Hi guys,

I like the discussion my question sparked so far, thank you all for all your feedback. So actually after few days of trying, I could not get the Guillemot TNT2 M64 work properly under Win98 SE, no matter what drivers I tried (Hercules, Guillemot, nVidia drivers would not even boot). Maybe it does not like the MB+CPU, some day I will try what happens under Win95 but for now, I stick to S3 Trio 3d/2x 8MB PCI card which ought to be plenty for P166. I will be looking out for some Voodoo card through.

SB Live! card works nicely under Win98, and I wanna try Phil's DOS drivers in few DOS games to see what happens. If results would indeed be poor, I will revert to SB16 ISA for the time being

I still owe you a response on intended use of the PC - mid-90s gaming of course, no matter if 3D or 2D titles. And yes, I want to build an over-the-top PC around the P166 CPU and that particular mobo.

GigAHerZ wrote:

... and i just tried it out, and it works well! I'm using XMSDSK to allocate TOP 192MB of XMS memory for ramdrive therefore leav […]
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GigAHerZ wrote:

dionb, i haven't researched it yet, but maybe it's a perfect way to create a 192MB ramdisk on that part of ram that isn't cached?

... and i just tried it out, and it works well!
I'm using XMSDSK to allocate TOP 192MB of XMS memory for ramdrive therefore leaving bottom 64MB for Windows. And it works - Windows only sees 64MB of RAM and i have Windows-Compatible ramdisk of 192MB. Good place to put your browser cache and maybe some other temporary stuff.

Autoexec.bat has to have similar line: (192MB, R: drive, Top placement in XMS, No confirmations)
C:\APPS\XMSDSK\xmsdsk.exe 196608 R: /t /y

So there is some use to have more than 64MB of ram even on those old machines that can't cache more than that. 😀

Writing this post from my P200MMX@225MHz.

This.. is game changing for me. Now I finally have a reason to add more than 64MB RAM to my K6-2 system.

appiah4 wrote:

GigAHerZ wrote:

... and i just tried it out, and it works well! I'm using XMSDSK to allocate TOP 192MB of XMS memory for ramdrive therefore leav […]
Show full quote

GigAHerZ wrote:

dionb, i haven't researched it yet, but maybe it's a perfect way to create a 192MB ramdisk on that part of ram that isn't cached?

... and i just tried it out, and it works well!
I'm using XMSDSK to allocate TOP 192MB of XMS memory for ramdrive therefore leaving bottom 64MB for Windows. And it works - Windows only sees 64MB of RAM and i have Windows-Compatible ramdisk of 192MB. Good place to put your browser cache and maybe some other temporary stuff.

Autoexec.bat has to have similar line: (192MB, R: drive, Top placement in XMS, No confirmations)
C:\APPS\XMSDSK\xmsdsk.exe 196608 R: /t /y

So there is some use to have more than 64MB of ram even on those old machines that can't cache more than that. 😀

Writing this post from my P200MMX@225MHz.

This.. is game changing for me. Now I finally have a reason to add more than 64MB RAM to my K6-2 system.

I didn't realise this wasn't more known about! I do the same on my 486's with 64MB of ram. I use it for my temp directory and dumping spot for exacting zip files and the like, my thinking is is saves wear on the CF cards.
I was going to play around with batch files to copy a game to the ram drive and run it from there, but haven't got around to seeing if its beneficial or not.

As for the OP, If you don't already have the S3 Trio I'd recommend getting a Virge instead so you can play around with S3D, but its not really worth spending money on IMHO

OK let me follow-up

In the meantime I upgraded my CPU from Pentium 166Mhz (FC80502166) to Pentium MMX 200Mhz (FV80503200)
After not being a ble to make the TNT2 M64 from Guillemot work properly in Win98, and with Voodoo cards being kind difficult to get for a decent price, I now have a chance of getting a Diamond Fire GL 1000 Pro (rev. B) for PCI (based on 3Dlabs Permedia 2) - what do you think about that selection?
Should be a bit better than the S3 Trio 3D/2X I have in there right now.

For the happiness of it, I include the picture of my setup below (Serving as a monitor stand is my 486 DOS PC...

