X86 Discussion

[Mikerochip]

Originally Posted by Glen M

The banshee only has 1 texture unit so performance for the most part is slower than the V2 unless the game only uses 1 texture unit in which case the banshee can be slightly faster.

Ahh... yeah.


I knew there was something I didn't like about it.

[Etze]

But it had a slightly higher clockspeed.

[Mikerochip]

Originally Posted by Etze

But it had a slightly higher clockspeed.

It was too small


And just didn't have that cool factor of having the SLI cable, and having 2x cards inside your PC!!


It also meant I could use the Matrox with beautiful 400Mhz RAMDAC, and amazing picture, as my 2D card, rather than the Banshee.
(Which probably wasn't all that bad. My friend had one, and almost fell off his chair when he upgraded from his 2MB ATI card)


I didn't really dislike it. I was a big 3DFX fanboy back in the day
It just wasn't ... enough


I almost cried when nVidia bought them

[rare_j]

Originally Posted by lesta_smsc

I had an S3 ViRGE and I'm sure it was okay on that. The only issue I had was I couldn't get sound configured properly but I think that was more user error when looking back now. Mind you, this was also in software mode.

For 3DFX there were some patches to avoid image corruption / tearing. May be worth trying that and seeing if you get better gameplay.

Thanks for the tips, yeah tried all that stuff. I've been all over vogons. My voodoo 2 is never gonna work with statically linked glide executables, as the pc is too fast. So I'm back on the voodoo graphics for the framerate as S2 software mode gives up all hope when there's a night or fog effect championship race. Descending deeper into retro insanity I've ordered a matrox mystique. Probably after that it'll be a voodoo 3

[Stewcumber]

I spent quite a long time messing with old PCs over the years. There was that one time I got a new, unboxed Tiny PC:





It had a 350MHz PII with 64Mb of RAM and a ATI Rage Pro Turbo (or something). I sold on the components but kept the case. I might put a SFX PSU in there.

I built a 386 PC for very old DOS gaming...

It's got a 40MHz 386SX CPU with no cache anywhere, 4MB of RAM, an AVGA 2 graphics card and a SB3910 AWE 32 soundcard (real OPL3).

It's great for those speed sensitive games. As you can see I am no stranger to combining new and old - it has a modern powersupply, a Gotek floppy emultor and a CF card neatly plugged right into the IDE controller card.

I then did a "First Person Shooter project" on a Pentium 3 650MHz with a MX440 128bit (mostly). I played all the FPS games I missed over the years. I've been meaning to do a strategy games one (and I can start in the 80s for that!)

I've been into odd stuff too - I had a VIA C3 Samuel board with a soldered 800MHz CPU on board. It's unlocked and you can turn the different caches off independently so it can be slowed right down to 386 speeds. Here it is with a SB Live! with its terrible FM Synthesis emulation.



Just about the only era of PCs I haven't messed with (that I want to) is 486 systems. I haven't reall needed to as I have Slot 1 PCs hanging around for modern DOS gaming.

I also have too many random S478 and S775 boards that I use for XP gaming with various PCI-E Graphics cards and Core 2 Duos etc.

Finally, I recently did a test to see how well the now 10(!) year old 17 860 stacks up against modern gaming. Have a look at this:

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/th...form.18870290/

[nathanm1991]

Originally Posted by Stewcumber

I spent quite a long time messing with old PCs over the years. There was that one time I got a new, unboxed Tiny PC:

<snip>

It had a 350MHz PII with 64Mb of RAM and a ATI Rage Pro Turbo (or something). I sold on the components but kept the case. I might put a SFX PSU in there.

I built a 386 PC for very old DOS gaming...

<snip>

It's got a 40MHz 386SX CPU with no cache anywhere, 4MB of RAM, an AVGA 2 graphics card and a SB3910 AWE 32 soundcard (real OPL3).

It's great for those speed sensitive games. As you can see I am no stranger to combining new and old - it has a modern powersupply, a Gotek floppy emultor and a CF card neatly plugged right into the IDE controller card.

I then did a "First Person Shooter project" on a Pentium 3 650MHz with a MX440 128bit (mostly). I played all the FPS games I missed over the years. I've been meaning to do a strategy games one (and I can start in the 80s for that!)

I've been into odd stuff too - I had a VIA C3 Samuel board with a soldered 800MHz CPU on board. It's unlocked and you can turn the different caches off independently so it can be slowed right down to 386 speeds. Here it is with a SB Live! with its terrible FM Synthesis emulation.

<snip>

Just about the only era of PCs I haven't messed with (that I want to) is 486 systems. I haven't reall needed to as I have Slot 1 PCs hanging around for modern DOS gaming.

I also have too many random S478 and S775 boards that I use for XP gaming with various PCI-E Graphics cards and Core 2 Duos etc.

