Socket 7 DRAG RACE

Testing every Socket 7 CPU I have, from the lowly 6x86L to the screaming K6-2 550. How fast are they? What about performance per clock? Bus speed differences?

All answered in this video. Enjoy!

With guest appearances by my Celeron 300A, Pentium II Klamath, and Geode GX1 300

Chapters:

00:00 - Intro
01:18 - Wrangling the Data
02:37 - Scaled Relative Performance
03:50 - Performance Per Clock (~133MHz)
05:58 - Bus Speed Comparo
07:16 - Closing Thoughts
08:07 - Outtakes

[SUCRA]

That was very interesting! I have a thing for the K5, it was the first CPU I used with a voodoo, and it was kind of a return to the PC world for me, on the early pentium period I didn't have a PC. Thanks for a another one, 👍.

[PixelPipes]

Surprised by the WinChip! This is some exhaustive testing you've done here

[RiksRandomRetro]

Exhaustive testing that's impressive! It's funny I only stayed on S7 with my original P100 that I never upgraded or did anything with so it was sort of a blind spot me for the longest time. Until I got the same sort of machine fairly recently and jammed in an overdrive proc at 166. I may look at further upgrades though using what you collected here, good stuff! And great video as always!

[GabrielZ]

I'm a big fan of Socket 7 platforms! My first PC was a Pentium 133, then upgraded to a 166 MMX and years later I jumped to a K6-2 500. Props to the WinChip for its place among the top contenders! I would love to see a similar test between K6-2, K6-2 + and K6-III in this same format. Excellent video as always!

[Neksus-M]

This was a funny era for socket 7...
I knew what I was missing, as many friends had different new systems. Comparisons were harsh :)

[jrherita]

Very cool video! I recently sold my retroPC build (too many Amigas/Ataris around to spend time with) - which came as a Pentium 166 MMX / 430TX chipset and ended as a K6-3+ @ 450 MHz (75 mhz bus) on that same chipset thanks to a modded BIOS. I admire your dedication to keeping these era PCs running - it's a lot of work as Win98 layered on DOS brings a *ton* of driver, configuration, and other quirks vs. the prior DOS or later XP+ eras.

[OCROldComputerRebuilds]

The socket 7 was our first home built system it was an amazing experience also the first time I experienced the 3dfx voodoo 3 pci (I miss that system). You have really done your homework and put a beautiful video together sorry I didn't watch it soon. Congratulations are in order. Once again Thank you for putting this together. 🎉

[chrisducati]

Great Review as always you deserve many subscribers!! i was expecting more benchmarks from more games and games that don't favore the pentium architecture, anyway in 1996 i was having a cyrix 686L 120+ before getting a voodoo1, i passed then in a pentium 166mmx, the pentium was way better in everything but the most it was compatible with everything, i remember getting errors with the cyrix in many games struggling running or even getting errors that i was using an 486. The best came after with the k6-2 300 cpu in 98' i was so excited to had upgrade the entire system, agp slot, sdram new hard drive and new graphics card i was feeling i got the fastest system instead of pentium 2 overpriced systems, later i realized that it was not the case but im glad i get the k6-2. I do have all the cpu you test except from rise m6 just for collection. The k5 and idt winchip 2 are the most interesting.

[awnordma]

Such a great era, tons of CPU/chipset makers and the introduction of SDRAM and AGP. Also fixed frequency benchmarks are where it's at.

[RetroTechBytes]

This is amazing work! Thank you for sharing. The K5 was pretty damn venerable for an older chip, really almost a generation/half a generation older than these. The Rise was shockingly odd. I’m confused by how it was so dependent on the 100MHz bus, but I suppose it makes sense. I have a soft spot for Cyrix, but wow is that floating point performance crap; I have tested this myself, but seeing the numbers compared to even a WinChip is something else. I do think that Geode was impressive for what it was, being a 5x86-based SoC. The WinChip2 is awesome, and I’m kinda surprised at how well it did. Considering it’s a Socket 5 compatible CPU too, it must’ve been a really nice upgrade option at the time; it’s a heck of a lot better than the first generation WinChip too! Anyway, thanks for the hard work and awesome video! This was super enlightening and very fun!

[cybercat]

Graphs and normalized data too!
I love this video already :D

[pc-sound-legacy]

Very cool video and great research on the S7 lineup👍 My first S7 CPU was a 6x86 PR150+ and I really liked it (for the same reasons as you) Of course it was slow in FPU-relevant applications/games but for windows etc. it was fine. I paired it with a Voodoo 1 later on, and then it finally could beat my friends Pentium 133 - at least in some glide supporting games🤗 Nice memories. I like the different concepts of the Intel competitors and how the tried to compete with the help if different strategies - more cache, 3D-Now instructions, short pipelines etc. pp., and all for a lower price. I miss this variety today where only a handful of the companies survived the race. Same with GPUs.( I think that's why I love retro, it's much more interesting due to the variety)

[jperezus]

In 2001 i had a PMMX 200 which i have upgraded to a K6-2 450 with 75 mhz bus. It was enoght to play Unreal Tournament with a Voodoo2, depite the memory bottleneck. I believe it has an Intel 430VX chipset, the CPU a K6-2 475mhz AHX. The CPU has a 2.4V vcore and the mother has no less than 2.6V, so it was overvolted. The mother multiplier was x2 i believe, but the CPU take it as x6.

[GameTechRefuge]

interesting results. The Socket 7 days, good times. Settled on the MMX 233MHz in my regular Socket 7 build.

[Voidsworn]

Thanks for the vid! I just ordered a winchip 2 200 to go on my Socket 7 430fx based board since it can't handle dual voltage CPUs. Sucks that it's only EDO but I am stuck on 66MHz FSB (unless I feel like doing some soldering and testing). Looking forward to playing around with it.

[modernandretrogaming]

Interesting comparison, I hope you will check one day also AMD K6-III cpu. Rise mP6 is aren't that bad with 100 Mhz FSB.

[xuchao]

how about add via C3 500 and 800 into this benchmark ? i think they are both perfect cpu for retro gaming.

[amigaman]

Another good video, I discovered vodka today and as a result now own for the first time in decades.. a dual slot one Pentium 3 motherboard. And also got a working 386dx machine.. not that I'm into 386s but it was a good find.

[json]

Let me know if you have any interest in a Socket 8 200Mhz Pentium Pro :P
Part# KB80521EX200 256K