[comp.os.msdos.misc] HIMEM.SYS is a dog

gwni@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (G. Wayne Nichols) (10/24/90)

Last night I installed Windows 3.0 for the first time,
and among the new goodies to stuff in your CONFIG.SYS,
they supply a new version of HIMEM.SYS, version 2.60.
After rebooting (but before running Windows),
I happened to check the Landmark speed of the system.

Now my 20 MHz 0 wait state 386SX usually rates a 25.0
while using HIMEM.SYS 2.06.
With the new HIMEM.SYS, the rating dropped to 16 point something!!
(Yes, replace with the old one -- back up to 25).
What is happening -- is the new HIMEM.SYS forcing wait states or something?
Does it eat CPU cycles for lunch?

I don't want to lose 1/3 of my CPU power *before* running Windows!
Who knows how bad it will be *inside* Windows.

Any insights, folks?

reisert@ricks.enet.dec.com (Jim Reisert) (10/26/90)

In article <10025@ur-cc.UUCP>, gwni@uhura.cc.rochester.edu (G. Wayne Nichols) writes...
>Last night I installed Windows 3.0 for the first time,
>and among the new goodies to stuff in your CONFIG.SYS,
>they supply a new version of HIMEM.SYS, version 2.60.
> 
>Now my 20 MHz 0 wait state 386SX usually rates a 25.0
>while using HIMEM.SYS 2.06.
>With the new HIMEM.SYS, the rating dropped to 16 point something!!

I'll bet it puts the processor into protected mode so it can do expanded
memory management.  QEMM results in a similar performance loss.  Things that
cause interrupts can get up to 50% slower in my system.

jim

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