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HARDWARE REVIEW

Occasionally our members will review and/or compare various pieces of hardware which we will post to the PAUG Web Site on this page. Click on thumbnail images to view a larger image. Click on your back button on your browser to return to this page.

The opinions and views of these reviews are that of the writer/reviewer and do not necessarily reflect the views of the Professional AutoCAD Users Group, PAUG, and or its members.

 

Pentium Pro 200 vs. AMD K6 200 - By David V. Sherrill

If you jumped right to this article instead of reading this issue from front to back, you need to know that I received the AMD K6 200 processor at 4:00 p.m. yesterday and today is the day Blipmodes must go to the printer. It took me till 8:00 p.m. to configure the computer and straighten up all the IRQ and Memory Address conflicts. Isn’t Windows 95 fun to set up when all your IRQs are filled and you have 2 legacy devices and the rest are plug and play? I was hoping to get a couple of weeks in on the AMD K6 to report on stability and software compatibility but the will have to wait till later. If I find any major problems I will post them on the PAUG Web Site (http://www.paug.org) and pass them along to the new editors for them to publish in the August issue of Blipmodes.

Before getting into the comparison tests I would like to thank some of the other people that made this test and article possible. First, I would like to thank Steve Hill of DP Couture for finding me a motherboard that would support the AMD K6 processor. Second, I would like to thank Richard Huddleston, JR. of Details-Details-Details for running the performance test on the Pentium Pro 200 under Windows NT. Third, I would like to thank Doug Selby of Douglas A. Selby Architects for allowing me to run the performance tests on his Pentium Pro 200 under Windows 95. Fourth, I would like to thank Steve Lack at Westwood Microsystems for getting me the special CPU cooling fan for the AMD K6 (a melt down during the test would not have been very good). Fifth and last, I would like to thank Scott and FAI Electronics in Salt Lake City for moving me ahead on the list in order to get the AMD K6 processor in time (just in time) for this article.

Time to get down to it. Because of our limited resources you must keep in mind that the computers used had different motherboard manufacturers, video cards and hard drives. All of these could affect the performance tests so keep this in mind. But, all computers had 64MB of ram and 512KB of cache memory with 4MB PCI video cards that should keep the test fair.

Test Computer Configurations:

All three computers had mode 4 IDE hard drives, 512KB cache, 64MB ram and 4MB PCI video cards. Running AutoCAD R13c4 except AMD R14 which shows the speed advantages of AutoCAD R14. Street price is approximate bare bones (processor, CPU fan, case, power supply and motherboard).

Pentium Pro 200 with Windows NT Operating System (Pro 200 NT):

~ Street Price $1200.00
CPU Speed: 200Mhz
OS: Microsoft Windows NT 4.0
Video: glint S3 chip, 4MB vram, open GL
800x600 resolution (will speed up regens and redraws)

Pentium Pro 200 with Windows 95 Operating System (Pro 200 95):

~ Street Price $1200.00
CPU Speed: 200Mhz
OS: Microsoft Windows 95b
Video: Appian Graphics JCAD, 4MB rambius ram
1280x1024 resolution

AMD K6 200 with Windows 95 Operating System (AMD R13):

~ Street Price $700.00
CPU Speed: 200Mhz
OS: Microsoft Windows 95b
Video: Number Nine GXE64 Pro, 4MB vram
1280x1024 resolution

AMD K6 200 with Windows 95 Operating System (AMD R14):

~ Street Price $700.00
CPU Speed: 200Mhz
OS: Microsoft Windows 95b
Video: Number Nine GXE64 Pro, 4MB vram
1280x1024 resolution

Testing Procedure for My Scripts:

Note: These scripts require timing with a stopwatch. They are rather crude but test computers the way I work with AutoCAD. I run these tests on the SEXTANT.DWG sample drawing supplied with AutoCAD.

