#3D Stuio + Pentium???
12 messages in this thread
Has anyone out there had a chance to work with 3D Studio on one of the new
Pentium (a.k.a. "586") PCs??
"Was it good for you?" How much faster was it??
Regards,
Luke
Yes, I have tested the Compaq 5/60M and the Dell P60, both equiped with
Pentiums at 60MHz. You can check the recent Pentium and 3dStudio! thread as
well as other Pentium related threads in the forum to get an overview of
Pentium features and other members interesting comentaries about times and
upgrade technologies, along with a chart comparing both models with a Dell 486,
an IBM 486 and other manufactures times from other people in the forum. I think
you will enjoy it! 🙂
Ana
Ana,
I'm also curios about what people are experiecing with Pentium based machines.
I looked at all the messages with "pentium" and "studio" in the title and
didn't see any tables, and only one (from Gus Grubba) that mentioned actual
speeds…..
John.
Well to really simplify things, it's my understanding that the Pentium
renders approximately twice the speed of a 486 DX2/66. Anyone correct me if
I'm wrong.
— Steve
Steven,
I know all the magazines are saying 50 to 100 percent faster on existing
software. I was just wondering about programs like I'll be using. Gus Grubba
ran a few benchmarks for me. He found that the 368/486 version of Vistapro ran
about 50 percent faster than my 486DX2-66. I compiled a 586 version (Watcom
9.5's /5s switch) and that version ran twice as fast. I don't use 3d studio
(although I have it sittin on the shelf) but I was wondering what people were
finding…
John.
Hi John,
I guess the bottom line is the bang for the buck. If you need 3DS computing
power today, get an array of 486/66's and network them. Far cheaper and less
headaches. That won't be true in six month or so, though…
Not only that but (correct me if I'm wrong) Pentium machines are only
EISA and that would mean none of my existing cards (like targa 64+, ethernet,
etc..) built for ISA wouldn't work in there. Or am I wrong here?
— Steve
All of your ISA cards should work in any EISA machine. There are a few cards
out there that do naughty things and won't work but they are the exception. I'm
running a Targa 64+ in several Compaq EISA machines with no problems. As well
as ISA ethernet cards, game cards and everything else.
Steven,
ISA compatibility is the main cause of the success of the EISA bus over IBM's
Microchannel. When a group of top vendors decided to design a new bus that can
expand the system according the new CPUs, they also decided that it'll have to
be compatible with the ISA standard, creating the EISA bus. In the other side,
the omniscient big blue decide that their costumers can throw throught the
window all their ISA cards investment and buy a new smart technology called
Microchannel (created from scratch by IBM engineers), that can give costumers a
very high performance, easy to setup bus and can give IBM the weapon to destroy
the clone market. In my opinion, with OS/2 and Windows 3.0 success,
Microchannel marks the fall of the giant. You can buy EISA without fear, it
will hold all your ISA cards.
No VLB bus neither PCI can hold ISA cards. Expect to see more and more VLB/EISA
and PCI/EISA boards in the future. I think that finally all will go to open
enviroments, with all kind of buses for all kind of CPUs.
Ana
Thanks Ana, that's very refreshing to hear. Now, I can go out and buy
that Pentium without any fear! <right!>
— Steve
I sure would like to have your /5s version <g>. My Makepath Flight Director
just came in and I actually popped a Pentium in my 66M to do some "flights".
Let it render over the long weekend and the flight took 6 hours to finish (
based on the file times ). My visual impression is the 5/60 is at least twice
as fast as the 66 was. Those oak trees sure draw faster <g>.
Of course I used Ultimate with gobs of trees and 24 bit files. Now to dump it
to tape!
I'm getting anywhere between 25% and 200% increase in speed when it comes to
rendering. It depends a lot on everything else. The best situations are those
that would take 10 to 20 minutes to render (per frame). They came down to 3 to
8 minutes. The small sessions didn't change much. But again, it depends on just
about everything else. If you just plug in a Pentium and use the same I/O, the
gain isn't that much. If you get a 64bit HD controller, fast 64 bit memory and
a ton of memory cache… and a network of Crays…<g>
It will make a big difference when the code you're running is compiled with the
Pentium support.