First post, by oneirotekt
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There seem to be a lot of threads on the DOSBox forums about performance... which games run at acceptable speeds, which require at least a certain number of cycles / frameskip, etc.
I realize these factors are going to be subjective depending on machine configurations, as well as personal preference regarding what is "playable" and what is a slideshow, but I thought this would be a good place for people to post what games are playable in DOSBox on their systems, along with system specs and settings needed.
Correct me if I'm wrong, but CPU speed seems to be far and away the determining factor when it comes to how many cycles DOSBox can emulate effectively. So you needn't post the amount of system RAM, your video card, etc... just CPU type and clock speed should be fine.
I think the primary utility of this thread would be to have a handy list of games that run on CPU X, so that when a newbie complains about their machine not being able to run something like Crusader: No Remorse, we can point them to this thread and say "well, only people with 3.2GHz P4s have reported it to run acceptably". It would also be handy for people looking to upgrade, wondering how much horsepower they'd need to buy if they want to play Game Y.
DOSBox runs almost every game I can throw at it now, it seems like the major hurdle to be cleared is a horsepower one rather than a compatibility one. Some day machines will be fast enough to run anything you can run in DOSBox at full speed. Let's track the progress towards that goal here.
Some examples to get us started:
(dynamic core unless otherwise listed)
My machine: 1.2GHz AMD Thunderbird
- X-COM: UFO Defense runs well at 9000 cycles / frameskip 2.
- Wolfenstein 3D is just barely playable at 10000 cycles / frameskip 2, but sound stutters and framerate suffers a bit with lots of objects and enemies on screen.
- Doom 1 is surprisingly playable at 14000 cycles / frameskip 2, with full screen size and high detail (in game settings)
- X-Wing is baaarely playable at 10000 cycles / frameskip 2, with all in-game options turned down (SLOW speed, starship markings and engine glow off, detail sliders at zero)