acard 6885M benchmark results

[supernova777]

ok ive finally gotten a 2 x 250GB IDE raid config on this card.... !
and ive benchmarked it with atto expresstools
installed in my 933 QS



max transfer size: 512kb
sample size: 2
PEAK READ: 192MB/s
PEAK WRITE: 76MB/s

max transfer size: 2MB
sample size: 4
PEAK READ: 190MB/s
PEAK WRITE: 110MB/s

max transfer size: 8MB
sample size: 8
READ: 190MB/s
SUS READ: 117MB/s
WRITE: 121MB/s
SUS WRITE: 115MB/s

and thats only with two drives.. i will try soon with 4!
and these drives are just crappy old used drives that i got second hand
i will try to get another result for a 4 drive array!
this thing kicks ass!

[supernova777]

testing again with different disks

max transfer size: 512kb
sample size: 2
PEAK READ: 182MB/s
SUS READ: 175MB/s
PEAK WRITE: 78MB/s
SUS WRITE: 68MB/s

this is with the card operating in 64bit 33mhz Slot
the 6885M can go up to 500MB/S thruput when used on a 66mhz+ 64bit slot (such as those found in some G5's)

[supernova777]

having trouble gettting 4 disks to show up at the same time..
probably because my disks are used + not 100% good

it looks like i will have to order some more sata- ide adapters
so i can use some brand new good disks with this thing!

[supernova777]

just did another test with another disk combination..
this time it achieved again, 120MB/s PEAK WRITE and 114MB/s SUS WRITE .. this is pretty impressive for an old g4;)
think about how many pro tools tracks that would be;)

in contrast
i have an ibm 40gb drive from 2002 still installed in this quicksilver!!
and im pretty amazed by its result aswell:

PEAK READ: 62MB/s
SUS READ: 61MB/s
PEAK WRITE: 54MB/s
SUS WRITE: 52MB/s

thats on the native ATA-66 bus of the Quicksilver with a 13 year old hard drive;)

[supernova777]

also for more contrast - heres some results of a SINGLE brand new SATA3 Spec 80gb Seagate sata drive (7200.10)
connected to a Sonnet Tempo PCI adapter inside a 2002 quicksilver 933

max transfer size : 512kb
sample size: 2
PEAK READ: 105MB/s
SUS READ: 89MB/s
PEAK WRITE: 81MB/s
SUS WRITE: 75MB/s

max transfer size : 2mb
sample size: 8
PEAK READ: 103MB/s
SUS READ: 73MB/s
PEAK WRITE: 83MB/s
SUS WRITE: 64MB/s

id like to have 4 fresh IDE drives to test the AEC-6885M some day to get a more accurate reading.. using healthy drives
the results originally posted above are from junk drives i got 2nd hand.. as i have no SATA-IDE adapters that will let me use a sata drive with the IDE controller at the moment

[supernova777]

one more reference test
this time with a SINGLE Kingston SSDNOW! 120MB SSD on the Seritek 1s2 (Sonnet Tempo)

max transfer size : 2mb
sample size: 8
PEAK READ: 105MB/s
SUS READ: 105MB/s
PEAK WRITE: 103MB/s
SUS WRITE: 98MB/s

very little difference in thruputs between the SSD + The sata3 mechanical drive... both the sata3 80gb seagate + kingston SSD both seem to be hitting a wall in terms of performance
that is.. the limitation of the 32bit pci connection... the 133MB/s (theoretica) works out to be about 70-80% of its max potential
in this case.. 79% approximately..(133*79%==105MB/s)  in the case of the AEC-6885M 73% of its max of 266MB/s (266*73%=190MB/s)
see my thread speed of common technologies (http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=893.0)

so really the rule is.. regardless of how fast the disk is.. or how many drives u have connected / Striped / HW RAID'd / SW Raid'd

if its connected to a 64bit pci card, its gonna cap out around just under 200MB/s
if its connected to a 32 bit pci card, its gona cap out around 100MB/s
if its connected to a native ATA100 port, it should cap out somewhere near 60-65MB/s
if its connected to a native ATA66 port, it should cap out somewhere near 45-50MB/s
if its connected to a native ATA33 port, it should cap out somewhere near 25-30MB/s

its a big enough difference to make u want a 64bit card! thast for sure

[supernova777]

one more reference benchmark

this is for a 16GB CF (266x) connected to ATA-66 on an MDD (2003) so it could perform better connected to ATA-100 or ata-133..... not sure if the card is UDMA or not.. probably not

i would have connected it to the ata-100 but unfortunately i could not attach it to this port because of its orientation in the mdd i would need to get a different compact flash adapter that features MALE 40 pin out so that it could be attached via the ribbon cable

max transfer size: 8MB
sample size: 8
PEAK READ: 50MB/s
SUS READ: 45MB/s
PEAK WRITE: 19MB/s
SUS WRITE: 19MB/s

so this happens to be 76% of 66(ata-66)
in keeping with the 70/80 percent of max law

[supernova777]

more strange results

check this out

this is the 120GB Kingston SSDNOW ssd.. connected to the ACARD 6885M via a IDE-SATA adapter
single disk to single port via adapter

max transfer size: 8MB
sample size: 8
PEAK READ: 76MB/s
SUS READ: 76MB/s
PEAK WRITE: 106MB/s
SUS WRITE: 106MB/s

very strange to see the write higher then the read!!!!!!!!!
this has got to be a strange result of the IDE-SATA adapter.. (which is a jmicron pcb)