Finally, I recently did a test to see how well the now 10(!) year old 17 860 stacks up against modern gaming. Have a look at this:

https://forums.overclockers.co.uk/th...form.18870290/

First and Foremost Welcome to the X86 Chat I Remember Tiny PC's haha My aunt had one I used to Play Motocross Madness 2 (if it Didn't Crash), Wolf3d and Skyroads as they were the only 3 games installed

P.s I like how informative your Post is :-)

[nathanm1991]

This is Why I Dumpster Dive Just Add Ram (Changing Power supply before I even Attempt turning it on lol

Pentium II 400/512/100/2.0V S1 according to google

[nathanm1991]

the P2 Lives! I had 2 128MB SDRAM Modules here luckily (Phew) :-) Added a 10.2GB Drive for now just to see what its like

Is this machine Probably better Suited to Windows 95?

[rare_j]

Nice find! Windows 95 or 98 would suit that well I think.

[Stewcumber]

Windows 98 should be fine - assuming you're not going fully authentic and cramming it with unnecessary bloatware and start up programs!

What are your plans for it?

I need to decide if I want to play the Secret of Monkey Island on my 386 or Amiga. I think the graphics and sound will be better on my PC but my week old iga is just sitting there doing nothing (because I don't have a mouse or joypad)

Decisions decisions...

[lesta_smsc]

Look up Win98 Lite. Nice tool to make it very fast!

[nathanm1991]

Originally Posted by Stewcumber

Windows 98 should be fine - assuming you're not going fully authentic and cramming it with unnecessary bloatware and start up programs!

What are your plans for it?

I need to decide if I want to play the Secret of Monkey Island on my 386 or Amiga. I think the graphics and sound will be better on my PC but my week old iga is just sitting there doing nothing (because I don't have a mouse or joypad)

Decisions decisions...

Will Chuck a Joypad your way if you like I don't have a spare mouse though :-(

I've put 98se on it for now but am thinking of dual booting it with 95 as I Don't have a 95 system here

Originally Posted by rare_j

Nice find! Windows 95 or 98 would suit that well I think.

Going to Multiboot both and have a Slave HDD for Storage, Should work Fine

Originally Posted by lesta_smsc

Look up Win98 Lite. Nice tool to make it very fast!

I will Look it up now thanks for the Tip!

Any joy on PCI GPUS?

I'm sorry can somebody Explain Multi quote to me again I do keep trying

[Dunny]

Originally Posted by nathanm1991

Will Chuck a Joypad your way if you like I don't have a spare mouse though :-(

I've put 98se on it for now but am thinking of dual booting it with 95 as I Don't have a 95 system here

Originally Posted by nathanm1991

Going to Multiboot both and have a Slave HDD for Storage, Should work Fine

Originally Posted by nathanm1991

I will Look it up now thanks for the Tip!

Any joy on PCI GPUS?

Originally Posted by nathanm1991

I'm sorry can somebody Explain Multi quote to me again I do keep trying

Click the button to the right of each of the quote buttons on the posts you want to quote. Then on the last one, click the Quote button as normal.

[nathanm1991]

Originally Posted by Dunny

Click the button to the right of each of the quote buttons on the posts you want to quote. Then on the last one, click the Quote button as normal.

Dunny your a gem it's the one thing I keep forgetting how to do thank you bud

[nathanm1991]

Ok so I have hit a bit of a caveat with the P2. I have tried to Add a Secondary IDE Drive for Storage. Have tried both in Cable Select and Slave but the Bios HDD autodetection will not find it it just hangs on slave and finds nothing on cable select. its a 80gb HDD could it be too big in size for the Board to see?

[DamienD]

Tried adjusting "jumpers"?

[nathanm1991]

Originally Posted by DamienD

Tried adjusting "jumpers"?

Yes I have tried both cable select and slave with Jumper settings. I haven't tried the 32gb clip option with slave or cable select though or the 15 heads options. shall I try the 32 gb clip to see if it is down to issue of size?

[rare_j]

Originally Posted by nathanm1991

Ok so I have hit a bit of a caveat with the P2. I have tried to Add a Secondary IDE Drive for Storage. Have tried both in Cable Select and Slave but the Bios HDD autodetection will not find it it just hangs on slave and finds nothing on cable select. its a 80gb HDD could it be too big in size for the Board to see?

Yes, it definitely could be too big for the board to see. Can you find the manual for the motherboard anywhere? I remember years ago pairing a large hard drive with a motherboard that didn't support it. Maxtor and Seagate used to do utilities to make the drive appear like it was a series of smaller drives.
But first find the manual and go from there.

[Etze]

After I got a Voodoo-I (instead of a Banshee) for my PentiumMMX-166MHz-PC, I am very excited that I have nearly completed this build.

Now there's another building site: Pentium-II-333MHz. Which gfx-card is best suited for this processor? Riva TNT? Rage 128? Something else? No Voodoo (II) please.

[lesta_smsc]

S3 Savage was a great card. S3TC was on another level to get the most out of the card without loss in performance.