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Benchmarks (January 1998): CPUs, MotherBoards & Video Cards

CPUs

Ziff-Davis, publisher of PC Magazine, Computer Shopper, PC Week, PC Computing and other computer magazines, has developed Winstone 98 Business Benchmark. It is a good standard by which to measure the performance of computer systems.
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The above graph is compliments of Intel.  Each of the above CPUs were tested on roughly the same computer system with the only change being the CPU replacement.  Hence, you can see how much of a performance gain that you would get, if you just upgraded the CPU.

My recommendation is to stick with the cheaper CPUs.  With the Pentium II/233 at $190, I think that it's the best buy (given the Winstone 98 Business score of 20.3).  Right now, the Pentium II/400 (Winstone 27.1) sells for $825 and the Pentium II/333 is at $500 (Winstone 24.6).  As you can see, you do get a little improvement in performance by purchasing the more expensive chips, but is it really worth the extra money?  I do not think it is.

How does your old system stack up?

Have you ever wondered how your old computer system might score on ZD Business Winstone 98?  Well, Ziff-Davis has tested a variety of systems.   Take a look at the first column of the chart below.

  1. Base 486: 486 DX2/66, 16MB DRAM, 256K cache, 425MB Western Digital Hard disk and Diamond Viper VLB Graphics card.
  2. 486 with Motherboard Upgrade: Pentium MMX/233, 32MB EDO RAM, 512K cache, 425 MB WD Hard disk and Diamond Stealth II 220, 4MB SGRAM graphics card.
  3. Base Pentium/100: Pentium/100, 16MB EDO DRAM, 512K cache, 2.1GB WD Hard disk and Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 graphics card.
  4. Pentium/100 with Motherboard Upgrade: Pentium II/266, 32MB EDO RAM, 512K cache, 2.1GB WD Hard disk and Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 graphics card.
  5. HP Pavilion 3260: Pentium MMX/200, 32MB SDRAM, no cache, 2.1GB Quantum Hard disk and ATI VT2 32-bit (1MG DRAM) graphics system.
  6. Dell Dimension XPS D233: Pentium II/233, 32MG SDRAM, 512K cache, 4.3 Quantum Hard disk and STB Velocity 3D AGP (4MB SGRAM) graphics card.

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 MotherBoards

Slot 1 Motherboards Comparisons

Thanks to Anand's website, I am including his comparison of Slot 1 (Pentium II) Motherboards, using the old Winstone 97 Business Benchmark.  If you want to see Anand's full review of Slot 1 motherboards, go here.  Anand uses the same CPU chip, the same Hard disk and the same Graphics card in each motherboard, so the difference in performance is a result of the motherboard architecture.

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Socket 7 Motherboard Comparison

Thanks to Anand's website, I am including his comparison of Socket 7 (Pentium) motherboards, using the old Winstone 97 Business Benchmark.  If you want to see Anand's full review of Socket 7 motherboards, go here.

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Video Cards

Since 3Dfx Interactive, Inc. introduced the Voodoo 3D graphics accelerator on November 6, 1995, the 3Dfx Voodoo chip has been the rage among PC 3D gamers.  The wisdom has been to buy a great 2D graphics card for business graphics and, in addition, purchase a 3D add-on card in order to play games with arcade quality.   Well, this is a new day.  Today, there are single-chip graphic accelerators which render 2D & 3D almost equally well.

However, with the recent introduction of the 3Dfx Voodoo 2 chip, the 3D add-on card will be around for a bit longer.  This new chip will probably give you the best 3D game play, however, there are several graphics cards which equal or surpass the 3D performance of the Voodoo Graphics and Voodoo Rush chips.

Check out these benchmarks provided by Ziff Davis.  See the full review by clicking here.  The following cards are based on the 3Dfx Voodoo Rush chip: BioStar Venus 3D Rush, Hercules Stingray 128/3D and the Jazz Adrenaline Rush 3D.

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The best 3D performers above (the ASUS 3DexPlorer 3000, theCanopus Total 3D 128V, the Diamond Viper V330 and the STB Velocity 128) are all based on the nVidia RIVA 128 chip.  This is a great 3D chip, and it also does well on 2D business applications.  See below, and the full review here.

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Below are the 2D results (Business Winstone 98) for the AGP cards (1024 x 768, 16 bit color).

zdwinst98-2a.gif (23393 bytes) 

Do you want to see the High-end Winstone 97 benchmark for AGP cards?  Click here to see the review on the Ziff Davis website.

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The Benchmark below is the Winstone WinMark 97 1024 x 768 at true color (32 bit color).

zdwinst97a.gif (9194 bytes) 

 GL Quake II

OK, some of you hard-core gamers will want to see a head-to-head comparison of how the chips will perform on Quake II (OpenGL).  Well, here it is.  These tests were conducted by Brian Hook of id Software on a Pentium II 300Mhz computer with LX motherboard and 96Mb SDRAM.  Courtesy of voodooextreme.com

3D Graphics Card

3Dfx Voodoo Graphics (PCI)
3Dfx Voodoo Graphics 2 (PCI)
3Dfx Voodoo Graph. 2 SLI (2x PCI)
3Dfx Voodoo Rush (PCI)
3DLabs Permedia 2 (AGP)
NEC PowerVR PCX2 (PCI)
nVidia RIVA 128 (AGP)
nVidia RIVA 128 (PCI)
Quantum 3D Obsidian 100SB (PCI)
Rendition V2200 (AGP)

512x384

39.3 fps
67.4 fps
67.3 fps
22.9 fps
17.2 fps
27.0 fps
25.7 fps
21.8 fps
48.3 fps
31.0 fps

640x480

26.7 fps
65.5 fps
67.5 fps
18.2 fps
17.0 fps
22.6 fps
22.9 fps
19.4 fps
47.4 fps
22.9 fps

800x600

N/A
56.6 fps
67.1 fps
N/A
N/A
17.3 fps
19.3 fps
N/A
36.0 fps
16.9 fps

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