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Ever seen a 80186 accelerator board? I have now. (and so can you)

Poked around with the card a bit more. got a copy of dos 2.11 and used mikey99's 2.3 disk. The system seemed to smooth out and seemed less jerky. So I would venture a guess that this card was made with 2.11 in mind and NOTHING ELSE. Since I want DOS 5 on my system (for multiple reasons), i'm probably going to sell this card. I already have one PM and if it doesn't work out expect to see it on the VCG marketplace. That said, i'm looking for a model 25 hard disk and I'd straight up trade for a working one.
 
mikey99 said:
Hopefully the new owner can make a pdf scan of the manual :)
Click to expand...

I will do what I can. My scanner only scans one page at the time, so I will problably scan what is of most value first.

It may not tell me much about the jumper settings for the 286 version, but it uses the same gate array, and if the manual contains I/O port number descriptions and other technical details, then it may well apply to the 286 version too.
 
I now have the REV 'B' PCTurbo card working using the 2.1 version of the software.
The PCTurbo card startup software runs an onboard memory test and identified a total
of six bad memory chips on the card. After replacing the bad chips the card works fine.

I also used DOS 2.1 ..... the card seems stable....will try running some benchmarks
and reporting back here.

Based on info in an earlier post....my other REV 'A' card will need a 1.x version of the software
which I unfortunately do not have.

Looking forward to getting more info from the manual about the various jumper and switch
settings etc. on the card. The memory Bank 5 on the expansion card isn't populated so
I'd like to go ahead and add those chips, I think some jumper changes may be necessary.
 
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Following are the MIPS.COM benchmarks I ran today on the PCTurbo card:


Running in PC Mode:
Driver loading details:
Running in Turbo Mode:
 

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pretty sweet benchmark you have there! And your results are exactly what I found with my model 25. The card was designed for dos 2.1 and the ibm pc.
 
DMA SCREEN UPDATE sounds very intriguing. I tried doing just that a decade ago and found nothing but pain (and NMI PARITY ERRORS).

If you're able, run TOPBENCH, run Database->Add, exit, and then send me the resulting section from DATABASE.INI (or just send me the entire file). I'd like to add that accelerator to the database.
 
Trixter said:
DMA SCREEN UPDATE sounds very intriguing. I tried doing just that a decade ago and found nothing but pain (and NMI PARITY ERRORS).

If you're able, run TOPBENCH, run Database->Add, exit, and then send me the resulting section from DATABASE.INI (or just send me the entire file). I'd like to add that accelerator to the database.
Click to expand...

this is the results I got with my model 25 and the accelerator card: http://www.vintage-computer.com/vcf...have-now-(and-so-can-you)&p=267221#post267221
 
All the execution timings are the same, which is a known bug on some runs. I believe I fixed that bug, but it's not in the stub. Try running the full program.
 
Trixter said:
All the execution timings are the same, which is a known bug on some runs. I believe I fixed that bug, but it's not in the stub. Try running the full program.
Click to expand...

Trixter,

Is TOPBENCH mainly a CPU benchmark or can it be used to bench video cards as well? I have two EISA video cards I'd like to bench under DOS and Win 3.x and I am looking for recommendations for either environment.
 
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It can be used as one but it is appropriate for that purpose. For EISA cards you would ideally want a benchmark that would bench 16-bit and 32-bit writes to the card, something that TOPBENCH does not do.
 
Trixter said:
It can be used as one but it is appropriate for that purpose. For EISA cards you would ideally want a benchmark that would bench 16-bit and 32-bit writes to the card, something that TOPBENCH does not do.
Click to expand...

Do you recommend any? I remember back in the day DOSBench and WinBench (used by PC Mag) were thrown around quite a bit. Where they any good?
 
Trixter said:
All the execution timings are the same, which is a known bug on some runs. I believe I fixed that bug, but it's not in the stub. Try running the full program.
Click to expand...
The problem is, I ran that under dos 3.3 so I had to use the "old version".
 
Shadow Lord said:
Do you recommend any? I remember back in the day DOSBench and WinBench (used by PC Mag) were thrown around quite a bit. Where they any good?
Click to expand...

I don't know any offhand other than the gimmicky 3-D ones, but there is a list at the "other benchmarks" tab at http://dosbenchmark.wordpress.com/otherbenchmarks/ you can consult to find one. I think there is a modern one (ie. 2006 and later) that you can use.

luckybob said:
The problem is, I ran that under dos 3.3 so I had to use the "old version".
Click to expand...

"old version" is only required for DOS 2.x, TOPBENCH proper runs under 3.2+.
 
Trixter said:
I don't know any offhand other than the gimmicky 3-D ones, but there is a list at the "other benchmarks" tab at http://dosbenchmark.wordpress.com/otherbenchmarks/ you can consult to find one. I think there is a modern one (ie. 2006 and later) that you can use.
Click to expand...

Thanks Trixter. I will take a look. My expectation is that both cards should perform about the same barring bad drivers under Win 3.x or BIOS differences under DOS. However, I know one of the cards supports much higher resolutions then the other even though they have the same chipset and memory.
 
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