From: singer@cs.uwp.edu (Scott Singer)
Subject: Re: Diamond 24X vs. Stealth
Organization: University of Wisconsin - Parkside
Date: Sat, 21 Nov 1992 14:53:11 GMT

In article <oLgJuB4w165w@billapc.UUCP> baustin@billapc.UUCP (Bill Austin) writes:
>young@cbnewsh.cb.att.com (young.u.huh) writes:
>
>> Any comments on Diamond Speedstar 24X vs. the Stealth?
>
>The Windows drivers included with the 24X were complete, and seemed
>very fast.  I take all claims of 15/25 etc with a grain of salt.  It
>was 5 times as fast as the card it replaced.. which was a fairly cheap

What are you using to perform this "benchmark" on your machine?  I'd
be curious to what configuration you have set up.  As for the 25 times
speed increase on the Stealth - I'd like to see WHERE they came up with
that number......

>
>I would spend the money on a faster motherboard.

TO THE ORIGINAL POSTER:
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
I disagree, sorta.  In your case, I would say MAYBE, buy a faster motherboard,
but I would ALSO reccommend buying a 24x along with it.  If you move up
to a faster motherboard alone, you won't see a great deal of video 
speed-up.  If you plan on using any high resolution modes (800x600 or
1024x768) you will definetly want a faster video card (24x).  As an example,
we have 486-33Mhz's running with the Tseng 4000 based SpeedStar (NOT the 24x)
cards in them.  Now, the machine is what most anyone would consider quite
fast, but the video speed is terrible - scrolling through source code is
such a pain.  If you are doing any sort of editing, like in a text editor
or something similar, you will be literly chugging along - let me point 
out that the video modes we used ARE bigger than 640x480 AND we are set
for 256 colors.  In a setup such as this a good perormance gain can be
realized by moving to the 16-color mode.

As another example, my macine at work originally came with a 1 meg SVGA card
(it was an Everx Viewpoint card) and the performance of windows was
very slow - you could NEVER tell that the machine was in fact a 486-DX 50Mhz
by looking at windows.  So I replaced it with a Stealth VRAM at the
thing cranks out speed now!  Remember, most people (Diamond) are saying
that the 24x is faster than the Stealth.  NOW, I am running at 1024 x 768
in 256 colors and it is VERY VERY fast.  (Sometimes things go by TOO fast
on the scrren :)   )

My point is that regardless of how fast your computer is, if you want
to run lots of colors or high resolution you'll need a FAST video card
(such as the 24x) if you are doing Windows.  For DOS a tseng 4000 based
card is great, but it is not as good in Windows.  

BUT - if you are wanting to run in just 640 x 480, then think about maybe
a faster mother board and a tseng4000 (or trident etc,etc) VGA card.  It
won't be as fast as you want, but you could spend the money on a new
mother board....


I WOULD RECCOMMEND that you buy a 24x at a local place that you can
try it out at home for a while.  If you don't see the improvement
then you'd be able to return it.  But I think you'd see LOTS of improvement
in Windows.  I'd ALSO say spend the extra $120 on a slightly faster
386sx-25Mhz motherboard.  Sure, it's not TONS faster, but it IS faster.  
Also, 386-DX33/40 motherboards are around $200.  Either way you could 
(possibly) use your existing memory on the new motherboard, and then 
just drop it right in your machine.  

How much memory (RAM) do you have on your system?  If you don't have at
least 4 meg you are probably suffering a lot of performance from the amount
of hard disk access going on.

I had a guy running a 386sx-20 at work with 2 meg ram on Windows 3.1 and
the thing was terrribly slow - ALWAYS going to the HD for info.  SO, I
popped in 6 meg ram( total now at 8 meg) and the thing was PLENTY 
fast for him - definetly a huge improvement.  YOU could do this  - if
your machine uses SIMMS then buy some that will be fast enough to put
into your NEXT computer (Motherboard) that you will buy.  That way, if
you get yourself X megs of ram now, you will be able to use it
when you upgrade.. 

I would say first step would to have 4 meg of ram
on your machine (at least) before even CONSIDERING a video/MB upgrade
(that is IF you are mostly a Windows user) as that will give you an
overall performance boost.  Then go for a 24x board.  I think it would
work out really good.....


>non-existant drivers for the 24X for OS/2 2.0 (GA+SP).  If you have the
>desire to dump Windows and use OS/2.. check for driver availablity
>before you buy ANYTHING.

Very good point on OS/2





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