The ASUS TX-97X
The ASUS TX-97X is an i430TX based motherboard, and has the same current limit as the P55T2P4. Unfortunately, the newest BIOS (0107) does not recognize the K6-III or K6-2 400 processors, and does not take advantage of the CXT core. The one advantage this board does have over some of the others we’ve tested so far is that it can run both processors at full speed (400MHz) without exceeding the maximum amperage for the motherboard. This board will supply 2.4v by setting the following jumpers: VID0 = 1-2, VID1 = 2-3, VID2 = 2-3. The 2.0x multiplier is interpreted by the processor as 6.0x.
The test setup included the TX-97X board with 512KB onboard cache (BIOS Level 0107), 64MB PC66 SDRAM, Western Digital 1.2GB (PIO 4) HDD, Diamond FireGL 1000 Pro w/ 8MB (BIOS Level 1.54), Windows 98 (release 1), DirectX 6.1 and Diamond 4.10.01.2359 video driver. The BIOS settings were set to ‘Setup Defaults’ and the display properties were set to 1024×768 and 16 bit color. The benchmarks run were Winstone 99, 3DMark99 Max Pro and Rage’s Incoming game benchmark.
| CPU | Setting | Winstone 99 | 3DMark99 Max Pro CPUMarks | 3DMark99 Max Pro 3DMarks | Incoming Worst FPS | Incoming Best FPS | Incoming Avg FPS |
| K6-2 400 | 6.0 x 66MHz | 14.6 | 4230 | 834 | 10.78 | 31.89 | 19.99 |
| K6-III 400 | 6.0 x 66MHz | 17.5 | 5243 | 898 | 11.13 | 36.73 | 22.02 |
Even without BIOS support for the special features of the K6-2 and K6-III, the TX-97X matches the Winstone 99 scores of both the P55T2P4 and PA-2007. Where it really seems to shine is in the 3D tests, perhaps because of better I/O throughput. Once again, this test shows that the performance improvement of the K6-III over the K6-2 at the same speed may be considered well worth the additional cost for many.
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