Path: utzoo!utgpu!news-server.csri.toronto.edu!rpi!usc!cs.utexas.edu!asuvax!ukma!psuvax1!psuvm!dlb
From: DLB@psuvm.psu.edu (Dan Bernitt)
Newsgroups: comp.windows.ms
Subject: Re: DOS performance
Message-ID: <91171.084713DLB@psuvm.psu.edu>
Date: 20 Jun 91 12:47:13 GMT
References: <141496@unix.cis.pitt.edu>
Organization: Penn State University
Lines: 19

I presume you're running in enhanced 386 mode?  Some observations:

1)  Enhanced 386 mode is completely intolerable on a 2M machine, marginal on a
    3M machine, and quite tolerable with 4M.  Under 4M a faster processor won't
    help at all.  Once you get to and beyond 4M, compute bound jobs will
    certainly be helped by another processor but that really has nothing to do
    with Windows.  A more than 20-year old rule of thumb from the world of
    mainframe computers that still holds true:  If you have a limited amount of
    money available to upgrade your computer system, spend it on more memory!
    That's where you'll get the most performance gain/buck.  A few exceptions
    exist, of course, as they do for all "thumb rules".

    If you're restricted to the 2M, run in standard mode.  You lose the
    multi-tasking and windowing of DOS programs but performance is okay.

2)  DOS programs that use graphics are limited to full-screen operation in
    Windows.  The programs you run may actually be doing graphics, or Windows
    may just think they are.  In the PIF "display options" section, turn off
    the high graphics buttons for video memory and monitor ports.