We tested the P3-500 with the most CPU intensive benchmarks we possess, including several from the gaming environment. For comparative reasons, we also included results on the same tests from a P2-450 CPU, a P3-450 CPU, and the P3-500 itself overclocked to 560MHz.

In order to ensure that the gaming results were limited only by CPU performance and not by the fill-rate limit of a particular video accelerator, we tested with Quantum3D's powerful X-24 Voodoo2 SLI card. All games were tested at a resolution of 800x600x16bpp to further ensure that the video accelerator wasn't the limiting factor in the testing process.

Here's a more in-depth look at the test machines we utilized:

Test Systems (2):
ABIT BX6 v2.0 (Slot-1 - Intel(r) 440BX)
Goldstar 128MB PC-133 SDRAM (Prototype)
ATi Rage Fury 32MB AGP 2D/3D Accelerator
Quantum3D X-24 Voodoo2 SLI PCI 3D Accelerator
Seagate Medalist Pro 9.1 GB 7200rpm UDMA HD
Diamond Monster Sound MX300 3D PCI Sound Card
Kenwood 52X IDE CD-ROM
Win95 OSR 2.1

Test Conditions and Specifications: All tests were run a total of three times with the results averaged to determine final score. VSync was OFF for all video tests, allowing maximum frame rate performance. The Quantum3D X-24 Voodoo2 SLI card was set to operate at a 100MHz core/memory speed and was utilized for all 3D benchmark results.

Pretty much spot-on for where you'd think they should be, the benchmarks for the P3-500 indicate that the difference between itself and the much less expensive P3-450 CPU (which can also overclock to 560MHz) is almost negligible.

SSE results are still impressive on the P3s versus the P2s, but again the Lighting and Transformation Test of 3D WinBench99 isn't exactly Half-Life or Quake2 when it comes to evaluating a CPU of video card's performance level.