Open the DosBox.conf file and change

Core=

to

Core=Dynamic.

You do not want your CPU to be a 100% while using DosBox, somewhere around 95% should be good.

This is my first time using DOS Box. I tried to start a new game of Championship Manager 97/98 well over an hour ago and the 'Creating Data' statusbar at the bottom still only says 44%. This is way slower than I ever remember it being. I've read something about increasing CPU cycles, but I'm afraid the numbers are meaningless to me. What number of cycles is equivilant to the speed the game ran on my old 486? The DOS Box header currently says 6000 cycles and my CPU Usage is reading 100% already.

I have an Athlon 850mhz processor, 256mb RAM and Windows 2000, if that helps.

You don't want it to say 100%, get it down to 90% if at all possible.

Are you running DosBox in dynamic core? (Open DosBox.conf and set core=normal to core=dynamic).

I have no idea, I just ran DOS Box and let it go its business. Hang on, I'll check the file you mentioned.

It says "core=normal". So if I change that to "core=dynamic" it'll make a difference? Sorry to sound dense, I'm not too good on tech stuff.

Approaching 2hrs to create a new game now. Status bar on 79%.

An 850Mhz Athlon probably isn't fast enough to reach high-end 486 speed on dosbox for most games, but setting core=dynamic will give you a 2x-3x speed increase with most stuff. (You'll be able to set cycles higher). There is no direct link between Cycles and Mhz, due to the way DosBox works, but in my experience *most* games seem to work out at about 3 or 4 Mhz (for a 486) per 1000 cycles.

Thanks DosFreak and Lofty for the info 😀 I changed core to dynamic and cycles to auto. It seems to be going a good bit faster now. Not to the standard of my old 486, but that's probably what you said about my Athlon not being quick enough.