Benchmarks: Quake III Arena
First of all, this results proves again that Quake III is one of the very best allround benchmarks, as all computer components are important for it. Quake III will run more than one CPU speed grade faster on a 166 MHz system.
Conclusion
This time, Solano showed its real potential. Despite the restraining memory timings, the higher clock speed shows an impact. But to be honest, you really have to ask yourself if the effort is worth it, as most PCI cards likely have to be abandoned.
Your software definitely runs faster, but getting SDRAM which really is reliable at 166 MHz could become tough. Actually, overclocking to 166 MHz is likely to become an ordeal due to frequent hang ups caused by inadequate memory. In addition, your PCI components will have to tolerate 42 MHz bus clock.
Last but not least it could become necessary to increase the CPU core voltage in order to make the overclocked system more stable. As you can imagine, this measure does not contribute to system stability as long as you are still playing around.
On the other hand, there are high Quake III results which may tempt one to try it, as the performance gains are quite remarkable. At only 666 MHz core speed, the 166 MHz system performs just like a Pentium III 800/133. To achieve GHz-performance, you only need to overclock a Pentium III 733 to 917 MHz at 166 MHz FSB.
