#Slow 3ds on AMD486?
10 messages in this thread
I have got 2 machines running 3ds R3. A frame renders on the 486DX2-66 in under
a minute. The same frame takes 5 mitues on an AMDDX4-100. I am using the star
ixp as part of the image. I can't figure out what is slowing the DX4-100 down.
There is sufficient memory on both machines to render without swapping to disk.
The literature mentions that the ipas routines need an intel math co-processor.
Is the co-processor in the AMD chip an Intel or Weitek?
Thanks
Larry Lee
>The literature mentions that the ipas routines need an intel math
co-processor. Is the co-processor in the AMD chip an Intel or Weitek?<
If I remember correctly the AMD chips don't have a FPU. Same as 486SX chips.
Incorrect – the 486 DXn series chips from AMD DO have the FPU in the CPU. I am
running one in this machine. Performance is what you would expect from a 486.
It isn't a speed demon when compared to a 130 Mhz Pentium, but it does well for
CAD work and simple renderings.
Thanks for the info. I'll have to look for some other reason than the CPU for
the slow renderings. How much faster are the AMD DX4-100's than the Pentium
130's?
Larry
Whoa!
Did I mistype my reply? (I just checked and I see that I didn't). Let me
clarify! My 486-DX4 100 is NOT faster than a Pentium 130 . . . not by a long
shot! It performs a little slower than a 75 Mhz Pentium. The best way to
maximize your performance on any system running 3dS is more RAM, and more RAM,
and . . . . (you get the picture). Check the complexity of your models and
scenes. Are you using fully detailed 3d models when a flat surface with a
texture map will do?
Are your models highly meshed, but are only going to be seen from a great
distance away, so all that detail is wasted?
There are a lot of tricks to be learned in maximizing your processing
capabilities. User Groups are a great place to pick a lot of these up. These
people love to show off how slick they are and how much they know (but then,
don't we all?)
>Incorrect – the 486 DXn series chips from AMD DO have the FPU in the CPU. I am
running one in this machine. Performance is what you would expect from a 486.<
You didn't say you had a DX in the message I saw. That doesn't help explain why
it was slower than your DX266.
>>
>Incorrect – the 486 DXn series chips from AMD DO have the FPU in the CPU. I am
running one in this machine. Performance is what you would expect from a 486.<
You didn't say you had a DX in the message I saw. That doesn't help explain why
it was slower than your DX266.
<<
Tim – I'm confused as to which message you are referring to. Perhaps I am so
multi-threaded that I have become unstrung . . . .
What I'm trying to figure out is why the DX4-100 is rendering slower than the
DX2-66. It's not swapping to disk so memory can't be a problem.
Thanks,
Larry
Another possibility is this – Not all computers are created equal! Computers
with seemingly identical specs (486, x Mbs of RAM and HD, SVGA display card
w/xMb RAM) can be vastly different in performance depending upon a large number
of factors:
1) Hard drive setup – how was the drive low-level formatted. How large are the
sectors? This can affect read/write speeds, the amount of space consumed on the
drive by files, and how quickly the operating system can access the drive.
2) Cache – Is it there, how much do you have, how it is implemented.
3) Memory (main RAM) – same as cache memory.
4) Speed / integration on main motherboard components.
5) Video card RAM (DRAM, VRAM, or WRAM)
6) Operating system and BIOS setup.
With extremes on both ends, it is possible for a seemingly slower system to
outperform one that has better "specs". I have seen this before. There is a
reason for the disparity in some motherboard prices, and sometimes you get what
you pay for.
Has anyone who thinks his computer is slow looked into the wait states to acces
ram and cache?
The Factory shipped Bios is consevative by nature and sometimes the wait
states can be lowered to 0 and still work. I got my 486DX4-100 to clock from
104Mhz on Wintune 1.0, to 116Mhz!!!
Bob Kohl
Cedille inc.
-Bob Kohl