LGR 486 Update! Installing L2 Cache

Got 256KB in cache chips to install alongside the 486 DX2-66! Installing them in the Woodgrain 486 DOS PC to see what they can do.

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● Music used in order of appearance:
"Brooklyn Flava 3," "Million Dollar Bill 1"

[TheBitGuy]

Adding more cache has diminishing returns, so I don't think adding 512K would make it significantly faster than 256K. But I could definitely tell a difference between no L2 cache and the 256K you added. I was thinking Duke3D performed better than that on a 486/66. I have a 486/75 laptop and it runs Duke3D perfectly without even reducing the screen size. Admittedly, the best 3D game I could ever get to play on 486/33 mhz machines was Heretic.

[Kourindouinc]

For those wanting the math, that L2 cache made the computer score better by about 25%, which is not too shabby, especially seeing the price of it.

[maikmerten]

Yay, L2-Cache! This fine 486 sure did deserve it!

edit: Given that you can disable the L2 cache in the BIOS (without that jumper configuration horror, oh my) you may be able to, e.g., do Doom "timedemo demo1" (I guess duke3d also has timedemo functionality?) benchmarks with and without L2 cache to quantify the speed gain if you desire to do so.

Great video, always a pleasure to watch!

edit2: Another thing that influences 486 performance: The original 486 L1 cache design is a write-through cache, which means that any writes need to be synced with memory (or L2) immediately. Intel later (with the DX4) changed this to a write-back cache, where L1 cache lines need only be written to memory (or L2) when they need to make place in the L1 cache for other contents, greatly reducing write accesses to memory.


(I don't think Intel released a DX2 with write-back cache)

[Ryoneftw]

I never get tired of watching your videos man, your way of talking, your knowledge and all that stuff... Keep doing what you do. <3

[vetal]

The package was sent from Chernivtsi, Ukraine. Greetings from Chernivtsi! There are your subscribers too in Chernivtsi! At least me.

[checkpint]

LGR. You have to add wood grain around your keyboard, monitor, and speakers. That's a must

[GGigabiteM]

The difference between 28 and 32 pin SRAM sockets is the maximum memory per chip supported. The 32 pin sockets have extra address lines to support 64Kx8 SRAMs, while the 28 pin sockets only support 32Kx8.

Technically that board could handle 384k of cache with 4 x 64Kx8 and 4 x 32Kx8 chips, but I doubt it could address all of it due to the TAG RAM being too small.

The 32 pin sockets are probably to give the user the option to use four 64Kx8 chips or eight 32Kx8 for 256K of cache; Or two 64Kx8 or four 32Kx8 chips for 128K of cache.

[PixelatedHO]

Watching these 486 videos brings back so much nostalgia. My first PC was a 486/66 from 1995 and I remember loving it when I was a teenager.

[OldCatDude]

Damn! You just shook the dust out of my old nerd brain. I used to build these things years ago. Went to many a computer show (Geek flea market) and bought parts! Never bought a ready made box. It was more fun building it out yourself. A co-worker and I years back when the Atari 130xe, etc. were popular were working night ak/a Graveyard shift. Being Resident Programmer Analysts could get pretty boring on the night shift. We were there in case a job on the mainframe coughed up some bits which thankfully was rare. A bored RPA was a dangerous thing soo... We hardware hacked two Atari 130xe's and kicked them up to 320k! A monster in those days. They got a kick out of us with ripping open the machines and swapping out chips plus making wire jumps on the board to be able to address the extra ram in bank switching. Ahh.. those were the days.

[CitizenZK]

As a viewer from Poland I'm quite happy that the envelope with cache chips had some information in polish on them! "Tutaj otwierać" (open here) and "Papier z odpowiedzialnych źródeł" (paper from responsible sources) made my day ^^ Greetings!

[shortyk]

I swear these 486 videos are the new thing I go and rewatch when I'm having a bad day. The old goto was your video on the all-in-one compaq 486. Apparently the cure for my depression is watching Clint muck around with 486s.

[TheBrokenLife]

Now all of your Excel 4.0 spreadsheets will be super fast! :)

[spartansfan]

I love all these videos you're making with the 486! I enjoy building PCs and it's so refreshing to see something so unfamiliar to me, but yet unquestionably in the same vein.

[Agarwaen]

Having this video randomly pop up in my recommended 2 years after I watched it, I'm reminded that my 486 was basicly outdated 2-3 years after I bought it. You can keep a 486 for nostalgic reasons for far longer than you'd keep it as your main computer back in the early 90s :p

[TheTravellingDrone]

Darn! I can remember doing that, back in the day. I also remember installing math co-processors on motherboards as well as getting RAM in long, plastic tubes and pushing them into the motherboard at a shop I worked at.

[RickJohnson]

5:57 - I remember doing this upgrade in 1993-1994 as an inexperienced teenager on my "Packard Bell" 486 DX/2-66 and not being aware of orientation (dot to notch), I installed every SRAM chip backward! Lots of magic heat/smoke. Thankfully, it only fried the SRAM chips and not the entire motherboard. The store I mail ordered them from was gracious enough to educate me and replace them free of charge, considering they were a significant chunk of change at the time!

[jimray]

Gave as much boost as your Pentium overdrive did! pretty amazing. Love this Series Client, I have a a couple 486 Compaqs (including a CDS 524 all in one) but I'm making the jump to custom build a 486. Still collecting parts. Your videos really help. Thanks!

[KitelessRex]

This has been a great little series. I'm putting together a 3DFX K6-2 machine soon. You rocked putting this thing together and making it all work. Really enjoy your channel.

[jameshallas]

main memory speed 11.6 MB/S its crazy to see how far things have come

[HellTriX]

Thanks for this series of videos. Takes me back to my old days. I still have all my systems from 386dx33 with co processors, and my dx2-66 also with cache. I believe I still even have my old Cyrix frying pan 586dx166mhz all retired in complete running state. Would be interesting to power them up and see if they boot one day.