Re: So I bought a CPU for my 98 machine without realizing that my mobo only supports up to 1.3ghz

Posted on 2020-10-27, 09:36

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by bloodem

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For socket 462 motherboards with VIA chipsets are cheaper and quite easy to find however they generally lag around 5-10% in performance behind nforce2 boards. First generation nforce boards are to be avoided as they have poor compatibility and stability. For a high end socket 462 - I see that you …

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Re: Direct3D gaming with a PCI videocard on an AMD K6-2 platform on windows 98se

Posted on 2020-10-26, 17:51

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by bloodem

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Seems that other people complained in the past about performance issues with the SiS530 chipset (even when using a K6-2+ CPU). Apparently the solution was to "toggle some BIOS settings" (but it's unclear which settings those were): https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?p=373660#p373660 Not sure how …

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Re: Desperate BGA reball repair on Riva 128 and Geforce 2 GTS

Posted on 2020-10-26, 17:29

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by bloodem

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Unfortunately, there's a good chance that the chips themselves are fried, but I guess it's a nice project anyway. 😀 Looking forward to seeing the cards working again... hopefully 😀

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Re: So I bought a CPU for my 98 machine without realizing that my mobo only supports up to 1.3ghz

Posted on 2020-10-25, 17:55

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

The only way in which you could safely use any modern PSU with a Barton 3000+, would be to find a motherboard with the 12V CPU power connector. Unfortunately, I've never had a VIA KT600/880 motherboard with this connector. Apparently there are some out there, but they're probably rare. Furthermore, …

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Re: Direct3D gaming with a PCI videocard on an AMD K6-2 platform on windows 98se

Posted on 2020-10-25, 14:54

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by bloodem

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Did you try with an 128 MB memory module instead of 256 MB? With the 256 MB memory module you are exceeding the max cacheable area, which can severely affect performance with a non plus K6-2 CPU.

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Re: DOS drivers for Aztech Multimedia Pro 16 IIB-3D (I38-SN96103)

Posted on 2020-10-25, 13:36

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by bloodem

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2020-10-25, 13:13: Interesting card. I see the Analog Devices chip, so I'm assuming it is WSS compatible as well. Could you test a few WSS capable games on it? For example: Descent, Tyrian, Aladdin and WarCraft 2. Already tested, it is WSS compatible! It even has WSS volume …

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Re: DOS drivers for Aztech Multimedia Pro 16 IIB-3D (I38-SN96103)

Posted on 2020-10-25, 12:50

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by bloodem

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Never mind, found the drivers (it does need them for DOS), but there was a second issue, which was actually caused by CPU speed. I was testing the card on a K6-2+ 550 MHz, and while I did disable the L1/L2 and external cache (so I had 386 equivalent speed), it seems that it wasn't enough for this …

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DOS drivers for Aztech Multimedia Pro 16 IIB-3D (I38-SN96103)

Posted on 2020-10-25, 11:09

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Some time ago, I bought a sound/video card bundle and I came across an Aztech card with a genuine Yamaha OPL3 chip (the low power version). The card has the I38-SN96103 FCC ID, which apparently means that it's an Aztech Multimedia Pro 16 IIB-3D. The card is non PNP, but only the base address is …

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Re: So I bought a CPU for my 98 machine without realizing that my mobo only supports up to 1.3ghz

Posted on 2020-10-25, 05:49

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Well, your 750W PSU is definitely too new, so, at best, it probably has 25 amps for the 3.3/5v rails (and a max combined wattage of 130w or so). Unfortunately that’s not going to cut it. You’d need an old PSU with 32amps or more, and 180w+ combined wattage (just to be on the safe side). However, if …

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Re: So I bought a CPU for my 98 machine without realizing that my mobo only supports up to 1.3ghz

Posted on 2020-10-25, 05:25

by

by bloodem

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My recommendation would be for a board with the VIA KT600 / VT8237 chipset, more specifically the Asus A7V600-X. I own two of these myself, and besides having rock solid stability, it also has many useful features (such as the ability to disable the CPU L1/L2 cache and downclock the CPU to 500MHz - …

