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Which 387 math co-processor when using a 33MHz 486 upgrade chip?

aaron7 said:
Hmm, read through that but didn't find exactly what differences there are when it comes to comparing same speed chips from different manufacturers. It looks like they all do the same thing, so it shouldn't matter which brand I end up with?
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Indeed, the differences are so subtle, they don't really matter.
The only case where you would want Intel is if you wanted to run CPU and FPU at different speeds, because:
The Intel 387DX (and its predecessor 80387) are the only 387 coprocessors that support asynchronous operation of CPU and coprocessor.
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However, it's 2019 (happy new year!), all the FPUs are about the same price, so why bother...
 
Depending on what you do, you may not notice any difference between slow/fast NPUs and NPU/no NPU. I powered up a 386 system the other day that I've had since it was new and was surprised (through MSD) to discover that I'd installed a 387 in it. It just didn't make any difference in what I was using the system for.
 
There was a lot of fractal software that supported x87 and probably the best test for an FPU. That can turn a process that takes all day into something that requires a few hours which still looks unfavorable to the minutes modern hardware needs to achieve the same result.
 
I completely understand that a mathco is useless for what I'm doing. I just have this odd urge to max out every system I can :p
 
All is well. I'll upgrade to a 40MHz 486 if I ever find the 8k cache variant :)

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krebizfan said:
There was a lot of fractal software that supported x87 and probably the best test for an FPU. That can turn a process that takes all day into something that requires a few hours which still looks unfavorable to the minutes modern hardware needs to achieve the same result.
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If you're using an 80386 to do number-crunching today, I'd say that you have more time than sense. :)
 
My 40MHz 387 came in from Russia. Now to locate a the ti486sxl2-50 with the 8kb cache :)

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