From: jerry@connection.prospect.com (Jerry Shekhel)
Subject: Re: Its a sad sad day...
Organization: Molecular Simulations, Inc.
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Date: Thu, 15 Oct 1992 16:03:34 GMT
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Hans Bergengren (Hans_Bergengren@p1.thulos.bbs.bad.se) wrote:
: 
:  SS> >For all we know, he's running at 1024X768X256 unaccelerated on an
:  SS> > 80286.
: 
: As I said in previous postings, I've used Windows on an 80286, 386 and 486.
: I've also (briefly) used OS/2 2.0 on the same 486 computer that ran Windows
: (it was a 33MHz model with SVGA), Windows was VERY SLOW on the 286, SLOW on
: the 386 machines (both 25 and 33MHz), and somewhat lagging on the 486-33. But
: the machine ran Wing Commander just fine... Everything just whooshed by (oh
: my, what was that? An asteroid! >BAAAOOOUUUUMMM!!< Game Over!)
: I couldn't say that OS/2 was fast either, it certainly was faster than my 14.3
: MHz 68000 w/ 32 kB cache, but it wasn't as distinctive in the handling (hard
: to explain the feeling). Compared to an A3000 at 25 MHz, it clearly fell
: behind.
: 

Well, we can fire anecdotes at each other for months, but I find Windows 3.1
on my 386/33 and ET4000 VGA to be faster than WorkBench on the A3000.  I'm
running Windows at 800x600x8, and using a large disk cache.  I think that the
configuration has a lot to do with it.

:
: I wonder if you've used an A3000? I mean, you certainly won't see the
: windows being painted on the screen with THAT machine. WHAM! There it sits.
: BANG! There you moved it.
: 

I've used an A3000 and my 386 at home.  I have *never* seen Windows paint
the screen.  Everything is instantaneous in 3.1, even on my "dumb" VGA.
3.0 was one thing, but Windows 3.1 is very fast, IMHO at least as fast as WB
on an A3000.

:
:  SS> >For the system's this discussion concerns, the other equipment is
:  SS> >usually top notch anyway.
: 
: Running via an 8MHz ISA bus? Oh MY! But with the Amiga solution, that means
: that you will have FIVE (count em'!) card slots free! Accelerator, 32MB RAM,
: SCSI-II, serial/parralel connectors all on one card in one DEDICATED CPU slot.
: You WON'T waste anything, occupy any precious space, because the space is
: ALLOCATED for that option!
: 

So, upgrade your PC motherboard to a localbus 486 with on-board I/O ports and
64MB memory capacity, and add a SCSI controller.  There you go: you probably
spent less than what you'd pay for the KitchenSink Amiga accelerator, and you
still have SEVEN (count 'em!) card slots free, including (typically) two
localbus slots for blazing graphics.

: 
: Doubled clock rate isn't the greatest way of increasing performance. You'll
: get wait states at each and every system bus access, and clock-doubling
: solutions have been around for AGES! Even the Mac IIfx (was it?) used this
: technique, even the Atari TT did it (16 MHz system, 33 MHz CPU/FPU).
: No big deal!
: 

Greatest way or not, it does improve performance significantly.

: 
: Oh yeah. That's GOOD. But how about configuring the REST of the system,
: messing around (and then I mean *MESSING*) with IRQs, DMA channels, and card
: addresses! Not the technology of the 90's if you'd ask me!
: 

Who cares?  You do it once and forget about it.  If you read the installation
guide, you'll have few problems.

: 
: You DO get waitstates while accessing the bus, don't you? (YESSS!)
: Your RAMs may not be the fastest in the world, your motherboard maybe isn't
: the best, either. After all, it's ONLY the CPU running at twice the speed, no
: big deal!
: 

No big deal.  Tell that to SGI, who runs its R4000 machines at 50MHz external,
100MHz internal.

: 
: It seems like many people look at Win NT and see a potencial UNIX killer. I'm
: not worried. UNIX is established. UNIX has a large S/W base, and is used all
: around the world. And frankly; Win NT seems to be EVEN SLOWER than the
: ordinary Windows versions. What a laugh! In the future, we will probably need
: a whole Cray just to make Win NT v55.7 run, let alone EXECUTE anything.
:

Whine, whine, whine.  Bitch, bitch, bitch.  Let's don't judge NT before it's
out, OK?  The current developer's kit is a pre-beta, unoptimized, not to be
used for benchmarks.

:
: The Amiga OS reduces overhead in each version, Windows increases!
: 

Bullshit.  Windows 3.1 is much faster than 3.0.

: 
:    /  /
:   /--/
:  /  /B - No Mr. Nice-Guy Anymore...
: 
--
+-------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------+
| Jerry J. Shekhel  | Molecular Simulations | Time just fades the pages      |
| Drummers do it... | Inc.  Waltham, MA USA | in my book of memories.        |
|    ... In rhythm! |     (617) 890-2888    |              -- Guns N' Roses  |
+-------------------+-----------------------+--------------------------------+
|           ...! [ princeton mit-eddie bu sunne ] !polygen!jerry             |
|                            jerry@polygen.com                               |
+----------------------------------------------------------------------------+
Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.advocacy