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Intel Pentium III vs. AMD K6-III
By
Ayman Nawash
It was Tuesday and only my second day on the job. Excited and ready to go for a good day's work, I ran into my boss as I was walking into my office. After exchanging pleasantries, he asked me to tell him what kinds of computers are best for a small office. I gave him about three or four names with a brief description for each of them. Being somewhat of a computer novice, I was pretty pleased with my performance. Then my boss asks, "What is the difference between Pentium III and AMD K-6?" After a dumbfounded pause of about a minute, my boss looked at me and said, "Study it and give me a report in the morning." "A report!" I thought. Couldn't he have just asked me for a brief description and a big smile? Being that it was only my second day at my new job and unproven in my ability, I immediately planted myself in my chair and studied the issue. After long hours of reading big computer words and letters that no one uses like z and q, I found out that there are quite a few differences between the Pentium III and the K6-III. I weeded out the differences between the two and here is what I found out.
First, let's start off with the basics. On one hand, we have Advanced Micro Devices, an upstart company also known as AMD. On the left hand, we have the established and powerful Intel. These two computer processor makers are battling with each other to decide two things. First, which company has the better processor? Second, which company will control the processor chip market? According to financial and business reports of the past year, AMD has accounted for 49% percent of desktop computer sales, surpassing Intel's 40.3 percent. The reason for AMDs fast growing success has been due to its presence in computers that sell for under $1000. After AMD established itself with its K6-II processor as one of the leading competitors in the computer industry, Intel introduced the Pentium III. For a short time, Intel regained some of its old status back but then AMD countered and developed the K6-III processor and competition between the two revived itself. Tested by nearly every computer watchdog in the United States, the fastest K6-III PC performed as well as the Pentium III with higher clock speeds. For example, the fastest K6-III 400 Mghz like a Pentium III 450. Similarly enough, it turned out that the fastest K6-III 450 performed like a Pentium III 500. In case you are confused, lets say that you are testing two cars that you are interested in buying. One car, which was a Corvette (AMD), rode at 100 mph but actually read 80 mph on the speedometer. The other car, which was a Porsche (Intel), read 100mph on the speedometer and rode at 100mph on the road. For the majority of us, we have a tendency to be fascinated by lots of different colors and high tech graphics. Unfortunately for AMD, its K6-III showed a great inability to recognize graphics (where it matters most) was a major disappointment. The Pentium III was far more superior in performance by almost 50%. It handles better at start up (after one turns on the computer) and in many other areas. Another surprise was that the K6-III froze more often than it needed to when it came to trying to do more than one task at the same time. The upside with the AMD K-6 III was its superior performance with business applications by showing good handling and consistent clock speeds. However, lets face it. There aren't many applications that do not use a lot of graphics. The Pentium III lived up to its billing in the graphics area with good timing and consistent clock speeds. When tested to see time variations for when graphic applications opened up, it showed good timing and consistent clock speeds. Also, another downfall to the AMD K-6 III processor is that it sometimes shows an inability to recognize certain software applications. The kind of software that deals with mainly picture manipulation, etc. In conclusion, these two processors are both good products. The way that most of the computer experts look at it is like this: What does the AMD processor have that the Intel Pentium III doesn't already have. Most of them see the Pentium III as the standard for processors. Although it has a few flaws, the K6-III is a good processor. If you are the type of person that is looking to do menial tasks like word processing, Internet, and a few games, then the K6-III processor is for you. If you are not the average user and is into high tech graphic games, fancy photo applications, and big data storage, the Pentium III is your best bet. In a few months, AMD will introduce the K 7, a chip that will most likely be the equivalent to the Pentium III. You probably saying, "Here we go again!" but such a move will be the best for us, the consumers. The more that the competitive these companies get, the better the product will be, and most of all, the cheaper it will become. 
links Intel homepage AMD Homepage The competitors of Intel AMD K6-III overview Intel adds even faster Pentium 3 |
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