Very Computer

I read an article from PC World (Sept. 96) and it claim that Cyrix 6x86
200 is faster than Intel Pentium 200. Its performance is even better
than Pentium Pro 200. I am going to buy a new computer and running Linux
as an internet server. I want to know if it is good idea to run Cyrix
6x86 or I should stay with Intel Pentium (or Pentium Pro?) What are the
Pro and Con?

Thanks in advance.

Chi-Chung Liu

From what I've read, the 6x86 166 is faster than a pentium 200, and is
more than likely faster than a pentium pro 200 at 16 bit operations--
since pentiums slightly outrun pentium pros for 16 bit operations at
the same clock speed, and the 6x86 is faster than the pentium, the
6x86 is thusly faster than the pentium pro... *NOTE* this is just for
16 bit stuff (dos, win3.1, some [but not all] win95).  The pentium pro
blows the other chips out of the water for 32 bit stuff (some win 95
stuff, win nt, and most importantly linux :)

Quote:

>Thanks in advance.

>Chi-Chung Liu

Quote:>I read an article from PC World (Sept. 96) and it claim that Cyrix 6x86
>200 is faster than Intel Pentium 200. Its performance is even better
>than Pentium Pro 200. I am going to buy a new computer and running Linux
>as an internet server. I want to know if it is good idea to run Cyrix
>6x86 or I should stay with Intel Pentium (or Pentium Pro?) What are the
>Pro and Con?

>Thanks in advance.

>Chi-Chung Liu

  Pete Curran

Jeff Krob

One thing that I haven't seen mentioned is the difference in bus speeds.
 For example, I can only really afford an Intel P5 100.  If I were to
get the Cyrix chip with the same clock speed (is it the P120+ ?) I would
only get a 50 MHz bus.  Compared to the 66 Mhz I will get with the Intel
chip.  This seems like it would be a big difference to me.  Most of what
I do on my PC is not processor intensive, but more IO dependant for
speed.  That is why at my price range I will stick to Intel's.  To get
the 66 MHz bus speed on a Cyrix, I would have to buy the P166+ which is
too much for me right now.  (I know that chips are really cheap these
days, but I am currently assembling a whole system so I figure that it
is better to spend the money on the IO stuff  (ie buy SCSI and a GOOD
video subsystem and a GOOD motherboard) and when the chips come down
even further, like 1st Qrtr next year then I can upgrade the CPU.

If I am heading down the wrong path I would appreciate any help?
Andrew

I do however feel that Cyrix has a great product, certainly innovative.
 But a little out of my range CURRENTLY.:)

The pentium pro has a MUCH larger cache on chip(running at 200Mhz), than the
pentium.

In other words, memory accesses in a 200Mhz P6 with a 256K program are at
200Mhz!  The SAME thing on a 200Mhz P5 is at about 66Mhz!  

Steve

Aug 1996 17:20:56 GMT writes:

That said, consider that the CPU itself will be faster than an Intel P100.  In
fact, the benchmarks used to come up with the P-ratings utilize the entire
computer -- they stress the CPU, memory, disk I/O, video, etc., and are *NOT*
CPU-specific.  Thus, the 100MHz 6x86 (the P120+) performs, on the average for
the mix used in the benchmarks, similarly to a Pentium at 120MHz.  I'd therefore
suspect that you'd be better off with a 6x86 P120+ than with an Intel P100 for
most purposes, the main exception being FPU-intensive stuff.  You'd have to
REALLY stress the I/O systems for the bus speed to make such a difference that
the Pentium 100 would outperform the 6x86 P120+.  (Sorry; I've no hard figures
to back this up -- it is admittedly based mostly on reasoning from my
understanding of the benchmarks used to produce the P-values and my
understanding of CPU and bus speeds on PCs.)

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| http://psych.colorado.edu/~rsmith     "OS/2 Soundcard Summary" |
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: One thing that I haven't seen mentioned is the difference in bus speeds.
:  For example, I can only really afford an Intel P5 100.  If I were to
: get the Cyrix chip with the same clock speed (is it the P120+ ?) I would
: only get a 50 MHz bus.  Compared to the 66 Mhz I will get with the Intel
: chip.  This seems like it would be a big difference to me.  Most of what
: I do on my PC is not processor intensive, but more IO dependant for
: speed.  That is why at my price range I will stick to Intel's.  To get
: the 66 MHz bus speed on a Cyrix, I would have to buy the P166+ which is
: too much for me right now.  (I know that chips are really cheap these
: days, but I am currently assembling a whole system so I figure that it
: is better to spend the money on the IO stuff  (ie buy SCSI and a GOOD
: video subsystem and a GOOD motherboard) and when the chips come down
: even further, like 1st Qrtr next year then I can upgrade the CPU.

: If I am heading down the wrong path I would appreciate any help?
: Andrew

Umm.. not really. The cyrix chip running at 100 MHZ will run off of a 33MHz
PCI bus and a 66Mhz memory bus, as far as I know.

: I do however feel that Cyrix has a great product, certainly innovative.
:  But a little out of my range CURRENTLY.:)

Basically, it boils down to this: For the money, the Cyrix 6x86 chips are
faster than the Pentium chips (at the same clock rate) for everything but
FPU-intensive calculations (3d rendering, simulations, Quake-type
games). The Pentium Pro is a) not in the same cost bracket and b) a totally
different processor, and so can't really be compared any more than a 486 and
a pentium. However, Cyrix' new M2 chip (coming out sometime) is supposed to
be a match to the P6.

Drew

--

Cyrix 6x86---Intel not-Inside    |   |  |     Linux user---Daemon tamer
 "It's not how fast it runs <*>      |  |   it's how long it stays up"
]B=8} ]B=8} ]B=8} ]B=8} ]B=8} ]B=8} ]B=8} ]B=8} ]B=8} ]B=8} ]B=8} ]B=8}

Quote:> worse for others.  The only reason to choose the Intel over Cyrix