Amptron PM-8600B motherboard PCI video performance Topic actions

[jasa1063]

I recently got an AT computer case from a recycler and it contained an Amptron PM-8600B motherboard (VIA VT82C580VPX/VT82C586B chipset). I have 128MB (2x64MB) PC100 SDRAM DIMMs installed. I also have an Intel Advanced/ML (MARL) motherboard (Intel 430HX chipset) with 128MB (32MBx4) of EDO memory. Both motherboards have a Pentium MMX 233Mhz CPU and a ET6000 4MB PCI video card. The video performance of PM-8600B is quite a bit lower vs the Intel Advanced/ML. Here are a few benchmark results:

PM-8600B:

3DMark 1.0c - 141.2 FPS
Quake 640x480 - 16.5 FPS

Intel Advanced/ML:

3DMark 1.0c - 175.4 FPS
Quake 640x480 - 18.9 FPS

I have tried using TweakBIOS, but there does not seem to be any tweaks that will increase the PCI video performance of the PM-8600B. I understand this was a value oriented motherboard. I am going to install an IBM 6x86MX PR300 (75Mhzx3.0) which I have on order. I think that will push this motherboard about as far as it will go, even though the performance of the FPU on the 6x86 is pretty weak. I am wondering what other people who have had this motherboard have experienced using it?

[Chuck(G)]

Yup, rebadged PCChips board. Got the 8600D here.

[bakemono]

Via chipsets had worse memory performance than Intel ones. Even with SDRAM compared to EDO, reads might be a little faster but writes are probably still slower.

Cyrix is not known for excelling at Quake. It does have write gathering though, so (sequential) writes to video memory would get the speed-up.

[jasa1063]

I replaced the Pentium MMX 233Mhz with a Cyrix MII PR300 233Mhz and got the following results:

3DMark 1.0c - 309.8 FPS
Quake 640x480 - 13.9 FPS

Quake was no surprise because of the Cyrix MII poor FPU performance. The results from 3Mark 1.0c were way more than I expected. I am very happy overall.

[tipc]

I used to have an MII box, 233mhz also iirc. I can't remember where I got it for the life of me. Found it on the road maybe. It ran well. I had a fondness for it, prolly cuz it was free LOL. But it ran well. I miss it.

My recently acquired Amptron board, can't remember the part #, had to go back because while it was *still* sealed, IT HAD THIS GINORMOUS BULGE DEFORMING THE BOX UNDER THE CELLOPHANE. Well golly Lady Gaga wonder what that could be? It was the heatsink and broken mount someone forgot to remove before resealing it. And the board was dead. Don't you love the brains some people have?

But on a sweeter note my socket A Foxconn board is showing promise. I installed Win2K last night. Why I don't know, but it took. Then proceeded to install RHEL 3 AS, as I obtained it to run Linux. After the 2nd cd I decided I would do it another time and just shut it off. it was quite the colorful install seqence though. You can still get it here cheap:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Red-Hat-Ent...0AAOSwz~Zffyms

and yes I take a huge cut. No shame in that.