Not as fast as the Athlon, no manual with my processor
Recommend to potential buyers:
yes
Full review
AMD have been making processors for almost as long as the regarded 'champion', Intel. Although there early 486 processors where popular, the performance lacked and never really compared to the Intel i486. This trend of being slightly 'behind' the forefront of processor technology continued into the early years of the Pentium.
However, this all changed when AMD released the K6-2 and K6-3 series of processors as direct competition with the PII and PIII. Although the K6-2 450 was not the fastest AMD processor available when I purchased, it was the best when considering power-per-pound. At only £49, for a fully functioning 450MHz processor with 3D NOW instruction set, this was an excellent buy.
My first impressions when seeing the benchmarks between my old system (200MHz) and the new one were pleased, very pleased. The index had shot up from 35 to 152. This was also due to the inclusion of a 100 MHz bus as required for the faster processor. Running any game on the new system was a pleasure, with much smoother graphics and improved performance all round. The system tolerates overclocking very well and can be pushed further than I would expect from most processors (Make sure you have adequate cooling). The board helped no end with the ability for 124MHz bus speeds.
Although this processor is no longer a real competitor when it comes to top-end speed, I still think it would be ideal for revitalising an older system or as a 'budget' system which is still capable of great performance on almost every game. One problem I found was the lack of a manual with the processor, but that was because I bought it from a specialist wholesaler for ultra budget, and I think most retailers will include a manual.
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Stability
Very stable
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