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October 26, 1999
Web posted at: 2:28 p.m. EDT (1828 GMT)

by David Essex

(IDG) -- Intel leaps ahead of Advanced Micro Devices' Athlon processors with the release Monday of its "Coppermine" chips, a line of Pentium III CPUs that hit 733 MHz.

The megahertz jump tells only half the story. Intel's recent PIII speed increases looked good in the advertisements but didn't make productivity applications work much better. PC WorldBench 98 tests of the handful of new systems sporting Coppermine technology found some eye-popping performance gains.

The speed jump reverses the trend of earlier CPU releases this year, which saw faster chips without significant boosts to application speed. For example, PIII-550 systems ran PC WorldBench 98 apps just 5 percent faster than the average PIII-500 machine. The PIII-600 systems ran them just 4 percent faster than a typical PIII-550 PC. Neither gain was noticeable.

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Thanks to a design improvement, however, the new PIII chips give everyday apps a potent shot of adrenaline.

The Coppermine line comes in a confusing variety of mix-and-match options, from 733 to 500 MHz, with 133- or 100-MHz system buses and several main memory options. PC World tested a Micron PIII-733 home machine with 133-MHz virtual channel SDRAM, and a Hewlett-Packard PIII-667 corporate desktop with PC-800 RDRAM. For a peek at AMD's best, we evaluated a Compaq home system carrying the 700-MHz Athlon and PC-100 SDRAM.

Besides the performance boosts, Micron's and HP's new power machines are surprisingly good values. The loaded Micron speed champ costs just $2377.

New chips, new game

What distinguishes the new Coppermine PIII chips from their Pentium III predecessors? With Coppermine PIIIs, Intel uses a .18-micron manufacturing process that squeezes more chips out of each silicon wafer. They do it by using smaller, closer circuit lines and transistors. The smaller chips run faster and throw off less heat. The process also lets Intel put a 256KB level-2 memory cache on the chip to pump up your most-used software.

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L2 cache plays a key role: A processor uses it to avoid sending requests via the slower system bus to main memory. Level 2 cache guesses what data an application will need and keeps it on hand, near the CPU. A Coppermine PIII's on-chip L2 cache (or Advanced Transfer Cache, as Intel terms it) works at full speed -- which today means as fast as 733 MHz. Older PIII chips rely on off-chip Level 2 caches that run at only half the processor's speed. The fast cache especially boosts Microsoft Office and similar apps that stash many pieces of information there.

Some new PIII machines also use a 133-MHz system bus, though our tests indicate it doesn't offer much benefit yet, compared to the standard 100-MHz bus. (Intel plans to push processor speeds past 800 MHz next year, at which point a 100-MHz bus won't be able to keep up.) Intel upped the Coppermine PIII's efficiency, too, with a technology called advanced system buffering. This lets the CPU send a few more requests through the system bus at a time.

The PIII-600EB, -667, and -733 desktops use a 133-MHz bus; PIII-600E, -650 and -700 machines use a standard 100-MHz bus. (An E suffix indicates on-chip L2 cache, while B indicates 133-MHz bus support. These names distinguish 600-MHz Coppermine chips from the original PIII-600.) AMD Athlon systems like our Compaq Presario boast a 200-MHz bus. But they won't fully capitalize on the bus speed until faster memory arrives.

Micron's PIII-773 wins this round

So if you want the fastest system on the block, what's the new standard? Micron's Millennia Max PIII-733 tore through our PC WorldBench 98 suite of business apps. With a score of 309, it's the speediest Windows 98 system we've seen -- 23 percent faster than the average PIII-600 PC. HP's 667-MHz Vectra VL600 earned a score of 281.

Compaq's 700-MHz Athlon system, the Presario 5900Z, checked in at 284 -- not appreciably faster than the 650-MHz Athlons, which average 283. However, other Athlon-700 machines might deliver more zip. Diagnostic and keyboard utilities slow the Presarios down a bit.

In our graphics tests, the Micron posted the best score we've recorded on AutoCAD 2000, while the HP zoomed through modeling tasks in Caligari TrueSpace 4.1. Both did well with Adobe Photoshop. (Both support the 4X AGP graphics standard, but optimized apps won't arrive in large numbers for months.) Of course, graphics cards affect these scores. HP uses Matrox's fine 32MB G400. Micron and Compaq use the 32MB Creative Labs NV10 CT6940, with NVidia's powerful GeForce 256 chip.

HP's Vectra handily won the multitasking test; we attribute this to its RDRAM (Rambus) memory. This memory type, which debuted in September, is designed to transfer information through the memory bus at up to twice the rate of PC-100 SDRAM. For business users, this PC's multitasking speed is a big plus. One thing to watch: Intel is still addressing a glitch that delayed shipment of systems like our HP Vectra with RDRAM and the 820 chip set.

Fast CPUs and extras

Anyone who's shopped for a power desktop knows that outstanding speed doesn't come cheap. But the HP and Micron systems manage to offer plenty of overall value.

HP describes the $2648 Vectra as strong on manageability -- but its multitasking abilities seem equally impressive. The configuration, priced only about $200 more than similar Pentium III-600 systems (mostly because RDRAM costs more than SDRAM), includes a 17-inch monitor, a 27GB hard drive, and a CD-Rewritable drive. Given its advantages, this machine is well worth the extra cost.

The difference between the two home systems is striking: Compaq's Presario 5900Z costs $3300 -- almost $1000 more than the $2377 Micron. Granted, our Presario came with nearly every connectivity and storage option that a home user could need or want: a 20GB hard drive, a 10X DVD-ROM drive, a CD-RW drive, a combination DSL/56-kbps modem, and a cable-modem-ready Ethernet card. (If you later buy a cable modem, you'll need one of these cards.) Two other features to note: The Presario has front- and rear-mounted IEEE 1394 and Universal Serial Bus ports for easy hookup to compliant devices such as digital cameras and scanners. It also includes a 17-inch monitor.

The Micron comes with a 19-inch monitor, a 20GB hard drive, an 8X DVD-ROM drive, a 56-kbps modem, and two USB ports. Though you could lower the Compaq's price by skipping some options, the Micron's blistering speed, solid configuration, and fair price give it the winning hand.

Placing your bets

Every new PC generation has "sweet spots" that offer the best combination of price and performance. Typically, these systems don't include the absolute fastest processor. As a result, it's often wisest to pick a power desktop that has the second- or third-fastest chip, which is still quite zippy, and save a few hundred dollars.

However, the 733-MHz Micron Millennia will be hard to pass up. You'll probably see many other PIII-733 systems that cost about $2800. Micron continues to offer extremely aggressive pricing as it tries to win market share. The company also saves a bit by using the Via Apollo Pro133A chip set, which is much like the Intel 820 but doesn't support Rambus memory.

For corporate users, HP's Vectra VL600 proves that you don't have to pay $3000 to get a great business PC.

Conservative shoppers will find even lower prices on PIII-650 and PIII-600EB desktops, which also deliver the new on-chip L2 cache. All in all, this seems a fine time for power desktop buyers to roll the dice on a new system.