S1590 memory bandwidth

André Janz wrote:
 >
 > Dave wrote:
 >
  > > I'm in the process of putting together an old machine for use as a
  > > secondary computer for young kids. I have a limited selection of
  > > memory available since I wish to spend as little as possible on this
  > > machine and use pieces that I already have. I was wondering which
  > > combination of ram on the S1590 might give better performance with
  > > Win98SE, 64MB of PC100 or 128 MB of PC66 (combined as one 64 MB PC100
  > > module and two 32 MB modules of PC66 all running at 66 MHz or the AGP
  > > bus speed as noted in the Tyan manual)?
 >
 > I assume you want to put a FSB100 cpu on the board? In that case it
 > depends on what programs you want to run. Most socket7 CPUs are already
 > bandwidth-starved which is not made better by combining them with 66MHz
 > RAM instead of 100MHz RAM. OTOH if the system starts swapping with only
 > 64MB then 128MB of (slower) RAM will still give a better total
 > performance. The S1590 does have 1MB L2 cache so maybe PC66 RAM is not
 > so bad in that case.

Thanks for the reply. Sorry about the lack of extra information regarding
the CPU. It will have a K6-2 500 and I'll be using a VooDoo3 3000 for the
video card.

Dave<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: S1590 memory bandwidth 

Dave wrote:

 > André Janz wrote:
 >
  >>Dave wrote:
  >>
   >>>I'm in the process of putting together an old machine for use as a
   >>>secondary computer for young kids. I have a limited selection of
   >>>memory available since I wish to spend as little as possible on this
   >>>machine and use pieces that I already have. I was wondering which
   >>>combination of ram on the S1590 might give better performance with
   >>>Win98SE, 64MB of PC100 or 128 MB of PC66 (combined as one 64 MB PC100
   >>>module and two 32 MB modules of PC66 all running at 66 MHz or the AGP
   >>>bus speed as noted in the Tyan manual)?
  >>
  >>I assume you want to put a FSB100 cpu on the board? In that case it
  >>depends on what programs you want to run. Most socket7 CPUs are already
  >>bandwidth-starved which is not made better by combining them with 66MHz
  >>RAM instead of 100MHz RAM. OTOH if the system starts swapping with only
  >>64MB then 128MB of (slower) RAM will still give a better total
  >>performance. The S1590 does have 1MB L2 cache so maybe PC66 RAM is not
  >>so bad in that case.
 >
 > Thanks for the reply. Sorry about the lack of extra information regarding
 > the CPU. It will have a K6-2 500 and I'll be using a VooDoo3 3000 for the
 > video card.

Now that CPU is nearly as bandwidth starved as possible (apart from
maybe K6-2 550) but as I said *maybe* the 1MB L2 cache will help. At
least the additional 64MB are cached (not like on Intel TX chipset).
I think it really depends on the applications you want to run on it.
Give it a try with 64MB and if you experience swapping add the other 64MB.

<a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/19980731/socket7-02.html" target="_blank">http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/19980731/socket7-02.html</a>
"VIA's MVP3 chipset allows you to use a synchronous or asynchronous mode
for your memory, which means that the main memory runs at a lower bus
speed than the CPU and the important L2 cache. You can run your PC-66
SDRAM or EDO at 66 MHz while the 2nd level cache and CPU runs at 100 MHz
(memory asynchronously) or run the memory synchronously at 83 or 75 MHz.
This is particularly interesting for all users who want to upgrade, but
don't want to buy new memory again. In case of asynchronously running 66
MHz EDO RAM you will see about 80-90%, whilst 66 MHz PC66 SDRAM will
offer you 85-97% of the performance achieved with PC100 SDRAM running
synchronously at 100 MHz."

So you will lose at most 15% of performance.

André<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: S1590 memory bandwidth 

André Janz wrote:
 >
 > Dave wrote:
 >
  > > André Janz wrote:
  > >
   > >>Dave wrote:
   > >>
   > >>>I'm in the process of putting together an old machine for use as a
   > >>>secondary computer for young kids. I have a limited selection of
   > >>>memory available since I wish to spend as little as possible on this
   > >>>machine and use pieces that I already have. I was wondering which
   > >>>combination of ram on the S1590 might give better performance with
   > >>>Win98SE, 64MB of PC100 or 128 MB of PC66 (combined as one 64 MB PC100
   > >>>module and two 32 MB modules of PC66 all running at 66 MHz or the AGP
   > >>>bus speed as noted in the Tyan manual)?
   > >>
   > >>I assume you want to put a FSB100 cpu on the board? In that case it
   > >>depends on what programs you want to run. Most socket7 CPUs are already
   > >>bandwidth-starved which is not made better by combining them with 66MHz
   > >>RAM instead of 100MHz RAM. OTOH if the system starts swapping with only
   > >>64MB then 128MB of (slower) RAM will still give a better total
   > >>performance. The S1590 does have 1MB L2 cache so maybe PC66 RAM is not
   > >>so bad in that case.
  > >
  > > Thanks for the reply. Sorry about the lack of extra information
  > > regarding the CPU. It will have a K6-2 500 and I'll be using a VooDoo3
  > > 3000 for the video card.
 >
 > Now that CPU is nearly as bandwidth starved as possible (apart from
 > maybe K6-2 550) but as I said *maybe* the 1MB L2 cache will help. At
 > least the additional 64MB are cached (not like on Intel TX chipset).
 > I think it really depends on the applications you want to run on it.
 > Give it a try with 64MB and if you experience swapping add the other 64MB.
 >
<font color=purple> > <a style='text-decoration: underline;' href="http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/19980731/socket7-02.html</font" target="_blank">http://www6.tomshardware.com/motherboard/19980731/socket7-02.html</font</a>>
 > "VIA's MVP3 chipset allows you to use a synchronous or asynchronous mode
 > for your memory, which means that the main memory runs at a lower bus
 > speed than the CPU and the important L2 cache. You can run your PC-66
 > SDRAM or EDO at 66 MHz while the 2nd level cache and CPU runs at 100 MHz
 > (memory asynchronously) or run the memory synchronously at 83 or 75 MHz.
 > This is particularly interesting for all users who want to upgrade, but
 > don't want to buy new memory again. In case of asynchronously running 66
 > MHz EDO RAM you will see about 80-90%, whilst 66 MHz PC66 SDRAM will
 > offer you 85-97% of the performance achieved with PC100 SDRAM running
 > synchronously at 100 MHz."
 >
 > So you will lose at most 15% of performance.
 >

Thanks for the extra info. I'll run a benchmark to try and determine if
there's a noticeable difference between the two configurations.

Dave<!-- ~MESSAGE_AFTER~ -->
 >> Stay informed about: S1590 memory bandwidth