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Thanks, rasz! I was still a kid during that time so unfortunately I don't have first hand experience. I will happily defer to your experience! My comment came

Thanks, rasz! I was still a kid during that time so unfortunately I don't have first hand experience. I will happily defer to your experience! My comment came from a couple of post-era experiences: * The Am486-DX4-100 benches nearly (or just a bit below) the Intel DX4-100 in my own testing. I thought it was less expensive at the time, but I haven't checked prices * The K6-3 was able to match early Pentium II performance for a lower cost, at least in my personal testing. I have a modded K6-3+ at 600MHz and it exceeds some P2 CPUs in Phil's benchmark tests, though naturally it's not a part many people had around back then * AMD 386-DX40 was also apparently a high performing part and I'm happy to have acquired one recently, though I'm unfamiliar with prices and I have little to compare with. Just received some new parts (external battery & 128MB CF cards) to help me get into testing this platform Those other landmarks you describe are definitely very interesting and noteworthy, though! It was quite cool to see AMD first to 1GHz, 64-bit, and dual core. One of my favorite retro rigs is a maxed out AMD K7 system, the last of their 32-bit platform and in my opinion the end of the 32-bit era, though Intel kept pushing 32-bit parts for a while. I've been an Intel fan for most of my life, but as I get older I'm finding a lot of appreciation for AMD and my main PC is AMD for the first time ever as of the 9800X3D release. :)

rasz 2y ago
AMD Am486-DX4-100 released in 1995 while 1994 $516 Intel DX4-100 was already a weird product considering 3Q94 prices: Pentiums 100 MHz $964 Pentiums 90 MHz $707 Pentiums 66 MHz $525 Intel DX4-100 $516 Pentiums 60 MHz $418 Intel DX2-66 ~$200 and was highly discouraged https://books.google.pl/books?id=PITtFPwTaWwC&lpg=PP1&hl=en&pg=PA113 https://books.google.pl/books?id=PITtFPwTaWwC&lpg=PP1&hl=en&... By 1995 when Am486 DX4 shipped it went straight to low end systems together with Cyrix selling their own $60 DX4-100, TI $66 DX2-66 $70 486DX4-100. Mainstream 1995 was all about socket 5. First retail K6-3 in the wild showed up in Japan in March 1999 listed at $295 https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/990313/p_cpu.html https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/990313/p_cpu.ht... Thats full Pentium II 400MHz price or over four Celerons 300A. By January 2000 it was down to ~$85 https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/20000108/p_cpu.html https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/20000108/p_cpu.... while Celeron 300A ~$57. It wasnt some local Japanese price glitch. Poland September 1999: Pentium III 450MHz 1260 $308 Pentium II 400MHz 943 $231 Celeron 366MHz 348 $85 (300A missing from the list, but was still available and selling cheaper) K6-III/450 1108 $271 lol K6-III/400 877 $215 K6-2/400 397 $97 K6-2/350 230 $56 I dont know what AMD was doing with K6 prices, had to be some financing scheme with huge under the table discounts for OEMs. Compaq, Hewlett Packard, Packard Bell, IBM and Time Computers all pumped out very cheap low end AMD K6 systems. At least with introduction of new socket AMD finally stopped smoking crack. June 17 2000 https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/20000617/p_cpu.html https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/20000617/p_cpu.... Celeron 533A 10,570 $100 Duron 600MHz 9,990 $95 K6-III/450 24,800 $236 !??!!? K6-III/400 14,800 $140 K6-2/550 7,949 $76 K6-2/533 5,970 $57 K6-2/500 5,350 $50 K6-III+ released in 2000. In games K6-III+ overclocked to 600 MHz matches two year old Celeron 300A overclocked to 450 MHz. While filling in the low end segment is great for less wealthy consumers, its not what I would call being competitive :) K7 finally put AMD on even footing.

rasz 2y ago

AMD Am486-DX4-100 released in 1995 while 1994 $516 Intel DX4-100 was already a weird product considering 3Q94 prices: Pentiums 100 MHz $964 Pentiums 90 MHz $707 Pentiums 66 MHz $525 Intel DX4-100 $516 Pentiums 60 MHz $418 Intel DX2-66 ~$200 and was highly discouraged https://books.google.pl/books?id=PITtFPwTaWwC&lpg=PP1&hl=en&pg=PA113 https://books.google.pl/books?id=PITtFPwTaWwC&lpg=PP1&hl=en&... By 1995 when Am486 DX4 shipped it went straight to low end systems together with Cyrix selling their own $60 DX4-100, TI $66 DX2-66 $70 486DX4-100. Mainstream 1995 was all about socket 5. First retail K6-3 in the wild showed up in Japan in March 1999 listed at $295 https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/990313/p_cpu.html https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/990313/p_cpu.ht... Thats full Pentium II 400MHz price or over four Celerons 300A. By January 2000 it was down to ~$85 https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/20000108/p_cpu.html https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/20000108/p_cpu.... while Celeron 300A ~$57. It wasnt some local Japanese price glitch. Poland September 1999: Pentium III 450MHz 1260 $308 Pentium II 400MHz 943 $231 Celeron 366MHz 348 $85 (300A missing from the list, but was still available and selling cheaper) K6-III/450 1108 $271 lol K6-III/400 877 $215 K6-2/400 397 $97 K6-2/350 230 $56 I dont know what AMD was doing with K6 prices, had to be some financing scheme with huge under the table discounts for OEMs. Compaq, Hewlett Packard, Packard Bell, IBM and Time Computers all pumped out very cheap low end AMD K6 systems. At least with introduction of new socket AMD finally stopped smoking crack. June 17 2000 https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/20000617/p_cpu.html https://akiba-pc.watch.impress.co.jp/hotline/20000617/p_cpu.... Celeron 533A 10,570 $100 Duron 600MHz 9,990 $95 K6-III/450 24,800 $236 !??!!? K6-III/400 14,800 $140 K6-2/550 7,949 $76 K6-2/533 5,970 $57 K6-2/500 5,350 $50 K6-III+ released in 2000. In games K6-III+ overclocked to 600 MHz matches two year old Celeron 300A overclocked to 450 MHz. While filling in the low end segment is great for less wealthy consumers, its not what I would call being competitive :) K7 finally put AMD on even footing.