| ▲ | koverstreet 5 days ago | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
AMD had been gradually working their way up for a long time - the K6-III was an excellent CPU for the time. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
| ▲ | cptskippy 5 days ago | parent | next [-] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
The K6 line was a functional CPU but I wouldn't call them "excellent". The K6-III was basically a K6-2 with integrated cache, much the same way the Pentium III was a Pentium II with integrated cache. Despite the fact that AMD tried to replicate Pentium branding on the K6 line, they very much competed with Celerons in terms of market place and performance. Indeed that's how they were marketed where I worked (Office Max) and were priced and spec'd comparably to the Celeron based offerings from IBM, HP, and Packard Bell. Another issue with the K6 line was they were always a generation behind at a time when Intel was rapidly rolling out technologies like MMX and SSE. Intel coordinated with software manufacturers and had launch day examples that presented significant performance gaps between the CPU lines. The K6 also had a shorter execution pipeline than Pentium so it struggled to hit 400mhz when Intel was approaching 500mhz. That's why the Athlon was such a shock because it arrived at 700mhz and stomped everything. Looking back at the K6 line now, they likely perform far better then they did at the time because software eventually got around to supporting the hardware. | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
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| ▲ | rasz 4 days ago | parent | prev [-] | |||||||||||||||||||||||||
K6-III was never excellent. It was a short lived overpriced option for desperate socket7 users unwilling to do the sensible thing and upgrade whole platform (brand new Celeron 300A + 440BX motherboard cheaper than just the K6-3 cpu alone). Paper launch in February 1999 with first real chips shipping in March. First K6-3 to show up in Japan was K6-III/400 at hilarious 35,500 yen = $295! https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/990313/p_cpu.ht... This is the price of full Pentium II 400MHz or over four almost year old by this point and still faster Celerons 300A. By January 2000 prices corrected to saner bus still delusional levels https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/20000108/p_cpu.... K6-III/450 14,550 $140 K6-III/400 8,980 $85 Celeron 300A $57 First time Duron shows up in Akihabara is June 17 2000 https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/20000617/p_cpu.... Celeron 533A 10,570 $100 Duron 600MHz 9,990 $95 K6-III/450 24,800 $236 haha whats up with that price? Either AMD stopped shipping already and its leftovers or its a sucker tax for ss7 owners wanting to max out. K6-III/400 14,800 $140 K6-2/550 7,949 $76 K6-2/533 5,970 $57 K6-2/500 5,350 $50 Week later https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/20000624/p_cpu.... Celeron 533A 9,980 $95 Duron 600MHz 9,480 $90 K6-III/450 24,800 $230 AHAHAHAHAHA K6-III/400 15,800 $150 K6-2/550 7,940 $76 K6-2/533 6,700 $63 K6-2/500 5,300 $50 Looks like by the time Durons showed up nobody was bothering to stock K6-3, only 3 vendors in Akihabara had them. Those crazy prices werent limited to Japan, Poland September 1999: Pentium III 450MHz 1260 $308 Pentium II 400MHz 943 $231 Celeron 366MHz 348 $85 (300A missing from the list, but was still available and selling cheaper) K6-III/450 1108 $271 HAHA K6-III/400 877 $215 K6-2/400 397 $97 haha K6-2/350 230 $56 For a brief moment in 1999 AMD pretended K6-3 was equal to Pentium 2/3 and tried to price it accordingly but market corrected them swiftly. There was a 1/3 performance gap between K6-3 and overclocked Celeron. https://web.archive.org/web/20080418185205/http://arstechnic... https://web.archive.org/web/20070918073530/http://arstechnic... https://web.archive.org/web/20070918135927/http://arstechnic... | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||
