Before you use any programs, turning off L1 and L2 cache should slow that CPU down considerably (Assuming your board can do this via BIOS), IIRC Setmul may be able to do this on a P3, it should also be able to change the multiplier and slow it even further.

Not sure if you can get it down to DX2-66 speeds.

One more thing is this a Slot 1 P3 or 370 P3 ?

Also what board are you using as some P3 boards may cause issues when trying to change Multi/FSB via software.

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-04-04, 23:56:

Before you use any programs, turning off L1 and L2 cache should slow that CPU down considerably (Assuming your board can do this […]
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Before you use any programs, turning off L1 and L2 cache should slow that CPU down considerably (Assuming your board can do this via BIOS), IIRC Setmul may be able to do this on a P3, it should also be able to change the multiplier and slow it even further.

Not sure if you can get it down to DX2-66 speeds.

One more thing is this a Slot 1 P3 or 370 P3 ?

Also what board are you using as some P3 boards may cause issues when trying to change Multi/FSB via software.

Thank you for your reply! My CPU is a Slot 1, and my mobo is an Asus P2B (just plain P2B) with the last beta firmware they released for it (so I can use 120/128GB drives.)

I tried using Moslo Deluxe with the /p4 switch to emulate a 486, but it makes the animations in Quest for Glory 4 painfully choppy. Using it normally with any /x.xx and setting the in-game speed to full has so far shown no speed reduction (the hero zips across the screen in an almost teleportation-style.) I was hoping to use this machine with slow down options to pay everything up to 1999, but I don't know...

Scythifuge wrote on 2024-04-05, 00:29:

I tried using Moslo Deluxe with the /p4 switch to emulate a 486, but it makes the animations in Quest for Glory 4 painfully choppy. Using it normally with any /x.xx and setting the in-game speed to full has so far shown no speed reduction (the hero zips across the screen in an almost teleportation-style.) I was hoping to use this machine with slow down options to pay everything up to 1999, but I don't know...

P2B should work ok with SetMul so give that a try.

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-04-05, 00:52:

Scythifuge wrote on 2024-04-05, 00:29:

I tried using Moslo Deluxe with the /p4 switch to emulate a 486, but it makes the animations in Quest for Glory 4 painfully choppy. Using it normally with any /x.xx and setting the in-game speed to full has so far shown no speed reduction (the hero zips across the screen in an almost teleportation-style.) I was hoping to use this machine with slow down options to pay everything up to 1999, but I don't know...

P2B should work ok with SetMul so give that a try.

Thank you, will do!

Scythifuge wrote on 2024-04-05, 00:52:

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-04-05, 00:52:

Scythifuge wrote on 2024-04-05, 00:29:

I tried using Moslo Deluxe with the /p4 switch to emulate a 486, but it makes the animations in Quest for Glory 4 painfully choppy. Using it normally with any /x.xx and setting the in-game speed to full has so far shown no speed reduction (the hero zips across the screen in an almost teleportation-style.) I was hoping to use this machine with slow down options to pay everything up to 1999, but I don't know...

P2B should work ok with SetMul so give that a try.

Thank you, will do!

You wont get a P3 550 down to DX2-66 speeds, even with SetMul and no Cache it'll still be as fast as an early Pentium 1 or late AMD 5x86-133. You may be able to use Throttle or Moslow at that point to tweak it further for each game. (A PII 233 might be able to get down to 486 speeds, dont know if you have one laying around spare)

The best CPU for 486 speeds would be a Pentium 233 on socket 7 but you might be ok with early Pentium speeds for most games.

You won't be able to change the multiplier because P3 CPUs are multiplier locked... As you have discovered, 'artificial' slowdown methods are not always desirable... I second what @Trashbytes suggests - socket7 + PMMX is your easiest choice... There are many things that can be disabled on the CPU to slow it down without doing weird things.

mockingbird wrote on 2024-04-05, 01:36:

You won't be able to change the multiplier because P3 CPUs are multiplier locked... As you have discovered, 'artificial' slowdown methods are not always desirable... I second what @Trashbytes suggests - socket7 + PMMX is your easiest choice... There are many things that can be disabled on the CPU to slow it down without doing weird things.

