^Thanks for moving.
Dave Bursik wrote on 2024-03-21, 10:57:
Hello,
I would like to ask you about your experience with a PC. I am about to buy a new laptop that will have a suitable CPU that is capable of emulating (100% speed) Windows98 Pentium II 350MHZ + SoundBlaster + 3DFX Voodoo3 without problems using PCem software.
Hi Dave, at this point I'd personally consider just buying some used parts and to build the real thing.
Maybe a small Shuttle PC on Pentium IV basis could host a Voodoo 3 card, too?
I'd use a KVM switch if, too, if I was short of room space.
Seriously, anything Pentium II and up is very computing intensive.
The Pentium Pro and Pentium II technology is much more sophisticated (complicated) than a 486 or original Pentium (586).
There's a lot of pipelining, parallel processing/out-of-order processing, CISC to RISC instruction conversion, cache prediction stuff going on.
All that technology that makes the real hardware super fast is slowing down an accurate emulation.
That's why I'm actually surprised that PCem/86Box managed to emulate this, at all.
I can only guess how much work must have been put into it.
I'm not saying that your goal is unrealistic whatsoever, it's just very demanding.
An ordinary gaming PC would be quite taxed by this, if it can handle it, at all.
A laptop even more so. The fans would be spinning all time, I suppose.
"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel
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