Alpha Blending
Vertex Alpha Blending
Vertex And Texture Alpha Blending

Supported 3D Display Modes:
320*200, 16bit color
320*240, 16bit color
320*400, 16bit color
400*300, 16bit color
512*384, 16bit color
640*400, 16bit color
640*480, 16bit color
800*600, 16bit color
1024*768, 16bit color
1152*864, 16bit color
1280*1024, 16bit color
1600*1200, 16bit color
320*200, 32bit color
320*240, 32bit color
320*400, 32bit color
400*300, 32bit color
512*384, 32bit color
640*400, 32bit color
640*480, 32bit color
800*600, 32bit color
1024*768, 32bit color
1152*864, 32bit color
1280*1024, 32bit color
1600*1200, 32bit color

Supported Texture Formats:
16-bit, 565 RGB
16-bit, 4444 RGBA
16-bit, 5551 RGBA
15-bit, 555 RGB
32-bit, 8888 RGBA
24-bit, 888 RGB

Please attach description of Your testing environment to all published results, charts and figures. Description is available for all projects. Exporting instructions can be found in Result Browser Help. Publishing requirements are described in the 3DMark license agreement You have agreed on.

The results are created with 3DMark(tm) 99 (www.3dmark.com). Tests are performed without independent verification by Futuremark Corporation and that Futuremark Corporation makes no representations or warranties as to the result of the test. All products used in the test were shipping versions available to the general public.
3DMark is a trademark of Futuremark Corporation Ltd/Oy


------------------
ABit BE6, PIII-450 OC'd 600Mhz. 128MB PC133HSDRAM, 2.0V, 39C, Matrox Millenium G400 MAX, Adaptec 2940UW, Seagate Cheetah 9.1GB, Quantum 4.5GB, Kenwood 52X TrueX, Mitsumi 3XDVD, Sony SDT-5010 4MM DAT, Toshiba 32X SCSI CD, Iomega 100MB Zip ATAPI, 1.44MB 3.5" Floppy, 3Com/USR 56K Voice Faxmodem Pro, HP DeskJet 895CXi, Pioneer VSX-3700S Dolby Surround Receiver, Design Accoustics 3-way fronts, Pioneer Surrounds, Logitech Marble

[This message has been edited by Guyver (edited 09-07-1999).]

[Wombat]

We will be able to overclock the Athlon's soon enough. I understand that they have their own BIOS on board. The tool to flash them will be out before the year is out. It should be about/under $100.

[Cobra]

It seems AMD mad the o/c of the athlon very hard... For now you need to solder some jumpers on the PCB to do it and even in the future you'll need an special card that you'll have to connect ot the internal connectors in the athlon PCB... Why can't they simply release a friendly overclockable chip (I mean both AMD and Intel) the first company to do so will gain a substantial amount of buyers... a Unlocked multiplayer with support for all the bus speeds in the range of 100-150Mhz... is it to much to ask ?

[Cobra]

**** !!! how did you get 133 FSB ?!?! it's amazing I have a PIII-500 and I cant pass the 575Mhz (115 FSB) it gives me a General protection fail on the windows startup !

[Buuri]

There is a rumor out that Asus board would be able to oc Athlon.

_
B