Ballistics Report

Performance:
The Pentium III edges out the Pentium II in terms of flat out performance; however without any concrete KNI apps to test the benefits or validity of the new instruction set, we can only speculate what the end results will be. From our talks with software developers, the magic number is likely to fall in the 10-15% range.

The fact that our unit overclocked to 560Mhz without incident was a big plus, and a good sign for those wishing to get the most out of their money when they upgrade. On the other hand, those who want Pentium III's raw speed (without KNI instructions) at a fraction of the cost can consider an overclocked Celeron 366 instead.

Innovation:
KNI surely isn't the first SIMD-FP instruction set on the block - AMD beat them to it by over 6 months. However, Intel isn't used to being in the following position, and they're going to try and take back the lead with KNI which, on paper at least, looks like a surefire champion and a better implementation than 3DNow!. Again, without any KNI apps to test with, we'll have to wait and see how this one pans out.

Setup/Installation:
Nothing special is required outside of a standard BX board with support for a 5.0 x 100Mhz multiplier. Unfortunately, if you're planning on upgrading your overclocked Celeron or Pentium II, you'll probably need to download a new BIOS update in order to use the P3. That's nothing out of the ordinary, but it does require a little effort. Those uncomfortable with the idea might want to wait a few months for newer motherboards to trickle in.

Price:
(see: prices)
Intel has already indicated that the Pentium III 450 will sell for less than a 450Mhz Pentium II is going for now. With increasing competition in both the low-end and high-end sectors, the days of Intel's huge markups are drawing to a close. AMD has announced that the K7 will ship on June 23rd, giving Intel almost 4 months to rev up the Katmai and cement its foothold - something Intel will probably do by lowering margins even further. In the end, that's good for everyone.