AMD AthlonXP 2700+ 333FSB CPU - Conclusion
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3DMARK2001SE
3DMARK2001SE was run using the default settings (1024x768) for the benchmark, default clock settings on the 9700, and high performance settings for the drivers. Just by increasing the FSB gave us a nice 500 point boost in the score. Compare your system: 15352 & 15807
SiSOFT SANDRA CPU ARITHMETIC
As we can see, the 2700+ does quite well in the SANDRA benchmarks. Running at the default speed, the closest competition is the Intel 2.8 B CPU. As the speed increases, so does the performance margin.
SiSOFT SANDRA CPU MULTIMEDIA
This time at default speeds, the 2700+ is between the Intel 2.8 and the 2.6, let's say 2.7? With no support for SSE2, the 2700+ gets spanked. Again as the speed increases the scores reflect the extra bandwidth.
SiSOFT SANDRA MEMORY
With the 2700+ running at 333FSB default, you get to take advantage of running your memory synced with the CPU bus. When the FSB is increased, we see a nice jump in performance alongside the CPU performance.
PiFAST
PiFAST is an easy-to-use package written by Xavier Gourdon to compute p with a very large number of digits. Here you can see the computation timings available. The test was run using the Chudnovsky method, FFT size of 1024, and the standard mode with no disk memory. Results are in seconds and lower is better.
QUAKE III
What's a review these days with out the trusty Q3 benchmark? The benchmark was ran with the 'Normal' settings in Quake with the 1.32 patch in demo Four.DM_68. As you can see the 2700+ is simply eating up Q3 at the default settings, and shows a nice increase with the additional speed.
[H]ARDOCP UT23K BENCHMARK
The [H]ardOCP UT2K3 Benchmark Utility is a godsend, as far as benchmarking UT2k3 on a level playing field. Make sure you check out Brent's article on the creation and specifics on the utility. Again, the 2700+ performs admirably at the default settings, and scales with the increase in speed.
Final Overclocking: Well Speed did it over on the Intel side with the 2.4B article, so I have to stick up for the AMD side. While the highest stable overclock was only 185 FSB to complete every benchmark, I have been able to push the 2700+ to 200*12.5 (and spank Speed's 2.4B in the process) with water cooling. With the water cooling, with an average ambient temp of 23°C (73°F), temps on the 2700+ are 33°C (91°F) idle and 38°C (100°F) under full load overclocked. Withhe combined reduction in output wattage, and the watercooling setup, the XP Tbred is still running cool...
Not too bad, and the system is stable enough for day to day usage with Folding@Home for Dev Hardware running, but I think there is still some more in there. Anything over 200 FSB on this AT7 MAX2 gives me corrupted HDD's and a date with Norton Ghost.
Conclusion: It looks as if AMD is still squeezing every last bit of performance it can out of the XP series, and they still have some headroom left until they release the next line of CPU's. While AMD is still chasing Intel on the MHz front, they are still in the running with the performance of their CPU's. In case anyone has forgotten, clock for clock, the AMD XP's execute more IPC (instructions per clock cycle) than their competitors *cough* Intel *cough* (AMD's execute 9 instructions per clock cycle to Intel's 6). With the 2700+ running on the 333 FSB (166x2) by default, it's a nice starting block for performance instead of working up from 266 FSB (133x2) and having to sacrifice turning down the multiplier to acheive +166 on the FSB. While researching for this review, it is not an uncommon sight to see the 2700+'s pushed upwards and beyond 200+ FSB. So to see the performance we achieved with this chip, to know there's more out there is VERY promising.
The combination of pure clock speed, in conjunction with the IPC power of the XP's the 2700+ equals one BAD CPU. While $350 may be a little hard to part with, the 2700+ is well worth the money if screaming performance is a must for you. There seems to be some room to left to play with that will keep even the most tight fisted user tossing and turning at night dreaming of the 2700+. With the 2700+ now widely available, and the 2800+ starting to trickle in, it will be nice to see where the end of the line will be for the XP CPU's. With the impending launch of the Hammer CPU, it seems as if AMD is keeping us happy with the XP line just a bit longer. The XP 2700+ is well deserving of the Dev Hardware "Editors Choice" stamp of approval.
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