April 9 - 16, 1999
Archive

By going with a Celeron 466, you are ensuring that you are getting the best possible core from the Celeron production line. While most Celeron 300a will do 450 Mhz, getting to 504 Mhz or 527 Mhz requires some major cooling system and even  then it may not do it. With just a stock heatsink fan, our Celeron 466 was running rock stable at 525 Mhz.

 

We spoke with Parth Shukla, Product Manager at Guillemot (North America), who gave us an update on their NVIDIA Ultra TNT2 and TNT2 based products. The Ultra TNT2 based Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 MB will be clocked at 150MHz (graphics clock) and 183MHz (memory) but interestingly enough, the part will ship with a heat sink/cooling fan combo which would provide gamers interested in overclocking with the opportunity to do so. The TNT2 based Xentor 16MB should be appearing in stores at the very end of April, while the Ultra TNT2 based Maxi Gamer Xentor 32 MB is expected on store shelves by the 10th of May. This delivery schedule could well put to rest Sharky Extreme's speculation (Creative Shines a Light on that Mud) that the Ultra TNT2 based products may suffer from the same types of delays as the Voodoo3 3500.

 

I noticed over at Voodoo eXtreme that Gary Peterson has just released a new version of his Voodoo3 overclocking tab.  Here is the info and a link to download:

Since it's been announced that the Voodoo3 drivers currently shipping on the CD have a bug that doesn't correctly enable the high-quality 22-bit output for Glide I've added two check boxes to the Voodoo3 Overclocker that will allow you to turn on/off the high-quality 22-bit output for both Glide and Direct3D. This will allow users to enjoy the improved output of the Voodoo3 in this mode.

• Voodoo3 Overclocker (Win9X - version 1.2 - 100 KB)

 

In other TNT2 related news, Riva128.com has posted a short preview to Leadtek's S320 II TNT2 card.  They are supposedly receiving a 32MB SGRAM board too which could potentially one of the fastest TNT2 boards. Very Interesting, check it out here.

Gamespot UK has posted their preview of nVidia's Ultra TNT2 chip.  Check out this tasty bit:

Quake II looked mouth-wateringly good in the top 1600x1200 resolution, with sharply contoured figures, well-shaded backdrops and moody lighting adding to the smoothly bitmapped carnage being fired from our rocket launcher. Explosions were rendered much faster and there was none of the jerkiness associated with slower cards - an absence which makes shooting your way out of alien-infested corners without missing your targets that much easier to achieve.

 

I thought that the VMP 502 was a decent monitor with a great price tag.  This monitor offers all of the features you could want, but falls just ever so slightly short in the performance department.  Perhaps I just got too used to the flat screen and .25 dot pitch of the VMP 450, because I thought the .28 dot pitch was somewhat lackluster on the larger model.

For the price and the features, we applaud the iiyama Vision Master Pro 502.  BNC connectors and great on-screen controls were certainly pluses on our scale.  Still, those features were not enough to win our hearts or our gold crown.

 

• PowerStrip (Win9X/NT - version 2.41.04 - 653 KB)

 

These scores show even better the improvement that the Tri-Level cache design offers, with the first person and race scores showing a 30% improvement in the K6-3 scores over the K6-2, and the CPU geometry speed showing excellent performance. What's most remarkable is how the K6-2 and K6-3's CPU geometry speed is way above the P2-450's speed. This shows how much potential lies within the 3D NOW! architecture. Couple that with the lead in developer relations that the 3D NOW! instruction set has over the KNI (P3) instruction set and it's easy to see that the K6-2, and especially the K6-3, is a more than viable option for your next processor upgrade. Better performance and significantly lower cost. That's a hard combination to beat!

• Voodoo3 High Quality Filter Fix (16 KB)

 

The 810 rather mysteriously supports both 66MHz and 100MHz front side bus speeds – Celeron isn’t due to move on up to 100MHz FSB until early 2000 and there’s still a 100MHz/66MHz FSB Celeron due out later in the year.

Intel has denied that the 810 will be able to support Pentium II processors so it’s not easy to see exactly why 100MHz is on offer right now, unless there’s a Socket 370 Coppermine waiting in the wings (something Intel’s Paul Otellini has denied).

The 466MHz part will be priced around $170 in 1,000 unit quantities, the lesser Celerons having their price tags chopped in readiness earlier this week.

The 810 can support up to 512Mb of SDRAM and uses Dynamic Video Memory for graphics.

