taylor@limbo.Intuitive.Com (Dave Taylor) (01/04/90)
Now that I've gotten my Mac IIci (a wonderful step up from a Mac II!)
I am wondering whether my best investment for an upgrade at some point
would be to boost the memory from its current 4MB RAM to a higher
amount (going up to 8MB should cost ~$400) or buying one of the new
IIci RAM cache cards (est. $900, populated).
According to the latest IIci review in MacWorld, having the cache card
can give you up to 70% performace increases with some classes of apps.
Anyone have any thoughts or suggestions?
Thanks.
-- Dave Taylor
Intuitive Systems
Mountain View, California
taylor@limbo.intuitive.com or {uunet!}{decwrl,apple}!limbo!taylorfolta@tove.umd.edu (Wayne Folta) (01/04/90)
"Now that I've gotten my Mac IIci (a wonderful step up from a Mac II!) "I am wondering whether my best investment for an upgrade at some point "would be to boost the memory from its current 4MB RAM to a higher "amount (going up to 8MB should cost ~$400) or buying one of the new "IIci RAM cache cards (est. $900, populated). " "According to the latest IIci review in MacWorld, having the cache card "can give you up to 70% performace increases with some classes of apps. Getting 4Mb more memory can also boost your performance. One of the things that slows you down (in 8-bit mode, anyhow) is the contention between the CPU and the video circuitry for Bank A's memory. If you put more memory in Bank B and run MultiFinder, most of the OS stuff will load automatically into Bank B, as will your applications (or at least the first ?Mb or so). In VERY unscientific testing, I've noticed a 50% speed increase when going from 8-bit to 1-bit mode on a 4Mb IIci. I assume this increase would pretty much carry over to an 8Mb system. (Your mileage will vary...) Besides, unless you buy Virtual or wait until System 7, there is no substitute for more RAM... (And it is cheaper to boot). On the other hand, you would violate your 2160-hour warranty if you plug in your own memory, but the manual seems to say that you are allowed to plug in your own cache card. -- Wayne Folta (folta@cs.umd.edu 128.8.128.8)