Hi everyone.

There's an IT mystery and I'd like it solved.

I'm sure most of you at least once stumbled upon those mysterious and non-clearly specified "local bus" things, especially involving branded old computers.
For example, one of the most notorious "local bus" systems was that used by Compaq Computers to integrate VGA cards in the motherboards.

I'd like to finally "quantify" the bandwidth of this "thing" against the ISA bus.

So, the mobo's integrated VGA is Tseng ET4000w32 with 1 MB.

The logical course of action would be to test the same VGA in an ISA slot and compare differences (CPU is 486 DX2 66 Intel). Same system, all identical, just different "bus": ISA vs Compaq Local Bus.

Questions:

• Is there any software/benchmark that specifically tests the CPU ↔ VGA communication speed? Like literally throwing lots of data back and forth and measuring?
• Provided I can get an ISA ET4000w32: in order to test EVERYTHING (like Text, 2D, and 3D performance in both apps and games environments under both MS-DOS 6.xx and Win3.xx, every kind of possible type of operation or performance a Video Card can do), what utilities, software, benchmarks, and games should I use both under DOS and Win? Can you please suggest a list? Also, to test games performance, do I have to actually have the whole thing, or are there game-based test engines easier to run?
So far, the only tests I have are Test Landmark Speed under DOS (both 2.0 and 6.0) and WindSock under Windows 3.xx
• I know there are different sub-types/revisions/whatever of each ET4000. So, it isn't enough to have the same "chip" (like ET4000W32 both in ISA and local bus), but must also be the same subtype. How do I know all the specs and revisions of the integrated one so to get the same card but on ISA?
• I saw the only few ISA ET4000w32 cards available on the web are super expensive! I just need to test the speeds. Does anybody of you own one such a card that I can borrow (shipping on me), run the tests, and ship back?

Any impression, suggestion, further idea, comment?

Finally, if I won't find an ISA ET4000W32 card, how can I test the performance of my W32 very thoroughly so that then I can compare the numbers with other tests run by other people on other cards?

Thanks!