 

If you're a serious gamer, than the Voodoo3 2000 is most likely not for you. With the lack of TV-out and no game bundle (only a demo bundle included with the 2K), the 2000 model should be perfect for a home system, where people use it for work, and do gaming on the side, not the other way around. Serious gamers should look to the V3 3000, who should give them the performance that gamers are craving for. Even being the lowest Voodoo3 out there, it's cheaper than most TNT's ($129 ESP for 2000 model), and will offer you faster speeds, especially at higher resolutions (1024x768+). Rumor has it that 3dfx already has a 32-bit voodoo chipset in their testing labs, nothing confirmed as of yet. One things for sure, 3dfx has some of the best engineers in the industry, I wouldn't doubt their abilities for one second.

 

• Voodoo3 Overclocker (Win9X - 101 KB)
• ICQ 99a (Win9X/NT - version 2.15 build 1701 - 4.1 MB)

 

Even with its strikingly similar core design to the standard Pentium III, the P3 Xeon manages to eke out the best performance on all of our benchmark tests. Note that none of the results were blowouts, the greater amount or faster speed of the Xeon's L2 cache allow it to surpass the identically-clocked Pentium III. The P3 was able to hold its ground, and even the P2-450 had its moments, as long as the tests didn't specify SSE support.

 

The Sony GDM 500-PS is a solid monitor no matter how you slice it.  It gives an above average picture some extra features, and wraps it all up with Sony brand quality and support.  While not the best monitor we looked at, the margin was certainly trimmed back a bit when we took this one in for testing.

 

As expected, the Deskstar 22GXP delivers bleeding-edge performance. Its performance, however, seems remarkably similar to that delivered by the WD Expert. WinBench 99 Business Disk WinMark tests yield close results. The IBM drive outpaces the Expert by about 3% in the Windows 95. The matchup flip-flops in the High-End WinMark, though, where the Deskstar slipped behind by 4%. The similarities tighten up even more when it comes to NT: In both the Business and the High-End Disk WinMarks, the IBM drive leads by an all-but-undetectable 1%-2%. A look at the individual High-End WinMark tests also yields a very tight correlation between the two drives, with one notable anomaly: in WinBench 99's Adobe Premiere 4.2 disk access test under Windows 95, the 22GXP fell behind the Expert by 17%.

 

• MSaudio 4.0 (WMA) input/output support
• Generic PCM EQ that works on most formats (WAV/XM/MOD/IT/VQF/AAC/etc)
• Minibrowser improvements
• Fixed vis/dsp plug-in directory bugs
• Fixed de-registration problem.
• Fixed CDDA support
• Fixed a few small bugs

• Winamp (Win9X/NT - version 2.11 - 608 KB)

I just picked up a carload of the new Voodoo3 3000's; we've put them to good use, as the team is now testing the upcoming 224 patch.

The performance and graphical quality of the Voodoo3 are simply amazing.   Though we've had a board for over a month, beta drivers and pre-release board problems prevented us from realizing just how far ahead of the pack this hardware is.

On the PC, most technological improvements come in little incremental improvements, such that we seldom have a chance to experience a single major leap.   Back when 3dfx introduced the Voodoo 1, that was one of those rare leaps.   Since I've been off working on "OpenGL land" on the Riva TNT, ATI Rage 128, and other accelerators, I haven't had a 3dfx card in my machine since soon after Unreal shipped.  So, for me at least, getting a Voodoo3 and being able to play at those ultra high resolutions at a great frame rate, is another one of those leaps.

While the Voodoo3's fill rate is outstandling, where the card really clobbers all others is its texture management performance.  This is a very important characteristic, because it determines how smooth the performance is from frame-to-frame.    Unreal, though it shipped nearly a year ago, still pushes texture limits harder than other 3D action games, and Unreal Tournament pushes them even harder. 

Unreal 224 performance is also being helped by some new lighting optimizations, and a major new engine feature, which Erik de Neve (Unreal optimization and algorithmic texture guru) has been working on.  But I'm not allowed to talk about that since Mark Rein is writing a press release about it now.

Note: Unreal 220 is incompatible with Voodoo3's due to some changes that were made to Glide; people who have Voodoo3 2000's will need the upcoming 224 patch. 

-Tim Sweeney

 

There is good and bad in the Voodoo3 3000. It's the fastest card currently available and still offers Glide compatibility. On the other hand, many users want features like 32bit color, support for high-res textures, or 32MB of memory. For them, waiting only a month or two will give them high-speed alternatives that may be more satisfying.

