Re: General advice for building first retro gaming pc

Posted on 2023-05-14, 21:54

by

by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I would not recommend the FX series. Too weak for XP games, and too limited in backwards compatible drivers for Win98. Oh, and the used market choice is between a weak fx5200 and laughably overpriced faster versions. With Nvidia you want a card that can use a wide range of older drivers for Win98, …

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Re: old games on cards with missing legacy features

Posted on 2023-05-12, 20:11

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I'd go for the lower clocked cards like the ti200 and ti4200 because they are less likely to die due to using less power and producing less heat. Also the prices are more reasonable. If a game is unplayable on a ti4200, the ti4600 is not going make a huge improvement.

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Re: ASUS Radeon HD 7850 1GB - WinXP Performance

Posted on 2023-05-06, 14:02

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Try driver 12.4 https://pixelworkbench.com/2022/05/17/amd-catalyst-slow-performance-in-windows-xp-the-mystery-deepens/ For optimal performance with 13.x and 14.x drivers on GCN graphics cards (hd7000 series) you need not just a faster cpu but a newer cpu generation, like Sandy Bridge. Also the 14.4 …

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Re: What's the value of a socket 423 P4 system?

Posted on 2023-04-19, 19:07

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Mostly good for the lolz, as it's a prime example of everything wrong with the early P4. It's a relatively rare platform, so the most practical use of it is selling it to collectors if you don't want it. But some s423 boards have a PC/PCI header or a spot to solder one, and that would be great for …

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Re: in praise of low end budget hardware!

Posted on 2023-04-04, 13:40

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

If it was strictly for playing old games, then budget hardware is good. I got a P4 machine with the lame PC133 memory, a GF2MX and SB Live - a budget system even when it was new, but it runs most Win9x and late DOS games just fine. But another part of this hobby is hardware appreciation, and there's …

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Re: Any use for S754-system with PCIe ?

Posted on 2023-04-03, 13:52

by

by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yeah, you can pop in a cheapo Radeon X600 in the PCIe slot and then have an overkill W98 rig that runs cool and quiet, and hardly required any money. I tested the PCIE Radeon in Win98, it gave me much better compatibility than the trainwreck Quadro fx1300 (PCIE Geforce FX). You can even try a …

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Re: Reasonably priced Win 98SE Graphics cards

Posted on 2023-03-04, 14:21

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I'd go with the Radeon 9800se or 9550, generally the Ati Win98 drivers work without problems on every game I tested. With Nvidia I often have to use older drivers to avoid game compatibility problems, like rendering errors, black screen on launch, blurry UI elements/text, stuttering input lag. The …

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Re: Windows XP Service Pack versions - performance vs compatiblity?

Posted on 2023-02-20, 14:34

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Some Athlon XP boards require at least SP2 to have working USB2.0 ports. There was no separate driver, just required updating Windows to SP2.

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Re: Pentium 4 chipsets for Windows 98 SE

Posted on 2023-01-27, 01:55

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Win98 compatibility is the same between 845, 865 and 875 chipsets. 845 has single channel RAM and officially supports upto DDR333 speeds and FSB533, although some boards have unofficial DRR400 FSB800 support. 865pe and 875p support dual channel DDR400 and 800mhz FSB.

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Re: ATI Rage 128 Pro driver issue fix

Posted on 2023-01-13, 00:09

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I suspect this issue occurs if you have an OEM version of the card, with a unique device ID that the generic driver can't match to any device listed in the Inf file. So you can either force install a driver for a similar card, or add the device ID for your card to the Inf file. I have a Dell version …

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Re: Restoring rusty components - without using paint?

Posted on 2023-01-07, 16:03

by

by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I quit using any acids for rust removal, and always use Evaporust. It does a great job of removing rust, but doesn't eat the metal. It also gives the metal surface a dull greyish color if you leave it on for half a day or longer.

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Re: Newest possible systems for Windows XP and Windows 7

Posted on 2022-10-26, 01:00

by

by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Why suggest it when you haven't tried it? Most likely Xeon + motherboard from China issue. Then again, you can manually tweak multiplier and voltage in OS on brandname motherboards. It does not say the brand/type. Just X79 chipset. Until someone verifies from observation that another X79 …

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Re: Text corruption in certain games on a GeForce FX 5900XT

Posted on 2022-10-01, 13:19

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Interesting. I did notice that the GF3 and GF4 are less likely to have blurry text compared to earlier cards I tested. Another game that often has blurry text is Populous The Beginning (even the demo version), and because it runs at low resolution, the problem becomes glaringly obvious.

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Re: Text corruption in certain games on a GeForce FX 5900XT

Posted on 2022-10-01, 05:03

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

You might want to try older drivers for the Geforce 4. I tested it with something like 40.72 driver. Also, I used the coolbits registry patch to make the setting visible in the Nvidia control panel, instead of RivaTuner.

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Re: Text corruption in certain games on a GeForce FX 5900XT

Posted on 2022-09-29, 15:15

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

From my experience, that setting is unavailable in Geforce FX and later cards. But I can confirm that Texel Origin Adjustment setting is necessary to fix the blurry text/UI in some games on NV cards, and I was able to use it on GF4 and earlier.

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Re: New GPU advice for Windows 98SE build

Posted on 2022-09-25, 22:20

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

It should be fine for nGlide or dgVoodoo, although I personally haven't tried it with that card, and you might need a faster cpu for smooth gameplay with those.

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Re: simplify the collection: 486DX2 and P4

Posted on 2022-09-25, 21:50

by

by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

See if you can find an online manual for your specific model to see what processors it supports. If it came with a 1.6ghz cpu, it's probably too old to support a faster bus speed. The 400mhz bus processors were available up to 2.8ghz.

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Re: New GPU advice

Posted on 2022-09-24, 21:22

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I'd go with the 9600pro out of those two. I tested similar radeons in Win98 and did not run into any game breaking bugs. The Nvidia 6 series requires newer drivers that have some compatibility problems with 90s games like NFS 3. That's why with Nvidia people generally recommend not getting anything …

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Re: AMD Catalyst drivers for Windows XP - newer is NOT better

Posted on 2022-09-24, 15:28

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Good find. With all these results, I must admit the AMD HD4000-6000 cards look less appealing now for late XP games, compared to GCN1.

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Re: Fastest CPU for a voodoo 1 while maintaining DOS glide compatibility

Posted on 2022-09-09, 22:29

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by pixel_workbench

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I had no luck with Voodoo1 on Athlon systems, even when the cpu was downclocked to 500mhz on a 100mhz bus, I got lockups with checkerboard pattern. This was on a Via KT333 chipset. Only by disabling cpu cache were the lockups resolved, but then the cpu was too slow to run 3d games at playable fps.

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