Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!clyde.concordia.ca!uunet!cs.utexas.edu!tut.cis.ohio-state.edu!ironwood.cis.ohio-state.edu!watters From: watters@ironwood.cis.ohio-state.edu (david r watters) Newsgroups: comp.sys.amiga.hardware Subject: Re: GVP Trade-in Message-ID: <83242@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu> Date: 26 Aug 90 23:10:13 GMT References: <589@oregon.oacis.org> <38CP09P@dri.com> <02048.002057@thiger.UUCP> Sender: news@tut.cis.ohio-state.edu Reply-To: david r watters Organization: Ohio State University Computer and Information Science Lines: 19 In article <02048.002057@thiger.UUCP> skraw@thiger.UUCP (Stephan von Krawczynski) writes: >1. GVP does not DMA to amiga-memory. >2. why is DMA so important for you? it is generally slower than the >processor-method (lets call it this way). you win nothing because you >have a whole lot of DMA going on already inside the system and processor's >running into heavy troubles sometimes, e.g. harddisk-performance is >very low while using overscan-graphics (just to mention an example). My roomate and I have two identical machines sitting side by side except he has a processor card and I have the A2091 which is DMA. We both do A LOT of animation rendering and tracing with a home built raytracer so we both have accelerated machines. Although he doesn't have the fastest processor card, his r/w speeds are right along with mine. However, when we start tracing an animation (even in severe overscan) the 2091 has a major advantage due to it's improved DMA handling over the 2090 and since his card is competting with the the tracer as it saves and renders. This is even more pronounced with Turbo-Silver which saves continuously as it renders the images.