non-biased openion needed!

[nitro22]

The new Athlon has 128 L1 chache while PIIIXeon has only 32 L1. I know many members of this forum are biased toward the AMD product, so I would greatly apreciate it if I could get an honest openion. Comparing Xeon III 1 gig with Athelon 1 gig, what is a more powerfull processor???

Thanks.

[Dave_Whittle]

Do you want to overclock it?

Are you using it for games or office applications?

How much ram do you intend to install?

[JCB]

If you had asked this question a year ago, everybody would've pushed that Xeon. Now they'll say AMD.

So, what does that tell ya?

[BBA]

Depends. For single CPU use, the Athlon wins, as the Xeon is actually a standard 256K L2 cache P3, with an APIC for 4 way SMP on the slot card.

The ONLY advantage the P3 Xeon has is the ability to run in quad and 16/32 CPU configuration.

[nitro22]

The system will have 512 megs RDRam, and eventualy will run dual proc. It will be used for web/graphic/application development. I guess the dual proc requirement rules out the Athlon. My question, however, is targeted direcly at the 128k L1 vs 32K L1 factor. How much role will this play? Also, the Athlon has a much hier FSB, allowing it to couple with super fast RDRAM (PC2100). Does a double Xeon 1Gig system(32L1/256L2, 133FSB) still out perform the fastest Athlon configuration? Does it offer more stability.

[jad1097]

Dual Socket A motherboards are coming if you want to wait.

[Dputiger]

If you can wait, I think the 760MP is going to deliver the best performance you can see.

Here's a few tips for you: RDRAM is NOT a good match with the Pentium III--the low bus speed of the Xeon (or Pentium III) prevents it from effectively utilizing RDRAM's higher bandwidth.

Depending on what you'll be doing, I'd bet the AMD Athlon 1.33 Ghz might perform nearly as well--but if you have a great need to multi-task no single processor can beat a duelie.

Still, you're gonna pay for it. Big big bucks.

[AuraEdge]

Ever since the coppermine came out, the Xeon is identical to the normal P3 Coppermine except for form factor and the ability to run more than 2 way SMP. In 1 or 2 CPU systems, a Xeon would have equal performance to a normal P3, so what your in essence asking is which is better, a P3 1Ghz or a Athlon 1Ghz.
RDRAM is ONLY for Intel machines. The Athlon runs soley on SDRAM (SDR or DDR depending on chipset).
If your only going to use 2 CPU's, might as well just get 2 normal P3 1Ghz's, as the Xeon has no benifit.

Athlon Dual chipsets arent out yet (760MP), but thier coming (DDR flavor). P3 Dual boards are out, and come in SDR SDRAM flavor, or RDRAM flavor. They may be available in DDR, I'm not sure, but if they aren't yet, they will soon be.

A year ago, the Xeon was different.
The Xeon used to have 512k of full speed L2.
Now its no different than a P3 Coppermine.
The Athlon is also different from a year ago. The athlon used to have 512k of half, 2/5 or 1/3 speed L2. Now it has 256k full speed L2. Also the boards have developed since then, which was a major problem with the initial Athlons.

[Nighthawk]

Form factor is the size and interface.

Pentium p54c/p55c = Socket 7
Athlon classic = Slot A
Athlon thunderbird = Socket A
Pentium III = Slot 1
Pentium III coppermine = Slot 1 / Socket 370
Xeons, any flavor = Slot 2

[nitro22]

AuraEdge--

the PIII Xeon uses the Dinamic Independant Bus architecture, while (i think) the coppermine does not. btw what is form factor?

[nitro22]

AuraEdge--

Based on Intel doco, the P3 never had 512 full speed cache. Instead, it is available with 512k in-package half-speed discrete L2.
Also, the xeon data sheet sais that it has a seperate 133 mhz sys bus and a dedicated internal chache bus operating at full processor core speed. Is this just another way of saying that it has full speed on-die cache, or is this really an architectural difference between the coppermine and the xeon? Thanks.

[This message has been edited by nitro22 (edited 04-06-2001).]