Timetest.scr:

  1. Open the SEXTANT.DWG file
  2. Configure render with settings shown in figure .
  3. Wblock any item to your default directory with the name test (the script will create a block of the sextant.dwg with the name test.dwg and will overwrite it).
  4. Run TIMETEST.SCR once to make sure everything is working. Note: You will have to enter a return manually the instant the render dialogue box is visible.
  5. If test is run works then reboot your computer.
  6. Open AutoCAD
  7. Open SEXTANT.DWG
  8. Enter SCRIPT at the command line.
  9. Locate TIMETEST.SCR (Start timing at same time you run script)
  10. Repeat 2 more times in a row.
  11. Calculate average time.

[Timetest Render Settings Image]

Testrege.scr: This script runs the REGEN command 10 times.

  1. Reboot your computer
  2. Open AutoCAD
  3. Open SEXTANT.DWG
  4. Enter SCRIPT at the command line.
  5. Locate TESTREGE.SCR (Start timing at same time you run script)
  6. Repeat 2 more times in a row.
  7. Calculate average time.

Testing Procedure for CADMARK 6.0d: Cadmark is CADENCE Magazine’s AutoCAD benchmark it is available from their site on the Internet at http://www.cadence-mag.com/code/ .

  1. Reboot your computer
  2. Open AutoCAD
  3. Open CADMARK.DWG
  4. Set Cadmark dialogue box to settings shown in Figure 2. (Iterations were set to 1 for this test.
  5. Times are recorded in a file called CADMARK.LOG in your AutoCAD start up directory.

[CADMark Test Settings Image]

The Results:

CADMark v6.0d AutoCAD Performance Test

Test Result Graphs
Timetest.scr Testrege.scr CADMark v6.0d
[Timetest Graph] [Testrege Graph] [CADMark v6.0d Graph]

Conclusion:

After examining the data I would have to conclude that the Pentium Pro 200 has a slight performance advantage over the AMD K6 200 (about 10%) with Windows NT having a very small advantage over Windows 95 (about 3%). But remember that Windows 95 does a much better job running Windows 3.1 and DOS software than NT and still more device drivers are available for Windows 95.

Considering the price advantage of $500.00 the AMD K6 200 has over the Pentium Pro 200 I think I spent my money wisely, as long as the AMD K6 proves not to have any compatibility problems. I would recommend that if you are going to purchase a high end CAD station and would like to save some cash in the process take a good look at Intel’s first serious challenge in the high end x86 processor market.

As a word of note, AMD K6 233 should be available to the general market in the next couple of weeks. I would expect the 233Mhz version to match or beat the Pentium Pro 200. The street price for a bare bones system should be around $850.00. Also in September-October AMD plans on releasing a K6 266Mhz and a 300Mhz should be available around January. As a word of advice to Intel "You had better watch your competition closely".

Updates - Long Term Experiences with the AMD K6 200Mhz Processor:

6-19-97:

After using the AMD K6 200 for the past couple weeks as my main CAD/Graphics production computer I have had a few problems. But, fortunately these problems are not related to the K6. The problems I was having were related to Office 97 and a 3Com 32 bit PCI net work card. I was getting general protection faults (GPFs) on start up. I determined that my GPFs were related to my 3Com 32 bit PCI network card a 3C900 combo. After calling 3Com , their solution was to run the network card (3C900 Combo) in 16 bit protected mode or remove Office 97 (a rare random problem they were having with their cards and Office 97 installations). I chose to run the network card in 16 bit mode. That's when the totally random computer lock up problems started. I then decided to remove Office 97 and reinstall it one component at a time to determine which component of Office 97 was causing the GPFs at start up. To my surprise, after reinstalling each compontent of Office 97 ever thing started working right. Including running the network card in 32 bit mode. Office 97 must have registered something incorrectly on the first install. I am leaning toward recommending the K6 processor but will give it a little more time. For your information here is a list of software I am running on the AMD K6 200.

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Revised: Wednesday, 30. November 2005.