VIA Apollo Pro 133A & VCSDRAM - Part 2: The Performance

Prelude to Performance

We already know from our review of the i820 chipset what we can expect from the 133MHz FSB. The performance increase the 133MHz FSB offered in most business and gaming applications was negligible and the only real increase came under 3D Studio MAX.

The performance of the Apollo Pro 133A is already somewhat known because of the benchmarks we published in our review of the AGP 2X version of the chipset, the Apollo Pro 133. In light of this knowledge, we geared our performance analysis of the Apollo Pro 133A more towards exploring the performance advantages of VC-SDRAM and the AGP 4X implementation of the chipset.

As an upgrade path, the Apollo Pro 133A will offer support for many of the features which the BX inherently cannot. Many 820-weary users will be looking for a viable alternative presenting us with the big question to answer -- is the Apollo Pro 133A faster than the good ol' Intel BX chipset? Let's find out.

Click here for detailed descriptions of all of the tests run.