I don`t think a better Card will help you very much.
You already have a pretty decent GD5428 VLB Card.

if you`re only using DOS 1Mb is also enough.

Instead try to Tweak RAM and Cache Settings, it will give you much more Boost.

matze79 wrote on 2021-06-03, 20:43:

Instead try to Tweak RAM and Cache Settings, it will give you much more Boost.

I would like to do that and have thought about it before. I don't think my knowledge is good enough to be able to do that unfortunately.

Upping the FSB to 40Mhz will give you more of a boost and the CPU should handle it just fine.

You should be running at 3x33 right now. 3x40 will bump the CPU speed to 120Mhz and give you more bandwidth on the VLB and ISA busses.

If you don't already, you will probably want a fan blowing air across the CPU heatsink.

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-06-03, 20:51:

Upping the FSB to 40Mhz will give you more of a boost and the CPU should handle it just fine.

You should be running at 3x33 right now. 3x40 will bump the CPU speed to 120Mhz and give you more bandwidth on the VLB and ISA busses.

If you don't already, you will probably want a fan blowing air across the CPU heatsink.

Can this be done in the BIOS or is it something that has to be done with jumpers? The motherboard is the AOpen VI15G Socket 3 with an American Megatrends BIOS (see pic).

Turn auto off, then try the following to improve your memory speeds:

Dram speed fastest
Write cycle 0ws
Cage write -1 from what it is now
Cache burst -1 from what it is now

You may need to test between each change to see if it has much improvement and/or stability impact.

Well I went ahead and made all changes at once and then ran these tests. you can see the score before changes and after (the number after the >).

3DBench (faster pcs) - 537 > 615
Chris's 3DBench - 56.3 > 61.6
Doom Max Details - 2134 gametics in 2620 realtics > 2134 gametics in 2348 realtics
PC Player Benchmark 12.6 > 14.9

I already had a heat sink and fan on the CPU and a case fan (overkill really, but I did it because I could).

There were no stability issues while testing. It seems that has made a difference!

cyclone3d wrote on 2021-06-03, 20:51:

You should be running at 3x33 right now. 3x40 will bump the CPU speed to 120Mhz and give you more bandwidth on the VLB and ISA busses.

And maybe more latency and Waitstates depending on System.
Also possible this will yield in lower VLB Performance then.

If you had an ISA graphics card and/or ISA multi IO card I would also suggest increasing the bus clock frequency to 10mhz or more, but, since you are presumably using VLB IO and have VLB VGA, that won't do anything for you.

Anything else further down that list of options?

megatron-uk wrote on 2021-06-03, 21:27:

If you had an ISA graphics card and/or ISA multi IO card I would also suggest increasing the bus clock frequency to 10mhz or more, but, since you are presumably using VLB IO and have VLB VGA, that won't do anything for you.

Anything else further down that list of options?

It is a VLB graphics card, yes.

Here are the options that were below.

I have a VLB Cirrus logic 5429 with 2mb.
Which is good enough for DOS game play.
I also have this VLB Diamond speed 5428 1mb star.

The bottle necks will be in CPU and hard drive performance.
Maybe ram. You need at least 8mb ram.

But in any case dont spend to much money on a 486 computer because you really need a pentium 100 thru 233
For good DOS game play.

So I would not invest more than this in a 486 build for DOS game play.
486dx2-66
16mb ram
256kb cache motherboard
Video card with 1mb memory
Sound blaster 16 with OPL3
IDE hard drive.
3c509 network card

If you spend more than this you are just waisting your money because you really need a Pentium 100 or better for good DOS game play performance.

I recommend you build a good Pentium 233 computer.

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2021-06-03, 22:38:

I have a VLB Cirrus logic 5429 with 2mb. Which is good enough for DOS game play. I also have this VLB Diamond speed 5428 1mb sta […]
Show full quote

I have a VLB Cirrus logic 5429 with 2mb.
Which is good enough for DOS game play.
I also have this VLB Diamond speed 5428 1mb star.

The bottle necks will be in CPU and hard drive performance.
Maybe ram. You need at least 8mb ram.

But in any case dont spend to much money on a 486 computer because you really need a pentium 100 thru 233
For good DOS game play.

So I would not invest more than this in a 486 build for DOS game play.
486dx2-66
16mb ram
256kb cache motherboard
Video card with 1mb memory
Sound blaster 16 with OPL3
IDE hard drive.
3c509 network card

If you spend more than this you are just waisting your money because you really need a Pentium 100 or better for good DOS game play performance.

I recommend you build a good Pentium 233 computer.

This computer is already built these are the specs:

486 DX4-100 (overdrive)
16MB 72-pin SIMM RAM (2x8MB)
1MB Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB video card
SB 16 Value CT2770
AOpen VI15G Socket 3 Motherboard
HDD/FDD VLB controller card

I also have a Pentium 2 DOS build.

Enough with the "you need a Pentium for a Dos gaming build" rubbish. It's completely unnecessary.

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2021-06-03, 22:38:

I have a VLB Cirrus logic 5429 with 2mb. Which is good enough for DOS game play. I also have this VLB Diamond speed 5428 1mb sta […]
Show full quote

I have a VLB Cirrus logic 5429 with 2mb.
Which is good enough for DOS game play.
I also have this VLB Diamond speed 5428 1mb star.

The bottle necks will be in CPU and hard drive performance.
Maybe ram. You need at least 8mb ram.

