Pentium 3 101

Description

Like all current P3 processors, the 933 is based on the new Coppermine core. Older P3 processors used the Katmai core. We've covered the details about the new core in our dual Coppermine article, but here's a short list with the highlights:

0.18 micron manufacturing process
6 metal layers
Reduced power consumption
256KB Advanced Transfer Cache

Our sample 933

Overclocking

We were very anxious to see how high the chip would overclock. Would we finally be able to break the gigahertz barrier? At 933MHz, a measly 10% overclock would put us over the top.

We whipped out our trusty golden orb cooler, our tube of thermal paste, the BE6-II, an Abit Slocket III and then we went to work. Unfortunately, we were only able to get the processor up to 952MHz. Yes, you read that correctly. We were only able to increase the FSB 3MHz above the standard 133MHz FSB speed even after we raised the voltage from 1.70V to 1.85V. At first we thought that the Voodoo 5 couldn't handle the overclocked AGP bus, but we determined that it wasn't the Voodoo's fault after a little testing. Alas, it wasn't meant to be.

Test System Setup

Intel Pentium 3 933EB@933MHz(7 x 133MHz)
Intel Pentium 3 933EB@952MHz(7 x 136MHz)
Abit BE6-II motherboard
Apacer 128MB PC133 SDRAM

Western Digital Caviar ATA-66 hard drive

Voodoo 5 5500
Driver version: 1.1

Windows 98 SE

Benchmarks

Winbench99 - CPU Marks
Winbench99 - FPU Marks
Winstone2000 - Content Creation

SiSoft Sandra2000 - CPU Dhrystone
SiSoft Sandra2000 - FPU Whetstone
SiSoft Sandra2000 - MMX
SiSoft Sandra2000 - SSE

3DMark2000 - 800x600x16
3DMark2000 - 800x600x32
3DMark2000 - 1024x768x16
3DMark2000 - 1024x768x32

Quake 3 Retail - 512x384 Fastest, Normal
Quake 3 Retail - 640x480 Fastest, Normal
Quake 3 Retail - 800x600 Fastest, Normal

Nocturne - 512x384x16
Nocturne - 512x384x32
Nocturne - 640x480x16
Nocturne - 640x480x32

Notes

We decided to use the Voodoo 5 to avoid any external T&L effects. We wanted to include our Athlon 950 in the testing, but we weren't able to get our system stable. As a result, we only have normal and overclocked numbers right now, and that doesn't lend well to benchmark comments. "Ummm, yeah. Again we see that the overclocked processor is slightly faster than the non-overclocked processor. I believe we're beginning to see a trend here."

We'll work on getting you those Athlon 950 numbers. For now, just marvel at the Voodoo 5's ability to sustain scores across multiple resolutions, and look at our E3 Pictures if you get bored.