BTW - thanks for the discussion - it's nice to be able to discuss these things without it turning into zealotry and anger :)

"The webpage you refered to has the proof:"

Optimized in the source code, in a HLL is not the same thing as the claimed requirement to hand optimize the assembly. Surely you Can agree to that?

"It has been a very smart move by Intel and AMD still has a lot of problems trying to inform people that Mhz alone doesn't say anything about performance."

I disagree the the interest was purely clock speed. I think the reality is that Intel sees some benefits to the long pipeline architecture. Those benefits mean that the P4 performs as well as it's competition (though it is more expensive, the Intel parts usually are... people will pay for the higher quality of the brand) and they mean that the chip has a long improvable life in the architecture.

The P4 is an evolutionary, not revolutionary chip - but it does well and certainly is no slouch :)

"DirectX got optimized for ISSE and later for 3DNow! Did we ever notice anything?"

I certainly notice when DirectX got the optimizations for the processors of the time, MMX was it? SSE? Whatever :) And I notice now when I have to compress things. So these optimizations DO matter. SSE2 is a good thing... a very good thing. Yeah, AMD will be able to copy it, they have before, but I don't mind supporting the folks who are doing the job of getting it supported.

"That's why I am also interested in the performance gain with that pack when used with the P3 and the AthlonXP. Since the most important modifications seem to be geared towards SSE and not just P4."

I'd be happy to see it as well, since at the moment the Atlon's don't support SSE2 as I recall. If the optimizations use that then there should be a dramatic difference. I am all for seeing how this all turns out :)

I looked and looked out there, and I couldn't find a benchmark that had the P4 and the Athlon XP both with and without the performance update under Max as the benchmark. Very disappointing.

I would REALLY like to know what else Poser is dependant on :(

Anyway, thanks again!

OH, for long posts? I have noticed that Renderosity threads "time out". If I read a thread then take a while to compose a reply, it is best to "refresh" the thread page before I actually enter the reply. So I compose it in another editor. When I do that it almost always actually posts.