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Quake II Update Optimized for 3DNOW!™ Technology Available from AMD
Optimized Updates Used with the AMD-K6®-2 Processor Set New Performance Standard for Quake II
SUNNYVALE, CA -- July 6, 1998 --Quake II, one of the computer gaming industry's most popular titles, is now optimized for AMD's 3DNow!™ technology via software update available from AMD. This update, combined with optimized Voodoo2 device drivers (Glide 2.5), takes advantage of the new 3DNow!™ instructions used in AMD's latest microprocessor, the AMD-K6®-2.
With the software optimized for the hardware, Quake II players will enjoy significant performance gains, smoother video, more realistic 3D effects, and accelerated single- and multi-player game play. The new update for Quake II 3.14, developed in cooperation with id Software and 3Dfx Interactive, is being distributed via a self-extracting Zip file located at http://www.amd.com/products/cpg/k623d/drivers.html. The update is available free of charge to owners of licensed copies of Quake II software.
"With this update, gamers can expect some awesome Quake II game play with dramatically improved performance provided by 3DNow!™ technology," said Lance Smith, director of technical marketing for AMD's Computation Products Group. "With the 3DNow! extensions enabled in Quake II, an AMD K6-2 processor-based system out performs a comparable Pentium® II-based system in Quake II's widely accepted gaming industry benchmark."
Added Smith, who games online under the alias SFX, "We want to get this into the hands of gamers as quickly as possible. To make the software patch and optimized Voodoo2 device drivers easily available AMD, id Software, and 3Dfx Interactive agreed to post the patch on the AMD website for easy downloading and technical support from AMD."
"Quake II is an important software milestone for the AMD-K6-2 and 3DNow!™ technology," said Dana Krelle, vice president, marketing for AMD's Computation Products Group. "As more players and developers experience the incredible performance of this technology, others will want to implement it in other games and multimedia applications."
Optimized Quake II Performance Results
The AMD 3DNow!™ technology-optimized updates enable Quake II performance that according to independent reports, exceeds equivalently configured Pentium® II based systems.
Reviews by PC enthusiast and hardware websites, such as HardwareCentral.com, Tom's Hardware, and Hardgame.com, have also praised the performance boost experienced when running a 3DNow!™ technology-optimized version of Quake II on an AMD-K6-2 processor based system. In fact, boot Magazine concluded, "So how did it perform? Pretty damn good!"
AMD's own performance lab has determined that the AMD-K6-2/300MHz processor-based system outperforms an equally configured Pentium II/300MHz system, without the optimized drivers, in every comparable test configuration. Not only does the AMD-K6-2 processor win head to head, in certain benchmark tests it's 3D performance can outperform the competition when configured with only one 3D graphics accelerator card versus the competition's two 3D graphics accelerator cards. In all test configurations of 640 x 480, an AMD-K6-2/300MHz processor with a SINGLE Voodoo2 3D graphics accelerator card OUTPERFORMED Pentium II/300MHz with DUAL SLI Voodoo2 3D graphics accelerator cards! Please see our web site for AMD performance results and web links to the independent performance results.
About 3DNow!™ Technology
3DNow!™ technology is the first innovation to the x86 processor architecture that significantly enhances 3D graphics, multimedia, and other floating point-intensive PC applications to enable the emerging "realistic computing platform." 3DNow!™ is a set of 21 new instructions that use SIMD (Single Instruction Multiple Data) and other performance enhancements to open the performance bottleneck in the 3D graphics pipeline between the host CPU and the 3D graphics accelerator card.
3DNow!™ works hand-in-hand with leading 3D graphics accelerators to achieve faster frame rates on high-resolution scenes, improved physical modeling of real-world environments, realistic 3D graphics and images, and theater-quality audio and video. 3DNow!™ technology was defined and implemented with input from Microsoft®, application developers, graphics vendors, and x86 processor suppliers, and has received enthusiastic industry support. 3DNow! technology is compatible with today's existing x86 software and requires no operating system support, thereby enabling 3DNow!™ technology-optimized applications to work with existing operating systems. |
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