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DarkBASIC Professional Discussion / 16 bit is twice as fast as 32 bit

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spooky
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Posted: 18th Jul 2003 03:06
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Was amazed to find that running games in any of the windowed modes run TWICE as fast in 16 bit mode than in 32 bit mode. Should difference be this much?

Code I used:

R Tape loading error
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Shadow Robert
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Posted: 18th Jul 2003 03:07
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depends what cards you use...
GeForce based cards run 20% faster under 32bit than they do in 16bit and even faster still in 24bit

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Richard Davey
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Posted: 18th Jul 2003 04:41
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My ATI card runs faster in 32-bit than 16-bit also (for the code you posted). Not that I'd expect a user to mess around with their desktop resolution settings just to run my program though.

Cheers,

Rich

"Gentlemen, we are about to short-circuit the Universe!"
New DBS Web Sites Coming Soon - All Change
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BatVink
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Posted: 18th Jul 2003 16:35
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I would imagine it's dependant on memory. The quickest way to slow any app down is demand more memory than there is available...then you have to swap data in and out. 32-bit uses twice as much memory as 16-bit (give or take a bit [or is it byte? ]).

Thanks in advance.
All the Best,
StevieVee
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Bulleyes
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Posted: 18th Jul 2003 19:32
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nope. As far as I heard, memory are transfer are faster and more optimized if they were DWORD aligned, means transfer at multiples of 32-bit. Correct me if I am wrong.

Bad Nose Entertainment - Where games are forged from the flames of talent and passion.

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Attreid
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Posted: 18th Jul 2003 19:51
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for me, 16 or 32 bits is the same, my speed doesn't change

"He will come...the voice from the outer world,
bringing the holy war, the Jihad, which will cleanse the Universe and bring us out of darkness."
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Shadow Robert
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Posted: 18th Jul 2003 20:09
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Quote: "I would imagine it's dependant on memory. The quickest way to slow any app down is demand more memory than there is available...then you have to swap data in and out. 32-bit uses twice as much memory as 16-bit (give or take a bit [or is it byte? ])."


you would think so, but DBP and infact DirectX converts everything into 32bit first... simply because coverting 16bit on the fly (and infact finding out which varaiation on 16bit it is) ... takes alot of power away.
so everything is the exact same size in memory, no matter what you load it as - and its the conversion from nBit->32bit which is the really cockup. and infact technically it isn't converted to 32bit but 4x 8bit.

you add this with the 16bit compressionl routines (which makes them so small) in the end native 32bit should run alot faster.
some exceptions occur to dismiss this... alpha in 32bit is slower, unless you have a card with a 24/32bit fogtable and or zbuffer ... also bilinier/trilinier/anistrophic filtering can be more intensive in 32bit, but again only with card that are older which only handle certain bits in certain areas.

generally all of the newer cards will run everything alot faster in 32bit ... the Fx and new Radeon (dunno its number) will run everything alot faster in 128&64bit colour respectively

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spooky
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Posted: 19th Jul 2003 02:08
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Must be my ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 in my laptop which is crap.

Desktop:
AMD Athlon XP 2000+, 512MB, MSI GeForce4 Ti4600 (128MB), XP Home SP1

1024 X 768 X 16 = 990 fps
1024 X 768 X 32 = 815 fps

Laptop:
P4 2.53Ghz, 256MB, ATI Mobility Radeon 9000 (64MB), XP Home SP1

1024 X 768 X 16 = 265 fps
1024 X 768 X 32 = 97 fps

Have also just found out that half the VGA memory is fried! It is only reporting 32MB instead of 64MB. I was getting a load of garbled bootups a few months ago and then all was ok. Gonna get it fixed and see if it makes a difference. Just what you need after spending £1300

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Shadow Robert
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Posted: 19th Jul 2003 04:06
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interesting FPS, but what were you doing to produce it Sonic?
that aside, where the hell did you find a Laptop with 64Mb of vram???
i've just bought a new notebook from alienware, has a GeForceFX Go! and only have 32Mb exclusive vram, the rest is nForce shared.

most laptops used shared ram, which is good as long as they can actually bloody share right - only chipset i've seen which actually shares dynamic ram right is the nForce2 ... none of the rest seem upto the task of it and actually cause slowdowns.

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Witch Bomber
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Posted: 19th Jul 2003 04:16
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Haha I've got a laptop with 64MB dedicated VRAM too! Also Radeon 9000! Only cost me £1000! By the way Sonic, what make is your laptop?

The leprechaun tells me to burn things
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spooky
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Posted: 19th Jul 2003 04:26
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The laptop is a Fujitsu-Siemens Amilo 8820. It does have 64mb non-shared vram. Lower spec models only have 32mb. It is a beast of a machine weighing some 3.5 kg but at least it has a 15" screen with native res of 1400 X 1050. Highly recommended. They now do a 8830 model with P4 3.06G and built in DVD writer for only £1300 !!!

I am hoping my fps problems are to do with fact that half of vram is not being recognised anymore and is causing problems.

I was just running that silly snippet at top of page that simply rotates a cube.

Trouble is I'm getting lazy in my old age and prefer sitting on sofa or bed with laptop rather than using much more powerful desktop pc.

R Tape loading error
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the_winch
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Posted: 19th Jul 2003 06:33
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I also have 64mb on a geforce 4 4200 go @ 1920x1200.
The only thing I can't use it for is watching dvd's. The sceen picks up every encoding artifact and makes most films unwatchable
Laptops are starting to get cheap enough that it is worth while owning one.
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Witch Bomber
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Posted: 19th Jul 2003 07:00
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Mine is an Advent 7016. It has 512MB RAM and a P4 2.66GHz processor.

The leprechaun tells me to burn things
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kevinthekangaroo
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Posted: 19th Jul 2003 18:53
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I always use 16Bit colour, it's faster & doesn't look any different from 32Bit.

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the_winch
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Posted: 19th Jul 2003 22:52
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That will be true for older cards but it looks like the newer ones work better in 32 bit.
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