🚀 go-pugleaf

> I have found that there is an enormous range of differing performance that
> you can get out of machines which have even the same chip. I've played on
> a friends network and one of the 486 66's was so slow that I had to play
> on the smallest window with detail low and it still crawled. This
> particular 486 was so bad that it was slower than his older 486-25. The
> reason for this, as I understand it, is that the 66 has no graphics
> accellerator. This apparently makes a huge difference. I would also assume
> it has a slower bus.

[stuff deleted]

> The lesson here is that if you have a poorly set up, poorly configured
> 486-66 you can get terrible performance out of it. If, on the other hand,
> you have a well setup machine you can get superb performance out it. The
> chip can be the same but with different components the outcome can be
> drastically different.

Two friends of mine had similar problems with computer speed.  It is 
strange that a 486DX266 would run slower than a 486 25.  I could only see 
this happening if the manufacturer used total crap parts for the DX2 and 
the manufacturer of the 486 25 used the best things available.  If your 
system is running slower than something obviously inferior, check the 
system configuration out.

When my friend complained of problems with his computer, he said that his 
486 DX2 50 ran slower than his dads 486 DX33.  It turns out that his 
external cache RAM was disabled in CMOS.  When the cache was enabled, his 
system ran at least twice as fast.

My other friend has a 486 DX2 66.  He also complained that his computer 
ran too slow.  I checked his CMOS, and sure enough, someone disabled his 
external AND internal cache RAM.  Talk about trying to sabotage a 
computer!  Disabling all of the cache memory made the computer crawl.  
And on top of that, the system wasn't shadowing his video's ROM (which 
makes the video run faster).

After I enabled his cache and video rom shadow, his system ran Wing 
Commander III fairly decently in SVGA mode, and he commented on the setup 
screen (with the rotating capital ship), "Hey... That's mass faster than 
before."

Anyhow, my point is, it doesn't necessarily have to be the video 
equipment, the CPU, or even the bus.  Simply having your cache disabled 
is enough to hamper computer speed.

Chuck
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     /SungMin "Chuck"\      |        \ |           ||           | /          |
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