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From: fourphun@bellsouth.net (Victor Healey)
Newsgroups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus,alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.supermicro,alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.tyan,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips
Subject: Cyrix 686+ Cpus seem to be  BAD NEWS
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 1996 13:14:54 -0400
Organization: 4-Phun
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I have been researching CYRIX 686+ as an alternative to the Intel Pentium 
133. The comparable Cyrix chip is the CYRIX 686 166+. What I have found 
is interesting. There are vendors who say the Cyrix chip is  slightly 
faster etc. contasted with many more vendors who are having reliability 
problems with the Cyrix! 

Benchmarks are impressive for the Cyrix.
Stability problems, even in Cyrix approved mainboards, seem to say the 
Cyrix CPU isn't for everyone. This is especially true if you have to 
support the darn thing after it is sold. 

I have also noticed that there is a fair amount of deceit and fraud among 
those marketing the Cyrix chip. The worst is that many vendors include 
the esential cooling fan while others immediately state that the fan is 
an extra cost item. Other forms of deceit are the vendors who price a 
plus chip close to but slight cheaper then the true Intel Pentium chip. 
ie A Cyrix 133 clock called a Cyrix 686 166+ will be priced slightly 
cheaper then an Intel P-166. The Cyrix 166+ chip is only better in specs 
when compared to a 133 Pentium. But not that much better! There is a 
price premium for the Cyrix ranging from about $50 to $100+ more then the 
same clock speed pentium.

You can verify this by using the web tool at
http://www.pricewatch.com/

Search - 133 Pentium CPU

Intel P133 Pentium P5 133MHz $239 Aberdeen (800) 552-6868
Intel P133 Pentium P5 133MHz $247 S.E.G. Technologies, Inc
Intel P133 Pentium P5 133MHz $249 Drive Outlet Center no.1

Search - 166+ Cyrix CPU

CYRIX Cyrix - 6x86 - P166+ 686 166MHz Plus (133MHz)                                                      
$285 Aten Research Inc.
CYRIX Cyrix - 6x86 - P166+ 686 166MHz Plus (133MHz)                                                      
$298 Arbor Systems
CYRIX Cyrix - 6x86 - P166+ 686 166MHz Plus (133MHz)                                                        
$319 Astra Computers Corp

Those were the three lowest prices in that data base a few minutes ago.
It tells me that a quote of $225 for the true Intel Pentium 133  is a 
very good street price from HIQ here in Atlanta GA. I think the quote on 
the CYRIX Cyrix - 6x86 - P166+ 686 166MHz Plus (133MHz) was $290. 

But what I notice in examining the data that of the so called fifty 
lowest prices for the CYRIX Cyrix - 6x86 - P166+ 686 166MHz Plus (133MHz) 
chip the spread was from a low of $285 to $667. Fully eleven of the 
lowest Cyrix prices were well over $400! for a 133MHZ clocked chip!

Now compare that with a true Intel Pentium running at 166 MHZ not 133 
MHZ. by

Search - 166 Intel CPU

First out of the fifty 'lowest' prices I see that the highest priced P-
166 is $625. Compare that to a 'low priced' Cyrix wannabe Pentium type  
166+ for $667. Next notice that most of the true Intel P-166 chips are in 
the $400 range for the CPU. A consumer who could not find a Cyrix chip 
dirt cheap is getting screwed because he can get a much more reliable 
Intel chip for only a few dollars more or maybe even a few dollars less!

Regarding talking with tech support a various vendors locally I found 
that the the Cyrix chip will often setup and appear to be working ok only 
to fail in a few weeks. Then there will be a mysterious dance of changing 
main board settings, adding cooling options etc. Each of these introduce 
a host of other problems in the system. As one poor fellow said it is a 
never ending nightmare!

In other video news groups I have noticed that the Cyrix 686 will not 
work with some advanced video cards no matter what kind of motherboard 
you install them in. Why?

You may draw your own conlusion.  IMHO the real world problems and 
potential problems of buying a clone CPU far out way any real benefits 
derived from choosing a Cyrix CPU at this time.
  
