FiringSquad: Home of the Hardcore Gamer - Games, Hardware, Reviews and NewsSubmit your own or view users' CPU overclocking results!

  
 Home   News   THE MATRIX   Deals   Hardware   Games   Features   Media   Products   Forums   FS China 
AddThis Social Bookmark Button

Home : Features : Face Off : Face Off: Intel vs. AMD
» Join the Greatest Gaming Community NOW! (It's free)

Already a member? Login
 


Random Gallery >> 
Click to view high-res Image!
Tony Hawk's Project 8 Preview Screenshots [30] (3)


S.T.A.L.K.E.R Screenshot - An Artistic Touch (1) by sushrukh
Civilization IV Review for contest (9) by Joluha
Half Life 2 (Round 2) *runs* (8) by exe3
Unreal tournament 2004 o.o (0) by boboboob
Do the Robot! (0) by culeXor
Desperation (0) by stalker_loner
Storm of the Century (0) by phatphrog
Team Stacking: Redefined (0) by culeXor
The Ultimate SLI Gaming Rig is Home!! (1) by StryderSilverton
Fury - The PvP Exclusive MMO? (2) by imoish

More Blogs >>




Face Off: Intel vs. AMD
December 24, 1998   Dennis Thresh Fong > [View My Other Articles]
Kenn Hwang > [View My Other Articles]
Product Info | User Reviews | Article Images | Image Gallery | Comments | Forum Thread
FPU and 3DNow! Performance

Kenn
Well aren't we the propagandist? Why don't we examine the facts a bit? 3DNow is great, but all it really ends up doing is boost the soft FPU performance of the K6-2. Enabled on a Pentium II, I don't think it would make much of a difference at all, considering the fact that the P2 already has a strong, pipelined floating point unit. I don't want to get too deep into the details, but do consider the fact that Intel has to cater to more than just people who play games.

Don't get me wrong, I certainly have no doubt that instruction-optimized 3D and SIMD are going to play a huge part in the upcoming processor wars. I'm sure AMD is hard at work on 3DNow 2, but as you know, Intel has a few tricks up its sleeve as well. Their upcoming Katmai New Instructions are optimized for 3D calculations, and seem much more complex and robust than AMD's offerings. Paired with the enhanced FPU core, this chip should prove to be a screamer.

Let's take a look at this more closely. The K6 family can't execute 3D-Now and floating point simultaneously (not that its sorry floating-point unit would help much anyway). Katmai, on the other hand, not only has a revised FPU core with 8 128-bit single precision packed registers, but it introduces a new CPU mode, something that hasn't been done since the 386. This new mode allows for MMX, floating point, AND KNI to be accessed simultaneously. Considering how strong KNI is supposed to perform against 3DNow, the addition of FPU alone should skyrocket Katmai to the top of the 3D performance charts, and keep it there until AMD (or someone else) comes out with 3DNow2 or implements their own KNI instruction set.

Back! Page 1     SSE and Memories of MMX Next!
Blog + Share: Digg Del.icio.us Reddit SU furl • More: AddThis Social Bookmark Button
Send This Article to a Friend!  
Table of Contents
  Print Entire Article  

MATRIX CONTENT » RANDOM MEDIA BLOG More Blogs >>
No ratings yet
» Please rate this
I am an AMD AgentRead this Media-Blog entry!» The Witcher Review, The Polish RPG that could. (6)
by McStu (113) Talk with this user on their Shout Box (My other blogs) Posted 6 months ago

Sponsored Links
:
[GO]


 Hottest Topics
Doom 4 announced (53)
GTA IV Review (19)
Gears of War 2 Footage About to Go Live (15)
Guinness Record for GH III (15)
Xbox 360 Hits 10 Million Mark (13)
Today's News >>
Today's Siteseeing >>


 Table of Contents


 Quick Facts
SIMD's been around for longer than you think! Check out the SIMD Processor Page.

Investing  Loans  Loans  Loans UK  Loans
FiringSquad is powered by... Back to Top Site MapContact UsAdvertise With Us Privacy StatementAbout Us  
News RSSSiteseeing RSSArticle RSS   © 1998-2008 FS Media, Inc. All Rights Reserved