Nice tests. You have actually gotten to the same results as I did with my benches (I used a P100 as I don't have a P133 Overdrive for the Socket 5 boards).
mpe wrote on 2020-06-03, 14:10:Thanks at least I know what it is. I could find any useful stuff about the board (BIOS, manual).
However, I found datasheet for the chipset with register info. So perhaps I can write a tool to compensate lack of BIOS options with some programming...
Is possible to share that datasheet? i'm interested and also got an OPTi Viper-M board (Octek Rhino 5)
TheMobRules wrote on 2020-05-28, 21:18:Great work on those benchmarks, I don't know how I missed this thread before! I am very interested in doing a similar comparison […]
Great work on those benchmarks, I don't know how I missed this thread before! I am very interested in doing a similar comparison myself, albeit with a more limited number of boards...
There are two things in particular that I want to compare: 430NX vs 430FX using Async L2 on both, to see how much the chipset by itself impacts performance, and I am also interested in seeing how much better an actual 1994 P100 using the Neptune chipset is vs the best 486 of that year (say, a DX4-100WB with a fast chipset like SiS471)... I know the P100 will be better, but I wonder if the difference will be as big with 1994 Pentium parts.
I have a FIC PT-2003 (430FX) with a COAST slot that is supposed to support both Async and PB cache (confirmed by other owners of this board), but in my case it only works with the Async cache module the board came with, none of the PB modules I have tried seem to be detected. I'll keep looking into that, but it may be related to the board revision or something like that.
Another snag I've hit is my terrible luck with finding 430NX boards, all I have gotten from different hauls have been utterly dead... but I may have just found one that works, we'll see when it arrives.
Sis471 exists, but the dx4wb is a late 95 cpu (means nothing at fps tests)
mpe wrote on 2021-03-28, 20:33:On OEM boards and where chipset datasheet is available I am always checking/re-programming chipset registers to make sure the tightest possible memory/cache/PCI settings are applied (just in case the BIOS doesn't enable everything). That's being said there is very little to tune on a 430LX board. Intel Batman or other Intel boards might lack advanced BIOS settings, but turns out to be maxed out everything important elready. I tested other 430LX boards, but Batman turn out to be fastest or just as fast. Other boards might have 512kB of cache, but often also EISA or buffered memory which slow things down.
Futhermore, I tested several boards and where there are differences I picked the fastest one. Such as the UMC8891. My other UMC boards (PINE PT-730A and Shuttle HOT-539) don't show as good results as the Gigabyte GA-586AM. Sadly UM8891 is one of the chipsets where the datasheet is nowhere to be found so hard to say why exactly.
Hi, tell me how I can checking/re-programming the 430FX chipset, what programs are needed for this?
I have a Dell Optiplex GS, its BIOS does not contain any memory and cache timing settings 🙁
tweakbios is your best bet, it's run to reprogram the chipset after booting but can be made to load the config automatically from autoexec.bat.
to change the BIOS itself, tools like modbin, though this depends on BIOS vendor and support tends to be version specific as well.
