Re: matching CPUs to GPUs - Rules of Thumb?

Posted on 2012-07-14, 22:53

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by kool kitty89

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For modern day apps I go the GPU-route, because with almost any game you can invest surplus in GPU power in higher image quality - which is a thing I do fancy. Back in the day, all-maxxed out gaming was not so common as it is nowadays, I think. I often had to dial down an option or two, mainly …

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Tomb Raider without FPU?

Posted on 2012-07-13, 06:21

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by kool kitty89

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Does anyone know if DOS Tomb Raider can run on a CPU lacking an FPU (ie 386 sans 387, or 486SX)? I read an anecdote a while back about getting TR running on a 386-20 (very slow, but functional), but it wasn't mentioned whether a 387 was installed. (at the time, I'd assumed it wasn't since 386 …

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Re: two s3 virge/vx cards

Posted on 2012-07-13, 06:12

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by kool kitty89

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

My guess about glquake and Quake II is that noshutdown just ran them with OpenGL, and since the ViRGE drivers don't contain OpenGL support he got software rendered OpenGL. So these numbers would be quite meaningless, only as a cpu benchmark. there is third party opengl wrapper for virge, as already …

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Re: My Socket 4 Motherboard. The ultimate 486 replacement?

Posted on 2012-07-13, 04:48

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by kool kitty89

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

I didn't realize socket 4 was pentium :oops: :oops: I'm assuming it's NOT possible to run a 486 on it.... Nope, the only CPU's for Socket 4 are the very original Pentium (the 60 and 66Mhz variants only) and the Pentium Overdrive 120/133Mhz (which is impossible to find). Were there ever any socket …

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Re: Cyrix MII-433GP Build

Posted on 2012-07-12, 21:46

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by kool kitty89

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Interesting notes on the K5, K6, and 6x86 performance. Division does seem to be something of a Cyrix specialty, both integer than floating-point on the 5x86 and 6x86, even compared to the Pentium. (though the P6 FPU boosted division performance, the MII ended up still in the ballpark, I believe) It …

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Re: Cyrix MII-433GP Build

Posted on 2012-07-12, 05:59

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by kool kitty89

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Found an interesting article here: http://www.maximumpc.com/article/features/old_school_monday_operation_kill_pentium Especially this page with a variety of benchmarks: http://www.maximumpc.com/files/u112496/img191_1.jpg Interestingly, the 166 MHz (PR-200) 6x86MX seems to hold up pretty well to the …

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Re: Is my CRT not dithering?

Posted on 2012-07-12, 02:02

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by kool kitty89

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yea I hope Full HD will be the main standard for a while. On the PC, when it comes to games, resolution has kept increasing slowly but now we have hit a ceiling and to be honest I think it's a good thing. They are now talking about 4k resolution though. But I read somewhere that the human eye, or …

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Re: Is my CRT not dithering?

Posted on 2012-07-11, 19:00

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by kool kitty89

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

But just wait until OLED becomes mainstream... I can't wait! OLED is already mainstream here in the USA for both TV's and PC monitors, the picture quality on the OLED TV's blow the image quality of Plasma completely away. OLED = amazing! :) Fun fact: OLED can theoretically have less than 0.01 ms …

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Re: Is my CRT not dithering?

Posted on 2012-07-10, 20:17

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by kool kitty89

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Yea RGB to Component is to way to go for TVs in Australia for example. Europe was quite blessed but we got punished with PAL 50Hz which gaves us games that ran slower and vertically stunted. Except on the Megadrive, Amiga (or ST), and a few others where many games had 50 Hz optimization (or lacking …

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Re: Very demanding 3D games to run on a 486

Posted on 2012-07-10, 20:10

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by kool kitty89

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Perhaps so, unless the goal is to see how much abuse a socket 3 platform system can take, whereby the Intel Pentiums are exluded. I often use "486" loosely to simplify titles. If I were to run this, I'd probably include the best socket 3 CPU from each vendor, an AMD X5-160, a POD-83/100, and an IBM …