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Re: Direct3D gaming with a PCI videocard on an AMD K6-2 platform on windows 98se

Posted on 2020-10-24, 19:26

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by bloodem

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

RetroSpector78 wrote on 2020-10-24, 18:48: [*]There is 1 256MB PC133 stick in the motherboard. This might be part of the problem, actually (especially with a non-plus K6-2 CPU). If you can, remove the 256 MB module, and use a 128 MB memory module instead. And while you're at it, also make sure that …

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Re: Direct3D gaming with a PCI videocard on an AMD K6-2 platform on windows 98se

Posted on 2020-10-24, 18:03

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by bloodem

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

The GeForce 2 MX (even on PCI) should be able to handle much more than 60 FPS in Quake 3 at 640x480x16. Eh no. GeForce 2-4 cards on PCI bus suffer quite greatly, when it comes to max FPS, which drags average FPS in Quake 3 timedemos below 100 fps even on much more powerful CPUs. Well, we agree. :) …

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Re: Direct3D gaming with a PCI videocard on an AMD K6-2 platform on windows 98se

Posted on 2020-10-24, 17:07

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by bloodem

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Do you have any other devices besides the VGA/sound card (like a USB 2.0 PCI card, maybe)? If yes, remove them. By the way, what sound card are you using? The GeForce 2 MX (even on PCI) should be able to handle much more than 60 FPS in Quake 3 at 640x480x16.

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Re: Direct3D gaming with a PCI videocard on an AMD K6-2 platform on windows 98se

Posted on 2020-10-24, 14:01

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by bloodem

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Small improvement indeed for Quake3 with the video driver downgrade. Quake 3 went up from 17.5fps to 23.5fps (OpenGL) But Unreal Tournament city intro went down from 14fps to 11fps (Direct3D, OpenGL crashed with both driver versions) 3DMark 99 performance was also a bit lower with the older driver. …

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Re: Planning to install SSD in my Windows 98 machine. Help, advice, suggestions, etc.?

Posted on 2020-10-23, 10:43

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by bloodem

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

TL;dr... So far I have six retro PCs (Tualatin, Athlon XP, Athlon 64 and three Core 2 DUOs) with SSDs (all of them Kingston A400 120 GB) running Windows 98. For the Core 2 Duo systems I'm using the onboard SATA controller in compatible mode. For the other three I'm using these SATA to PATA adapters …

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Re: 3D Mark 99 on win98se with Nvidia FX5500

Posted on 2020-10-22, 13:48

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by bloodem

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Yeah, come to think about it, that 3DMark99 score is probably good for your combo (K6-2 500 / Voodoo Banshee). I actually did a similar benchmark a few weeks ago , and I got ~ 3200 points with a K6-2+ 550 MHz & a Voodoo 3 3000 (I used an AGP card, but a PCI Voodoo 3 would be virtually identical). …

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Re: 3D Mark 99 on win98se with Nvidia FX5500

Posted on 2020-10-21, 07:23

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by bloodem

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Judging by that score, it seems you are on a Socket 7 PC (Pentium MMX?). The lower score with the FX 5500 is not strange at all, it's perfectly normal. You are running a 2003 card with 2004 drivers on a 1997 PC. Those drivers were designed to work with fast CPUs like Athlon 64, Pentium 4, Athlon XP. …

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Re: 3D Mark 99 on win98se with Nvidia FX5500

Posted on 2020-10-20, 17:08

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by bloodem

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I would recommend trying driver version 45.23 (force install as GeForce FX5200).

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Display resolution issues on nVidia drivers 4x.xx (and newer) compared to previous versions on a 1440p display (Win98)

Posted on 2020-10-20, 08:31

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by bloodem

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Hi everyone, I have a strange issue, which I noticed some time ago but it didn't bother me too much, however I'd really like to find a solution now. I don't know if this is a common issue or it's something specific to my 1440p monitor (which, btw, is very retro friendly, supporting very high quality …

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Re: Case Slot Fans and the Voodoo 3

Posted on 2020-10-18, 06:01

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by bloodem

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

That's pretty neat, bZbZbZ! It's especially useful for Voodoo 3 PCI cards, which have that scorching hot MOSFET.

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