System information
This page gives detailed information about the computer I used for benchmarking.
thandor.net - system
Specification of system 21, Gigabyte GA-5AX
I use a Gigabyte GA-5AX with an Altius Aladdin IV chipset to benchmark the so-called "Super Socket 7" (SS7) generation. SS7 is a loose term, but basically it points to the later generation motherboard with socket 7, capable of 100MHz FSB, AGP slot, and SDR-SDRAM slots. You often find these systems run AMD K6-2 CPUs, and that's exactly one of my targets 
.
With the exception for memory speed I use default BIOS settings. I have set the DRAM Timing to 'fast' and CAS latency to 2. On all FSB frequencies I've made sure it's 1:1 FSB:RAM with Fast CL2.0 settings. When using a 75MHz FSB I've chosen the '75 AGP' setting (opposed to 60) to run the fastest PCI/AGP bus possible.
As VGA output, I use a Medion GeForce 3 Ti200 with Detonator 45.23. I found that using a different graphics card doesn't really matter. The only graphics-intensive benchmark on this platform is Quake 2, but it's run in software mode so differences are minimal if you would use a different graphics card. To give you a reference I've benchmarked a slow and a fast CPU using a Fastware VC962C which is based on a S3 Trio64V+ chip and an ASUS V3800M 32M which is based on a nVidia TNT2 M64:
Both the GeForce3 and TNT2 M64 score identical and the S3 Trio64V+ is not that far off either considering it's a 1996 PCI card .
The motherboard doesn't have on-board sound. For CPU benchmarks, this doesn't matter, but Quake 2 usually needs to be told to disable sound effects since it will play them by default.
Because the PS/2 ports on this particular motherboard are somewhat flimsy, I use a serial mouse on COM1. The PS/2 port for the keyboard works fine.
.With the exception for memory speed I use default BIOS settings. I have set the DRAM Timing to 'fast' and CAS latency to 2. On all FSB frequencies I've made sure it's 1:1 FSB:RAM with Fast CL2.0 settings. When using a 75MHz FSB I've chosen the '75 AGP' setting (opposed to 60) to run the fastest PCI/AGP bus possible.
As VGA output, I use a Medion GeForce 3 Ti200 with Detonator 45.23. I found that using a different graphics card doesn't really matter. The only graphics-intensive benchmark on this platform is Quake 2, but it's run in software mode so differences are minimal if you would use a different graphics card. To give you a reference I've benchmarked a slow and a fast CPU using a Fastware VC962C which is based on a S3 Trio64V+ chip and an ASUS V3800M 32M which is based on a nVidia TNT2 M64:
| CPU | VGA | Quake II score |
| 6x86MX PR200/75 | S3 Trio64V+ | 7.7 |
| 6x86MX PR200/75 | TNT2 M64 | 7.9 |
| 6x86MX PR200/75 | GeForce3 Ti200 | 7.9 |
| AMD K6-2+ 550 | S3 Trio64V+ | 22.8 |
| AMD K6-2+ 550 | TNT M64 | 24.2 |
| AMD K6-2+ 550 | GeForce3 Ti200 | 24.2 |
.The motherboard doesn't have on-board sound. For CPU benchmarks, this doesn't matter, but Quake 2 usually needs to be told to disable sound effects since it will play them by default.
Because the PS/2 ports on this particular motherboard are somewhat flimsy, I use a serial mouse on COM1. The PS/2 port for the keyboard works fine.
| Motherboard | Gigabyte GA-5AX |
|---|---|
| Chipset | ALi Aladdin 5 |
| BIOS | F4 |
| RAM | 1x128MB Hyundai SDR-SDRAM CAS2 |
| Drive | CF-card |
| OS | DOS7 (Win98SE) Windows 98 SE |
| Drivers | ULi Integrated v2.13 |
| Additional info |
Benchmarks
I use this system to run AMD K6, AMD K6-2, AMD K6-2+, AMD K6-III and AMD K6-III+ alongside its competitors from Cyrix (6x86MX and MII), Rise MP6, IDT WinChip (and 2). I also use Pentium MMX and a selection of Pentiums (100, 133, 166, 200). The reason I took slower Pentiums like 100MHz is that performance-wise they aren't always that far off from the IDT WinChip, and they 'bridge' benchmarks I did on a 430VX platform. This way you can get a feel for how newer CPUs perform compared to older ones on a different platform (and sometimes a different set of benchmarks).
This system ran 363 benchmarks of which the last one was a(n) AMD K6-2+ 550.
Gigabyte GA-5AX
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