-- 
Victor Healey Sysop 4-Phun Net
Posted from the new 32 bit Gravity 1.0 Off-line Newsreader for Win 95-NT. 
http://www.microplanet.com/

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From: "Rob Eiben" <reiben@nrv.net>
Newsgroups: alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus,alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.supermicro,alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.tyan,comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.chips
Subject: Re: Cyrix 686+ Cpus seem to be  BAD NEWS
Date: 14 Aug 1996 18:04:50 GMT
Organization: Litton Poly-Scientific
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Victor Healey <fourphun@bellsouth.net> wrote in article
<MPLANET.32120984fourphun989684@news.atl.bellsouth.net>...
> I have been researching CYRIX 686+ as an alternative to the Intel Pentium

> 133. The comparable Cyrix chip is the CYRIX 686 166+. What I have found 
> is interesting. There are vendors who say the Cyrix chip is  slightly 
> faster etc. contasted with many more vendors who are having reliability 
> problems with the Cyrix! 
> 
> Benchmarks are impressive for the Cyrix.
> Stability problems, even in Cyrix approved mainboards, seem to say the 
> Cyrix CPU isn't for everyone. This is especially true if you have to 
> support the darn thing after it is sold. 
> 
> I have also noticed that there is a fair amount of deceit and fraud among

> those marketing the Cyrix chip. The worst is that many vendors include 
> the esential cooling fan while others immediately state that the fan is 
> an extra cost item. Other forms of deceit are the vendors who price a 
> plus chip close to but slight cheaper then the true Intel Pentium chip. 
> ie A Cyrix 133 clock called a Cyrix 686 166+ will be priced slightly 
> cheaper then an Intel P-166. The Cyrix 166+ chip is only better in specs 
> when compared to a 133 Pentium. But not that much better! There is a 
> price premium for the Cyrix ranging from about $50 to $100+ more then the

> same clock speed pentium.
>

Well, lets look at some real numbers.  www.jncs.com has Intel 166 for 449
and Cyrix P166+ for 279.  That is a $170 difference.  According to most
benchmarks not involving the FPU, the Cyrix performs about as well as an
Intel 166.  So what does $170 buy you?  a better FPU.  My Cyrix P166+
benches under CBench (which uses the FPU) like an Intel Pentium 133.  I
haven't tested Quake yet, but I expect the numbers to be worse.  On
average, I expect to get P100 performance in heavy FPU environments.  For
me it doesn't matter since the CBench benchmark is the only FPU aware
program I use. (Quake bored me within the first hour... I know, I know
that's blasphemy, but System Shock is still better)

Non-FPU benchmarks are quite good.  As a matter of fact, my machine is
currently at the top of the Winbench 96 scores for 1024x768x65kx76Hz.  And
it has been quite stable with the Titan III board.

Instability is caused by a voltage regulator that cannot provide 7.5a to
the CPU reliably.  The Tyan Titan III can and does and also supports the
chip in BIOS.

Rob


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From: "Lars Ehlers" <ehlersl@uni-muenster.de>
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video,alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.asus
Subject: Re: Matrox Millennium 3.11 driver crash
Date: Wed, 14 Aug 1996 20:34:22 GMT
Organization: WWU Muenster
Lines: 18
Sender: "Lars Ehlers" <ehlersl@uni-muenster.de>
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References: <3201120c.497221@news.nuernberg.netsurf.de> <3207637d.4083708@news.pacificnet.net> <32088086.2A2D@nottingham.ac.uk> <320bf009.412401@news.usa.net>
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jbeal@usa.net (Jeremy Beal) wrote:


>Just for another data point, the Matrox 3.11 drivers work fine with my
>P/I-P55TT2P4.

Did you play the mpeg movie (\mpeg\milen.mpg) with the 3.11 drivers? I had
the color effects like playing 16 bit movies on 256 colors! (btw: the card
was on 16 Bit ;-). Then the movie was so slow, i changed back to 3.01.

cu


lhe                              o
___________________________\    /I___
lars.ehlers@uni-muenster.de \/\/ I (PGP available)
http://www.uni-muenster.de/WiWi/home/ehlersl