• Tweak3D Hard Drive Tweak Guide
• Tweak3D Modem Tweak Guide

 

DUANE: The issue of image quality is one of the most debated topics concerning these two chips. We found the image quality on BOTH chips to be EXCELLENT, and trend setting. Gone from the Voodoo of the past are the distorted images or "banding" that occurred. I was pleasantly surprised by the Voodoo3 in both it's OpenGL, and D3D image quality. There are absolutely no complaints from me whatsoever. The TNT2 was, of course, top notch as well. It would take a VERY discerning eyeball to see the difference between the TNT2 and V3, even if you are running the TNT2 in 32bit color rendering mode.  Check out our screen shots we posted of these two cards.

HEINRICH: We could not believe the quality of the V3's picture. I had expected the TnT2 to be head-and-shoulders ahead, with its 32MB of memory as opposed to the V3's 16MB, its ability to render 32-bit color where the V3 can only handle 16-bit, and most importantly the TnT2's ability to handle 2048x2048 textures while the V3 lags at 256x256. I was wrong. I've looked at screenshots at all resolutions. We compared these babies side-by-side. I've even looked at Sharky's posted grafts of V3 on top of TnT2. And I can't tell the difference.

 

• Gigabyte BX2000 Slot-1 Motherboard Review
• Cosair Micron PC133 SDRAM Review

On desktops, the 500-MHz Pentium III and 450-MHz Pentium III, introduced about one-and-a-half months ago, will drop to around $635 and $412, respectively.

The 450-MHz Pentium II will drop from around $476 to $397, while the 400-MHz version of the chip will fall from $284 to $237. The 350-MHz Pentium II will decline to $164. The Celerons will be cut as follows: The 433-MHz version will drop to $144; the 400-MHz chip will go to $103 and the 350-MHz chip will drop to $72.

AMD will make similar cuts. The 450-MHz K6-III will drop to $397 and the 400-MHz version of the chip will decline to $237. The recently released 475-MHz K6-2 will sell for $213 while the 450-MHz model will fall to $158. The 400-MHz version will sell for $103, and the 350-MHz chip will be priced at $68.

 

COLUMBIA, SC, April 12, 1999 /PRNewswire/ -- KryoTech, Inc. today announced volume production and immediate availability of a 600MHz PC based on the new AMD-K6® -2/475 processor with 3DNow!™ technology. KryoTech’s –40C cooling system enables the AMD-K6-2/475 processor to run at the thermally-accelerated speed of 600MHz. KryoTech is selling the machine in a basic configuration with processor, motherboard, power supply, computer case and integrated cooling system for $1,150 (US retail). The Cool K6™ -2/600 can be purchased online at the KryoStore (http://www.kryotech.com) or through the growing worldwide network of KryoTech Authorized Resellers.

 

• Voodoo3 Overclocker Tab

 

I decided to combine this section for one reason, installation was as easy as one, two, and three. I removed the drive from the package, connected the power and ribbon cables and just did a simple reboot. Upon reboot my BIOS imeadiatley detected the drive. Afterwards I did a basic FAT 32 file system format and I was ready to roll. Right away I noticed two basic things about this drive. I noticed it was amazingly quick for a 5400RPM drive as well as virtually silent. I was loading programs and not hearing the drive spin! I currently have 4 gigs of data on this drive and it's still silent. Does that mean this drive is a nice performer? In this case yes, lets take a look at some benchmarks.

 

For the most part, I don't think that this is really a gamer's piece of equipment. If you needed to have the fastest single processor file server available, then this would be it. Problematically a dual Pentium II 350 processor system would be cheaper and faster for that task in operating systems that support multiple processors. For both business and gaming purposes I feel that the same holds true, that this level of performance is reachable through other means, at a lower price. I honestly must say that for gamers, I can't think of any benefit of buying this system vs buying one of Kryotech's own Renegade cases, and running a Celeron 300a at 450mhz or higher.

 

• CPUIdle (Win9X - version 5.5 Beta 3 - 1.0 MB)
• Motherboard Monitor 4.02 (Win9X - 4.02 - 1.1 MB)

You can find the CPUIdle home page here, and the Motherboard Monitor home page here.

Despite a single pipeline, PowerVR 250's performance should rival dual textured accelerators, especially in games with a depth complexity equal to or greater than two. Because less cycles are used up in Z-buffer clears, it is also expected to have a high fillrate efficiency. While polygon based accelerators have progressed to a 128-bit memory interface, PowerVR 250's low memory bandwidth architecture allows it to retain a 64-bit interface. There are plans to bolster performance with Rambus DRAM and Virtual Channel Memory DRAM to increase memory bandwidth and reduce DRAM latency, rather than widening memory bus. When it comes to full scene anti-aliasing, PowerVR 250 will have a significant performance edge over other accelerators. In addition, it also offers hardware dot product bump mapping and modifier volumes. Manufacturing has been Videologic's achilles tendon. Hopefully, that will ease when ST Micro assists VideoLogic in fabbing the forthcoming “Series 3” parts, slated for later this year.

