The CPUMark 99 section of Winbench 99 serves to stress the integer performance of the tested processor. Since the floating-point unit (FPU) has been taken out of the mix, higher CPUMark 99 scores will mostly show up with business applications or standard 2D games. Here the Celeron 700MHz lives up to its value market position and is beaten by a Pentium III Coppermine 600. As Vince pointed out in his Celeron 600MHz review a few weeks ago, a slight twist is the overclocked Celeron 550 actually surpassing the Celeron 600 CPUMark 99 score. This points to the importance of the 100 MHz FSB in basic Windows integer performance. The Celeron 700MHz scores 7.5 less than its Duron counterpart.
With 3D games dominating the retail shelves and real estate on our book shelves, the importance of floating-point calculations cannot be stressed enough. FPUMark 99 tests the CPU's FPU and scores usually correspond closely to the core speed of the processor. The Celeron 700 keeps pace well with the Pentium III Coppermine. Neither the Celeron's 128K L2 cache nor its 66MHz FSB seem to hamper it in this test.
