CPU FSB question \ VOGONS

CPU FSB question

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First post, by gooface

Posted on 2010-08-06, 22:44

gooface Offline

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My dad always told me that 66mhz FSB was the max you could have to run DOS games without problems is this true? I'm asking this because I have two K6-2 cpus that Im using (underclocked to 66mhz FSB) on my DOS pc's to play all my DOS, and I was wondering if this was true about the FSB, because I could run these things at 550mhz if its not, and I want all the speed I can get because I play Glide and DOS games on these systems.

Reply 1 of 5, by Davros

Posted on 2010-08-07, 11:50

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i think that was more to do with early boards, if you overclocked the fsb you also overclocked all the other busses pci, agp, isa and some of them didnt like it

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Reply 2 of 5, by sliderider

Posted on 2010-08-07, 12:11

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A lot of early DOS games are dependent on certain timings to run at a normal speed. If the CPU doesn't operate within the expected range of clock speeds, it throws off the timings in the game and it may run too fast to be playable, might crash mid-game or not run at all. Any CPU running on a 100mhz FSB is probably going to be too fast to keep the timings that some early games require. Even some 66mhz bus CPU's might be too fast. Remember, some of the earliest games were originally run on 4.77mhz 8088/8086 or 8-12mhz 80286 chips. Running those games at 300mhz+ will likely be problematic. Even a fast 386 or 486 can cause timing problems with some of those very early games.

Reply 3 of 5, by gooface

Posted on 2010-08-07, 19:56

gooface Offline

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well the deal is all my games work with these cpus (366mhz, and 400mhz) that run at the 66mhz FSB,(i really only am playing games from the 90's on them) like mechwarrior 2, ultima underworld 1&2, warcraft, wing commander, sim ant, etc.

lets be clear, I am not overclocking here, I am downclocking, I was wondering if setting my CPU's to run at their normal (100mhz FSB) would make the games not work, because I have these same Pc's running Glide games as well, and the extra MHZ would help out a lot performance wise.

I have these Pc's with windows 98 SE playing Glide and Dos games side by side, so I want the Best I can get outa them.

Reply 4 of 5, by candle_86

Posted on 2010-08-08, 00:46

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No you shouldn't have a problem at all, I used to play old dos games on a K6-2 450 running at 100x4.5. The games i was playing worked fine. Warcraft1, Civilization, Colonization.

Reply 5 of 5, by ux-3

Posted on 2010-08-08, 10:30

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candle_86 wrote:
No you shouldn't have a problem at all, I used to play old dos games on a K6-2 450 running at 100x4.5. The games i was playing worked fine. Warcraft1, Civilization, Colonization.

🤣

Well, that covers most of it, right...

Seriously, trouble will brew in different parts of the machine. One thing to mention ist the joystick. Calibration may be impossible with some games and certain bus speeds. "Aces of the Pacific" I recall as a relatively troublesome game.

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