Review: VIA Cyrix III / Samuel

Benchmark Setup

We ran the Cyrix III with an Epox EP-6VBA2 motherboard and Solteks SL67KV. Since these are boards for Slot 1, we used a Soltek S370 adaptor. The Cyrix III was recognized as a Celeron by the Epox board and as a "VIA Samuel" by the Soltek product. This means that at least the Epox board did not have an adapted BIOS at the time of our review. According to VIA there was no necessity for a modified BIOS since the Cyrix III was 100 per cent compatible with the Celeron. Nevertheless, we verified the results with Tyans Trinity 400 S1854 (Socket 370), which also identified the Cyrix III as a Celeron.

As far as the performance of the Cyrix III processors is concerned, VIA points out that adapted BIOS versions are designed to use the large L1 cache of the Cyrix III more efficiently. Memory scores will increase by up to 10 per cent, its overall performance (SYSmark98) by 2 or 3 per cent, the company says.

In our benchmarks we were not able to ascertain any significant performance differences between the Soltek SL-67KV and the Epox EP-6VBA2.

We reviewed the production silicon of a Cyrix III 500. This CPU works with a 100 MHz FSB and has its multiplier locked at 5x. By increasing the FSB clock to 133 MHz, we were able run the processor at 667 MHz, using additional cooling. Therefore we are now able to present the scores of the Cyrix III 667, which is expected to ship around October or November.