#GVP A1230 Turbo+ 2
18 messages in this thread
RE: Speed (increase?) of GVP A1230 Turbo+ II 68030/40
I've just bought the GVP A1230 Turbo+ II 68030/40 accelerator for my
A1200. It has no memory installed (I can't afford that until next
payday!) and has replaced my 4Mb memory expansion.
I ran Sysinfo to see just how fast my new "mean machine" was, and to my
supprise, the answer is "not very fast at all!".
Sysinfo reports the Dhrystones figure is 1264, and it operates at 1.31
Mips.
Question 1. Is this performance to be expected because it has no extra
RAM on the GVP board?
Question 2. Can somebody with the same board with 4Mb RAM installed run
sysinfo and let me know how fast it operates, after all, if there isn't a
great increase in speed, I'm going to take it straight back to the
dealer!
Thanks in anticipation.
PS if anyone wants A4000/030's, they are available here in the UK from
most dealers, get a copy of the UK magazine 'Amiga Format' which I
understand is available over there for dealer numbers.
Kevin Sangwell
Surrey, England
Flying (not so fast) on AutoPilot and a 68030 A1200!
Kevin;
I would suggest AIBB rather than SysInfo.
I also would suggest that not having "on board" memory could have a rather
marked effect on the performance on the board.
Also, the ability to switch to fast ROM would make a significant
difference in to performance of some types of operations.
-bill
Bill
Thanks for confirming my thoughts about having no RAM on the GVP board, it
makes me feel a whole lot better!
I will, as you suggest, try AIBB to get some benchmarks. As far as
mapping the ROM into RAM, I'd love to, however with only the std 2Mb
in the A1200, I can't spare the extra 500K it would take up, although
next month when I get the extra RAM, I'll do it straight away!
Thanks once again for your advice <;-)
Regards
Kevin
Getting there on AutoPilot with an A1200 68030/40…
Kevin;
Recognize that I don't have an A1200. I saw one once but even then, did
not do anything but look.
I would expect the plain A1200 to turn in about 3200 on Dyrstones.
Though it depends a great deal on what you are doing with the machine, the
Ami itself is quite sensitive to the amount of memory available, the
amount of each type of memory available, the amount of fragmentation and
where the ROM code is located.
Moving the ROM will cause a really dramatic increase in performance for
some operations.
I do not know anything specific about the GVP accellerator board that you
have but if previous experience with GVP accellerators in other machines
is any indication then you are "paying" a severe penalty for having to
access the main bus for all operations. Even the original GVP A3001 board
gave dramatic performance if it was using on board memory but nothing
really impressive using motherboard memory.
-bill
Bill,
Thanks for the reply, it seems that it's the lack of memory thats slowing
my machine down, so I'll swap the Accellerator out for the RAM expansion
as thats more useful right now.
Do you know of anyone who offers an expansion "box" to give an A1200 more
than one Zorro II slot? That would obviously save me dumping the 4Mb
expansion in the classifides and getting almost nothing for it!
Regards
Kevin
AutoPilot form Surrey, UK.
Sorry Kevin, don't know what is available for the A1200.
-bill
Yes, extra RAM will increase the speed of your RAM DRAMATICALLY!
I have the 50Mhz Microbotics, and with Sysinfo says that I get 7346
Dhrystones, and 7.66 Mips. (I can eek out about a 10% faster speed if I
use CPU FASTROM)
Your machine is going to be a bit less, but closer to mine than you think.
🙂
Bob Comer — Flying high and fast with my A1200HD'030 on Autopilot!
From Cheyenne, Wyoming U.S.A.
Bob,
Thanks for the reasurance, phew! I can breath! I was (only a little)
worried that I'd spent 250 for nothing!
BTW I almost went for the Microbotics/50Mhz, but two things stopped me; 1)
The microbotics only has one SIMM slot (although it takes std SIMM's) and
2) it cost more than I wanted to pay!
Now I can't wait until next month when I get the extra RAM, until then,
I'm going to swap the GVP out for the RAM expansion (it's more useful for
now) – what a crime, I know but that's life…:-)
Regards
Kevin
AutoPilot form the UK at 40 Mhz (NOT!!)
Kevin 68030/40 A1200…
Flying AutoPilot from Surrey in the UK
Kevin,
If you want I have a spare 1mb fast ram SIMM just lying around (became
surplus when I upgraded to two 4mb SIMMS). Would be willing to send it to
you, no strings (like I said it is not doing anything just sitting there).
It originally was in a GVP SCSI/RAM+ Series II board, so I suspect that it
would also fit into your 1230 board.
Trent
Flying near the Pole in the Great White North
Trent,
If only the world had more like you! I'd *LOVE* that 1 Mb SIMM if you
really are sure you don't need it.
I'll send EMail with my address etc.
Thanks once again…
Kevin 68030/40 A1200…
Flying AutoPilot from Surrey in the UK
Kevin,
Although the GVP 1230+ will speed up the A1200 some without any 32 bit
fastram, it won't by much. The chip ram is just plain slowerthan added
fastram, plus it probably is competing with other processes (thats a
guess). I ran Sysinfo on my 1230+ series II with 8megs and the Dhrystones
were 5970 and the mips were 6.23.
=Rick=
Rick,
WOW! Now that sounds good! I'm really glad I did buy the accelerator
now, thats pretty fast eh?
Thanks for the conformation!
BTW, how much do 4Mb and 8MB GVP SIMMs cost over there? If it's a LOT
cheaper, I'll get them from there and save some ##'s
Regards
Kevin
AutoPilot from Surrey, UK.
I don't think GVP has an 8MB simm, just 1, 4 or 16MB's. The 4MB simms are
about $195.00 US dollars and the 16MB simms are about $1150.00 US dollars,
but these prices fluctuate depending on how "chip" commodity prices are
doing.
=Rick=
Rick,
Thanks for the info, as per usual, the distributor(s) over here are using
a dollar to pound exchange rate of $1 to #1, which make these SIMMs
expensive, unless I can source them for less, I'll be getting them from
the States. On this not, can you recommend a good dealer or distributor
who would be prepared to ship to the UK?
Regards
Kevin 68030/40 A1200…
Flying AutoPilot from Surrey in the UK
I pretty sure that Software Hut, which happens to be in my area just
outside Philadelphia, PA ships abroad. I was in there the other day and
they were talking to someone on the phone regarding a shipment to South
Africa. Their prices are pretty competative, I get most of my equipment
and software from them. Memory World might be a few percent cheaper, they
are in a suburb of Philadelphia as well. Both advertise in Amiga World,
at least the US version (if there is such a beast).
Phone numbers are:
Software Hut: 610-586-5701 (voice) 610-586-5706 (fax)
Memory World: 215-244-7930 (voice) 215-244-7932 (fax)
=Rick=
Rick,
Thanks for the contacts, we get Amiga World over here too (the US version)
so I'll look out for it as you have to hunt it down! All I have to do now
is find out how much import duty our 'wonderful' governemt want to see if
it's worth it!
Regards
Kevin 68030/40 A1200…
Flying AutoPilot from Surrey in the UK
Kevin,
It's the lack of 32-bit memory that's causing your lack of speed. Once you
add some RAM to the board you'll be looking at a MAJOR speed increase.
Denny Atkin
The Best Amiga Tips and Secrets guy, via AutoPilot
Denny,
Thanks, as I'm sure you've seen, everyone appears to be agreed on this
point, so I'll just have to wait until next month when I can afford that 4
Mb SIMM!
Regards
Kevin 68030/40 A1200…
Flying AutoPilot from Surrey in the UK