joeguy3121 wrote on 2023-02-09, 08:56:
mothergoose729 wrote on 2023-02-09, 07:49:
I would recommend the Nehemiah. For software 3d games like quake it makes a pretty big difference to have the extra floating point and clock speed. I don't think the 486 speed range is important at all for DOS. In all but one or two cases a fast 386 or a slower Pentium will work just as well.
So with Nehemiah, where do you go to adjust it's speed?. In the system BIOS or do you need a software tool to do so?.
Your system will bench slightly different than mine, but here is a decent place to start
https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1usQPR … bPaw/edit#gid=0
The tools you will need are
setmul - a tool that sets the multiplier of the CPU can enable/disable caching and instructions.
Throttle - a tool that uses something called ACPI clock skipping to make your CPU slower
Mo slow - A software slow down tool that uses interrupts to slow down your CPU.
Where possible, don't use throttle/mo slow as they can have side effects. If you do use throttle, execute setmul AFTER as throttle will disable caches as well.
I would recommend writing batch scripts something like "386dx33.bat".
Note that the fsb can have an impact on performance as well. Some motherboards have the ability to set the FSB in software but most of the time you will have to hard reboot into the bios to adjust it, or sometimes even have to set jumpers on the motherboard to change the FSB. Just keep that in mind. In general, for dos 66fsb is what you will be using pretty much all the time, and then 133mhz fsb for windows/max performance.
Before you buy - approximating the performance of a CPU with tools is not equal to having that CPU! Is it good enough for games? Yes. Is it exactly the same in every way? No. DOS is weird, where exceptions area the norm. It's a fun rabbit hole to explore, but if the goal is really to "just play some damn games" you should use dosbox. I'm 100% serious. The hardware and getting things working for their own sake is the fun to be had here. Gaming is a nice side effect 😀.
The CPU speed is just one variable for all this DOS stuff. Sound card drivers, memory managers, weird patches you will need (especially if you are doing early DOS gaming) to get around things like having too much conventional memory (Yes!) and having a disc speed that is too fast (also yes!) and having a graphics card that supports standards that are too new (thrice yes!) are also part of the equation. Patches can help as well. Like I said, it's a deep rabbit hole where the fun is the setup and getting things working.
That doesn't mean every game will be a pain in the ass, but if you play enough DOS games some of them definitely will. Enjoy!