See this thread -> Graphics card for Pentium Pro build ....I use a G200 + voodoo2 myself.

First, whichever gets you the clearest VGA signal. For 2D speed they are probably similar. The Radeon 7000 should be around twice as fast for 3D and look nicer. A Pentium Pro will be a bottleneck for them in 3D though.

I use a TnT2 M64 PCI which has both excellent picture quality and DOS compatibility along with excellent 3d Acceleration for the odd 3d game, I also throw in a Voodoo2 or 2 for Glide. I find the M64 to be a good fit for the Pentium Pro and PPro Overdrive, its almost period correct too.

Actually I just had a peek and its not a M64 its a full TnT2 PCI.

giantclam wrote on 2024-01-28, 04:04:

See this thread -> Graphics card for Pentium Pro build ....I use a G200 + voodoo2 myself.

Thanks! That really helps.

man, i used to be a lot quicker to chime in whenever anyone mentioned Pentium pro.

Do yall think a Radeon 7000 would be faster than a Rage 128 despite the driver overhead? I figure the T&L engine would help take the pressure off the CPU somewhat right?

TnL generation of games will be sluggish on a Pentium Pro.

A matrox g200, voodoo 2, rage 128.
Why win 2000 though? Personally I think a Pentium pro is a good home for win95\98\me but win 2000 sounds too heavy to me for a Ppro.

iraito wrote on 2024-01-31, 08:51:

A matrox g200, voodoo 2, rage 128.
Why win 2000 though? Personally I think a Pentium pro is a good home for win95\98\me but win 2000 sounds too heavy to me for a Ppro.

With enough RAM (256MB+) win2k runs silky smooth on a ppro233

Ok I can believe that buy what about a game on top? It's also less compatible with dos or early win games I guess.

iraito wrote on 2024-01-31, 08:51:

A matrox g200, voodoo 2, rage 128.
Why win 2000 though? Personally I think a Pentium pro is a good home for win95\98\me but win 2000 sounds too heavy to me for a Ppro.

The Pentium Pro runs best and was best optimized for the 32-Bit Windows NT4 operating system, also Win 2000 should run fine with enough RAM.
Windows 95/98/ME is not the best option for a PPro, because of the not so good 16 Bit Performance.
Pentium II is better, because of the improved 16-Bit performance and also has MMX technology.
PPro Socket 8 Mainboards could be upgraded to Pentium II 333 overdrive processor to avoid this problems, also produced in 250nm for much less heat.

Yes, there are some YouTube Videos, showing a Pentium Pro running fine with for example: Windows 98 SE, but I would always install NT4 with the latest service pack on a PPro System.

This is from wikipedia:
Despite being advanced for the time, the Pentium Pro's out-of-order register renaming architecture had trouble running 16-bit code and mixed code (8-bit with 16-bit (8/16), or 16-bit with 32-bit (16/32), as using partial registers cause frequent pipeline flushing.[8] Specific use of partial registers was then a common performance optimization, as it incurred no performance penalty on pre-P6 Intel processors; also, the dominant operating systems at the time of the Pentium Pro's release were 16-bit DOS, and mixed 16/32-bit Windows 3.1x and Windows 95 (although the latter requires a 32-bit 80386 CPU, much of its code is still 16-bit for performance reasons, such as USER.exe). This, with the high cost of Pentium Pro systems, led to tepid sales among PC buyers at the time. To fully use the Pentium Pro's P6 microarchitecture, a fully 32-bit operating system is needed, such as Windows NT, Linux, Unix, or OS/2. The performance issues on legacy code were later partly mitigated by Intel with the Pentium II.

Windows NT 4.0 is my choice of OS on a single socket Pentium Pro. I'd go Windows 2000 if I had a dual socket board..

win2000 is the best OS for ppro. NT4 does not play well with USB, and not dicking around with software is my primary goal. 2000 can be a bit slow, but "its just works" 99% of the time.

