The IBM Opal and Opal LX mainboards with IBM 486SLC2

AMI BIOS 06-Jun-1992, MS-DOS 6.22 with HIMEM

IBM Opal with 80MHz CPU / 40MHz system and VL buses / 13MHz ISA bus, OPTI 82C295 + 82C206 chipset, 16Kb WB L1 cache, 128Kb WB L2 cache, 16Mb FPM RAM, IIT 3C87SX math coprocessor, Hercules VL Dynamite Pro 2Mb (Tseng ET4000/W32P):
3Dbench: 40.0
PCPbench: 7.9
DOOM: 22.0 (3395 realticks)
Quake: 2.1

The same config with a Diamond SpeedStar 64 ISA 2Mb (Cirrus Logic GD5434):
3Dbench: 33.3
PCPbench: 7.4
Doom: 20.0 (3743)
Quake: 2.1

Again with the Diamond card and 66MHz CPU / 33MHz system bus / 11MHz ISA bus:
3Dbench: 27.8
PCPbench: 6.2
Doom: 16.8 (4450)
Quake: 1.8

IBM Opal LX with 66MHz CPU / 33MHz system bus / 11MHz ISA bus, OPTI 82C283 + 82C206 chipset, 16Kb WB L1 cache, no L2 cache, 16Mb FPM RAM, IIT 3C87SX math coprocessor, Diamond SpeedStar 64 ISA 2Mb:
3Dbench: 26.7
PCPbench: 6.1
Doom: 15.0 (4978)
Quake: 1.7

The same with 50MHz CPU / 25MHz system bus / 8MHz ISA bus:
3Dbench: 20.0
PCPbench: 4.8
Doom: 12.0 (6205)
Quake: 1.3

It seems the L2 cache doesn't help much. The max improvement is 10% with Doom. A video card upgrade from ISA to VL yields 20% in 3Dbench and 10% in Doom.

BTW if anyone has the MR BIOS for these mainboards, I'd appreciate a copy.

Thanks for the results. It seems the 16-bit bus of the SLC2 is simply to limiting to compete with an 486. I'm curious how the VLB bus works with the 16-bit bus of the SLC2.

Personally, I think these stores are pretty good for what is basically a glorified 386SX.

GL1zdA wrote:

Thanks for the results. It seems the 16-bit bus of the SLC2 is simply to limiting to compete with an 486. I'm curious how the VLB bus works with the 16-bit bus of the SLC2.

They put two PAL16L8 and one PAL16R4 logic chip to glue 32-bit VLB and 16-bit system bus. The memory controller supports fast page and block interleaving. The 128Kb L2 cache works over the entire 16Mb memory range with write back. It seems they squeezed all juice out of the 386SX architecture. OPTI 82C295 is capable of 40MHz by design. OPTI 82C283 Rev. B can do up to 33MHz according to the spec. IBM didn't do speed rating on 486SLC2. It was up to OEMs what clock speed to choose. Passive cooling was necessary for 66MHz and above.

What's the difference between 3DBench and 3DBench2 1.0c and for what systems should I use the old 3DBench? 😕

Tried to download zip file, but seems like Phil's site is down? Would be nice to have at least couple of mirrors for that.
In the meantime found old(?) version on archive.org: https://web.archive.org/web/20170121115809/ht … .4_jan_2017.zip

Compared to the initial tests pack, in the current 1.4 there is a change of parameters for Quake: viewsize 120 -> 100 (120 sets complete screen view, while 100 is by default, reduces the screen by the returning of health/ammo bar). This rises on ~14% the Quake's 320x200 results in DOSBox and should significantly on real computers too.
It's not clear since what time this change has happened. The initial tests pack was uploaded in 2014-01-05 and I should be taken its link, following this theme, not before of 2015-05-09. In the pack's manual after 1.0 version dated of 2015 the next changes are said of January 2017. Probably viewsize=100 appeared since January 2017. It could happened accidentally, as 100 is Quake's default and with what people played in common, as Doom's settings in 1.4 are still left at complete screen view without health/ammo bar. So Quake's results in 320x200 inputed since some time should be reduced, for example by the devision on 1.14

ujav wrote on 2019-06-28, 23:02:

seems like Phil's site is down?

