Date: Wed, 13 May 1998 19:41:01 +0930 From: Greg Lehey <grog@lemis.com> To: perl <perl@netmug.org>, questions@FreeBSD.ORG Subject: Re: AMD K6 with FreeBSD??? Message-ID: <19980513194101.N20153@freebie.lemis.com> In-Reply-To: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980513012606.21308A-100000@netmug.org>; from perl on Wed, May 13, 1998 at 01:29:34AM -0700 References: <Pine.BSF.3.96.980513012606.21308A-100000@netmug.org>
next in thread | previous in thread | raw e-mail | index | archive | help
On Wed, 13 May 1998 at 1:29:34 -0700, perl wrote: > Hi > > I'm considering purchasing an AMD K6 233 and was wondering if it would > work fine with FreeBSD. I see some stuff in the LINT kernel about Cyrix > chips but nothing about AMD. > > Is there anything I should know about AMD processors vs. Intel ones? > Is there any noticeable difference other than the price? I'm running a K6/233. It runs fine, but it took me over a month to find a big enough cooler. Without that, it would fall over whenever it had to do something CPU intensive. If you can find one, the K6/266 is a different die and only dissipates about a quarter as much power as the /233. Depending on the temperatures down your way, this might be a better alternative. Note that I have had absolutely no trouble since installing a big enough fan, though. > Someone mentioned something about a 64MB RAM limit. Is this true? Like all i386 family processors, the K6 can address 4 GB main memory. The problem you've heard of is problably that the current Intel chipset for Socket 7 (the old style Pentium socket) can only cache 64 MB. From a message I sent about 2 months ago: The German magazine c't, which I personally greatly respect, did a test of a number of motherboards which can cache more than 64 MB in their issue 4/98. The chipsets tested were: Intel 430TX Ali Aladdin IV+ VIA Apollo VP2 SiS 5582 Intel 430HX VIA Apollo VPX The order is the order of speed in c't's BAPCo benchmark (which, unfortunately, is stronly Microsoft-oriented) with 64 MB main memory (430TX is the fastest, with a rating of 225, compared to 221 for teh Aladdin and the VP2). With increasing memory, the TX performance drops, while the performance of the other chip sets increases. At 72 MB, the TX drops below Aladdin and VP2, at 96 MB (!) below the HX, and by 128 MB, it's down to 204, compared to 227 for the Aladdin (which by this time has left the VP2 behind). All reports say that the cache limit is particularly hard on Microsoft due to its brain-damaged memory allocation; I can't verify this, but I'm prepared to believe it. That would mean that the drop under FreeBSD would be less. I'm currently running a TX board with 96 MB, and while I'm trying to replace it, I can't say that "my performance sucks". I've now got an SiS-based AGP motherboard, which I'm burning in with a P5/133. So far it works fine, so when I have time I'll put it in the other machine and see how it runs with the K6. Greg -- See complete headers for address and phone numbers finger grog@lemis.com for PGP public key To Unsubscribe: send mail to majordomo@FreeBSD.org with "unsubscribe freebsd-questions" in the body of the message
Want to link to this message? Use this URL: <https://mail-archive.FreeBSD.org/cgi/mid.cgi?19980513194101.N20153>