Ballistics Report

Pros

Performance: It doesn't matter whether you have 933MHz or 952MHz, because you still have a damn fast chip. It's a shame we couldn't get our Athlon 950 system working, because we're almost positive that the P3-933 would have smoked the Athlon. The P3's on-die cache makes all the difference. Intel even takes a swing at the Athlon in the 933 press release:

Most other processors on the market today are based on technologies that keep the cache memory from operating at full frequencies, limiting the PC's full ability to deliver performance to the user.

Of course this will all change once AMD releases the Thunderbird, but for now the boys at Intel can point and laugh at AMD's L2 cache all they want.

Cons

Price: It seems like every time we review a high speed processor, we place performance in the "Pros" section and price in the "Cons" section.

We love performance, but we hate paying for it. According to the Intel press release, "[t]he Pentium III processor at 933 MHz is available now in SECC2 and FC-PGA packaging and is priced at $744 in 1,000-unit quantities."

Prices for the end user should fall into the $800 range shortly, but that's still asking a lot especially when you have $575 processors that can overclock to the 950MHz level.

Overclocking: It looks like the P3 Coppermine tops out near the 1GHz mark. That doesn't leave much room for the 933. Once you grow accustomed to getting a certain amount of performance "for free" it's hard to go back.

Once a store starts having sales, people will only shop there when there's a sale.