[Seth]

What the difference between in a K-6 500MHz and a Pentium III 500Mhz

 

[KillerShots]

A K-6? Specifically 6? I believe (correct me if I'm wrong) that the K-6 had a serious problem with its FPU, causing (among other things) seriously slow gameplay on Bleem! (and probably others too). (i.e., a p1 166 MMX could play faster). This was fixed with the K7 or above processor, which put it on even (perhaps surpassing) footing with Intel. Hope that helps, and PLEASE correct me if I'm wrong.

 

[liquid]

Killershots is right, the k6,k6-2,and k6-3 have weak FPU performance, however they DO have a better Interger Unit so business apps perform better. Unfortunately, 3d game performance is severly lacking (but not as bad as KS was saying). Though a P3-500 is far superior to a K6...the k6 is about as powerfull as a p2-350 or something

 

[Seth]

If it's bad with 3d why would they call it 3d now

 

[Biased turkey]

Everyone is right, at equal frequency, the Intel PII is better than the AMD K6-II when floating point performance ( read 3D gaming performance ) is concerned.

3DNow is a special set of instructions that was added to the K6-II to improve the floating point efficiency, but it increases it by a few %.
I hope this helps

 

[Zephon]

Actually, k6, k6-2 and k6-3 have a good 3d performance if the software was made to use its 3d!Now instructions. As not many softwares does, its FPU performance is usually lower than a PII. However, AMD has surpassed Intel now that Athlon has a better FPU and can use an upgraded version of 3d!Now(also called 3dnow). PII can only use MMX that does not accelerate FPU instructions. PIII can use SSE that is Intel's answer to 3d!Now.
Anyway, both K6 and PII are old generation processors and that time intel was still in its wonder years. Nowadays, if you want a CPU and you are in doubt between an Athlon, a PIII and a PIV, amd's one is surely the best choice.

 

[Threesixty]

Only go with AMD if you plan on buying the K7 (Athlon Socket A's Rev C, actually) They are currently the best CPU's on the market. Now motherboards...that's a whole other story.

 

[Athleon]

.....of course P3 will power than k6-2. I'm still using k6-2 and feel the pain.

....but k6-2 is the most survive in socket 7 platform series

I'll upgrade to Athleon later...