I forgot that the PII and PII are locked even in software ..my bad, though IIRC there are PII cpus that are not locked or only locked from increasing the Multi .. perhaps one of thoes would work here.

Trashbytes wrote on 2024-04-05, 01:46:

I forgot that the PII and PII are locked even in software ..my bad, though IIRC there are PII cpus that are not locked or only locked from increasing the Multi .. perhaps one of thoes would work here.

Even a PII Klamath running at 66 x 3 is 200mhz, and 150mhz if you can lower the FSB to 50mhz (not universally possible on all motherboards), that's still not slow enough... Pentium MMX is your best bet. See Phil's video on the topic. Here is what you can do with it without any artificial slowing down that interferes with games:

My pentium 3 1000 without cache is about a 386 DX33mhz

Using throttle i can range from a real and solid XT 4.77 to a Pentium 200mmz level , i can cover all ranges, the motherboard have via

I have a 366mhz mendocino slot 1 and is similar, but a little less accurate because have intel chipset

My only other slot CPU is a PII 350. I did consider acquiring a P1 233 & mobo if I can find one.

Scythifuge wrote on 2024-04-05, 07:34:

My only other slot CPU is a PII 350. I did consider acquiring a P1 233 & mobo if I can find one.

For slowdown Pentium 2+ morherboard with via chipset is the best, nothing beats this in all my test

throttle is amazing because is a hardware solution

In the interim, I can get a P II 233Mhz for cheap. Would that work decently with throttle/setmul/moslo/etc until I can find a better solution?

If the amount is inconsequential to you, you can always try it, but with slot CPUs I would advise against a lot of swapping back and forth, as the slots tend to wear quickly.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-04-05, 23:13:

If the amount is inconsequential to you, you can always try it, but with slot CPUs I would advise against a lot of swapping back and forth, as the slots tend to wear quickly.

I have two of the same slot 1 mobo, with the main one a dedicated Windows 98 machine with a P3 700 and a Voodoo5. Since learning that I may not slow things in the way I hoped, I was hoping to turn this one into a DOS/Win 3.x/Win95 voodoo 1/2 machine. If I can throw an unlocked P2 in it and use it to run everything from Win95 and below, I would keep that CPU in there.

So far, setmul, throttle, and moslo deluxe are failing to get Wing Commander to a playable state on this PC. I have tried various settings.

Try a VIA USB card 🤣

People are frequently complaining about them knocking 20 or 30% out of their top end, I don't see why they shouldn't be useful in certain situations.

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-04-06, 01:59:

Try a VIA USB card 🤣

People are frequently complaining about them knocking 20 or 30% out of their top end, I don't see why they shouldn't be useful in certain situations.

I think I have one lying around, somewhere. No available slots, though. I recreated a PC from a thread I made awhile back, so this PC has Voodoo1, 2, and 3, a SB Live!, an AWE32, and a NIC. Other than for certain DOS games, the set works surprisingly well. However, when using my Windows 98SE CF card, I do have a splotch on "SCI IRQ used by ACPI bus" since it seems to be hard-set to IRQ 9, which conflicts with my MPU-IPC-T. Nothing bad has happened, though (yet.)

Scythifuge wrote on 2024-04-06, 01:49:

So far, setmul, throttle, and moslo deluxe are failing to get Wing Commander to a playable state on this PC. I have tried various settings.

Oh wow you managed to pick the one game that is a bitch to get running correctly on anything newer than a real 386, if its Wing Commander 1 you can try DOS box as this game is well known for being super speed sensitive, IIRC Phil from Phils computer lab has managed to get it running correctly via his 136 in 1 Pentium MMX retro machine.

https://www.philscomputerlab.com/136-in-1-pentium-mmx.html
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xcBmEjXg2ME about 11:15 in this video he is playing WC1 on this setup.