We were pleasantly surprised, but not overwhelmed, by the test results we generated with Intel's newest high-speed CPU, the Pentium III 733. You can see the results and the details of the Coppermine launch in our Coppermine Review.
It did manage to outperform the Athlon 700 for the most part, while setting some small speed records in our CPU test suite, but we were left wanting for more speed, more power, and more frames per second.
Luckily we managed to obtain a special "unlocked" version of the P3-733 CPU from one of Intel's OEM system integrating partners Which allowed us to easily switch the P3-733 from it's stock speed of 5.5 x 133MHz to 6.0 x 133MHz, which equals an 800MHz core speed.
This allowed us to measure the exact performance on the upcoming P3-800 Coppermine CPU two months earlier than would otherwise be possible and to present the results here today for readers to absorb.
Since there will be no architectural changes between the P3-733 and the P3-800 CPU, these test results are 100% accurate in showing how the December/January bound P3-800 CPU will perform at the time of its launch.
Lucky for us and lucky for you as well.
It makes sense to briefly review the technology behind the Coppermine class CPUs before diving into the benchmarks and to that end, here are some quick excerpts from our Coppermine review. Feel free to skip this part if you've already read the previous article.