PCI soundcards are never going to be a dead cert to work in DOS. It can be hit and miss which games will work and how good(or bad) the sound of the emulation is.
You wont have problems with VGA for DOS. It is sound where you will need to do research. Youtubers like philscomputerlab have done lots of reviews on PCI soundcards and tested the DOS side of them.

None will be very good , but here is a list :

https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsD … l?productId=506
https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsS … ec?productId=85
Has similar or better performance to 478 P4 but runs cooler (it's a small case) with a pci ESS Solo 1 (TDMA) and a agp single slot TI/FX

https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsS … c?productId=507
478 P4 (runs hot) with a pci Ym744 and a agp single slot TI/FX

https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsS … c?productId=470
https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsS … c?productId=479
https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsS … c?productId=509
Socket A variant has similar performance to 478 P4 but runs cooler (it's a small case) with a pci ESS Solo 1 (TDMA) and a agp single slot TI/FX

https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsS … c?productId=466
Socket A variant with a pci Ym744 and a PCI Voodoo/single slot TI/FX

https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsS … c?productId=462
P3/Celeron variant with onboard sound (SB emulation that works under DOS) and a PCI Voodoo/single slot TI/FX

Dos ? What Dosgames are you interested in ?
There are P4-Shuttle machines that accept the P4 1.6 38Watt-TDP, which is buy far the coolest solution.
(Some mobile Athlons will work too but have some issues while been not corretly deteced by the shuttle bios,)

dr.zeissler wrote on 2023-03-03, 15:59:

Dos ? What Dosgames are you interested in ?
There are P4-Shuttle machines that accept the P4 1.6 38Watt-TDP, which is buy far the coolest solution.
(Some mobile Athlons will work too but have some issues while been not corretly deteced by the shuttle bios,)

There are no specific games, but it would be great if I could to run games from Doom 1 to late DOS.

Doom1 can be played in Win9x Dosfullscreen. no Problem. It could be better played with a source-port directly in Windows.
If you talk Dos would that mean FM-Music and or Roland sound ? That would be another thing to consider.

dr.zeissler wrote on 2023-03-03, 17:09:

Doom1 can be played in Win9x Dosfullscreen. no Problem. It could be better played with a source-port directly in Windows.
If you talk Dos would that mean FM-Music and or Roland sound ? That would be another thing to consider.

To be honest, I rather meant the period that begins with 1993 (approximately). Can all of those DOS games also be run in "Win9x Dosfullscreen"? I don't really know much about sound in DOS, the Roland is better, right?

bogdanpaulb wrote on 2023-03-03, 15:55:

None will be very good , but here is a list : […]
Show full quote

None will be very good , but here is a list :

https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsD … l?productId=506
https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsS … ec?productId=85
Has similar or better performance to 478 P4 but runs cooler (it's a small case) with a pci ESS Solo 1 (TDMA) and a agp single slot TI/FX

https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsS … c?productId=507
478 P4 (runs hot) with a pci Ym744 and a agp single slot TI/FX

https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsS … c?productId=470
https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsS … c?productId=479
https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsS … c?productId=509
Socket A variant has similar performance to 478 P4 but runs cooler (it's a small case) with a pci ESS Solo 1 (TDMA) and a agp single slot TI/FX

https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsS … c?productId=466
Socket A variant with a pci Ym744 and a PCI Voodoo/single slot TI/FX

https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsS … c?productId=462
P3/Celeron variant with onboard sound (SB emulation that works under DOS) and a PCI Voodoo/single slot TI/FX

Thank you. Can't I just pick one of those you suggested and replace the processor which runs cooler? I don't understand anything at all about chipsets on these boards, and I would like to use a separate sound card which supports both 98 and DOS games. I'm sorry if I'm asking stupid questions, but I really don't know much..

If you want to play dosgames from 1993 upwards go and get a 486 or a slow pentium with a great and compatible PCI gfx-card and ISA soundcard.
If you want to play win9x games from 1996 upwards go and get a Pentium 2 or higher with a decent 3d-accelerator like voodoo3 or matrox g400 nvidia TNT2/GF whatever and a PCI soundcard that supports A3D/EAX. Next step will be faster p3/4 with TnL capable card and or pixelshaders. There will always be lot's of games that will not work...so you have to be specific or more precise.

dr.zeissler wrote on 2023-03-03, 17:58:

If you want to play dosgames from 1993 upwards go and get a 486 or a slow pentium with a great and compatible PCI gfx-card and ISA soundcard.
If you want to play win9x games from 1996 upwards go and get a Pentium 2 or higher with a decent 3d-accelerator like voodoo3 or matrox g400 nvidia TNT2/GF whatever and a PCI soundcard that supports A3D/EAX. Next step will be faster p3/4 with TnL capable card and or pixelshaders. There will always be lot's of games that will not work...so you have to be specific or more precise.

