Raven. A homemade Atari-like computer

[agranlund]

Yeah, pushing the Vidtech with similar settings as the Diamond makes them score pretty much the same in Gembench.

But the question is.. how to proceed with this? I'm reluctant to have the driver override manufacturer settings with random higher values even if that Vidtech apparently didn't mind. I'm thinking there's no guarantee other cards would be as happy about it.

In MS-DOS you could sometimes find tweaking utilities for that kind of stuff so perhaps a separate such program is the way to go.
Or maybe, incorporate such thing in the rvbios config screen.

@agranlund how did you find that out?

I added some debug code that reads the config registers. It'll prints the info after each mode change.
If you have time it would be interesting to see what the log says your GD5429 is set to.
(the emulator.prg goes in c:\nova\default\auto\)

emulator.prg.zip

(9.59 KiB) Downloaded 17 times

[agranlund]

I wonder how it looks compared to Falcon and TOS 4.04

Not the exact same resolution but close enough I think.

IMG_5132.jpg (68.69 KiB) Viewed 991 times

And there was a CT60(66) to compare against as well.

IMG_5133.jpg (59.88 KiB) Viewed 991 times

CT60 with SuperVidel is way ahead of the ISA card of course, except for the blitting test where they score almost identical. The ratios in Kronos appear similar.

[Oldskool]

I have this 5429. Would it be interesting to test this one as well or is this version already in the test bunch:

IMG_3425.jpeg (180.09 KiB) Viewed 963 times

[PhilC]

I have this 5429. Would it be interesting to test this one as well or is this version already in the test bunch:

IMG_3425.jpeg

Give it a go, it's different than the ones I have.

[Oldskool]

OK will try and report.

[Cyprian]

I wonder how it looks compared to Falcon and TOS 4.04

Not the exact same resolution but close enough I think.
IMG_5132.jpg

And there was a CT60(66) to compare against as well.
IMG_5133.jpg

CT60 with SuperVidel is way ahead of the ISA card of course, except for the blitting test where they score almost identical. The ratios in Kronos appear similar.

still impressive

[PhilC]

This is what I get. from the Sigi GD5429

Code: Select all

InitVga
 32Kb VGA Bios at 800C0000
nv_init: cirrus : GD5429 (1024Kb)
 banks: 00200000 : 1024Kb * 1 (1024Kb * 1)
 valid modes:
   640, 350, 1 : 00 : 0010
   640, 480, 1 : 00 : 0012
   640, 350, 4 : 00 : 0010
   640, 480, 4 : 00 : 0012
   320, 200, 8 : 00 : 00¡bootres from emulator.bib
nova: p_changeres: 00021770, 0 : 640x480x1
nv_setmode 640x480x1x
 cfg:  10 d8 1c
 dram: 50 mhz, 32bit, extended RAS
 fifo: 8, threshold: 0
 fpm:  on
 mclk: 1c : 50.1 mhz
size = 38400, pitch = 80
nova: p_instxbˇnv_setmode 1024x768x8x
 cfg:  30 d8 1c
 dram: 50 mhz, 32bit, extended RAS
 fifo: 16/20, threshold: 0
 fpm:  on
 mclk: 1c : 50.1 mhz
size = 786432, pitch = 1024
nova: p_setscreen_first: 44000000 0000f99c
vdi_patch: 0

Odd that its 50.1 MHz memory clock as the memory fitted is marked up as 83mhz or 35ns.

The Diamond Speedster Pro that's coming has 80ns memory.

[Oldskool]

My card has 70ns memory.

[PhilC]

So just having a very quick mess about with the card.

3c5h is 1Ch or 50mhz
if I set it to 2Eh which should be around 83mhz to match the ram then the speed pretty much doubles and puts it on par with the Et4000/W32i
At this speed there is a small bit of corruption / stray pixels on the blitter page though, so 83mhz is definitely pushing it. The Datasheet says 60mhz or 70mhz as the maximum, depending which part you read but then also says that not all frequencies will be available and will be dependent on the memory speed available.

So just for a laugh, I generally do all my Gembench benchmarks at 800x600x256, which gives a blitter time of 0.525 and compared to a standard ST just for sh*ts and giggles is 3891%

I'll use it in its standard config for now, till I get the Diamond card and see how that preforms.

[agranlund]

if I set it to 2Eh which should be around 83mhz to match the ram then the speed pretty much doubles and puts it on par with the Et4000/W32i

Impressive!
50mhz does seems conservative for a GD5429 considering the datasheet wants the max for it to be 60mhz.

I haven't tested the limit of the GD5426 Diamond yet but the Vidtech version starts to freak out above 66mhz

Perhaps then a GD5434 with 2MB and 64bit datapath to blitter will be roughly on par with an interleave-enabled W32i
Those models appear to be quite rare and expensive in ISA form though so I'm sticking with the '26 for Cirrus testing needs.