Comparative CPU Benchmarks From 1995 to 2004

Lux writes "The guys over at Tom's Hardware Guide have been busy recently! They've compared over a hundred different architectures dating all the way back to the Pentium 1 in one huge benchmarking effort. Looking to upgrade an older system? Unlike most benchmarks, which compare modern systems to other modern systems, these charts can help you figure out if the cost of upgrading is worth the speedup or if you should hold off for a bit longer."

Upgrade

[Anonymous Coward]

I currently have a 486 [wikipedia.org] with an (upgraded) 900MB hard drive, cdrom drive, and a whopping 32MB of ram. And windows 3.1 + dos. What are my upgrade options?

Heat Output

[eln]

It's easy...if the room is getting a little too chilly for my liking, I upgrade to a faster processor. Problem solved.

Tom's slashdotted?

[dreamchaser]

A /.'ing that I can actually cheer for!

Well

[0racle]

I went from a 486 to a Sempron 2500+. Unfortunatly the artical doesn't go back far enough so I can't tell if it was worth it.

Fixed link

[Anonymous Coward]

Whoops, pasted the wrong wikipedia link. The correct one is Intel 486 [wikipedia.org]

Re:Fixed link

[spac3manspiff]

Well the clock speed of ketchup could be comparable to the 486.

Re:Fixed link

[LiquidMind]

"Well the clock speed of ketchup..."

African or European?

Re:Upgrade

[daniil]

I fail to see how installing linux on it is an upgrade.

Re:Fixed link

[mOoZik]

African ketchup is non-migratory.

But...

[Junior J. Junior III]

I bought my computer in 1982... how will I know if it's worth upgrading if the data only goes back to 1995?

Re:Benchmarks, shmenchmarks

[JustinXB]

*sits at his Macintosh from 1984*

I can honestly say I don't want to upgrade.

Rule of thumb

[howlingmoki]

When you see better computers than the one you're using at Goodwill/Salvation Army/St. Vincents .. it's time to upgrade.

Re:Upgrade

[secretsquirel]

Cool it with liquid nitrogen and overclock the hell out of it!

Re:Well

[Omestes]

Man I remember sitting around LUSTING for one of those when they came out, and I was still running my 286, which was a big upgrade from my poor or 8086. My freind got one, and I was in awe of how responsive it was with win3.11. It was quite a gaming machine. It played that silly pipe game like a dream!

Then I got a P1 60 (66?), and laughed at him for hours, putting his manhood to shame.

My wife...

[Belial6]

My wife responded to my description of the SX, DX situation with "So, you want the 486DX, not the 486 Sucks, right?"

Re:Upgrade

[Anonymous Coward]

...do they have blue penises, too? How do they share Smurfette?