#GForce 040 is here!
8 messages in this thread
Great news!!
The new G-Force 040 33MHz for Amiga 2000 arrived here yesterday!
Great board, nice design (8 layers), has a 625,000 bps serial port and a
parallel port ont board, 4 megs of 32 bits RAM expandable to 16 or 64 MB.
SCSI I & II controler and a 33MHz 040.
Installation is really easy, no problem at all!
Speed is excellent… the fastest Amiga we ever got in our store… about
50 times the speed of an Amiga 500 (even more when using FFP unit (100x))
Compared to a 28MHz 040 Fusion Forty board, it is about 12-25% faster and
has better Harddrive performances.
Still one problem… there is no supplied AMAX HD driver and the old ones
we had didn't work… we will have to call GVP on monday
and still trying to finds applications for the 625kbps!! 🙂
Conclusion: Real Nice product!
Note: AMAX running on this system is about 20% faster than a Apple 950
Quaddra! 🙂
Some news also on the RCS Fusion Forty that is now shipped with new ROMs
that avoid rebooting the machine on bootup… result: 32 bit memory
accessible on first pass and no more problems with A2091 and other 16 bits
ram boards… good improvement! Call RCS if your are interessed by these
roms. Note: Not as fast as the GVP GForce for Amiga 2000.
– Pat, Whapping from Quebec City!
I'd be interested to see some dperf timings from that controller if you get
around to it.
– Keith
It's not faster than a usual 16bits SCSI controler… but I have not yet
got the chance to try it with a SCSI II controler
Dperf2 results with Quantum LPS 50Mb (almost full):
DiskPerf2. Testing DH0{49MB}:
Create Files: 24 files/sec. Directory Scan: 261 entries/sec.
Delete Files: 100 files/sec. Seek/Read Test: 169 seek/sec.
Read/Write Speed Test: (bytes/sec.)
Buffer: 512 Read: 56,728 Write: 21,765 Buffer: 4k
Read: 308,767 Write: 162,217 Buffer: 8k Read: 334,794
Write: 201,804 Buffer: 32k Read: 492,751 Write: 330,156
Buffer: 64k Read: 537,180 Write: 383,812 Buffer: 256k
Read: 576,140 Write: 390,676
and with a 105 MB Quantum LPS: (75% full)
DiskPerf2. Testing DATA:
Create Files: 105 files/sec. Directory Scan: 161 entries/sec.
Delete Files: 182 files/sec. Seek/Read Test: 180 seek/sec.
Read/Write Speed Test: (bytes/sec.)
Buffer: 512 Read: 55,386 Write: 22,688 Buffer: 4k
Read: 330,156 Write: 180,913 Buffer: 8k Read: 383,812
Write: 281,270 Buffer: 32k Read: 407,055 Write: 442,064
Buffer: 64k Read: 477,493 Write: 503,155 Buffer: 256k
Read: 514,007 Write: 487,256
I get better results with this board than with the Fusion Forty 040.
– Pat, Whapping from Quebec City!
"… but I have not yet tried it with a SCSI II controller"
Did you mean that you haven't yet tried it with a SCSI II drive?
I don't have much experiance with Quantums, but those numbers look a
little low to me (might be good for a quantum tho (?)).
Thanks for the info,
Keith
I have a few questions about the G-Force 040 33mhz if you don't mind.
Can I assume there is "drop back" mode to the 68000 chip? I see there is
an extra serial & parallel port but is there a SCSI external port? GVP has
mentioned add-ons coming out for this board. Do you have any idea what
these are? GVP's ads also mention something about a 32 bit bus. I'm not
sure what they mean by this. Thanks!
Yes, the GVPCPUCTRL utility allows you to reboot your system in 68000 mode.
I haven't tried it yet but it is written in the manual… there may be a
hardware jumper too. Yes there is an external SCSI connector on the board
but it is seperated and using a second slot (see to 26 pins on the top
center of the board on the add in Amiga World)
Yes it as the same 32 bit conectors on the back of the board the 030 combo
boards have… probably for the 110 graphic board.
I tried the serial port today and it does work, but I got a few problems
configuring it (should read the manual first but… 🙂
– Pat, Whapping from Quebec City!
Thanks very much for the info! Can the 040 combo card be made a hard
card? (Probably not enough room.)
Thanks very much for the info! I could only see two ports on the GForce
040 from the ad in Amiga World. One is SCSI, what about the other?