ISA slots make the system run slowly

[Guest]

Hi! I heard that if I use one of the mainboard's ISA slots (i.e. modem ISA), the entire system will start running
slower than with no ISA cards at all, just with PCI or AGP
expansion cards.

Is it truth or is it an urban legend?

Is it better to buy a mainboard with no ISA slots to avoid
the entire ISA stuff? Or leaving the ISA slots empty is
good enough?

Mainboards with on board VGA/modem/Ethernet/sound/etc are
based on ISA or PCI technology, or is something completely
different?

 

[Crashman]

I think it has to do with system resources for the ISA bus, even if no cards are installed on it.

 

[Nethawk]

Boards with ISA slots are hard to come by these days - I'm in a conundrum because I hate to give up my US Robotics Courier v.everything ISA modem, but I may have to.

BTW - its the first I've heard of any system degradation due to ISA slots.

 

[Arrow]

Never heard of it. May want to note that if you want to use ISA devices, stick with Windows 98SE!

Rob
Please visit <b><A HREF="http://www.ncix.com/shop/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048" target="_new">http://www.ncix.com/shop/index.cfm?affiliateid=319048</A></b>

 

[mpjesse]

Yes- it is true, esp. in games. BUT, only when the ISA slot is in use. A hit in performance (in games) can be seen when your playing something like Q3 using a 16bit ISA sound card. Why? ISA runs on a 16bit bus. This means an extrememly fast CPU used to communicating with everything at 32bit must slow down and communicate with something at 16bit. When the CPU has to slow down, everything has to slow down. Games are CPU intensive. PCI eliminates this problem because the data width is 32bits wide- enabling the CPU to divide it's energy. Like multitasking. It also applies to modems and games played online.

But, if your just dorking around in windows, you won't see a difference. Leaving the the ISA slot empty is good enough. If the CPU doesn't have to talk to it, it won't bother it. ISA and PCI aren't significantly different- one runs at 16mhz/16bit and one runs at 33mhz/32bit. Anyone remember 8bit ISA? LOL. Actually, 16bit ISA is actually called E-ISA (Enhanced Industry Standard Architecture). But that was when it first came out.

-MP Jesse

 

[Mordy]

Did you test this by yourself ? M$ sais that " Use of ISA cards could lead to performance degradation" but they didn't say when and how much. Sounds like usual B/S to me.
b.t.w. EISA is 32 bit standard. ISA is 16 bit.

All i can give you is the truth. Nothing more.

 

[Guest]

It's urban legend combined with misunderstanding. ISA cards are slower than their PCI equivalents, yes. But the use of ISA slots slowing down the system? C'mon. Your serial and parallel ports are on the ISA bus. So is your floppy drive. Unless you're using USB, so are your keyboard and mouse.

So use PCI when you can, but you won't totally liberate your system from ISA without buying a so-called legacy-free system. Considering the stuff we put on the ISA bus these days, that's not really a limitation--you won't outtype the ISA bus.

---
Dave Farquhar
author, <i>Optimizing Windows for Games, Graphics and Multimedia</i> (O'Reilly)
<A HREF="http://thesiliconunderground.editthispage.com" target="_new">http://thesiliconunderground.editthispage.com</A>

 

[Crashman]

Yeh, EISA is an oddball standard mostly used on old business PC's, old workstations, and old servers. It had twice as many contacts and was advertized as being a new "plug and play" and high-performance standard. Must have been introduced before other ISA cards became PNP or something.

 

[Mordy]

EISA is still used in servers!

All i can give you is the truth. Nothing more.

 

[rcf84]

Well just disable ISA. i did it but UT or Quake3 didnt go up or down 1 fps

ABIT BP6 + ATI RADEON 32MB DDR RULE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[Crashman]

Nice, that's the car I'm using too-It handles good, and can really get some air.

 

[Guest]

Yeah, but the CLK/GTR IS a bit wide.... The Ferrari 355 F1 Spider with the GOFAST option is real fast as well )

Oh, we're in the CPU message board section....

Keep it cool!

 

[Guest]

just for comparison, I have cable internet, and I had a pci lan card in my puter. It worked OK, but when I used the ISA lan card, things seemed to speed up!