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Re: Older machines for general home use

Posted on 2012-07-09, 23:42

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by kool kitty89

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

For the 286, I'd say: CPU: 8-12 MHz RAM: 1MB (640k available for DOS) GPU: Anywhere from EGA up to 16-bit ISA SVGA For the 386: CPU: 386DX-33 RAM: 8MB GPU: 16-bit ISA SVGA (ET4000 would probably be best?) sound: Adlib or Sound Blaster, although it's optional for non-gaming software Wouldn't the …

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Re: Using a AT MB in a modern CASE

Posted on 2012-07-09, 23:27

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by kool kitty89

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I asked about this a while back and found that most ATX cases support the mounting points for AT boards, but you need to add/move the mounting posts (standoffs) to the appropriate positions. Some cases lack the necessary mounting points entirely though, so the only option there would be drilling …

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Re: Very demanding 3D games to run on a 486

Posted on 2012-07-09, 23:16

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by kool kitty89

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

A great idea! Well, the point is to see how a 486 performs, so no Pentium Overdrive. The Cyrix 5x86 also doesn't clock as high AFAIK so it should be pretty equal in performance to a faster clocked AMD 5x86. You may want to prefer to the comparative charts in the Ultimate 486 Benchmark Comparison . …

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Re: two s3 virge/vx cards

Posted on 2012-07-09, 19:08

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by kool kitty89

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

How does this card (4mb diamond stealth 3000) perform in general as I haven't had much time and the energy to test it my self lately? I can't remember who's site this is (Putas?) but it is an amazing Virge benchmark effort. http://vintage3d.org/virge.php Yes, that's Putas's site. A note on the " …

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Re: Is my CRT not dithering?

Posted on 2012-07-09, 17:51

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by kool kitty89

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I dunno, but if I remember correctly games such as Cool Spot that had "transparency" no longer do... the transparency was a dithering trick that mixed white verticle lines with black ones, and dithered to make a "glass" type effect in certain areas. However, on this new monitor you can flat out see …

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Re: Is my CRT not dithering?

Posted on 2012-07-06, 21:56

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by kool kitty89

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

It's true that old (and even most newer) CRT monitors don't do digital image processing/scaling/etc as LCD displays do, but they certainly can have "sharpness" control via analog means. (usually control of beam focus, making the whole screen more blurred or sharp) This is very common on SDTVs, but …

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Re: The "Fund My Next Project" Box

Posted on 2012-07-06, 21:41

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by kool kitty89

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

MatthewBrian wrote: I have the 6577 one. It shipped with Pentium 133 but eventually upgraded it with Pentium 233 (running underclocked at 200Mhz as it is the highest processor clock speed). Wouldn't it run at 233 with the board set to 1.5x? (since the Pentium MMX remapped 1.5x to 3.5x -same for K6 …

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Re: what hardware were you using in 1999?

Posted on 2012-07-05, 22:56

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by kool kitty89

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm not absolutely sure, but I believe I remember the general configuration. My dad and I built it from a mix of parts handed down from our recently upgraded family multimedia PC. (which was being used as a DVD player, game machine, and general purpose PC) FIC-503A (may have been 503+ that later got …

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Re: Socket 7 and AMD K-6 socketadapter. Lackluster benchmarks

Posted on 2012-07-05, 22:02

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by kool kitty89

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Are there any other games with 3Dnow patches? Or that has them built-in? EDIT: I found an uofficial one for Half-Life! Gotta do some tests on that game :) For games using non-propretary renderers, it's just a matter of which version of Direct3D or OpenGL is used and whether you have the appropriate …

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Re: My P3/9800Pro rig.

Posted on 2012-07-03, 22:02

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by kool kitty89

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

6600GT is competitive with a 9800 Pro so the 6800 XT looks like it would be faster but not by a lot. Not like a 6800 GT would be. There were at least 8 variants of 6800. GPU companies like their mind games... Though, again, would it really matter on a CPU-bottlenecked system? Wouldn't compatibility …

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