jjb@hardy.u.washington.edu (Jim Black) (04/20/91)
I have a mono 040 cube with 8MB: I'm thinking about getting more RAM to speed the system up (it seems to swap a fair bit). Can folks report their performance experiences with RAM upgrades in the NeXT - ie, is the performance difference between 8MB and 16MB RAM very noticeable/profound? 16MB->32MB? What's the recommendation on how much RAM you "should" have in a basic single-user cube for high-performance? (Most of what I'm doing is pretty vanilla, though I like to keep a lot of stuff active.) -- Jim Black (jjb@u.washington.edu)
pclark@SRC.Honeywell.COM (Peter Clark) (04/20/91)
>I have a mono 040 cube with 8MB: I'm thinking about getting more RAM to speed >the system up (it seems to swap a fair bit). >Can folks report their performance experiences with RAM upgrades in the >NeXT - ie, is the performance difference between 8MB and 16MB RAM very >noticeable/profound? 16MB->32MB? 8->16: yep. *very* noticable, especially watching the thing boot. I can't say for 16->32, as I don't have any 4MB simms. >What's the recommendation on how much RAM you "should" have in a basic >single-user cube for high-performance? (Most of what I'm doing is pretty >vanilla, though I like to keep a lot of stuff active.) At least 12, 16 is better if you can swing the extra $120.00 or so. I'm putting 16 into mine as soon as I get the memory out of my '030 machine. Pete C
cnh5730@maraba.tamu.edu (04/20/91)
In article <1991Apr19.170917.19511@hardy.u.washington.edu> jjb@hardy.u.washington.edu (Jim Black) writes:
I have a mono 040 cube with 8MB: I'm thinking about getting more RAM to speed
the system up (it seems to swap a fair bit).
Can folks report their performance experiences with RAM upgrades in the
NeXT - ie, is the performance difference between 8MB and 16MB RAM very
noticeable/profound?
I went from 8MB to 16MB. I was absolutely blown away by the increase
in performance.
16MB->32MB?
Oh yeah!!! Especially if you like to have a lot of stuff launched and
waiting at your fingertips.
What's the recommendation on how much RAM you "should" have in a basic
single-user cube for high-performance?
16MB min, 24MB better min.
And you can order your RAM directly from NeXT for worry-free computing.
--
"Battle not with monsters, lest ye become a monster,
and if you gaze into the abyss, the abyss gazes also into you."
-Friedrich Wilhelm Nietzscheasd@mace.cc.purdue.edu (Kareth) (04/20/91)
In <CNH5730.91Apr19175302@maraba.tamu.edu> cnh5730@maraba.tamu.edu writes: >In article <1991Apr19.170917.19511@hardy.u.washington.edu> jjb@hardy.u.washington.edu (Jim Black) writes: > What's the recommendation on how much RAM you "should" have in a basic > single-user cube for high-performance? >16MB min, 24MB better min. Absolutely! I've got 24MB and life is REAL sweet, and fast! >And you can order your RAM directly from NeXT for worry-free computing. NO WAY! Definitely do NOT recommend this. It will cost you $2995 for a 16MB upgrade from NeXT. I got 16MB for ~$780, and the chips were the exact same size as the NeXT ones, so abosuletly no problem with upgrading. If you want parity from NeXT, it'll cost you $3495!!! These prices are not educational discounts, but there's no way that 30% off these will even come close to comparing to $780!! -k
hardy@golem.ps.uci.edu (Meinhard E. Mayer (Hardy)) (04/20/91)
In article <1991Apr19.170917.19511@hardy.u.washington.edu> jjb@hardy.u.washington.edu (Jim Black) writes: > I have a mono 040 cube with 8MB: I'm thinking about getting more RAM to speed > the system up (it seems to swap a fair bit). > > Can folks report their performance experiences with RAM upgrades in the > NeXT - ie, is the performance difference between 8MB and 16MB RAM very > noticeable/profound? 16MB->32MB? > > What's the recommendation on how much RAM you "should" have in a basic > single-user cube for high-performance? (Most of what I'm doing is pretty > vanilla, though I like to keep a lot of stuff active.) By going to 20MB (16 MB in 4 MB simms and 4 MB old 1 MB simms) at a cost of about $750 you will see a noticeable increase inperformance, particularly if you run many applications, like TeX, Texview, or Xnext. I would almost say it is a must (if you are used to Unix workstations, rather than Macintoshes). Greetings, Hardy -------****------- Meinhard E. Mayer (Hardy); Department of Physics, University of California Irvine CA 92717; (714) 856 5543; hardy@golem.ps.uci.edu or MMAYER@UCI.BITNET
jjb@hardy.u.washington.edu (Jim Black) (04/20/91)
I want to thank everyone who responded about the RAM upgrade. I got a lot of detailed responses promptly in email, too, I really appreciate it. The unanimous consensus was that an upgrade would make a *very* significant improvement in performance - just an additional 4MB (12 total) is apparently a big difference - and most folks really recommended having 16-24MB in the system. (16MB was pretty much agreed as a minimum, more if possible ... superlatives such as "heavenly" were common for describing the upgrade. :) This definitely explains why my 040 cube can be a touch sluggish, I'll have to get that RAM upgrade now. -- Jim Black (jjb@u.washington.edu)
me@spirea.UiB.NO (My Account) (04/22/91)
