jb10320@uxa.cso.uiuc.edu (Jawaid Bazyar) (06/29/91)
giovin@risky.ecs.umass.edu (Rocky J Giovinazzo) writes: >I was wondering... will an accelerator card effect disk access time? >I'm trying to decide whether to spend the extra $70 on a >RAMFast SCSI card for a hard drive (as opposed to an Apple SCSI) >since the RAMFast is apparently faster. >I assume that an accelerator might slightly speed up disk accessing >since disk operations involve a little bit of CPU time (right?). Is >this amount of "speed up" on the order of the difference between >RAMFast and Apple SCSI cards? Or is the difference between the >RAMFast and Apple SCSI much more significant? The RAMfast is only significantly faster for Prodos 8 applications- GS/OS isn't accelerated as much (although it is faster). With an accelerator, GS/OS can process the data being read much faster (especially in the case of loading a program file- programs have to be converted from OMF to straight 816 assembly), but the actual transfer of data from controller to main RAM won't be faster, since both the RAMFast and Apple cards use DMA. But again, it makes a significant difference in boot time and the time it takes to run programs. -- Jawaid Bazyar | "Twenty seven faces- with their eyes turned to Graduated!/Comp Engineering | the sky. I have got a camera, and an airtight bazyar@cs.uiuc.edu | alibi.." Apple II Forever! | I need a job... Be privileged to pay me! :-)
joseph@elbereth.rutgers.edu (Seymour Joseph) (07/01/91)
I disagree strongly with Jawaid. I have a TransWarp GS and a RamFast SCSI card. I normally run both but I have run them seperately and: The TWGS speeds up everything. More IIGS than //e programs were too slow to begin with so they don't seem to go as fast, (also, //e software is being sped up 7 times faster than normal) but actually It seems as if everything is sped up equally. I also noticed a great improvement in GS/OS performance with the RAMFast SCSI card, unlike Jawaid's experience. Loading games like Keef the Theif and productity stuff like AWGS and Beagle Draw are MUCH faster with the RAMFast. I had an Apple card before the RAMFast so I have seen the difference. As Mr. Bazyar states, it might have a bigger impact on ProDOS8 stuff, I don't run much anymore. I just wanted to say that, to me, the difference between the two SCSI cards, even under GS/OS is very significant. Seymour