Lightning speed for Web Browsers



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Author	Lightning speed for Web Browsers (Read 13315 times)
68040 512 MB Posts: 950 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !	on: September 13, 2022, 21:48 I finally found the time to realize an old idea of mine: I setup a 96MB RAM disk via ramBunctious and moved all my browser caches there. Since vintage capable websites are usually scarce on bling bling and more rich on text, that amount should suffice in most cases. So when I tested it on 68k.news the speed of my iCab browser jumped from somewhat lagging right up to "snip of the finger" speed.

cballero 1024 MB Posts: 1179 System 7, today and forever	Reply #1 on: September 14, 2022, 00:20 Indeed! That was one of my favorite things to do on my RAM-maxed Macs from the 90s! It really makes a huge difference on memory-loving apps like classic web browsers as well as design and image-editing applications like Photoshop with its scratch disks as well as Illustrator and similar software packages Welcome to the club!!

Bolkonskij Administrator 1024 MB Posts: 2023	Reply #2 on: September 14, 2022, 08:45 Yes! What running applications off RAM can do to computers with slower CPUs (read: 68k) is amazing. It's a really instantly recognizable gain in speed with just about any app. It's been some time though since I did, as with faster PowerPCs it became somewhat obsolete. I also remember it being praised as an easy trick to prolong usage of a Powerbook on the road. By using a RAM disk, the hard disk would spin down and stay that way, which consumed less energy and greatly extended battery life.
Last Edit: September 14, 2022, 13:16 by Bolkonskij
68040 512 MB Posts: 950 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !	Reply #3 on: September 14, 2022, 10:21 Its no so much the vintage (not "slow" ) 68k CPU that bogs things down, as the missing support from I/O peripherals. Early motherboard design burdened the Central Processing Unit with the micromanagement of every single input/output task. But what you can achieve once you allow the CPU to concentrate on what it does best - calculating and executing OpCode - was shown with the Amiga: It was the first mass produced PC that used co-processors for sound, graphics and memory I/O by default. Later Intel Pentium and PPC motherboards implemented that approach in their own designs. For the bus speed of the MB is the real bottleneck, specially if that data roadway can only be accessed when the CPU takes a pause. The ability for peripheral units to lay claim to the bus on their own allowed for data to be transferred while the CPU was still actively churning away command code. The advantage of a RAM disk is that its not really a disk and its located in the same HW the CPU has access to all the time anyway: Random Access Memory. Mothers & Motherboards - we love them but we wish they could be faster, don't we?
Last Edit: September 14, 2022, 10:24 by 68040
cballero 1024 MB Posts: 1179 System 7, today and forever	Reply #4 on: September 14, 2022, 13:25 And that was the secret then I also remembered another application for the RAM speed boost! The wide array of Classic Mac action games, including on the sole, properly-working 68k NES emulator, iNES and on PPC Macs, for MAME and the one for CapCom. A RAM disk makes all fast-paced games a real treat, so much so, you may want to slow things down a bit if the game now goes to quickly! You know? On that note, MPEGDec should be noticeably smoother as well (perhaps a little more quality with less skips or buffering)! But wait, I've wondered how much things would speed up with a faster flash-memory based drive? SSDs, SD Card, Compact Flash and the like? On a real Mac, sure, the bus might kill-the-thrill so-to-speak, but on emulated Macs surely that limitation wouldn't be deliberately coded into the emulator; I'd imagine the restrictions would be removed from it altogether, so in theory, a faster drive should make all of our Classic OSes, on both 68k and PPC, purr, right?

68040 512 MB Posts: 950 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !	Reply #5 on: September 14, 2022, 16:01 He, he, he - I am the king of emulation. 1TB SSD, 8GB RAM and an OctaCore ARM-CPU with a host OpSys that only uses a fraction of those resources. So I can supersize my fries until the ketchup turns pale with envy.

Neal_SE30 256 MB Posts: 401 System 7 Newcomer!	Reply #6 on: October 22, 2022, 17:14 this sounds promising. I have 128mb in my SE/30 which lets be honest is overkill. so i could say but 16/32mb to one side for a browser and run browsing through memory alone, is that right?

Bolkonskij Administrator 1024 MB Posts: 2023	Reply #7 on: October 22, 2022, 18:45 Indeed. And I have 128 MB in my 8600 and every time I boot it I think I should probably go down to 64 MB as anything beyond 32MB is overkill for System 7, really

Neal_SE30 256 MB Posts: 401 System 7 Newcomer!	Reply #8 on: October 22, 2022, 18:58 Wow if you're thinking of that with your super modern fast 8600 I'm defo overkill on my 68k lol I couldn't help myself. I can't remember what 128mb cost but I think it was only £60-70 so it was I may as well lol. just imagine what that would have cost in the 90's!
Last Edit: October 22, 2022, 18:59 by Neal_SE30
wove 1024 MB Posts: 1363	Reply #9 on: October 22, 2022, 19:32 I am sorry I am late to this thread. Quote from: “68040 He, he, he - I am the king of emulation. 1TB SSD, 8GB RAM and an OctaCore ARM-CPU Might I ask what computer this is that has the octocore ARM-CUP, and what OS you are running on it.

Knezzen Administrator 512 MB Posts: 608 Village idiot	Reply #10 on: October 22, 2022, 19:32 I have 512mb RAM in my 8600 and I think I have just enough to get by in 7.6.1 Can't really notice any difference running software from a RAM disk or from my SATA SSD, but I remember it being a huge difference back in the day of course

Neal_SE30 256 MB Posts: 401 System 7 Newcomer!	Reply #11 on: October 22, 2022, 19:50 512mb, you could have taken over the world with that much RAM back in the day lol

68040 512 MB Posts: 950 68k - thy kingdom come, thy will be done !	Reply #12 on: October 22, 2022, 22:08 @wove - Samsung Galaxy Tab S7+, but I'll be upgrading soon. That means more RAM and more disk space for my Basilisk, but also more screen real estate as I am going all the way to 14". @Neal_SE30 - Guess, what I plan on doing once I finished setting up my behemoth? I'll get myself a time machine, jump back two or three decades and declare myself Emperor of Earth. And I've increased my RAM disk to 96MB by now, as I'm using it as a scratch disk, too, for Photoshop and the like.
Last Edit: October 22, 2022, 22:12 by 68040
Neal_SE30 256 MB Posts: 401 System 7 Newcomer!	Reply #13 on: October 23, 2022, 13:05 hahaha 68040, count me in. gotta be better than this sh*% show in britian right now lol I have just installed rambutous. well installing all the add ons
Last Edit: October 23, 2022, 13:07 by Neal_SE30
Bolkonskij Administrator 1024 MB Posts: 2023	Reply #14 on: October 23, 2022, 18:08 Quote from: Knezzen I have 512mb RAM in my 8600 and I think I have just enough to get by in 7.6.1 yeah well, might be just enough for running a RealBasic application with its infinite loops

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