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is this pc good?

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Reply 21 of 59, by kolderman

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Well here it is getting 85.5fps on UT2003 at 1024x768.

https://www.anandtech.com/show/1017/8

It was a good budget card, and is still a good budget card if you want to spend next to nothing and aren't too fussy about highest res/effects/anti-aliasing.

Reply 22 of 59, by Shagittarius

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The original poster specifically said "would this 98 pc be able to play games up to 2002 in 60fps high detail settings max resolution 1024x768".

I'm assuming that means the bells and whistles, and coupled with that P4 CPU the answer is no.

Reply 23 of 59, by PTherapist

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I'm going to have to echo the comments of everybody else, for high detail full bells & whistles 2002 gaming then nope this system isn't going to cut it. A CPU & graphics upgrade would be necessary. I'm also personally not a great fan of VIA chipsets, which that motherboard has, as they often don't perform as well as they should.

But what you do have is an ok system for late 90s-2000/2001 gaming, dialling down settings a bit the further you get. The GeForce 4 MX440 is a nice (and cheaper) alternative to a GeForce 2 and should always been seen in that context, as they will perform about the same. If you wanted real GeForce 4 performance, you'd need one of the more expensive non-MX cards but at that point you may as well just install an FX card.

Reply 24 of 59, by matthi321

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i dont have this pc yet btw i found one who sells it, thats why am asking here. but i have found another one who sells a windows 98 pc. is this better than the other?

AMD Athlon XP 2500+
PCCHIPS M848ALU
512 MB DDR-RAM
soltek Nvidia GeForce FX5200

Reply 25 of 59, by Almoststew1990

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It is probably a bit better but again, not fast enough for max settings for 2002.

A straight forward, cheap way to play games up to 2002 at max settings would go up a socket to 939/AM2 or 775. Literally any Athlon or Pentium/Core2 CPU will work fine and literally any PCI-E graphics card will be fine. DDR2 RAM is as cheap as it's going to get too - 1 or 2GB will be fine.

If it's the period hardware that interests you you'll either have to accept reduced frame rates or settings, or spend more money on a higher clocked Pentium 4 or Athlon 64, 1 or 2 GB of RAM and a Nviaid 4200ti or FX 5700 or 6600. Or from ATI something like an 9600 kind of area.

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I have a vacancy for a main Windows 98 PC

Reply 27 of 59, by Doornkaat

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The issue isn't really CPUs but chipsets.
If your motherboard has an APG slot you're probably going to find Win9x drivers for it.
Without (good) chipset drivers for Win98 you can often still install Win98 but it won't be much fun.
Pentium D is fine but look up the motherboard (or chipset) and see wether there are drivers for it.

Reply 28 of 59, by matthi321

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ok so i found my dad pc, would i be able to install windows 98 se on this pc and get the necesary drivers? and would it be better than the other pcs?
dell dimension 5150c
pentium d 2.80ghz
3gb
Intel 945G Express
radeon x1050

Reply 29 of 59, by darry

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matthi321 wrote on 2020-10-04, 19:31:
ok so i found my dad pc, would i be able to install windows 98 se on this pc and get the necesary drivers? and would it be bette […]
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ok so i found my dad pc, would i be able to install windows 98 se on this pc and get the necesary drivers? and would it be better than the other pcs?
dell dimension 5150c
pentium d 2.80ghz
3gb
Intel 945G Express
radeon x1050

That video card does not have Windows 9x drivers .

Reply 31 of 59, by Jorpho

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matthi321 wrote on 2020-10-04, 19:31:

would i be able to install windows 98 se on this pc and get the necesary drivers?

Is there anything you absolutely want to run right now that you are certain cannot be run under later versions of Windows?

(Yes, if you search long and hard enough you can probably find something that will run better under Win9x than WinXP, but you can spend the rest of your life worrying about possibilities that will never come to pass.)

Reply 32 of 59, by H3nrik V!

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One thing with Core2 and Pentium D and Win98 is that Win98 only knows about one core, so it's a great waste of silicon ..
I don't know whether or not that cpu generation is compatible with Win98 ..

Please use the "quote" option if asking questions to what I write - it will really up the chances of me noticing 😀

Reply 33 of 59, by Jorpho

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H3nrik V! wrote on 2020-10-05, 04:10:

One thing with Core2 and Pentium D and Win98 is that Win98 only knows about one core, so it's a great waste of silicon ..
I don't know whether or not that cpu generation is compatible with Win98 ..

Does it really matter if it's a "waste of silicon" if it's a fifteen-year-old computer that would be junked under normal circumstances?

As has been noted, a much bigger problem is that Core 2/Pentium D motherboards usually don't have AGP slots, and thus it is difficult to find a GPU compatible with WIn9x. (But such boards do exist; there have been numerous threads about them.)