[supernova777]

another reference result..
this time. 120GB SEAGATE 7200.7 drive on the native ATA-66

max transfer size: 512k
sample size: 2
PEAK READ: 61MB/s
SUS READ: 37MB/s
PEAK WRITE: 53MB/s
SUS WRITE: 52MB/s

max transfer size: 8mb
sample size: 8
PEAK READ: 59MB/s
SUS READ: 55MB/s
PEAK WRITE: 58MB/s
SUS WRITE: 56MB/s

i think this is as good as it gets for ATA-66 with 7200 RPM drive

[supernova777]

another reference result
this time 60gb Corsair F60 SSD connected VIA Jmicron IDE-SATA adapter ON ATA-100 Bus of MDD (2003)

max transfer size: 512k
sample size: 2
PEAK READ: 65MB/s
SUS READ: 63MB/s
PEAK WRITE:87MB/s
SUS WRITE: 84MB/s

***
apparently these Jmicron IDE-SATA adapter will work.. just not to boot

[supernova777]

another reference test 

16GB 266X Compact Flash.. via compact Flash IDE adapter on ATA-66 bus of MDD (2003)

max transfer size: 512k
sample size: 2
PEAK READ: 48MB/s
SUS READ: 47MB/s
PEAK WRITE: 25MB/s
SUS WRITE: 15MB/s

16GB 266X Compact Flash.. via compact Flash IDE adapter on ATA-100 bus of MDD (2003)

max transfer size: 512k
sample size: 2
PEAK READ: 63MB/s
SUS READ: 62MB/s
PEAK WRITE: 24MB/s
SUS WRITE: 17MB/s

ok so thre is a big difference between ata-66 + ata-100. bigger then i thought for this Compact Flash.  read speed  is improved by a noticable amt .. 15mb/s while the write speed stays the same.. so we know this is a limitation of the CF media itself.. as its only a 266x CF (kingston)

[supernova777]

ok.. ONE MORE  lol

this time.
Seagate 7200.10 80GB mechanical drive (sata3 spec) connected to the ATA-100 bus of the MDD (2003) Via the Jmicron IDE-SATA Adapter.. (yes it works!! just not for booting!!)

max transfer size: 512k
sample size: 2
PEAK READ: 65MB/s
SUS READ: 57MB/s
PEAK WRITE: 82MB/s
SUS WRITE: 77MB/s

max transfer size: 8mb
sample size: 8
PEAK READ: 66MB/s
SUS READ: 60MB/s
PEAK WRITE: 82MB/s
SUS WRITE: 66MB/s

this time.
Seagate 7200.10 80GB mechanical drive (sata3 spec) connected to the ATA-66 instead.. (via Jmicron IDE-SATA adapter)

max transfer size: 512k
sample size: 2
PEAK READ: 46MB/s
SUS READ: 41MB/s
PEAK WRITE: 58MB/s
SUS WRITE: 39MB/s

max transfer size: 8mb
sample size: 8
PEAK READ: 48MB/s
SUS READ: 42MB/s
PEAK WRITE: 59MB/s
SUS WRITE: 52MB/s

[supernova777]

Conclusion:

if its connected to a 64bit SATA150 pci card, 2 drives will cap out around 190-200MB/s
if its connected to a 32 bit SATA150 pci card, its gona cap out around 90-105MB/s
if its connected to a native ATA100 port, it should cap out somewhere near 60-65MB/s
if its connected to a native ATA66 port, it should cap out somewhere near 45-50MB/s
if its connected to a native ATA33 port, it should cap out somewhere near 25-30MB/s

[supernova777]

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3-5-40Pin-male-IDE-PATA-to-22pin-SATA-female-adapter-JM20330-SATA-IDE-card-/160955338956?ssPageName=ADME:X:AAQ:US:1123

i have ordered some of these adapters..
hopefully will work better then the last ones..
for connecting sata drive to ide host adapter
then i will try to do a test of 4 drives on the 6885M
but like i said before i dont think it will go above 190MB/s
on the g4...

on the G5 it would likely go far far above this with 4 drives!
if its even compatible on the g5..

[supernova777]

ok.. i was able to do the 4 disk raid array!! 

the peak read speed was 202MB/s!!! sustained read was 194MB/s
on some other tests it went as high as 210MB/s

the write speed was realy low.. around ATA-66 speed at 60MB/s
i think this was caused by the lowest performing disk in the bunch..
im not sure why..

i think perhaps one or more of these disks arent 100% healthy

the highest result ive been able to achieve was 214MB/s

[macStuff]

im planning on trying this card in a powermac G5 to see the performance increase in going to a higher spec slot;

my pci-x g5 is the following model:
https://everymac.com/systems/apple/powermac_g5/specs/powermac_g5_1.8.html
which (according to everymac; says that) This model has "3x open full-length PCI-X slots: (video card slot obviously remains occupied)
1x 133MHz, 64-bit slot &
2x 100MHz, 64-bit slots"

referring back to my old post on bandwidths: http://macos9lives.com/smforum/index.php?topic=893.0

PCI 64bit/100MHz   800 MB/s
PCI-X 133       1.067 GB/s

that means the card would have alot more bandwidth available to it on the G5
going from 266Mb/s on the G3/G4 level
up to 800MB/s
could have DRASTIC effect on the results
even if its ATA-133, because it could be ATA-133 x 4

but it says on the box that the card only supports 64bit 66Mhz so i wont get the full 100Mhz capability of the slot; but rather
PCI 64bit/66MHz   == 533 MB/s
still double the bandwidth on the G4

as far as i understand it : PCI-X really refers to the EXTRA bandwidth above 64bit/66Mhz that they made available beyond 533MB/s