ISA RAM Expansion Performance

[Raven]

I've never used RAM expansion cards before, and am wondering if they're worth the trouble in a machine as new as a 486. My T6600C can take up to 72MB internal RAM, but I can't afford the cards ATM. I currently have 16MB in it, and I have a Bocaram/AT board. Somebody sent me the software recently, so it would be possible to install this board in my machine. The primary reason for doing this would be to make Win95 run better - is this going to help? Or will it just degrade performance due to the slow bus, and I should wait until I can get RAM cards for the native interface?

 

[Chuck(G)]

An ISA RAM expansion board is going to be very slow on a 486 system. However, if you use the RAM for something like a RAM drive, preventing the memory from being used as conventional memory by Win95, it could be a strong plus to performance.

 

[digger]

Is any memory above the first 1MB even mappable through the ISA bus? I assume you're both talking about EMS, right?

 

[FishFinger]

16-bit ISA slots have 24 address pins, allowing access to any memory up to 16mb.

 

[Chuck(G)]

Is any memory above the first 1MB even mappable through the ISA bus? I assume you're both talking about EMS, right?

16-bit ISA maps up to 16MB; 8-bit maps only up to 1MB. AFAIK, the Bocaram/AT can be used either for EMS or XMS.

 

[Raven]

I assume you mean a RAMDrive for the SWAP file (or part of it)?

 

[Chuck(G)]

...or any other file. Just don't use it for program memory. You also might see if you can find a good disk cache that will live with Windows and use the extra RAM.

Tinker a bit.