I'm guessing you're not using FastVid are you? Definitely do that.

I had aprox. the same difference in performance on a 586 platform and also on a 486 mobo, so I think this is not the issue. But I will try your suggestion. I know how FastVid works but why should it boost the scores of the Apocalypse 5D and not the Dynamite ? Thank you!

Maybe caused by video BIOS quirks? PCI bridge chips are certainly suspect too.

Yeah sure, but "usual" BIOS quirks may cost 10% or so. . But this HUGE amount of bandwidth/performance lost seems to be another issue..

I suspect the bridge chips are affecting bus performance. I wonder how GUI performance compares.

by this amount? I doubt this and wonder if these 2MB / 2.25MB cards lack any memory interleaving to profit from 4 memory modules instead of just 2 in the Apocalypse 5D.

I think most ET6000 cards use 2 memory chips. STB Lightspeed 128 usually came that way and it was praised for its DOS speed.

I would like to see how WinTune compares on your two cards, and look at what FastVid does in DOS too. Maybe also UniVBE.

Yeah, you are right about the STB card. I already tested UNIVBE but it had no impact at all. I don't have Windows installed and my main concern is the difference of the two cards in the DOS environment. I will provide Windows results later, though.

I'd also like to know how SGL game performance compares too (since this card is two-in-one). Turok demo can be used with a benchmark parameter to give results.

leileilol wrote:

I'd also like to know how SGL game performance compares too (since this card is two-in-one). Turok demo can be used with a benchmark parameter to give results.

The card is actually three in one.. ET6100 for 2D, Nec PowerVR PCX2 for 3D and ESS Agogo for decent positional sound..

No thoughts?

swaaye wrote:

I think most ET6000 cards use 2 memory chips. STB Lightspeed 128 usually came that way and it was praised for its DOS speed.

I would like to see how WinTune compares on your two cards, and look at what FastVid does in DOS too. Maybe also UniVBE.

My ET6100 has sockets on it for 4 chips but only two were filled when I got it. Unfortunately, they use MDRAM and finding chips to fill the empty sockets without scavenging another video card for them is hard as hell.

I've filled the sockets with 1.0MB chips to make it full 4MB,but there is no performance boost at all, because the memory bus of the card is 32-bits wide and MDRAM modules are 16-bits wide and there is no interleaving.

Btw. the MDRAM chips aren't that hard to find here in Germany.

UNIVBE doesn't speed things up and FASTVID is a non-issue because the slow DOS speed is platform and chipset independent.

Two possibilities not yet mentioned;

1) The 3D chip is not running at the correct speed.
2) The card or chip is broken.

NitroX infinity wrote:

1) The 3D chip is not running at the correct speed.

Impossible without hardware mod.

It is about the 2D core, the ET6100, and not the 3D NEC chip.. Of course the card isn't broken. It performs normal and has no quality issues, I just slow in DOS.