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The Intel Pentium MMX has been out of production for the best part of a year now, and has been replaced by the many members of the PentiumII/Celeron family. To see how this processor is still used, read on... Pentium MMX, a buyers perspectiveThe Pentium MMX is now only available (with only a small handful of exceptions) on the used market. Here they do make some good processor buys indeed. The Pentium MMX offers the user strong performance in all areas, especially floating point calculations, where it was always ahead of its rivals. Unfortunately for the Pentium MMX, the crown of fastest Socket 7 processor falls to the AMD K6, which was available in speeds of 166, 200, 233, 266 & 300 MHz. Cost concious used buyers could do well to have a look here also. Most system's built around mid 1997 will have used this chip and anyone purchasing such a system will still be getting a very good PC. The Pentium MMX has not yet become as dated as the original Pentium as they can more than adequately handle the vast majority of todays PC applications. Pentium MMX PC's still make good games machines if 3D accelerator cards are utilised, so this chip still has a great deal of relevance yet. It is this relevance to PC users which in the end is now playing against this chip on the used market. Currently Intel Pentium MMX processors are commanding high prices on the used market with the P200 MMX selling around £75. This may appear good value until viewed against a new Intel Celeron 333 (around £55) and a used AMD K6 200 (around £45). The Pentium MMX suddenly becomes less appealing in our opinion. The factors which count in favour of the Pentium MMX though are, its relatively low heat output (lower than K6 and MII), and its high levels of software compatibility, factors which to some are very important indeed. Intel Pentium MMX, the verdictThe Pentium MMX has always been a very good processor, that has never been in doubt. Anyone purchasing a used system based around this chip will have a system capable of running the vast majority of todays software. The only reason preventing this chip from getting our recommendation has always been its high price tag, both new and used. We feel that it does not show enough of an advantage over its rival(s) (read AMD K6) to justify its high price tag. That said, anyone who owns this chip has not made a bad purchase. Please note:
For those who own older Socket 7 motherboards (those made roughly before late
1996), the Pentium MMX is not an upgrade option as many of these boards do not support the split voltage requirement necessary to run this
chip (and also the AMD K6 & Cyrix 6x86MX). Technical Data for Intel Pentium MMX (P55C)
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Other Intel Processors at:
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