wrote:SiS 530, yeah, it must have been. I almost wrote SiS 530 because that's the number that popped in my head, but I didn't put it because I wasn't sure.
500Mhz, Compaq and K6-2 give it away 😉
Yes, seriously, that machine was garbage. They only bought a Compaq because the last PC, they bought, which was a very well-made 486, was from Compaq. But, wow, the quality of the Compaq brand totally went from awesome clone to garbage-machine in only 4 or 5 years. But since the CPU was so much faster than the 486, it totally blew them away, and they were crazy about it. And, being a kid, I have to admit I liked it at first too, until I realized we could have gotten something much much better.
Now that I think of it, I bet any PCI card is faster than the Si530 AGP. I think the only reason they made such garbage for the AGP bus, was because the AGP protocol allows the video card to borrow system RAM, so if you're designing an integrated chipset with no dedicated vram, you can just abuse the protocol to shove everything in slow system RAM. If they made it PCI, then it would need some actual vRam of its own.
Actually, iirc some 530 had dedicated ram on the PCB. Atleast I think so, I'm not sure about it.
In those days, "onboard" usually meant "crap" and AGP was mostly of use for future use (kinda like when the first sata controllers appeared, it wasn't any faster in practical terms but it was 'new!' and the next best thing since sliced bread! Thats how AGP was back in those days.
But I'd put a PCI card in such a motherboard in a heartbeat, preferably something made by 3dfx 😉
The 530 did have 1 advantage, a 1/4 PCI divider so you can run the FSB at 133Mhz while keeping the other busses at normal speed 😉
wrote:Actually, iirc some 530 had dedicated ram on the PCB. Atleast I think so, I'm not sure about it. […]
Actually, iirc some 530 had dedicated ram on the PCB. Atleast I think so, I'm not sure about it.
In those days, "onboard" usually meant "crap" and AGP was mostly of use for future use (kinda like when the first sata controllers appeared, it wasn't any faster in practical terms but it was 'new!' and the next best thing since sliced bread! Thats how AGP was back in those days.
But I'd put a PCI card in such a motherboard in a heartbeat, preferably something made by 3dfx 😉
The 530 did have 1 advantage, a 1/4 PCI divider so you can run the FSB at 133Mhz while keeping the other busses at normal speed 😉
While it's a hell of a lot better than it was, onboard video still isn't up to the performance level of a dedicated card, not even for casual gaming use. At least now most new motherboards come with at least one PCI-E slot so being stuck with nothing but PCI slots for upgrades is pretty much a thing of the past. Even the mass market systems that didn't used to have a fast video slot have one now. The machine I am using now has a Radeon HD 4250 onboard and it's ok for less demanding or older games , but you can't play Crysis with it, that's for sure. That's why I also have a 4850 in the PCI-E slot. Couldn't afford to build a Crossfire setup, though. Maybe next time.
