From: jlr1801@eagle.tamu.edu (Jeff Rife)
Subject: Re: Will a math chip help speed up Windows?
Organization: Energy Systems Lab, Texas A&M University
Date: Mon, 27 Jul 1992 18:31:23 GMT

In article <9207101159.AA08271@alcatel.no> Malcom.Smith@alcatel.no (Malcom Smith) writes:
>
>1.   Buy an accelaeraor card.  There have been come articles/reviews
>     of such beasts in Byte and PC Magazine recently.
>
>2.   Spend lots of money and buy a machine with the graphics card
>     on the local bus.  (Option 1 is usually more acceptable!)
>

No question--video speed is absolutely the make or break.  I've used
80486DX-50 machines with fast (Panacea, etc.) 256 color drivers.  A
80386SX-16 with an accelerator card (TIGA, ATI Ultra, S3--fastest to
slowest) will blow it away in apparent performance.

If the SX has enough memory for a big disk cache, and TrueType (or ATM) font
cache, then it is the preferred machine, IMHO.

>However, for those users which use programs like Corel Draw! (which
>uses tons of CPU power for the drawings) then a x87 would be perfect.

No, it wouldn't.  The Corel manual clearly states that it *does not* use a
math coprocessor.  However, since all of it's math is in 32-bit form
(although it may be fixed point), a 80486 will help, as the increased
integer speed over a 80386 will make a difference.

>Lastly, don't bother putting the Video BIOS into Shadow RAM; there's
>no appreciable difference in speed (i.e. the user can't tell, but I
>suppose if you hooked up an alalyser you might find one) and for your
>pains you'll lose some valuable upper memory.

No, this is also (generally) wrong.  Most BIOS's today will reserve either
256KB or 384KB if you shadow *any* ROM.  Since shadowing the system ROM does
help (especially on a 32-bit processor), then you won't waste anything by
shadowing the video ROM.  OTOH, Windows sometimes has problems when certain
things are shadowed, depending on the system.  If your machine is flaky,
this is one thing to check.S

>
>Other ways to speed up Windows?  
>
>1.  Lotsa RAM.  Certainly no less than 4MB, 8 is nice.

Again, absolutely right.  The more the better.  And use it wisely.

>2.  Use a permenant swap file.

As opposed to a temporary, yes, this is best, but, better still, get 16MB of
real memory and turn off the swapping entirely.  This results in an
amazingly fast system.  Also, make sure 32-bit disk access is on, even if
you don't use any swapfile.

>3.  If you have oodles of RAM use 1MB for a RAM disk and in AUTOEXEC.BAT
>    have the line:
>    SET TEMP = D:\
>

If you have more than 4 MB of RAM, a good rule of thumb is to set up a
RAM-disk that is 25% the size of your total memory.  Then, make a
subdirectory (like maybe D:\TEMP) and SET TEMP=D:\TEMP.  *Never* use the
root directory.  What if a program creates 175 temporary files, all 512
bytes long?  It won't run, because the default number of directory entries
for RAMDRIVE is less than that.  But, there is no limit in the subdirectory,
except the size of the disk.

Some programs (notably Corel Draw!) will benefit most from a TEMP being set
to a RAM-disk.  Just make sure that it is big enough, and that it really is
the cause for speed-up, and not some other twiddling.

Also, if you are using network printers, turn Print Net Jobs Direct on in
the Print Manager, and you won't need a large TEMP disk for printing.  It
will go directly to the server.

--
Jeff Rife   P.O. Box 3836   |   "Because he was human; because he had goodness; College Station, TX 77844   |    because he was moral they called him insane.
(409) 696-4252 or 847-8775  |    Delusions of grandeur; visons of splendor;     nabs@tamu.edu               |    A manic-depressive, he walks in the rain."
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