The cpu is the last thing you should be concerned with for a laptop. Make sure everything else fits your needs first. You typically do not want the latest and fastest due to throttling and the cost.
Also this is the wrong forum, moving.

^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.

DosFreak wrote on 2024-03-21, 11:06:

The cpu is the last thing you should be concerned with for a laptop. Make sure everything else fits your needs first. You typically do not want the latest and fastest due to throttling and the cost.
Also this is the wrong forum, moving.

Thank you for your answer. Of cource, price is important. But im my case the CPU is important too 🙂 If I want my PC to work at 100%, I need to focus on the CPU. I also like to test different virtualization platforms. Another reason to have a powerful processor.

Jo22 wrote on 2024-03-21, 11:47:

^Thanks for moving. […]
Show full quote

^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.

Thank you for your answer. believe me, I have around 20 different PCs at home from 286 to Pentium III. I grew up on DOS. It's such a nostalgia for me 🙂 Basically, I enjoy the fact that even after 30 years these old computers are still working. Just have more time 🙂

But not to run away from the topic. Being able to run different emulators on my laptop is a great option when you don't have time to unpack and stsrt to run a 30-year-old computer 😉

I have to say that PCem is an incredible software. And as you mentioned, it must have been a lot of work to come up with something like that. I admire these guys how much energy and time they put into this.

Well, I think I'm making progress with my laptop selection. Lenovo ThinkBook 16 G6 IRL Arctic Gray with Intel Core i7 13700H processor is interesting to me in terms of price and performance. Single threat performance is 3660, 14 cores, 20 fibers.. I can get more powerful ones, but I dont need to have a gaming laptop. In addition, I will be able to test PCem with an Intel Core i5 13600HX processor, which performs comparable to the above.

Thanks again for your massage.
Have a nice day,
Dave

A well defragmented drive's important too. IO can hit the execution % easily. Doesn't matter for a SSD but a lot of my big PCem testing were on HDDs

Just in case you plumbed a difference source for your single core performance list, here's another page where you can see ranking of laptop CPU by single core performance..
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html#laptop-thread
Just in case there's one or two more sneaking in there you might catch a deal on.

leileilol wrote on 2024-04-01, 02:26:

A well defragmented drive's important too. IO can hit the execution % easily. Doesn't matter for a SSD but a lot of my big PCem testing were on HDDs

Good advice. Thank you for your tip 👍
Dave

BitWrangler wrote on 2024-04-01, 03:59:

Just in case you plumbed a difference source for your single core performance list, here's another page where you can see ranking of laptop CPU by single core performance..
https://www.cpubenchmark.net/singleThread.html#laptop-thread
Just in case there's one or two more sneaking in there you might catch a deal on.

Thanks, I know this page. Its very helpfull.
I used these tests when i chose my laptop... finally I was surprised how slow my current laptop is in the end 😁

On AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7540U, Pentium II 233MHz is as consistent as it can get with ambient temperatures around 25 Celsius.

Pentium II 350 MHz I thought most games I tried were playable. Minor sound glitches here and there when throttling took place.

Maybe by undervolting slightly with Throttlestop I can hit more consistent performance, not sure.

For a laptop CPU the 7540U can cover PCem emulation I would think.

Hope it helps.

Markspace wrote on 2024-04-09, 13:41:

On AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7540U, Pentium II 233MHz is as consistent as it can get with ambient temperatures around 25 Celsius. […]
Show full quote

On AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7540U, Pentium II 233MHz is as consistent as it can get with ambient temperatures around 25 Celsius.

Pentium II 350 MHz I thought most games I tried were playable. Minor sound glitches here and there when throttling took place.

Maybe by undervolting slightly with Throttlestop I can hit more consistent performance, not sure.

For a laptop CPU the 7540U can cover PCem emulation I would think.

Hope it helps.

Hello,

thanks for your replay, its funny, 3 days ago I tried PCem on this CPU 😀 My company mate has a HP Elitebook with this CPU. PCem working fine. But when I tried start it with Intel Pentium II/450, Win98 started wihout a sound.
Do you have the same experience ?

Thx,
Dave

I’ve got a old i5 win7 laptop from 2010
Win95 pentium 90 works alright for most that I’m playing.
Win98 pentium 2 233 windows is ok but any remotely demanding games kills performance
Have yet to experience what it’s like with a modern computer I’ve opted for getting a 32bit desktop which is challenging too.

PS. My latptop doubles up as a space heater too 🤣

Dave Bursik wrote on 2024-04-10, 10:20:

Hello, […]
Show full quote

Markspace wrote on 2024-04-09, 13:41:

On AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7540U, Pentium II 233MHz is as consistent as it can get with ambient temperatures around 25 Celsius. […]
Show full quote

On AMD Ryzen 5 PRO 7540U, Pentium II 233MHz is as consistent as it can get with ambient temperatures around 25 Celsius.

Pentium II 350 MHz I thought most games I tried were playable. Minor sound glitches here and there when throttling took place.

Maybe by undervolting slightly with Throttlestop I can hit more consistent performance, not sure.

For a laptop CPU the 7540U can cover PCem emulation I would think.

Hope it helps.

Hello,

thanks for your replay, its funny, 3 days ago I tried PCem on this CPU 😀 My company mate has a HP Elitebook with this CPU. PCem working fine. But when I tried start it with Intel Pentium II/450, Win98 started wihout a sound.

Do you have the same experience ?

Thx,
Dave

Did you by any chance change sound output from the icon in the taskbar? PCem if open at the time it will not change output so you ll think there is no sound. It happens when I m changing from headphones to speakers, PCem keeps sound output to headphones for example. Either way 450Mhz seemed too much, especially as the CPU was throttling to lower frequencies. I do not recall sound issues appart from the sound breaking/glitching due to performance.

But! I did try on a ryzen 7600 desktop and it can handle 300Mhz like a champ without any problem, and ambient heat where I live is 25 degrees at this time.
With a few tweaks in BIOS to undervolt, it is surprisingly even more consinstent in keeping frequencies at 5Ghz (Common practice for the ryzen CPUs of this and I think previous generation, a lot of info on the net about this). So with PBO (some newer BIOS feature) active and some undervolting, 450MHz was no problem, so practically maxed out PCem, unless there are newer roms for better CPUs in PCem I have missed. Talking about v17 by the way.

Remains to see what happens when ambient tempreture gets to 35... But hey, I can emulate 450Mhz PII for 3/4 of the year, so I 'm happy. Seriously thinking of getting the Pentium 4 stored permanently.