Reply 34 of 59, by cyclone3d

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H3nrik V! wrote on 2020-10-05, 04:10:

One thing with Core2 and Pentium D and Win98 is that Win98 only knows about one core, so it's a great waste of silicon ..
I don't know whether or not that cpu generation is compatible with Win98 ..

The CPU doesn't really matter. There are people that have newer Core-i series running Windows 98... cause they can.

Who cares if it is a "waste of silicon. The Geforce FX 5950 3DMark 2001 score keeps going up steadily till about 3.2Ghz on a Core 2 x6800 in Windows 98SE.

Might as well max out the GPU even if you can only use a single core.

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Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 35 of 59, by Almoststew1990

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matthi321 wrote on 2020-10-04, 12:57:

oh didnt know core2 worked for windows 98 i though pentium 4 was the hightest? what about pentium d then doest that work? cus i know my dad has an dusty pentium d dell or hp pc.

As has been discussed a few odd examples will work but in general, no Core 2 won't work with Windows 98. For the dates you suggested, I can't think of any games that will not work on XP however, which is also much easier to set up and use. On W98 you'll also be limited to 512mb of RAM which just might start to be an issue if you're going for 60fps on max settings on the most demanding 2002 games like Morrowind and GTA 3. Like I said before, if your enjoyment is more about the hardware (and now also Windows 98) then you'll have to spend more to get to your 60fps target!

Edit - for some reason I thought you had said 1998 to 2002. However even with a "up to 2002", I can't see many issues running early Windows games. You're not missing out on Glide support because you don't have a Voodoo anyway. You won't be able to run DOS games that well on your suggested PCs anyway due to a lack of an ISA slot for sound.

Ryzen 3700X | 16GB 3600MHz RAM | AMD 6800XT | 2Tb NVME SSD | Windows 10
AMD DX2-80 | 16MB RAM | STB LIghtspeed 128 | AWE32 CT3910
I have a vacancy for a main Windows 98 PC

Reply 36 of 59, by cyclone3d

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matthi321 wrote on 2020-10-04, 19:31:
ok so i found my dad pc, would i be able to install windows 98 se on this pc and get the necesary drivers? and would it be bette […]
Show full quote

ok so i found my dad pc, would i be able to install windows 98 se on this pc and get the necesary drivers? and would it be better than the other pcs?
dell dimension 5150c
pentium d 2.80ghz
3gb
Intel 945G Express
radeon x1050

No video drivers, but if you grab a different video card and lower the RAM to 512MB OR use the RLowe RAM patch you should be good.

A Geforce PCX 5750 would be good (PCI-E Geforce FX 5700)

Or you could always go with an ATI X800 series.

Technically, you could go up to a Geforce 7900GTX or the Quadro equivalent, but it would be pointless for Windows 98, especially if you want to run games that use palleted textures.

Yamaha modified setupds and drivers
Yamaha XG repository
YMF7x4 Guide
Aopen AW744L II SB-LINK

Reply 37 of 59, by Joseph_Joestar

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My personal rule is to cut off Win9x gaming at 2000-2001. Anything newer than that can be played on WinXP which allows you to use a much more powerful computer.

Unless you're really pressed for space, it's best to have one DOS+Win9x build and a second, more modern rig for WinXP.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 38 of 59, by chinny22

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As it seems your new to the hobby, rather then spending loads of money just yet, I'd recommend the below and work out what you need.
Dust off that Dell 5150c, Install clean copy of WinXP and checkout how well it plays your Win9x games.
The onboard graphics will hold back 3D titles but you'll at least get an idea if the game even works in WinXP.

Then you can build a system to suit those games that gave you trouble with older hardware and either a pure WinXP build for later games or even just upgrade the Dell's graphics card for the later half of your games.

Reply 39 of 59, by gerry

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chinny22 wrote on 2020-10-05, 09:02:
As it seems your new to the hobby, rather then spending loads of money just yet, I'd recommend the below and work out what you n […]
Show full quote

As it seems your new to the hobby, rather then spending loads of money just yet, I'd recommend the below and work out what you need.
Dust off that Dell 5150c, Install clean copy of WinXP and checkout how well it plays your Win9x games.
The onboard graphics will hold back 3D titles but you'll at least get an idea if the game even works in WinXP.

Then you can build a system to suit those games that gave you trouble with older hardware and either a pure WinXP build for later games or even just upgrade the Dell's graphics card for the later half of your games.

solid advice IMO

if the goal is to play some games it's often cheaper and easier to equip a newer PC like this with budget stuff than attempt to max out an older one with best optimal best-of-breed stuff from when the games were launched