Sporting 256K of full core speed on-die level 2 cache, the K6-3 shares most of the previously successful K6-2 class of CPU's core and technology. Much like the Intel Celeron A model of CPUs, which only incorporate 128K of on-die level 2 cache, the K6-3 has received a strong shot in the arm performance-wise with the addition of the on-die level 2 cache, which now operates at the blistering rate of 400MHz in the initial K6-3 400 CPU. That's a large upward jump from the just released K6-2 400's level 2 cache speed of 100MHz, and the benefits of speedy L2 cache show clearly in the testing we performed on our prototype K6-3 400.

Luckily there won't be a large teething process for the K6-3 to have to endure on the mainboard side of things as there was with the introduction of the K6-2. This time around the only prerequisite necessary for slapping a K6-3 into an existing Super7 system is that the BIOS of the mainboard be flashed to support the K6-3's "CXT" core. CXT is basically a fancy term for the K6-2 400 and K6-3 400's write-combining ability, a feature that adds between two and four percent more performance in certain applications versus a non-CXT enhanced CPU if both CPUs are being run at an identical speed. (In our game-based benchmarks, the enabling or disabling of CXT via the mainboard's BIOS produced no difference in performance marks.)

Sharky Extreme talked to five major mainboard vendors this week regarding K6-3 support, and all of them indicated that their most popular Super7 mainboards will only need a simple BIOS flash in order to support either the K6-2 400 CXT or the K6-3 400. Good news, and indeed a welcome change from having to upgrade a user's entire machine simply for a new generation of CPUs.

Also easing the transition towards a K6-3 upgrade is the fact that current K6-2-based system owners will obviously not require another upgrade to faster SDRAM as was required with the move from a 66MHz bus to the 100MHz bus speed that the K6-2 line utilizes. Again, the only difference between the K6-2 and K6-3 is the addition of 256K of L2 on-die, full core speed cache. Otherwise the K6-3 is virtually identical to the relatively new K6-2 400 CXT.