From: koren@fc.hp.com (Steve Koren)
Subject: GoldenGate 486SLC & VGA cards
Date: Sat, 23 Jan 1993 23:42:37 GMT
Organization: Hewlett-Packard Fort Collins Site
X-Newsreader: Tin 1.1.3 PL5

I've recently been thinking about getting some sort of system on which
to run MS-DOS software.  I have some questions for people who have one
of these things.  But first: I've narrowed my choices down to:

   1. The GoldenGate 486SLC bridgecard, with a Diamond Speedstar 24X
      SVGA card & a SBPro (which comes with a joystick port).

   2. A real, live 486/33 system.

The difference in price is slight - the goldengate solution wins by a
little bit in price, but not much.  The advantages and disadvantages I
see are:

Advantages to GoldenGate 486SLX bridgecard:
   - don't need two keyboards, two mice, etc.

   - using "MonitorMaster", the IBM display can be integrated into the
     Amiga environment, sort of.  At least you don't need to fiddle with
     a hardware switch.  (I plan to use my 1960 monitor for both).

   - The GG card can use a partition on an Amiga device, and Vortex
     promises an upgrade to let you access the GG partition from
     crossdos, thereby letting my Amiga nightly backup back up the DOS
     stuff also - plus, I can use the nicer Amiga environment to deal
     with DOS files.  This also means I don't need a separate backup
     unit for the IBM, etc.  This is a BIG plus for the GG card.

   - Supports an Amiga vendor instead of a clone vendor.

Disadvantages for GoldenGate card:
   - It is not a real 486 - it is a Cyrix clone.  It is faster than a
     386 but slower than a real 486.  The C&T MIPS benchmark gives 4.5
     MIPS for the GG bridgecard, vs. 6.41 MIPS for a real 486DX-33.
     Other benchmarks might be more lopsided.  All things considered,
     the GG card is probably about equal to a 386/40, from what I've
     heard.

   - It takes up all 3 of my Amiga 4000's ISA slots, and leave only 1
     slot free for Amiga cards.

   - The A4000 already runs hot without putting another fast CPU in
     there.  My 4000 is on 24 hours/day, and I wonder about whether
     putting all this extra stuff in there will produce too much heat
     for the poor thing to cope with.

Now, the speed issue is an interesting one.  I mostly plan to use the
"clone" to play games on, and use the Amiga for more serious stuff like
Imagine & wordprocessing & telecomm & programming.  It seems that the
type of SVGA card makes almost near as much difference for games as the
CPU itself does.  I have a small benchmark a friend gave me called
"3dbench".  It computes the FPS rate of some 3d rotating objects, and is
supposed to be a good "game-benchmark" because it uses common game
resolution (320x200) and does the same sort of 3D things flight sims
tend to do.  This 3dbench program, running on a 486/33 with a $95
Trident SVGA card gets about *half* the rate that it does running on the
very same motherboard with a $155 Speedstar 24X SVGA card.  This leads
me to believe that if I get the goldengate card with a good SVGA card
like the Diamond Speedstar, it will be superior to a faster i486/33 with
a slower SVGA card such as the Trident.  However, I am not confident
enough of this to buy the GG card based on my hunch, so I'd like to ask
a favor of someone who owns a GG 486SLC bridgecard and a Diamond
Speedstar 24 or 24X SVGA card.  I'd like to send you the 3dbench program
(it is freeware) and have you run it on your GoldenGate + SS24.  If the
performance seems reasonable, then I will probably get the GoldenGate
bridgecard instead of the real clone system.

So, does anyone out there have this setup, and if you do, would you be
willing to run this benchmark and send me the results?  It shouldn't
take more than a few minutes at most.  (I'd also be interesting in
results from the GG card & _any_ SVGA card, but I'm more interested in
the SS24X than the others).

Thanks,

   - steve