Anyone remember the 486 days when AMD was the chip to avoid?

[CuriousMan]

Of course AMD was once in VIAs spot! Everyone has to start someplace! Who knows....mabye VIA chips will be the next AMD?????

Ah, stranger things have happened... If heaven forbid, the K8 flops in the maketplace??? Whew, I just pray that never happens....

[Wiggo]

An awful lot us are too. ;)

[drpeterbright]

Intel doesn't need any help like that!

[Ren]

I remember when Intel ruled the roost! I had a 486 DX100 and thought I was hot stuff baby! (a little Austin Powers humor) I had wing commander 3 and the movie it played was an awesome thing to me! But I also remember how everyone wanted nothing to do with AMD chips!! It seemed back then they were not a very stable chip at all!! People kept complaining that on some games the chip kept locking up and the screen would freeze! Does anyone here remember those days??( I think there were three chip makers back then, Cyrix AMD and Intel....don't remember any others!)I think that Cyrix was even WORSE than AMD if I am remembering correctly!

Well, back then I had a AMD 486 DX2/66 and can not remember any problems with it whatsoever. Latter on I got the 5x86-133-P75 which was basically a 486 with CPU core running at 4x bus speed (133/33).

While it was equivalent of P75 for normal apps, things like Quake ran slower than P75 since the FPU part wasn't as good as Pentium core (and I don't think they caught in FPU department until Athlon, when they actually overtook Intel). So I think that was the reason why many didn't want AMD chips in their systems back then (I did actually chose P200mmx over K6 for my next system (until that CPU got replaced with K6-2/266)).

But even so, I can't recall any stability issues with their chips. I still got the 5x86-133 running the NAT/Firewall/Internet Sharing box right now and got no problems with it.

[drpeterbright]

It's all perception. AMD still needs help in that department. It's not perceived in business circles to be as stable. Truth doesn't necessarily have much to do with it.

[webe3]

Well, back then I had a AMD 486 DX2/66 and can not remember any problems with it whatsoever. Latter on I got the 5x86-133-P75 which was basically a 486 with CPU core running at 4x bus speed (133/33).

While it was equivalent of P75 for normal apps, things like Quake ran slower than P75 since the FPU part wasn't as good as Pentium core (and I don't think they caught in FPU department until Athlon, when they actually overtook Intel). So I think that was the reason why many didn't want AMD chips in their systems back then (I did actually chose P200mmx over K6 for my next system (until that CPU got replaced with K6-2/266)).

But even so, I can't recall any stability issues with their chips. I still got the 5x86-133 running the NAT/Firewall/Internet Sharing box right now and got no problems with it.

Well I don't know myself, but I was thinking of getting an AMD system back then but my friends all had a fit and said that the AMD chip was unstable....but I DO remember reading various gamming magazines that kept putting the AMD chips down because of lockups with certian games.....some kind of incompatability issues that arose with the older AMDs chips core. All I remember hearing was how BAD AMD chips were to intel back then.....don't remember anybody actually sticking up for them until later on.....they have come a long way since then......still...... it bothers me that I might have gotten a great system back then for half the price of what I paid for a new intel system! It just seemed at the time that nobody trusted AMD where I lived.....they all thought it was crap! Oh well.........Live and learn....die and forget it all!

[drpeterbright]

[i] ! Oh well.........Live and learn....die and forget it all!

You have to believe someone when you make those choices. If you had bought an AMD & it had locked up in your favorite games, you would have told your friends. We are fortunate to have a choice & I only wish we had more choices.

PS: Don't tell anyone but I had a cyrix cpu in an ultra cheap system that worked perfectly for browsing & word processing. You know what they say about them.

[webe3]

You have to believe someone when you make those choices. If you had bought an AMD & it had locked up in your favorite games, you would have told your friends. We are fortunate to have a choice & I only wish we had more choices.

PS: Don't tell anyone but I had a cyrix cpu in an ultra cheap system that worked perfectly for browsing & word processing. You know what they say about them.

