MacWindows Special Report: SoftWindows 95 5.0

The same application tests on the same hardware used to evaluate SoftWindows 95 4 were used to test version 5.0 (see our last emulator special report).

The emulator ran Windows 95 applications smoothly, without crashes or compatibility problems.

Performance conclusions for version 5.0

• Faster than version 4 with floating point math (21 percent faster Gaussian blur on average, 8 percent faster in rotating on average, 13 percent faster on spreadsheet recalculation on average). The performance gains tend to help the speed of games.
• Uses more RAM, so slower on lowest RAM settings
• Slower to launch software than version 4.x
• Slower on some database query tasks, faster on others
• Overall, still faster than Virtual PC 1.0 in most cases.

Insignia Solutions said that the performance increases were focused in SVGA and VESA graphics and floating point calculations. They also told us this about our test results:

"The main changes to the 5.0 CPU emulation were to speed up the FPU (as seen in Corel in your tests) and to improve the quality of code being generated. This means that it takes longer to produce the code, but it will execute faster when programs get to run. Consequently start-up times may be increased but program code (particularly repetitive program code) should decrease. If you are a regular user, rather than a benchmarker, I would recommend extensive use of TurboStart to make launch times go away."

We conducted 13 sets of tests. Graphs of the results (along with the previous results of SoftWindows 95 4, Virtual PC 1, and an 166 MHz Orange Micro board) are grouped into 4 catagories:

1. Floating point and Windows search
2. Database tests (Microsoft Access)
3. Word 97 tests
4. Excel 97 tests

Feature enhancements of Version 5.0

• Can be upgraded to runs with 3Dfx graphic accelerator (download enabler here).
• SoftWindows 95 now uses the same setup dialog found in RealPC. This is an improvement, as it is easier to setup memory than in version 4.
• SoftWindows is now Sound Blaster Pro and Sound Blaster 16 compatible.
• Macintosh joysticks will now control PC games.
• DirectX (Windows 95 games) support is now faster
• Pentium MMX support in now included, another area which will benefit games.

Note: Version, 5.0.2 which was release after much of our testing was already completed adds some more features, including support for Plug and Play joysticks with Windows 95, ODI networking on G3 Macs, PowerBook 3400 PCMCIA Ethernet and other 3rd party Ethernet cards, and bug fixes (see the Insignia's update page).

Performance difference between SoftWindows 95 4.0.1 and 5.0

As compared to the times in our last emulator special report.

	PowerBook G3	7500/G3/250			7500/604e/250			7500/604/132			Average by Test
	24 MB	24 MB	32 MB	40 MB	24 MB	32 MB	40 MB	24 MB	32 MB	40 MB
CorelDraw, Rotate 65°	15%	6%	6%	8%	25%	6%	6%	1%	(-1%)	6%	8%
Corel PhotoPaint Gaussian Blur	18%	23%	21%	19%	19%	19%	15%	29%	18%	23%	21%
Windows 95 Find "Northwind"	(-7%)	(-9%)	6%	7%	6%	13%	26%	13%	24%	13%	9%
MS Access, Launch	(-18%)	(-19%)	4%	3%	(-9%)	3%	(-34%)	(-18%)	10%	0%	(-8%)
MS Access, query	(-17%)	(-36%)	1%	(-2%)	(-3%)	8%	11%	(-18%)	(-5%)	3%	(-6%)
MS Access, query (crosstab)	(-18%)	(-3%)	11%	17%	7%	16%	15%	2%	12%	11%	7%
MS Access, Report summary	(-34%)	(-9%)	(-1%)	(-2%)	(-6%)	(-11%)	7%	(-6%)	(-5%)	(-9%)	(-7%)
Word, open file and launch	(-7%)	(-6%)	6%	2%	(-37%)	(-11%)	4%	(-14%)	(-1%)	(-8%)	(-7%)
Word, scroll 50k charactors	(-17%)	(-12%)	(-11%)	(-12%)	(-11%)	(-12%)	(-10%)	2%	1%	1%	(-8%)
Word, replace 720 words	6%	14%	9%	2%	11%	12%	7%	24%	13%	5%	10%
Excel, launch and open	(-23%)	(-17%)	(-12%)	(-12%)	(-4%)	(-17%)	(-16%)	(-16%)	(-13%)	(-14%)	(-14%)
Excel, recalc. 100x100cells	(-10%)	11%	10%	15%	22%	14%	15%	19%	15%	22%	13%
Excel, create chart	(-24%)	(-21%)	(-13%)	(-10%)	(-17%)	(-11%)	(-3%)	(-17%)	(-13%)	(-3%)	(-13%)
AVERAGE by machine	(-10%)	(-6%)	3%	3%	0%	2%	3%	0%	4%	4%	0%

See MacWindows Solutions for links to manufacturer sites and contact info.