PC Configuration

AMD k6-2 375 MHz on Asus Tx97-E mobo, 64 Mb ram edo, Nvidia Riva 128. OS : Win2K build 2195 (Basilisk II), Win98 first edition (Fusion)

My PC is not really up-to-date, so it might not take advantage of the code optimization for PII/PIII, but that is true for all the emulators tested. Fusion is made for Ms-Dos, but for me this is archeology, a modern program must run under at least Win9x. I used Win2k for BasiliskII because it seems more efficient than the Win9x version. On the other hand I decided to benchmark fusion under Win98 because it has serious restrictions under Win2k and behaves badly, mainly due to Ms-Dos restrictions imposed by Win2k (no direct hardware access). I decided to test the maximum speed of the emulation so there are no half-way (option enabled/disabled); I always tested the configuration that proved to be faster with no major restrictions (e.g. no audio).


Mac Configuration

Quadra 650 1Mb ROM
MacOS 8.1 - Italian version - Fresh Install
No network extensions
Sound enabled - 22Khz
800x600, 256 colors
32 Mb RAM
No floppy auto detection
No scsi

I used the identical mac configuration for all emulators, same hfv, same ROM, etc.


The Competitors

Fusion 2.31 by Microcode Solutions
Fusion 3 beta by Emulators Inc - Fast math enabled, vesa direct video driver
Basilisk II 0.8 build 126 - DirectX full screen


The Results

This numbers are given by Apple Personal Diagnostic and are compared to a MacIIci. Obviously the emulation is faster than a real MacIIci.

	Fusion 2.31	Fusion 3 Beta	Basilisk II
Integer	3.82	4.88	4.31
Complex Function	49.52	64.88	17.30
Floating point w/o FPU	15.56	23.16	14.67
Floating point with FPU	5.23	6.25	3.95
Memory	6.23	7.03	8.36
Processor	1.67	1.90	2.06
Video	3.18	3.37	2.66

Opinion

Emulators, Inc. has done a good job improving Fusion code. It is considerably faster than previous version. Microcode did a great job with the original fusion; it is absolutely stable, has great compatibility with all programs, you never get crash or strange behavior and fastmath gives a great improvement in math speed. Fusion compared with a quadra 950 is still a lot faster in math applications, BUT it mainly prefers MS-DOS, mouse movements are not as smooth as they should be, under Win9x you have no cd-rom access (unless you are using third party software [by ardi]); to use a refresh rate higher than DOS default (60 Hz @ 800x600) you have to use third party DOS-based software (e.g. display doctor). To make a long story short, Fusion is still an old DOS program, and you must use old DOS tricks to get the most out of it. It completely neglects the Windows world, and to me this is a major mistake. On the other hand, Basilisk II runs its best under native 32bit OSes and takes all the advantages of the Windows interface and support. It has ethernet support, complete CD-Rom access, you can use higher refresh rate, it's easier to use and configure and you immediately get the best out of it without particular tricks or compromises.

I didn't mention Softmac2000; it claims to be the faster and this is partially true. But, it has still some bugs (all games hang or have strange graphics) and sound support is still a mystery.

A final note: the results are not to be taken as absolute values, but as relative between the emulators.