Business Benchmarks

Business Test Results

Winbench 99 Business Disk Winmark
Processor	Score (Disk Winmarks)
K7 550	3440
P3 500	3050
P3 Xeon 500 1024KB	2990
Cool K6-3 550	2870

Disk Winmark Analysis

Despite the mediocre results we've seen from the two CPU tests, the K7 550 floors any and all contenders in the Business Disk Winmark test. The IBM Deskstar is an excellent 7,200 RPM hard drive, such high scores could be indicative of the high data shuttling rates of the K7's speedy architectural changes. A combination of fast drive access, memory transfer, and large cache may make for such a dramatic performance in the disk subsystem test.

Winbench High-end Disk Winmark
Processor	Score (Disk Winmarks)
K7 550	12100
P3 Xeon 500 1024KB	9290
P3 500	9200

High-End Analysis

The same goes for the High End Disk Winmark test - In this particular synthetic test, the K7 continues to shine down on the Intel competition. Here, we see it leap ahead by almost 25% over both the Pentium III and the P3 Xeon. Note that as above, the hard drives differed from system to system, though fact that the P3 systems were using dedicated 7,200RPM Fast/Wide SCSI drives don't seem to help their case much. Very impressive showing on the part of the K7.

Winstone99 Business Suite
Processor	Score (Winmarks)
Cool K6-3 550	27.2
P3 Xeon 500 1024KB	24.9
K7 550	24.4
P3 500	24.0

Winstone Analysis

What happens here? K7 performance falls back into the middle of the pack, even with 3 consecutive tests and one clean retry. The Kryotech-boosted K6-3 550 (originally a 450) takes the cake with a full 2.8 Winstones over the next-generation K7. The ultra-expensive Pentium III Xeon 500 with 1MB L2 cache also edges ahead in this test.

Winstone runs through a number of realistic tasks in three actual application suites, simulating as well as possible real-world application and results. Winstone99 differs from its predecessors in that it actually multitasks through different applications, which hurt prior AMD CPUs, but in turn has vindicated the performance claims of the K6-3.