>I have a mono 040 cube with 8MB: I'm thinking about getting more RAM to speed >the system up (it seems to swap a fair bit). > >Can folks report their performance experiences with RAM upgrades in the >NeXT - ie, is the performance difference between 8MB and 16MB RAM very >noticeable/profound? 16MB->32MB? > >What's the recommendation on how much RAM you "should" have in a basic >single-user cube for high-performance? (Most of what I'm doing is pretty >vanilla, though I like to keep a lot of stuff active.) > >-- >Jim Black (jjb@u.washington.edu) Cosider 16MB a realistic minimum on a NeXT. I have a 040 cube at home (optical + accelerator drive) , with 2.0 and 16MB RAM. At school I use a 030 cube under 1.0a with 16 MB RAM, and a 1.2 Gig disk. I notice the difference - the cube at home is definately faster. And with 16MB I avoid all those ugly swapping noises (hey gang, if I have a swap disk how come the optical is always causing a racket...?). With 8MB things take much longer to load, run, and switch between. I scored 8MB for about $200 so imagine its worth it performance wise. The 040's gotta have room to breath! Watch out for parity and non parity mixing - I originally thought my upgrade board was bad (Exception 5 0xa something or other) but it was the mixed memory. I've swapped the original NeXT (non parity) memory with some friends who still have PC's and don't need parity checking. You could also buy regular non parity SIMMs (cheaper too!) and avoid the hassle of a mixed memory board. I can't say anything about 32MB (not yet anyway ;-) but I would expect a linear improvement over 16 (i.e 32 is to 16 as 16 is to 8). If I'm wrong I'm confident someone who knows better will point out my error. -- Thor-Lee Legvold | ppstl@nobergen.earn (or .bitnet) University of Bergen | ppstl@cc.uib.no NORWAY | and now on NeXT... Hvor mye for datter'n din...? | me@fiol.uib.no
tagreen@lothario.ucs.indiana.edu (Todd Green) (04/23/91)
In article <1991Apr22.135539.2058@ulrik.uio.no> me@spirea.UiB.NO (My Account) writes: > >Cosider 16MB a realistic minimum on a NeXT. I agree with at least 16mb. The diff in performance between 8 and 16 is considerable. (At least it was on my 030 cube). > I can't say anything about 32MB (not yet anyway ;-) but I would expect a linear improvement over 16 (i.e 32 is to 16 as 16 is to 8). If I'm wrong I'm confident someone who knows better will point out my error. I would tend to disagree on this. I would doubt that it'd be linear. I say this because most of the performace increase seemed to be due less swapping. As long as everthing is still in memory I don't think that adding 16 more meg for a non color workstation would make THAT much of a difference. Now if you're talking about a server or a color workstation that is being used to run memory intensize programs then yes it probably would help, but for the average user I don't think so. -- Internet: tagreen@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu NeXTMail: tagreen@lothario.ucs.indiana.edu BitNet: tagreen@iubacs.bitnet
madler@nntp-server.caltech.edu (Mark Adler) (04/23/91)
In article <1991Apr22.185224.10680@bronze.ucs.indiana.edu> tagreen@lothario.ucs.indiana.edu (Todd Green) writes: >I say this because most of the performace increase seemed to be due >less swapping. As long as everthing is still in memory I don't think >that adding 16 more meg for a non color workstation would make THAT >much of a difference. Now if you're talking about a server or a color >workstation that is being used to run memory intensize programs then >yes it probably would help, but for the average user I don't think so. Even with 16M, I still notice a lot of swapping when doing a lot of Mathematica 1.2 work. For that, I could definitely gain significantly from more memory. I'm hoping that Mma 2.0 won't be such a memory hog, but I won't be suprised if it still is. Mark Adler madler@pooh.caltech.edu
bennett@mp.cs.niu.edu (Scott Bennett) (04/23/91)
In article <1991Apr22.135539.2058@ulrik.uio.no> me@spirea.UiB.NO (My Account) writes: >> [text deleted --SJB] >I have a 040 cube at home (optical + accelerator drive) , with 2.0 and 16MB RAM. At school I use a 030 cube under 1.0a with 16 MB RAM, and a 1.2 Gig disk. I notice the difference - the cube at home is definately faster. And with 16MB I avoid all those ugly swapping noises (hey gang, if I have a swap disk how come the optical is always causing a racket...?). With 8MB things take much longer to load, run, and switch between. Well, it *does* stand to reason that a 68040 should be faster than a 68030 when you say they both have 16MB of RAM, right? BTW, can't you be more careful with the line length in your postings? 400+ characters per line is a bit wide for a terminal. > >I scored 8MB for about $200 so imagine its worth it performance wise. The 040's gotta have room to breath! Watch out for parity and non parity mixing - I originally thought my upgrade board was bad (Exception 5 0xa something or other) but it was the mixed memory. I've swapped the original NeXT (non parity) memory with some friends who still have PC's and don't need parity checking. You could also buy regular non parity SIMMs (cheaper too!) and avoid the hassle of a mixed memory board. Have you checked recently to see if those people are still your friends? :-) Pee cees use parity memory. As for buying non-parity memory for a NeXT, well, it's a crying shame to do that to a NeXT, but I guess it's okay if you're not going to use it for anything important. > [more deleted --SJB] >-- >Thor-Lee Legvold | ppstl@nobergen.earn (or .bitnet) >University of Bergen | ppstl@cc.uib.no >NORWAY | and now on NeXT... >Hvor mye for datter'n din...? | me@fiol.uib.no Scott Bennett, Comm. ASMELG, CFIAG Systems Programming Northern Illinois University DeKalb, Illinois 60115 ********************************************************************** * Internet: bennett@cs.niu.edu * * BITNET: A01SJB1@NIU * *--------------------------------------------------------------------* * "Spent a little time on the mountain, Spent a little time on the * * Hill, The things that went down you don't understand, But I * * think in time you will." Oakland, 19 Feb. 1991, first time * * since 25 Sept. 1970!!! Yippee!!!! Wondering what's NeXT... :-) * **********************************************************************