rec.autos.simulators

Just wondering if anyone knows what the actual differences, advantages
etc regarding PCI vs ISA soundcards?

I have an ISA AWE 32 in my old machine and a SB128 PCI in the one I just
built. (having problems setting it up btw).

I have heard the following regarding the PCI type:

1, Uses less CPU cycles = better frame rates
2, Will not work with older games?

Now I wonder if the less CPU cycles used is really an issue, is it
enough to make any real difference?

I'm considering getting another SB and I think I may just go for the ISA
version this time, what do you guys think?

TIA

Trev

~Daxe
"religion is remedial spirituality"

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    First off; I agree with just about all your points except the above.
    1) Many BIOS' allow you to alter the bus speed of your ISA bus (though
it's NOT recommended since most cards won't tolerate a bus speed of higher
than 8MHz);
    2) The ISA bus actually supports up to 16 bits (32bits with VL
extensions). Most ISA sound cards made in the last 3 years or so are 16-bit,
as evidenced by their having two connectors with a slot between them.  This
is what allows them to have an IRQ of higher than 7.

    But I agree that PCI is the way to go for another reason: VERY soon the
ISA bus will go away.  Already, many P2 boards that still have ISA slots,
only have 2 - maybe 3 - and will go away entirely by the end of the year (in
NEW boards, anyway).

"Gunner"

VM

1) Having any ISA ports in use at all will slow down the computer.
2) If you have a PCI graphics card like Voodoo2, then the PCI bus will get
flooded with textures and it may be an idea to put others devices on the ISA and
USB buses to spread the load.
Cheers,
Paul

IMHO, developers will not try to load a lot of textures during game play because
that will slow the V2 down.  Textures are loaded at the start of the game and will
be used during play.  So if there is any flooding it's not because of textures.
Besides a 12mb V2 card can hold 8MB of textures.

AGP graphic cards were made so the video card can access main memory for textures
(fixing the low memory PCI card problem) -- I think Unreal will take advantage of
this.

The ISA bus is 4 times slower than the PCI bus, so I think its better to use AGP and
PCI for all cards.

--------
Jason Monds
"My other car is a Ferrari"
http://members.home.net/gpl.mondsj/gpl - For my combined gas/brake setups
(Please remove 'no extra spork' when replying)

  For those interested, there's an interesting read about this on Tom's
Hardware Guide.  AGP's use of system RAM for textures can actually cause
resource problems.  The story can be found
at: http://www.tomshardware.com/agp-perf_2.html
Personally, I'm of the belief that AGP graphics cards don't do much more
than save you a PCI slot.  At least in their present incarnation.

--
Bill Mette      | "A person is smart.  People are dumb."
MCSNet, Chicago |                        - K MiB

Correct.

Only if you get the wrong card. I got a TB Montego with my new Dell
450. I could not get it to work in tne DOS NR1999. I put my AudioPCI
in my new Dell and it worked with the DOS NR1999 just fine. It has a
SB legacy device configured in the device manager for running SB
compatability in a DOS window.

It was with F-15 and my 200mmx. I have no idea if there would be a similar
impact if the CPU were faster.

I think you would be disappointed. I suggest getting an AudioPCI
(SBPCI64) with the 1370 Ensoniq chipset. Mine cost $35 at a local
computer show.

--

Header address intentionally scrambled to ward off the spamming hordes.

cisko [AT] ix [DOT] netcom [DOT] com

Thanks for your input, I havent got the new computer moved off the
kitchen table yet so I cant try it with sims. I wanted to run it awhile
and make sure everything is stable before moving it into my computer
room.

I had heard one would gain quite a bit of framerate improvement by going
to a PCI card and I wanted to get some other opinions on it. It was a
hassle at first to set up but now all is well as near as I can tell.

Trev

--

                            Troy A. Nolen
                        Gainesville, Florida
                            ICQ 21966050
     For a good laugh check out  http://www.racesimcentral.net/~troywang

Troy, thanks for your response to my post. I have an AWE32 in this
machine, I put an SB128 PCI in the new one I just finished. So far I'm
hearing two different sides, one says PCI is the way to go for framerate
issues, the other agrees with you.

Since the new machine is a 450 and this one is a 208, I probably wont
know if the ISA vs PCI is really making a difference and it most likely
wont really be an issue. Its just curiosity more than anything.

I can easily remove the PCI and switch to ISA for testing purposes
though and this is what I may end up doing.

Trev

IMHO :-)

--

Header address intentionally scrambled to ward off the spamming hordes.

cisko [AT] ix [DOT] netcom [DOT] com

GPL with an old sb 16 isa... about 25 fps
with new 64 PCI... about 32-33...

the same is for the others games... 7-8 fps increase

Bye!
Cristiano

> For example... I have an awe 64 pci...

> GPL with an old sb 16 isa... about 25 fps
> with new 64 PCI... about 32-33...

> the same is for the others games... 7-8 fps increase

> Bye!
> Cristiano