NostalgicAslinger wrote on 2024-01-31, 14:23:

The Pentium Pro runs best and was best optimized for the 32-Bit Windows NT4 operating system, also Win 2000 should run fine with […]
Show full quote

iraito wrote on 2024-01-31, 08:51:

A matrox g200, voodoo 2, rage 128.
Why win 2000 though? Personally I think a Pentium pro is a good home for win95\98\me but win 2000 sounds too heavy to me for a Ppro.

The Pentium Pro runs best and was best optimized for the 32-Bit Windows NT4 operating system, also Win 2000 should run fine with enough RAM.
Windows 95/98/ME is not the best option for a PPro, because of the not so good 16 Bit Performance.
Pentium II is better, because of the improved 16-Bit performance and also has MMX technology.
PPro Socket 8 Mainboards could be upgraded to Pentium II 333 overdrive processor to avoid this problems, also produced in 250nm for much less heat.

Yes, there are some YouTube Videos, showing a Pentium Pro running fine with for example: Windows 98 SE, but I would always install NT4 with the latest service pack on a PPro System.

This is from wikipedia:
Despite being advanced for the time, the Pentium Pro's out-of-order register renaming architecture had trouble running 16-bit code and mixed code (8-bit with 16-bit (8/16), or 16-bit with 32-bit (16/32), as using partial registers cause frequent pipeline flushing.[8] Specific use of partial registers was then a common performance optimization, as it incurred no performance penalty on pre-P6 Intel processors; also, the dominant operating systems at the time of the Pentium Pro's release were 16-bit DOS, and mixed 16/32-bit Windows 3.1x and Windows 95 (although the latter requires a 32-bit 80386 CPU, much of its code is still 16-bit for performance reasons, such as USER.exe). This, with the high cost of Pentium Pro systems, led to tepid sales among PC buyers at the time. To fully use the Pentium Pro's P6 microarchitecture, a fully 32-bit operating system is needed, such as Windows NT, Linux, Unix, or OS/2. The performance issues on legacy code were later partly mitigated by Intel with the Pentium II.

This was discussed before. PPro works just fine with DOS/Win9X. Performance penalties aren't significant. Especially taking into account that most later DOS games/apps that would demand faster CPU were 32-bit anyway.

One big exception to Pentium Pro performance are Build engine games (e.g. Duke Nukem 3D, Shadow Warrior, etc.) in higher resolutions.

The Pentium Pro significantly underperforms on these games compared to regular Pentium processors. I've even tested a Pentium 133 against a Pentium Pro 200 (256kb cache), and the Pentium 133 was faster in 640x480 and 800x600.

For other DOS games I find the Pentium Pro is typically on par with a regular Pentium clock-for-clock. In DOS Quake with FastVid, the Pentium Pro pulls ahead.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-01-31, 19:23:

The Pentium Pro significantly underperforms on these games compared to regular Pentium processors. I've even tested a Pentium 133 against a Pentium Pro 200 (256kb cache), and the Pentium 133 was faster in 640x480 and 800x600.

That's Linear Frame Buffer issue. Build engine VESA modes suck on P6+ CPUs if you don't tweak them.

iraito wrote on 2024-01-31, 08:51:

A matrox g200, voodoo 2, rage 128.
Why win 2000 though? Personally I think a Pentium pro is a good home for win95\98\me but win 2000 sounds too heavy to me for a Ppro.

Nostalgia. I had a PPro machine in the 2000s that ran Win2k. It didn't feel slow at all to me. I would run NT but I want USB and newer DirectX

It's 2024, and the "can't have USB with NT 4.0" ignorance still hasn't died?

The Inside Out Networks stack doesn't work with every USB controller (neither does 2000's, at least without hotfixes), but when it works, it works pretty well in my experience. I've been able to use USB 2.0 flash drives and an internal memory card reader just fine. There is a serious bug involving the default registry entries for the ionusb service, though, that's simple enough to fix: delete the "Group" entry, and edit "DependOnService" to add LanmanWorkstation, otherwise having a mass-storage device connected at startup can lock up the system.

i didn't say CANT. I said "does not play well".