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:
- Optimization and performance enhancing techniques for the K6-2+ including overclocking
- A list of compatible motherboards and issues with each
- A 3-Way video deathmatch between the Voodoo 5 5500, GeForce 2 GTS, and the ATI Radeon
I chose these three topics based upon the hundreds of emails that I have received since the Recipe For Revival article. I realize that I have not returned a lot of those emails and I apologize, however, all of the main questions that were asked will be covered in this article. 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.
A Brief History of the K6-X
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.
Part 1: Optimizing the K6-2+
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.” You will see the following:
- Power Now
- Data Prefetch
- Speculative Write ordering
- Write allocation
- Write allocate 15-16Meg
Everything should be enabled save for PowerNow!, as this is a new feature only available in notebook systems. If any of the above features are not enabled then your K6-2+ is not properly optimized. The next step in optimizing your K6-2+ system is to enable linear frame buffer optimization and the K6-2's enhanced write buffer extension or EWBE.”Once again, some systems will automatically enable this feature. If you cannot enable these features in the BIOS, you must use a third party application. I have compiled a list of programs that work with the K6-2+.
- Powertweak
- RawPower
- MxK6opt (Write allocation and speculative write ordering)
- K6WAON (Write Allocation)
- Set-EWBE (Enhanced Write Buffer)
- K6wc1 (Enables Write Combining)
Out of all the programs tested, only Powertweak was able to enable all of the advanced CPU features. I spoke with the author of Powertweak and he will soon be releasing the patch for full K6-2+ support. I am sure that all registered users can receive the Alpha patch. RawPower enabled all features except Speculative Write ordering. Benchmarks showed no difference with this feature enabled or disabled, so RawPower makes a great alternative.
Both Programs have downloadable evaluation copies that will last for 20 days.
Overclocking The K6-2+
I will keep this part short and sweet. The K6-2+ is the most overclockable SS7 CPU to date, which doesn't say a lot. I tested five chips and, with the aid of an Alpha Cooler, I was only able to reach 617 MHz with complete stability. The funny thing is, I can reach the same 617 MHz with an ordinary Pentium heatsink/fan and the CPU temperature never rose above 32C at any time. The K6-2+ is rated at 80C, so I doubt that heat is going to be a limiting factor on this chip. Once again the full speed L2 cache is the problem here. Here is a list of recommended clock speed combinations. Also there is absolutely no reason for any K6-2+/500 to reach less 600 Mhz. As for the Vcore, 2.1-2.3v is sufficient for any of the listed speeds.
- 133X4.5=598MHz (Top Choice)
- 124X5.0=620MHz
- 112X5.5=617MHz
- 120X5.0=600MHz
- 100X6.0=600MHz
Compatible Motherboards
Compiling a list of motherboards was harder than expected. Since such little information is available about the K6-2+ I had to resort to discussion groups after searching a multitude of mainboard sites. I would like to thank the participants at the following message boards for all of their help.
Motherboard List
- ASUS P5-A (Compatible but does not properly detect CPU)
- Freetech93 and 93U
- AOpen MX59PRO
- AOpen MX59Pro-II
- AOpen AX59Pro
- DFI PVB3+/e
- EPOX-MVP3-G2
- tyan 1598
- Gigabyte GA5AX
- Gigabyte GA5AA
- Tyan S1590
- FIC VA-503+ (Unsupported Beta Bios works on ver 1.2 only)
- EPOX G5
- ASUS VX-97
- DFI K6Xv3+/66
- DFI K6BV3+/66
- ASUS P55T2P4
- SOYO 5ehm
Next we will look at the video cards currently available, and which one will best supercharge your SS7 system.
