DECstation 2100/3100 window speeds and differences?

[Steve Thompson]

In article <6923 at muvms3.bitnet> mcguffey at muvms3.bitnet (Michael McGuffey) writes:
>We've heard that DECstation's, because of the RISC processor, really need 
>a minimum of 16MB for running DECwindows.  I'm evaluating a color 16MB DS3100 
>and am quite pleased with the performance, but what is the performance like 
>on the 8MB version?  Even slowing the machine down do DS2100 speed would be 
>acceptable.  Anyone using an 8MB 2100 (Color or Mono) that would care to 
>add their thoughts?
>
We have three DS3100's that all started off life with 8MB. Two of them
now have 12MB, and the third has 16MB. Definitely makes a lot of
difference! On the 16MB DS3100, we have a f77 program of about 2000
lines that used to take 5.5 hours to compile when the machine had 8MB
(yes, that's right, HOURS). LOTS of disk activity. This program now
compiles on both 12MB and 16MB machines in 3.5 minutes. An interesting
note here is that the same program compiles on a VS3100 under VMS in
28 seconds.

Steve