Socket-A Chipset Comparison - April 2001

The performance in the Data Explorer viewset is largely FPU dependent, however the dataset being worked with isn't large enough to truly penalize non-DDR solutions.  This makes it easier to understand why the Athlon has historically performed so well in this test but since the performance standings remain the same we won't waste too much time diving any deeper here.

The Lightscape visualization test is relatively unique since it separates itself from the rest of the viewperf suite in its interesting lighting calculations.  There is a slight bias here towards higher bandwidth memory solutions although it isn't large enough for the DDR solutions to truly take the lead over the PC133 offerings. 

The performance picture returns to what we have been used two with these last two viewsets.  For more information on what these two particular tests are doing, take a look at SPEC's documentation here.  However for those of you that are actually concerned with MCAD and CDRS performance, you will definitely know what these benchmarks mean to you.