Subject: slow 21164 Alphas (Re: Raptor 3 rendering service)
From: Mark Thompson <[email-masked]>
To: Multiple recipients of list <[email-masked]>
Date: Tue, 23 Jan 1996 11:12:15 -0500

Andy Hofman writes:
>These each have the 21164 Alpha
>at 266 MHz. I don't know if you're aware that this is the "dual" Alpha,
>essentially two of the earlier 21064 Alphas on a single chip. This makes
>each Raptor 3 twice as fast as a 275 MHz Carrera, Aspen or similar machine.

If you had a good 21064a based system, you would know that is not true.
I fairly thoroughly benchmarked a *300MHz* 21164 based EV5, and these
systems are MUCH faster than the 266MHz Raptor 3. On average, it was
only 1.75x faster than my 21064a clocked at 300MHz. I'd venture to say
that your 266MHz 21164 is closer to 1.5x the speed of a good 21064a
system. Also, based on my findings and the current costs, I found it
silly to even think about buying a 300MHz 21164. They are way too over
priced for their performance.
  *~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~*
  *           Mark Thompson           http://www.mv.com/ipusers/fusion  *
  *         Fusion Films, Inc.              [email-masked]          *
  * Director of Animation and Special FX      (603) 424-1829            *
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