About what year DOS games are you trying to play? I'm currently in the middle of trying to get a system like this built which will likewise "play the most games and run the most software", but I'm stumbling a bit.

I think my problem is I'm trying for too wide of a range of years. To me all DOS games means around maybe 1983 (more like 1986/87 for me since that fits my age group better), all the way up to around Quake from 1996 (since '96/97 seems about when games started moving over from DOS to Windows), and I'm still not able to do it. My 200MHz MMX plays Quake and similar pretty well (at lower resolutions), but I can't get it to go slow enough for those earlier games (Wing Commander for example STILL plays too fast!). On the other end, my new DX4 100MHz seems to go slow enough, but isn't fast enough to play games around the Quake era at a decent framerate (even with all settings set to low...still too choppy FPS).

...the conclusion I've come to, is I think this can be HIGHLY dependent on EXACTLY which processor you have and EXACTLY what motherboard you have (and the features of each). I'm talking about looking into all the different model numbers of MMX 200 you have because their features can vary (same for the DX4 I have or any CPU). For example other people HAVE been able to get their MMX 200 down slow enough to play earlier games (which I can't play)... but I think it comes down to their motherboard, and the specific chipset, caches, RAM, Video card, CPU-itself, etc. And the super hard part is there's VERY few people who know all these intricacies and VERY few online resources to find this all out (or at least I can't find it and/or those specialists haven't chimed in on my multiple topics yet 🤣).

Dochartaigh wrote on 2020-03-27, 19:41:

About what year DOS games are you trying to play? I'm currently in the middle of trying to get a system like this built which will likewise "play the most games and run the most software", but I'm stumbling a bit.

I think my problem is I'm trying for too wide of a range of years. To me all DOS games means around maybe 1983 (more like 1986/87 for me since that fits my age group better), all the way up to around Quake from 1996 (since '96/97 seems about when games started moving over from DOS to Windows), and I'm still not able to do it. My 200MHz MMX plays Quake and similar pretty well (at lower resolutions), but I can't get it to go slow enough for those earlier games (Wing Commander for example STILL plays too fast!). On the other end, my new DX4 100MHz seems to go slow enough, but isn't fast enough to play games around the Quake era at a decent framerate (even with all settings set to low...still too choppy FPS).

...the conclusion I've come to, is I think this can be HIGHLY dependent on EXACTLY which processor you have and EXACTLY what motherboard you have (and the features of each). I'm talking about looking into all the different model numbers of MMX 200 you have because their features can vary (same for the DX4 I have or any CPU). For example other people HAVE been able to get their MMX 200 down slow enough to play earlier games (which I can't play)... but I think it comes down to their motherboard, and the specific chipset, caches, RAM, Video card, CPU-itself, etc. And the super hard part is there's VERY few people who know all these intricacies and VERY few online resources to find this all out (or at least I can't find it and/or those specialists haven't chimed in on my multiple topics yet 🤣).

Yes, I referring to games compatible with 286/386/486 computer.
I currently have a VLB motherboard designed for a 486dx2-66 motherboard.
I have installed an Intel 486dx4-100 overdrive CPU that will run on a 5v. socket.
So I just set the motherboard up for a 486dx2-33 CPU and pop in the 486dx4-100 and it works.

I 486dx2-66 CPU will also work great but just run slightly slower.

If you want to go with minimum spec then this will work good too.

Specs:
Motherboard - VLB for Best Win95 performace.
CPU - 486dx2-66
Cache - 256kb.
RAM - 16mb to 32mb
Controller - VLB for 32bit support.
Hard-drive - EIDE up to 410mb.
Video - 1mb VLB ( Most verstile )
Audio - Sound Blaster AWE64 ( Best compatibility and audio ).

How about one based on the FIC 486-ELI6-II board like in this thread: Re: Does anybody recognize this Socket 3 motherboard?
Has single onboard IDE port using the Promise PDC20230C VESA Local Bus IDE controller, swap out the 1Mb Cirrus VLB card for a newer better one and good to go ?

Horun wrote on 2020-03-27, 22:00:

How about one based on the FIC 486-ELI6-II board like in this thread: Re: Does anybody recognize this Socket 3 motherboard?
Has single onboard IDE port using the Promise PDC20230C VESA Local Bus IDE controller, swap out the 1Mb Cirrus VLB card for a newer better one and good to go ?

Well, I am NOT exactly looking for highest performance but good enough to run mosts games.
With parts mosts available and best compatibility.

Does the motheboard chipset matter when it comes to compatibility with games and OS ?
For example my current VLB motherboard has a chipset by “Sympony”
Odd but it works okay and stable.
What video card do you think has the best compatibility ?

Someone here did a video benchmark using older DOS games and there were a few Cirrus Logic that did very well and of course any based on a S3 chip. Might want to look thru this: Phil's Ultimate VGA Benchmark Database Project. There was another one I looked thru back about 3-4 months ago but can't find it yet 😁