Welcome back Socket-7 users to the continued search for more power to charge your aging socket-7/SS7 system with. In this article I will be covering three topics:
So sit back and enjoy as we continue the pursuit for faster frame rates and higher memory throughput on the platform that refuses to die. The K6-X series of processors have never really been taken seriously as a choice for the hardcore gamer. The K6 was plagued with a 66MHz Front Side Bus and a 66MHz L2 cache, The K6-2 added 3DNow!
Instructions that made the K6-2 the choice budget Quake 2 rig. Unfortunately, 3DNow! was not implemented as well on most other games and a series of hacked patches and drivers kept K6-2 users searching for ways to improve performance at the game and driver level.
The K6-III boasted 256K of full speed on die L2 cache, which made up for the K6-X's anemic floating-point unit, but the K6-III suffered production problems and would not ramp well. AMD only officially released the K6-III in speed grades of 400MHz and 450MHz for the desktop which retailed at over twice the price of similar clocked K6-2 Processors. OEMs chose the K6-2 over the K6-III in order to keep cost down regardless of performance.
Enter the K6-2+. AMD dropped the K6-III line earlier this year in favor of targeting the mobile market with the K62+/III+ processors. By shrinking the 0.
25-micron die down to 0.18-micron the K6-2+ was able to run at higher clock speeds with minimal cooling. The K6-2+ ranges from 500MHz to 550Mhz with a 600MHz model to launch shortly.
With 128K of full speed on die cache and added 3DNow! Instructions, the K6-2+ makes for a quite powerful mobile CPU. In the midst of the launch of the K6-2+/III+ many motherboard manufacturers were lead to believe that the K6-2+/III+ series would indeed make their way to the desktop market.
Identification for the + line of processors were added to many motherboards through BIOS updates. Unfortunately, there is a wealth of motherboards that will never officially support the K6-2+, which brings us to the methods of unlocking the potential of an otherwise mediocre chip. The K6-2+ has the ability to be a very powerful CPU.
Unfortunately without proper hardware support the K6-2+ can run as slowly as a 486. The best known optimization for the K62+ is Write Allocation, this can add up to a 30% increase in Direct3D performance as well as memory throughput. The majority of SS7 motherboards support this feature, however, they will only enable it if the CPU is detected properly.
I encourage everyone to first find the latest BIOS for their motherboard to see if the BIOS reports a "K6-2+." If this is the case, you are halfway there. SiSoft Sandra can be used to determine whether or not write allocation is enabled, Check under the CPU BIOS properties from Sandra and look at Extended CPU Features.
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