Thanks! So I can't just slow down one of those processors to the 486 level or closer?

nuvyi wrote on 2023-03-03, 17:50:

bogdanpaulb wrote on 2023-03-03, 15:55:

None will be very good , but here is a list : […]
Show full quote

None will be very good , but here is a list :

https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsD … l?productId=506
https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsS … ec?productId=85
Has similar or better performance to 478 P4 but runs cooler (it's a small case) with a pci ESS Solo 1 (TDMA) and a agp single slot TI/FX

https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsS … c?productId=507
478 P4 (runs hot) with a pci Ym744 and a agp single slot TI/FX

https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsS … c?productId=470
https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsS … c?productId=479
https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsS … c?productId=509
Socket A variant has similar performance to 478 P4 but runs cooler (it's a small case) with a pci ESS Solo 1 (TDMA) and a agp single slot TI/FX

https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsS … c?productId=466
Socket A variant with a pci Ym744 and a PCI Voodoo/single slot TI/FX

https://global.shuttle.com/products/productsS … c?productId=462
P3/Celeron variant with onboard sound (SB emulation that works under DOS) and a PCI Voodoo/single slot TI/FX

Thank you. Can't I just pick one of those you suggested and replace the processor which runs cooler? I don't understand anything at all about chipsets on these boards, and I would like to use a separate sound card which supports both 98 and DOS games. I'm sorry if I'm asking stupid questions, but I really don't know much..

None of the above has a ISA slot or SB-link connector for a 100% Sound Blaster compatibility sound card in DOS , you have only PCI slots . The main (not the only, but the most relevant) pci sound cards with DOS support are :

ESS Solo 1 : good compatibility / good FM synthesis sound - ( works in TDMA mode only with some chipsets ) / good for win98
Yamaha YMF 744 : if the SB-Link is present - better compatibility / better FM synthesis sound . No SB-Link - worse compatibility / better FM synthesis sound ( works only with some chipsets ) / good for win98
ForteMedia FM801 : decent compatibility / acceptable FM synthesis sound ( works in any pci slot with most motherboards i tested ) / good for win98
VIA AC97 Codec : good compatibility / acceptable FM synthesis sound ( works only on VT82C686A/B/VT8231 south bridge ) / decent for win98
C-Media pci sound cards , but from what i understand is pretty tricky to make them work (not all chip rev. are up to it ) and i have no experience with them .
SoundBlaster live! pci : poor compatibility / good FM synthesis sound ( you have to find the 'right' pci slot , it does not like to share resources ) / very good for win98
Aureal Vortex 1/2 : decent compatibility / good FM synthesis sound / very good for win98

As you see , there is no 'perfect' pci MS-DOS/WIN98 soundcard.

I’m using an FM801 right now and wow it is great for DOS. Seems about on par with ESS Solo on DOS compatibility, which is to say it is phenomenal. VIA AC-97 has decent compatibility but in my experience audio quality has been a real mixed bag.

nuvyi wrote on 2023-03-03, 19:04:

Thanks! So I can't just slow down one of those processors to the 486 level or closer?

yes you can but this comes with various issues and varies on every game. I really don't recommend that.
I did lot's of testing and there are some boundaries on that, some cpu'chipsets are better then others,

e.g.:

P2 up to 300mhz runs some dosgames, for older stuff switch of the cpucache via batch (don't use emm386, use qemm386 otherwise freeze when using cpucache.com to do that,
Faster P2/3 tend to produce the TP200 bug even if the cache is turned of, you can fix this on some games/demo but not on all.
Better option is to go for a SS7 system with K6-III and put that thong into 2x mode which is indeed 6x for the processor. Use 66FSB and while booting dos let it slow down to real 2x so you will get 133Mhz. You can still turn of the CPUCACHE on the fly of you want to. That I would recommend if you WILL play some (older) dosgames. Keep in mind to get a descent Soundcard. Yes ESSsolo is good if you have only PCI slots but the ESS has some issuses in later direct-sound-engine-games for win9x, so if you can put an ISA soundcard in it AND a PCI soundcard. I think those AC97 compatible Esoniq ES1371/1373 are really good and very cheap.