Short Upgrade Path

[Guest]

My current system is a based on an Pentuium II on a DFI P2XBL-A.1 mainboard. I want to upgrade. I seem to be limited to a Pentium III processor, on this motherboard, however.

Primarily, I run engineering analysis and 3D modelling/CAD software on this system, along with your standard office applications and some games.

Is there a very large gap in performance between say a PIII and a PIV?

Also, I purchased the PII system in 1998, choosing the Pentium for its "superior floating point performance". After reading articles on AMD's Athlon processors, I'm not sure I want a Pentuim this time. Are Intel CPU's in fact better, more stable performers on math-intensive applications, while Athlon is better for "gaming" systems? Or is this just another myth?

My chief concerns are overall system stability, solution speed, and ability to multitask.

 

[jihiggs]

quote:
Also, I purchased the PII system in 1998, choosing the Pentium for its "superior floating point performance". After reading articles on AMD's Athlon processors, I'm not sure I want a Pentuim this time. Are Intel CPU's in fact better, more stable performers on math-intensive applications, while Athlon is better for "gaming" systems? Or is this just another myth?

you have just opend a pandora's box.
well here we go, in my OPINION amd is better than a pentium at most things. unless were talking the brand new p4, but if you dont have 600 bucks to spend on a cpu amd is best.

i went to the tomshardware forums and all i got was this lousy signature.

 

[camieabz]

Unless you're running very memory/CPU intensive CAD type stuff, I'd go with an AMD XP1600+, ECS K7S5A, 512MB PC2100 RAM and a 40GB IBM 60GXP drive.

Oh and get a decent gfx card too. ATI Radeon or similar.

<b><font color=blue>~scribble~</font color=blue></b> <A HREF="http://www.ud.com/home.htm" target="_new">Help cure cancer.</A>

 

[Crashman]

For $169 you can get the iP3/T tualatin adapter with a 1.2GHz 256k Celeron Tualatin, and this should make an adequate performance increase on your system. These are compatable with most motherboards. I suggest you flash the newest BIOS before upgrading.

What's the frequency, Kenneth?

 

[IIB]

hmmm... the Athlon has the best FPU preformance with 3 FPU units comperd to one on the P4.
though through the use of SEE2 the p4 is as good as the athlon on FPU preformance... but not to many programs use SEE2.

 

[lhgpoobaa]

"floating point performance"

the athlond does have the best pure floating point performance out of the current crop of desktop CPU's.

while the pentium4 is far weaker in that area, it has SSE2 instructions, which can speed up applications by 25% or more in certain cases, negating the athlons lead.

of course, the downside is taht you have to use programs specially designed with SSE2 enabled.

in your particular case i would stick to a tullatin

The lack of thermal protection on Athlon's is cunning way to stop morons from using AMD.