highlandcattle
Well-known member
In my powermac 6100/66
Doesn't feel that much quicker though..
Doesn't feel that much quicker though..
What are you using for video output? The motherboard (built-in) video output is IMO the worst bottleneck in the system, at least as far as user experience goes. It uses system RAM for video, which is waaaay slower than VRAM. The best choice is an HPV card.Doesn't feel that much quicker though..
You may have to force either the Crescendo extension or the AV extension/s to load first, by adding a • to the front of their filenames. If that doesn't work, I would suggest using Conflict Catcher or Symbionts to trim down your extensions & CPs to a minimal working set and then re-add what you want slowly, testing each time.When I use my AV card the system freezes when It starts to load the crescendo extension, but It works when I turn extensions of on start up.
Did you try older versions of the drivers?I for the life of me couldn't get the cresscendo drivers working under 7.6.1
It does, but it doesn't necessarily make it seem faster.I don't have an HPV card only an AV card surely this must take some of the stress away from the system ram.
The latter makes sense, because cache RAM, like VRAM, is physically faster than main RAM. The cache on the G3 card should be even more so. If your G3 has the full 1MB of cache, you might like to try that experiment. If it only has the 512k cache, you might try 640x480/1 bit (b&w) just to see how it goes.AV Card / Performance
For starters, the AV card is slow for graphics. With the AV card installed, the Mac uses a 32 bit path to video. With either DRAM-based video or the HPV card, the Mac uses a 64 bit path. This is all confirmed by Apple itself /
In terms of day-to-day usage, my AV card definitely scrolls slower than the on-board video or the HPV card.
HPV Card
The name is a bit of a misnomer / The card is also referred to as the VRAM Expansion card, which is probably more appropriate. /
Despite its name, the HPV card does not have any high-performance hardware. / It's just a repository for VRAM. The reason it's a high performance card is that it's faster than DRAM video. Which isn't saying much. But if you own a 6100 (like me), anything to add a little performance is a welcome addition.
/ I have had absolutely zero compatibility issues with these cards. There are no drivers or additional software to install. / The Mac automatically senses the presence of the card, the amount of VRAM, and makes the appropriate resolutions available.
Conclusions:
• The stock 6100/60 exhibits really slow graphics performance.
• While it doesn't include any QuickDraw acceleration, the HPV card is still significantly faster than the built-in DRAM video. /
• Benchmarks and numbers aside, adding one or both {cache} of the above will result in your machine feeling zippier. It's hard to describe, but you'll just feel better about your machine.
/ a fellow with a 1 MB Level 2 cache, who says that at 640x480/8 bit, the entire video page can be cached, resulting in very fast text scrolling that outperforms the HPV card. I can't duplicate his results, since I don't have a 1MB cache, but it certainly sounds logical.