But in any case dont spend to much money on a 486 computer because you really need a pentium 100 thru 233
For good DOS game play.

So I would not invest more than this in a 486 build for DOS game play.
486dx2-66
16mb ram
256kb cache motherboard
Video card with 1mb memory
Sound blaster 16 with OPL3
IDE hard drive.
3c509 network card

If you spend more than this you are just waisting your money because you really need a Pentium 100 or better for good DOS game play performance.

I recommend you build a good Pentium 233 computer.

How much have you spent on your 486 computers prey tell?

Hows are those Mega 486 Multimedia movie playing build or that US component only 486 coming along? How much did you pay for your IBM PS/1 486 Executive thingy?

megatron-uk wrote on 2021-06-03, 22:45:

Enough with the "you need a Pentium for a Dos gaming build" rubbish. It's completely unnecessary.

I concur. He is a Mac fanboy who spouts of loads of misinformation about x86 systems.

Honestly think the dude just makes shit up to troll

rick12373 wrote on 2021-06-03, 22:40:

This computer is already built these are the specs: […]
Show full quote

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2021-06-03, 22:38:

I have a VLB Cirrus logic 5429 with 2mb. Which is good enough for DOS game play. I also have this VLB Diamond speed 5428 1mb sta […]
Show full quote

I have a VLB Cirrus logic 5429 with 2mb.
Which is good enough for DOS game play.
I also have this VLB Diamond speed 5428 1mb star.

The bottle necks will be in CPU and hard drive performance.
Maybe ram. You need at least 8mb ram.

But in any case dont spend to much money on a 486 computer because you really need a pentium 100 thru 233
For good DOS game play.

So I would not invest more than this in a 486 build for DOS game play.
486dx2-66
16mb ram
256kb cache motherboard
Video card with 1mb memory
Sound blaster 16 with OPL3
IDE hard drive.
3c509 network card

If you spend more than this you are just waisting your money because you really need a Pentium 100 or better for good DOS game play performance.

I recommend you build a good Pentium 233 computer.

This computer is already built these are the specs:

486 DX4-100 (overdrive)
16MB 72-pin SIMM RAM (2x8MB)
1MB Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB video card
SB 16 Value CT2770
AOpen VI15G Socket 3 Motherboard
HDD/FDD VLB controller card

I also have a Pentium 2 DOS build.

Yes, I have almost the same spec 486dx4-100 build.
Thats as good as it is going to get in DOS game play performance unless you upgrade the CPU to a
Pentium overdrive 83mhz CPU which are expensive today.
Its best just to build a pentium 233mhz computer from scratch.
And an Intel 430tx motherboard.
With this motherboard you can disable cache in bios and slow this computer down to a 286@20mhz, 386 and 486 speeds.
So you will have all these speeds available to you in one computer.

If you dont believe me ask LGR.
https://youtu.be/jISmJG8QK0A

Yeah, I am happy with it. I have a Pentium DOS machine if need something faster. It's mostly about nostalgia anyway. I have fond memories of my 486 DX4-100 from back in the mid 90s. Thanks to the help here I have made a few tweaks which helped a little.

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2021-06-03, 23:19:

Yes, I have almost the same spec 486dx4-100 build. Thats as good as it is going to get in DOS game play performance unless you u […]
Show full quote

rick12373 wrote on 2021-06-03, 22:40:

This computer is already built these are the specs: […]
Show full quote

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2021-06-03, 22:38:

I have a VLB Cirrus logic 5429 with 2mb. Which is good enough for DOS game play. I also have this VLB Diamond speed 5428 1mb sta […]
Show full quote

I have a VLB Cirrus logic 5429 with 2mb.
Which is good enough for DOS game play.
I also have this VLB Diamond speed 5428 1mb star.

The bottle necks will be in CPU and hard drive performance.
Maybe ram. You need at least 8mb ram.

But in any case dont spend to much money on a 486 computer because you really need a pentium 100 thru 233
For good DOS game play.

So I would not invest more than this in a 486 build for DOS game play.
486dx2-66
16mb ram
256kb cache motherboard
Video card with 1mb memory
Sound blaster 16 with OPL3
IDE hard drive.
3c509 network card

If you spend more than this you are just waisting your money because you really need a Pentium 100 or better for good DOS game play performance.

I recommend you build a good Pentium 233 computer.

This computer is already built these are the specs:

486 DX4-100 (overdrive)
16MB 72-pin SIMM RAM (2x8MB)
1MB Diamond Speedstar Pro VLB video card
SB 16 Value CT2770
AOpen VI15G Socket 3 Motherboard
HDD/FDD VLB controller card

I also have a Pentium 2 DOS build.

Yes, I have almost the same spec 486dx4-100 build.
Thats as good as it is going to get in DOS game play performance unless you upgrade the CPU to a
Pentium overdrive 83mhz CPU which are expensive today.
Its best just to build a pentium 233mhz computer from scratch.
And an Intel 430tx motherboard.
With this motherboard you can disable cache in bios and slow this computer down to a 286@20mhz, 386 and 486 speeds.
So you will have all these speeds available to you in one computer.

If you dont believe me ask LGR.
https://youtu.be/jISmJG8QK0A

So why did you buy a 486 system?

maxtherabbit wrote on 2021-06-03, 23:09:

Honestly think the dude just makes shit up to troll

I can believe that. In the mid-90's me and some friends on IRC would make up all kinds of stuff and got a real kick out of it. I think it is illegal now, calling it something to the effect of "online bullying".