 

MURC has posted a new unfied driver for G100/G200 based cards (including the marvel) and unfied BIOS update for all Matrox cards.  Grab them below:

• Matrox Unified Driver (Win9X - version 4.33m - 1.7 MB)
• Matrox Unfiied BIOS (version 3.51 - 720 KB)

 

FullOn3D: ATI's Rage 128 32-bit rendering seems to suffer minimal performance loss compared to 16-bit. Will your next chip, the G400, perform at the same level?

Matrox: By our estimates the G400 should completely outperform the Rage128 in both 16 and 32-bit. That being said we will run faster in 16-bit than 32-bit but the performance drop will not be prohibitive.

FullOn3D: Which chips are you targeting the G400 against (TnT2, Voodoo3, Savage4)?

Matrox: The Matrox G400 Max is targeted to be the highest performance, most full featured graphics chip on the market bar none. Specifically, we expect the 3D rendering performance to be higher than all of the competitors you mentioned, plus we are pushing the envelope by integrating cutting edge new features like Environment Mapped Bump Mapping and DualHead Display.

 

• Slot-1 Motherboard Comparison (14 motherboards - BX/Apollo Pro chipsets)
• Socket 370 Motherboard Comparison (10 motherboards - BX/ZX chipsets)

 

ASUS P2B mainboard owners have now every reason to triumph since it is their victory day today! From now on they no longer need to get into their PC and to reset the jumpers in order to change FSB frequency and CPU clock multiplier. The thing is that these mainboards turned out to have SoftMenu - a part of BIOS Setup available, for example on ABIT mainboards, which allows to achieve the same effect - to change FSB frequency and CPU clock multiplier - by pressing a couple of buttons. However, this fantastic feature is blocked on ASUS mainboards. But one of our friends managed to develop a cool BIOS patch enabling this feature. You can download it from here and try it yourselves. Another pleasant surprise is that this patch seems likely to work on some other ASUS motherboards. By the way, did you know that the same thing could be done with a soldering iron if you follow the instructions of a Mr. H. Oda!? But now it is not worth your attention any more so don't waste your precious time and see the soft now! Good luck!

• ASUS P2B Softmenu patch

 

The TennMax ran my Windows desktop (with a few apps in the background) at 30ºC, or about 4ºC less than the OEM unit. The Glacier, despite its size, topped that figure by but one degree. However, cooling should never be measured by idle temperatures, and so I measured the CPU temperature after a half hour of looping the Quake2 Crusher and Massive1 demos. This time, the TennMax managed to keep the CPU down to 36ºC, or 9ºC cooler than the stock fan. Unfortunately for TennMax, it’s here that the Glacier’s size comes into play. My CPU was only 3 degrees hotter while working than it was while idle when the 4500C was attached to it, or a temperature of a paltry 32ºC after very heavy use. Any fan that can beat Intel’s already-decent stock unit by 13º is a winner in my books. If I could have fit the Ice Cap in there, I’m sure that temperature would be even lower.

 

To illustrate this point, let's investigate the operation of a system with a 500MHz processor coupled with 100MHz SDRAM. For the sake of simplicity, we will assume that the processor can execute an instruction every clock cycle, and the memory can transmit/receive data every clock cycle. We will also not consider other operations that the CPU may be required to handle. In this simplified example the CPU can handle 500 million instructions (and/or data) every second while the memory can only deliver 100 million per second. The end result is that 4 of every 5 CPU clock cycles are spent waiting for work. Even if the CPU does spend some time handling interrupts, controlling some I/O operations, etc. there is still an awful lot of time spent waiting for data.

 

Even though there's always something we can complain about, I have to give it to 3dfx for getting on stage with the fastest 2D/3D card to date. The incredible fill-rate guarantees top performance even in very high resolutions. The performance is about the same as that of a Voodoo II SLI combo, which has been the top performance solution for about a year now. Until S3, Matrox, Videologic and nVidia will come out with their new products, 3dfx holds the top spot. And even then we have to see if any of them can get past Voodoo 3...... A definite recommendation for anyone looking for the best 2D and 3D.