Try a proxy.

Ran tests and seems mine do not match with similar results. I'm really slow!
486DX 2 66
8mb Ram
onboard vesa 1mb CL 5428
sis 85C461 chipset

It's not clear which tests people have ran for Doom etc, high or low?
Mine are the high settings and results are-

Test 2 - 3d Bench :29.5
Test 5 - PCP low - 7.1
Doom high- 4415 = 16.9FPS
quake test C - 969 frames, 186.8 seconds 5.2 fps
quake test D - 2.5fps
running cachecheck i got a error of CPU is in V86 MODE!!!!!!! not sure what this means, also stated This machine seems to have 1 cache!

Topbench dont even load just crashes back to main menu

how do i install this pack its 25mb ? wont fit via gotek

scroeffie wrote on 2021-04-18, 11:45:

how do i install this pack its 25mb ? wont fit via gotek

You can use a network connection or you can attach your hard drive to a computer with a network connection and copy the files to the drive, and then return it to the DOS computer, a.k.a. “sneaker net” because you are walking the drive from computer to computer. I find that Compact flash drives are good for this.

More back in the era would be zip drive, external is still working with Win10. Dos network sucks, because there is not graphical FPT client, only server.

Burn it to a CD

kithylin wrote on 2017-03-28, 03:46:

I know this is now an old thread, but... how do you convert dooms' realtics to FPS exactly? I used to type in realtics into the google sheet thing but it's not editable. So I dunno.. Wondering what math you use for it anyway?

I created a very simple tool to calculate FPS automatically. Simply put the attached doomtool.exe in the MARKS/DOOMS/ folder, then change in DOSBENCH.BAT:

doom -config max.cfg -timedemo demo3

to:

doomtool doom -config max.cfg -timedemo demo3

EDIT: There was a little bug in the version of the tool attached here originally. A fixed version is here: https://github.com/efliks/doomtool/releases/d … ool-1ac4468.zip

ruthan wrote on 2021-04-19, 07:18:

More back in the era would be zip drive...

CompactFlash came from IBM Microdrive's... a mini spinning hard disk in the same size... 100% sure they're still compatible

efliks wrote on 2023-11-28, 22:59:

I created a very simple tool to calculate FPS automatically. Simply put the attached doomtool.exe in the MARKS/DOOMS/ folder, th […]
Show full quote

kithylin wrote on 2017-03-28, 03:46:

I know this is now an old thread, but... how do you convert dooms' realtics to FPS exactly? I used to type in realtics into the google sheet thing but it's not editable. So I dunno.. Wondering what math you use for it anyway?

I created a very simple tool to calculate FPS automatically. Simply put the attached doomtool.exe in the MARKS/DOOMS/ folder, then change in DOSBENCH.BAT:

doom -config max.cfg -timedemo demo3

to:

doomtool doom -config max.cfg -timedemo demo3

That's very useful! You should send this directly to Phil through his website since I don't think he visits VOGONS very often any longer.

vetz wrote on 2023-11-29, 11:15:

efliks wrote on 2023-11-28, 22:59:

I created a very simple tool to calculate FPS automatically. Simply put the attached doomtool.exe in the MARKS/DOOMS/ folder, th […]
Show full quote

kithylin wrote on 2017-03-28, 03:46:

I know this is now an old thread, but... how do you convert dooms' realtics to FPS exactly? I used to type in realtics into the google sheet thing but it's not editable. So I dunno.. Wondering what math you use for it anyway?

I created a very simple tool to calculate FPS automatically. Simply put the attached doomtool.exe in the MARKS/DOOMS/ folder, then change in DOSBENCH.BAT:

doom -config max.cfg -timedemo demo3

to:

doomtool doom -config max.cfg -timedemo demo3

That's very useful! You should send this directly to Phil through his website since I don't think he visits VOGONS very often any longer.

I notified Phil. Let's keep the fingers crossed!