Well, I know a girl RIGHT now that has a PACKARD BELL (whole other can of worms!) and it works GREAT! Go figure! I told her not to TOUCH ANYTHING inside the motherboard and about how PB SOLDERED in some things on their motherboards! But I told her as long as it works to enjoy it! It seems that the horror stories about PB are true, but she is one of the lucky ones that actually got one that WORKED!! HE!HE!

[bigjackusa]

I had a dx4-133 that I overclocked to 150mz and loved it! I built it in a monster full tower case when a lot of people were still using desktop cases. Extra fans, 2 hard drives, 2 floppys. It even sounded like it had horsepower! I used more Amds than Intels over the years and was pretty much happy with them. There were some occasional issues, but that came with the fun of experimenting back then. I was always selling used video cards, sound cards, and hard drives as I kept buying new stuff to try out. I also think I went through every speed iteration of cd-rom drives too! I usually had about 3 pcs running at any given time (mine, my wife's. and one for the kids) and parts to build 2 or 3 more laying around. Not enough time or money to do that anymore with product cycles being so short now.

[webe3]

I had a dx4-133 that I overclocked to 150mz and loved it! I built it in a monster full tower case when a lot of people were still using desktop cases. Extra fans, 2 hard drives, 2 floppys. It even sounded like it had horsepower! I used more Amds than Intels over the years and was pretty much happy with them. There were some occasional issues, but that came with the fun of experimenting back then. I was always selling used video cards, sound cards, and hard drives as I kept buying new stuff to try out. I also think I went through every speed iteration of cd-rom drives too! I usually had about 3 pcs running at any given time (mine, my wife's. and one for the kids) and parts to build 2 or 3 more laying around. Not enough time or money to do that anymore with product cycles being so short now.

Yeah, the days of getting a pc and knowing it is the fastest around and it STAY that way for a couple of years at least are pretty much over......too many video cards, audio cards and processors being constantly updated....as well as motherboards to accomidaate the newest processors, video cards, audio cards, etc. Now they are comming out with water cooled systems, neon lights inside the case with a glass side to see inside the case itself as well as all the other hardware and software updates you can find. Kinda sad though.....it takes away from the "magical" years of the 386 and 486 days.....those were the days when improvising was done a lot more than it is now! But things changed for the better I guess....just takes some getting used to with all this NEW stuff comming out all the time!

[DigitalDD]

i remember my old AMD 386/DX 40 which ran rings around the Intel 486 SX's. it was about as fast as a 486 DX 25 [which i'm not certain if ever existed I think the 486 Dx's started with 33 mhz]

[Ren]

There was indeed 486-25 Mhz, which was released at about the same time as 33 Mhz version.

Of all the 486s probably the rarest is the 486-50 which had (back them) a whooping 50 Mhz bus and I think it was quicker than 486 DX2/66 (with only 33 bus, but it could be overclocked to DX2/80, well at least my old AMD 486 could :)

[drpeterbright]

Yeah we really thought we had fast boxes then. Still have an old DX2-66 that runs fine and is being used by a new computer nut.

[webe3]

Yeah we really thought we had fast boxes then. Still have an old DX2-66 that runs fine and is being used by a new computer nut.

Well... as long as it works....I guess he is happy! Just because something is old doesn't mean you have to throw it away! Like I said, the girl I know with her Packard Bell 333 pentium seems quite content she has a computer! And I guess it will work as long as she doesn't change any hardware out in it! She does her e-mail and word documents and even runs win 98 still! For some people.....that is all they need a compouter for! One thing DID change though.....She came over to my house and saw how fast my internet went on a cable modem and decided to get DSL ...because cable doesn't reach where she is at! So now she is happy with her PB and DSL connection! She WAS using JUNO! YUK!!! I think between AOL and Juno I can't decide which is more horrible!

[webe3]

Yeah we really thought we had fast boxes then.

Well we think we have fast boxes NOW! Just wait a few years and the boxes we have now will seem slow compared to whats in the future!