Author: Mark Young
Date: 00:07:25 08/25/98
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On August 24, 1998 at 19:23:40, Ralph E. Carter wrote: >One reason the Pentium MMX is much better than the Pentium, even when the MMX >instructions aren't involved, is its "level 1 cache", which is twice as big. >Similarly, the K6-2 has a level 1 cache that is twice as big as that of the PII. >Although there are other factors slightly in favor of PII, this bigger L1 cache >probably more than offsets them. > >The difference is not reflected in conventional benchmarks. But chess programs >provide a peculiarly severe test of this feature. It appears to be true that >K6-2 is something like 10% faster than PII when running Rebel. Whether it is >faster for any other chess program, I don't know. The difference is small >enough, that optimizing for the PII could probably overcome it. It is said that >Fritz 5 is optimized for PII. > >About upgradeability- don't worry about it. The K7, the PII Xeon, the Merced, >and probably everything else, will fit neither Socket 7 nor Slot 1. > >I'm tired of this subject, because the difference is not enough to get excited >about. I agree. It silly to get excited about few percentage points in speed that translate into very little or nothing in overall chess strength. But if you only care about running rebel or some other chess programs, and it means that much to you then go with the K6. But remember that not all chess programs run better on a K6 and if you use your computer for running other games and programs the P II right now is the better choice overall. For the difference in price, though, you could also buy a better monitor, >or another 256 Megs of memory or ALL of the top chess programs!
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