[comp.sys.amiga.hardware] Speed Trials: The GVP Series 2

IO92257@MAINE.BITNET (03/21/91)

   Let the games begin!!!!!
   Am I the only one who is really mad about the lack
   of definitive info about the vast number of controllers
   out there?  Well,  let's do something about it!  I
   took a shot in the dark, and bought the GVP II without
   ram, and a Quantum 105s to mount on it.  The only
   complaint I have about this setup is the fact that
   the board seems a little flimsy to mount a heavy HD on.
   In fact, the manual recommends removing the drive when
   shipping your machine.
     The installation is boringly simple.  You put the drive
   on the card, plug in the card, and use the FaaastPrep
   software to Format it.  What happened to the good old days,
   of jumpers and ambigous manuals? :)
     After seeing how the A500 version of this controller had kicked
   butt in AmigaWhirled, I was eager to test it.  They were using
   an LPS Quantum, which are supposed to be slightly faster.  Please
   take these numbers with a grain of salt...I mean, look, the
   times during overscan stress are higher than without!  Is this
   a REAL good design by GVP?  Or is DiskSpeed 3.1 crap?  >:)
       Here are the results.  All I was running was my workbench,
       which has lots of background stuff like ZeroVirus and GOMF
       running, but nothing like that would affect transfer rates,
       right? The numbers to the right of the slash are with CPU
       and DMA contention on.
       Device DH0:
            11/9   Files/s Create          <----\
            34/25  Files/s Open/Close      <-------These vary wildly! Why?
            101/67 Files/s Scan            <----/
            18/17  Files/s Delete          <---/
           200/130 Files/s Seek/Read
 
Buffer Size      512           4096            32768         262144
Bytes/s create  28526/26266  140120/103693  223696/218640  300347/300011
Bytes/s write   29930/27893  186074/160092  437725/430616  592899/614620
Bytes/s read    59357/38016  230680/182629  420360/430472  642062/643730
 
Well, folks, there they are, the plain, hard facts.  The thing is
plenty fast for a peasant such as I, and GVP and others seem to
support it well.  I had no problems installing it (the installation
reminded me terriably of plugging in a Nintendo cartridge!)  Let's
see some more cold, hard facts like this.  Just try to use a
Stock (non-accelerated) A2000, with a Quantum Prodrive...the type of
drive seems to make a BIG diffirence.
Thank you, and kick I*M in the A*S....
-Cutter

rbabel@babylon.rmt.sub.org (Ralph Babel) (03/23/91)

For GVP's official comment on benchmarks and such, see
"GVP Technical Bulletin #9: Impact Series-II SCSI boards".

lshaw@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu (logan shaw) (03/29/91)

In article <91079.154628IO92257@MAINE.BITNET> IO92257@MAINE.BITNET writes:
>   take these numbers with a grain of salt...I mean, look, the
>   times during overscan stress are higher than without!  Is this
>   a REAL good design by GVP?  Or is DiskSpeed 3.1 crap?  >:)

System:
A2000, 8-up! w/ 2 megs; original GVP hardcard with 3.0 FaaastROM upgrade;
Quantum 40 prodrive, about 80% full, in two partitions; Diskspeed v2.0;
Workbench Screen: 664 x 214, 2 bitplanes.

DiskSpeed 2.0 - Copyright (c) 1989 by MKSoft Development

Device:	dh1:

Test Intensity: Low
       14 Files/s Create
       28 Files/s Open/Close
       90 Files/s Scan
       55 Files/s Delete
      203 Seek/Read

Buffer Size	512		4096		32768		262144
---------	---------	---------	---------	---------
Bytes/s Create	    26886	   149796	   291777	   450395
Bytes/s Create	    27927	   169146	   321095	   552336
Bytes/s Create	    51828	   200026	   304578	   527723

This speed is very close to that of the GVP Series II.

Well, I hope that helps.
-- 
     =----------------------------------------------------------------=   |
/\/         Logan Shaw         "Come to Me, all who are weary and        -+-
\/\  lshaw@ccwf.cc.utexas.edu   heavy-laden, and I will give you rest."   |
     =----------------------------------------------------------------=   |