 

System:
Pentium III 500MHz
Intel SE440BX-2
128MB SDRAM PC100
Beta Drivers, no PIII or 3D Now! optimisations.

Software:
Windows 98 (4.10.1998)
DirectX 6.1 RT
3D Winbench99 v1.1
QuakeII v3.20
QuakeII CRUSHER.DM2 map

Quake is set with sync 'no' and 8-bit textures 'no.'

Benchmark:
Mode: timedemo 1
1024x768x16: 61.8 fps
800x600x16: 95.5 fps
640x480x16: 122.7 fps

Mode: crusher demo

1024x768x16: 51.1 fps
800x600x16: 55.0 fps

Benchmark: 3D Mark 99 Max
800x600x16: 4202

Benchmark: 3D WinBench 99
Refresh rate: 85MHz, Z depth 16, double buffered , front only
1024x768x16 807

I've also had a look at some other CPUs

QuakeII
demo1.dm2 crusher.dm2
Processor 3DWB99 640 1024 1024
---------------------------------------------------
Pentium III 450 793 115.2 61.6 48.5
Pentium II 450 750 113.7 62.1 48.3
Pentium II 400 728 99.7 57.9 45.0
Pentium II 350 697 95.9 60.9 41.0
Celeron 400A 620 92.3 60.5 41.9
---------------------------------------------------

The Actima 6X DVD-ROM drive can be picked up on the street for as low as $115, making it the cheapest DVD-ROM drive that I have seen. I have to admit that I was worried, after all cheap usually means that you are giving up performance or quality. Testing the drive put those worries to rest though, since it looks like the Actima drive is a true performer.

 

Now THIS is a Socket 7 Heatsink! It's pretty close to taking a Global VEK 12, cutting it in half and slapping on a Socket 7 clip. The CPM 12 is a real solid design, easy to mount and a great performer - From the rankings you can see it is just a tad below the top rated Celeron Slot 1 coolers. This is a far cry from the anemic ratings of some other Socket 7 coolers in the Cooler Database. It is rated at 36 watts so it can just about handle anything you can reasonably throw at it.

The best overall option, in terms of 2D image quality, 3D image quality, performance, and compatibility is the 3dfx Banshee.  Since it isn't a true AGP solution, you won't have any real problems with Super7 chipset incompatibilities, and the chipset happens to be very well rounded to the point that it should be able to offer you just about everything you need.  This is assuming that you don't have a previous video card, if you do, then the suggested course of action may be a Voodoo2 unless you're absolutely disgusted with the 2D performance/quality of your current video card.

 

G400 - 960 on 3D WinBench 99 at 1024 x 768 resolution.
G400 MAX - 1080 on 3D WinBench 99 at 1024 x 768 resolution.

Quake 2 running with an alpha Direct3D wrapper:

1600x1200x16 bpp : 22 fps
1600x1200x32 bpp : 15 fps

 

There has been a lot of debate on the net about Voodoo3 16Bit/22Bit Image Quality versus what the TNT2 can do in 32 Bit color. While 32 Bit may look slightly better in certain areas of gameplay, I was hard pressed to find fault with the Voodoo3's output. It was excellent and gone was the banding found in previous Voodoo images. For me Voodoo3's image quality was all that I expected it to be and more. It is great... You will not be disappointed.

Q: Should I Update My BIOS?

A: I would say to someone "on the fence" - if your machine is running OK and the updates are not offering anything you need, then NO you don't have to flash. But on the other hand - let's say (like the new BIOS update) you want to throw a PIII 500 into the BH6 - you can't unless you flash! I would suggest you look at the updates that are offered - if you are having issues such as crashes, IDE problems, wrong CPU naming, overclocking problems, etc - then YES a flash is needed!

 

In addition to having an impressive software bundle and being prettier than the competition, feature-wise this unit is the equal of the competition. The support for USB is the icing on the cake. Overall, you really can't go wrong with the Wingman Formula Force.

 

The FPS2000's come with 4 satellite speakers, with a set of stands for the rear speakers.  And it's obvious the drivers that were chosen to be placed in the satellites were chosen with extreme care, because these little babies crank to their hearts content.  By having 4 speakers around you, both in games and in music listening, you just can't help but become engrossed in the sound.  I sure hope that other speaker manufactures check into something called a clue, and start making surround speaker systems as well.  I set two on my desk, and setup the other two on the stands in the rear of the room.  The back of the sub has all the connections on it which include, a subwoofer volume control knob, the signal inputs, the remote volume plug in, and the 4 sets of speaker jacks to hook up the satellites.