TheGreyRabbit wrote:

Pentium 233MMX (Socket 7) 32MB RAM (Though I could bump it to 64, that cause some issues with Alien Trilogy though) (SIMM) Hercu […]
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Pentium 233MMX (Socket 7)
32MB RAM (Though I could bump it to 64, that cause some issues with Alien Trilogy though) (SIMM)
Hercules Trio64V+ 2MB (PCI)
SB Vibra16 PnP (ISA)

Nice spec's, though really fast for Dos gaming. Perhaps a P133 is more suited. I run one such in my MS-Dos-6.22-only machine.
I have had trouble running 128mb, so I took out those two 64mb modules, and installed a 32mb PC-100.
The board is an Epox MVP3-C and now it is running rock solid. The trouble it gave was that it had problems with warmbooting,
when I hit that reset button or ALT+CTRL+DEL. Most of the times it would just be stuck with black screen and not booting.
Less ram solved that I guess. Now I am looking for a 16mb PC-100 module or a PC-133 for extra (redundant?) stability.

TheGreyRabbit wrote:

1. What slow down utility and settings would work best? I've tried SlowDOS with limited success, and just wondering if there's a better option.

Try to disable some of the system's cache first. If this is not working out for you, there might be someone here who knows a program or two.

TheGreyRabbit wrote:

2. What card would be the best choice for Glide support, while maintaining compatibility? I'm leaning towards a Voodoo2, but I've heard it can't run some games that the OG Voodoo can. Is this true?

For Dos-only, V1 is good enough. If some kind of Windows games (assuming you are using Win9X and not MS-Dos-6.22) are to be played,
then just go for a V2. Nothing wrong with a hint of overkill.

Disabling the internal cache (you can do this through the BIOS setting or through a software tool), will turn your machine into a 386DX, however a very fast one, ~ 396DX 40 MHz equivalent.

Wing Commander might still feel a bit too fast.

A regular Pentium will end up a bit slower, and an AMD chip the slowest. This simply has to do with CPU architecture.

Otherwise, brostenen has mentioned all the important bits 😀

With the RAM, it runs at 66 MHz, and should take PC100 or PC133, shouldn't make a difference. I also agree, more games work with only 16 or 32 MB Ram. 16 MB are a bit harder to find, but they do exist.

I'm not going to be running Windows 9x on it, it's DOS 6.22, and Windows 3.11. So I suppose I should go with a Voodoo 1?

Tried disabling CPU Cache and External Cache, and it was still too fast. Almost playable now, but still no way I'm dodging those asteroids.

Regarding slowdown utilities, Slowdown by Bret Johnson worked well for me. Much better than MoSlo, which was more popular at the time.

TheGreyRabbit wrote:

I'm not going to be running Windows 9x on it, it's DOS 6.22, and Windows 3.11. So I suppose I should go with a Voodoo 1?

Tried disabling CPU Cache and External Cache, and it was still too fast. Almost playable now, but still no way I'm dodging those asteroids.

Yup, the MMX is amongst the fastest Socket 7 processor with cache disabled.

Try a regular Pentium, like a Pentium 133, 166 or 200. They are quite a bit slower with cache disabled.

Also you might find this useful:

Building a 4 in 1 Retro Gaming PC

You can always wire the multiplier or FSB jumpers to a turbo button, so you can drop that MMX down to 125MHz (50MHz FSB x 2.5 - I don't know if the MMX supports lower multipliers) and see if at that speed you can slow it down enough with the caches disabled.

The clock-speed actually does very little when the caches are disabled 😢

Even the FSB speed would have such little impact? It is slowing down memory access too. And I assume that most of what a processor with caches disabled does is wait for the memory.
There were other tricks like disabling branch prediction (wasn't this one of the improvements of the MMX over the Classic?), but I don't think this works on the MMX.

There are also approaches like MosLo. Would it be wrong to assume running such an slow down utility with the caches disabled would be less prone to stuttering rather than running it with more aggressive settings while the machine has the caches enabled?

Where FSB has an impact is with L1 off, but motherboard cache on. But with all caches off, it doesn't matter much what you do, the speed hardly changes.

I did run MoSlow on a cacheless K6 and ran this old game, it had a plane it it, and you fly around, shoot and drop bombs. It seemed to ran fine.

But I'm not a big fan of MoSlow, it can cause Joystick drift for example.

If you can find a cheap P133, then go for it.

Or any other between 75 and 166 mhz. The next move would be to get a 486dx2.
That would include at least another motherboard, and perhaps the additional controllers, gfx-cards and what else.
You will be stuck here, as you would not be able to use a V1 to it's fullest potential.

So... Get a slower Pentium, around 133mhz. That's my best bet.

EDIT:
Came to think about it... You could look into 5x86-133 cpu's.
It's like a dx2 on steroids, yet have a weak FPU compared to a real Pentium.
Yet again, I do not know anything about how V1 performs on this CPU.

I'll try out Bret Johnson's Slowdown, later. I have a joystick so I can report back on drift. If it's an issue, I suppose I'll be looking for either a 5x86 or a p133. Which would be better for later DOS games?

TheGreyRabbit wrote:

I'll try out Bret Johnson's Slowdown, later. I have a joystick so I can report back on drift. If it's an issue, I suppose I'll be looking for either a 5x86 or a p133. Which would be better for later DOS games?

Just remember that the 5x86 need a 486 mobo.

Get the Pentium. The much better FPU performance will help quite a bit with software 3D games. Just get the highest Pentium Classic you can find. The Pentium Classic 200MHz will happily run as a Pentium 75 if you set the jumpers like that.

Well looks like Slowdown did the trick. I even made a BAT to start it with the right speed for Wing Commander and disable it upon exit. No joystick drift that I noticed either.

I'll have to test it on other games yet, but that was my main concern.

Nice. Good work.
No need for new CPU then.

Well, just for funzies I decided to crack open the case and see what changing the multiplier jumpers might accomplish.

After extensive testing, the only game I've encountered that I cannot run properly is Ultima 7. Apparently this is because it forces L1 cache to be enabled. I got it to boot in Windows 3.11 using the Win9x U7DPMI patch, and the speeds seemed good, but it froze after the intro played.

Aside from running it on a 386 (which I do have), does anyone have any suggestions?

I don't anyone has solved that cache issue with Ultima 7...