W2K Pro + K6-2 450mhz = Bad Performance ?

Didou · Mar 28, 2003

I installed 2K Pro on this machine & the CPU is detected as running at 225mhz.

It wouldn't be such a problem if it was simply a detection problem but the performance is quite bad. I tryed Wintune & Sisoft Sandra & it comes up with worst performance then a K6-2 350 mhz ( especially in the memory performance which is around 80 mb/s ). The FSB & memory speed are linked on this board BTW.

All the utilities running on Windows seem to detect the FSB at 50mhz but it's set to 100mhz with the board jumpers. I tryed memtest on DOS & the memory is detected at 100mhz & puts out regular memory performance numbers for such a platform ( around 200 mb/s ).

Here's the setup details
MSI 5169
K6-2 450mhz ( 4.5*100 )
384mb of PC133 RAM ( running at 100mhz )
ATI Rage 2 8mb AGP
2x Realtek 8139 Ethernet card
W2K Pro SP3

Justin · Mar 28, 2003

If clock speed tests result in a displayed speed of 225mhz, then most likely you ARE running @ 50mhz FSB.

Try a different FSB setting to see if it fixes it.

Note the K6/2 and K6/3 using the CXT core will read 2.0x as 6.0x, so even if you can't raise the FSB above 50mhz for whatever reason, you can still do 50 * 6, although memory performance is seriously hindered.

Check, re-check, triple-check, then check all over again your jumper settings. Tinker a bit as well.

Didou · Mar 29, 2003

At POST, the CPU reports 450mhz, the jumpers are well set to 4.5*100.

It works fine under W98SE so I think it might be an ACPI problem with W2K ( Thx for the tip Nodsu ).

I might try disabling that & see what I get.

Rick · Mar 29, 2003

I have simliar bad performance with a K6-2 450MHz system. The memory transfer rate is benchmarked at 60mb/sec (Yuck!) and it runs unusually slow despite having 256mb of memory and a fast hard disk.

I'm using Windows XP on the system... Windows 2000 had simliar performance problems, although Windows 98 and Me run pretty well.

Justin · Mar 29, 2003

Also remember that the K6/2 is not exactly a "powerhouse" processor - The lack of onboard L2 cache (forcing use of the on-board, very slow, high latency cache) as well as weak FPU create a losing combination.

Most DIVX encoded films will not play smoothly on a 550mhz k6/2, as well as other general slowdowns compared to pentium ii/iii/celerons.

Mictlantecuhtli · Mar 30, 2003

This sounds very much like an ACPI problem. I had the same motherboard once, with K6/2-350 CPU.

Didou · Mar 30, 2003

It was definitly an ACPI problem. Setting the PC as "Standard PC", rebooting & reinstalling all the devices, everything is better now.

It's not a powerhouse CPU but it's not a P200mmx either. With Linux on it, you can get a very good firewall or mail server.

Rick · Mar 30, 2003

My girlfriend has a Compaq with a 450MHz... I've used 450MHz K6-2 systems that blow this one away though.

In benchamrks, it comes up very simliar in performance to simliar systems... EXCEPT the memory benchmakr always shows up less than half of what is typical for a K6-2... Even lower than P-100s with EDO. This system uses PC-100, so something is up.

I have always made sure her computer has been running in "Standard PC", since it seems faster and makes more sense for an older system. Maybe there is something else responsible (Crappy compaq motherboard).. Hmmm. I'm going to go investigate.

W2K Pro + K6-2 450mhz = Bad Performance ?

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