Other than the 2D improvement you won't get much 3D mileage out of the permedia 2..

Have you looked into getting an ATI Rage Pro/Turbo PCI? They are fairly cheap and do around Vooodoo 1 levels of acceleration.

My humble suggestion for graphics is a 2-card solution: main 2D card a Diamond 3D-2000 4mb (or other brand), and for 3D just *bite the bullet* and get yourself a Voodoo 1 4mb or a Voodoo 2 in any ram configuration you can find for an affordable price. V1's pair well with with your P200 but image quality is noticeably improved with a V2. Glide hardware is the only reasonable 3D solution for early gen CPU rigs like this one, where running Glide wrappers aren't an attractive option.

So I eventually follow the suggestion of many of you and got myself a Voodoo 2 card 8MB and a pass through cable off Ebay, which is paired with the Fire GL 1000 card.
I should focus on some cooling now of both of these cards, they both get pretty hot during gaming.

I wonder how two Voodoo 2 cards in SLI would fair with 200Mhz MMX.....hm....

well done!

Hi all,

After some consideration I wish to ask
I have filled the RAM in the system to brim with combination of RAM sticks - total of 196 MBs (4xSIMM modules, 2xSD-RAM (100mhz).
Is there any chance that the SIMM modules bottleneck in this case?

Thanks

assasincz wrote on 2019-10-31, 08:25:

I have filled the RAM in the system to brim with combination of RAM sticks - total of 196 MBs (4xSIMM modules, 2xSD-RAM (100mhz).
Is there any chance that the SIMM modules bottleneck in this case?

On your question - no, there's insignificant speed difference on a P1-MMX platform. Test and see for yourself.

Much more interesting question you should check - is your motherboard explicitly permits mixing both SIMM FPM/EDO and DIMM SDR?
As, you see, SDR use 3.3V for power and signal lines (with 5V modules being almost vaporware), and SIMM usually use 5V for power and signal lines (3.3V modules are there, too, but scarce as hens teeth).
Trouble is, mixing RAM sticks may bump signal levels to 5V for SDRAM, which subsequently may degrade and fry SDR modules.

Tsukiouji wrote on 2024-06-13, 13:33:

On your question - no, there's insignificant speed difference on a P1-MMX platform. Test and see for yourself. […]
Show full quote

assasincz wrote on 2019-10-31, 08:25:

I have filled the RAM in the system to brim with combination of RAM sticks - total of 196 MBs (4xSIMM modules, 2xSD-RAM (100mhz).
Is there any chance that the SIMM modules bottleneck in this case?

On your question - no, there's insignificant speed difference on a P1-MMX platform. Test and see for yourself.

Much more interesting question you should check - is your motherboard explicitly permits mixing both SIMM FPM/EDO and DIMM SDR?
As, you see, SDR use 3.3V for power and signal lines (with 5V modules being almost vaporware), and SIMM usually use 5V for power and signal lines (3.3V modules are there, too, but scarce as hens teeth).
Trouble is, mixing RAM sticks may bump signal levels to 5V for SDRAM, which subsequently may degrade and fry SDR modules.

You are replying to a 5 year old post.

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2024-06-13, 15:12:

Tsukiouji wrote on 2024-06-13, 13:33:

On your question - no, there's insignificant speed difference on a P1-MMX platform. Test and see for yourself. […]
Show full quote

assasincz wrote on 2019-10-31, 08:25:

I have filled the RAM in the system to brim with combination of RAM sticks - total of 196 MBs (4xSIMM modules, 2xSD-RAM (100mhz).
Is there any chance that the SIMM modules bottleneck in this case?

On your question - no, there's insignificant speed difference on a P1-MMX platform. Test and see for yourself.

Much more interesting question you should check - is your motherboard explicitly permits mixing both SIMM FPM/EDO and DIMM SDR?
As, you see, SDR use 3.3V for power and signal lines (with 5V modules being almost vaporware), and SIMM usually use 5V for power and signal lines (3.3V modules are there, too, but scarce as hens teeth).
Trouble is, mixing RAM sticks may bump signal levels to 5V for SDRAM, which subsequently may degrade and fry SDR modules.

You are replying to a 5 year old post.

Better late than never? 😁