Ok just updating.

I altered the MSDOS.SYS so now my computer boots into DOS mode rather than go to Win98. I managed to get my Soundblaster and Video card working! Duke3D is running at 800x600 and the SB16 is working great.

Now I'm just wondering if it's possible to increase the performance with VESA. When I use Univbe 6.7 it makes it so I can't run Duke3D in Vesa high res mode, but if I don't load it then it seems to run Duke3D at 800x600 .

I was kind of hoping if I ran Univbe it would increase the performance. Anyone got any ideas?

If your using the PCI graphics card you've actually downgraded your video!
The onboard chip is also a 2MB S3 Trio but on the AGP bus. switching back to onboard will definitely give you a boost.

Duke3d in high res is very badly optimized, It'll be a struggle to get working smooth even on a P3 at the higher resolutions.
You can try S3Refresh and S3VBE tools, both can be found here.
https://ideafix.name/old/video/S3/Util/

You may want to upgrade to PCI ATI or Nivida card, won't help much in dos (The S3 is actually considered a very good dos chip) but will improve Windows games. Just check it's compatibility in dos first
https://gona.mactar.hu/DOS_TESTS/

chinny22 wrote on 2020-10-12, 12:20:

If your using the PCI graphics card you've actually downgraded your video!
The onboard chip is also a 2MB S3 Trio but on the AGP bus. switching back to onboard will definitely give you a boost.

Didn't know this! I swapped my card out and I'm testing it out now. Most of the build games seem to run pretty good at 640x480.

chinny22 wrote on 2020-10-12, 12:20:

Duke3d in high res is very badly optimized, It'll be a struggle to get working smooth even on a P3 at the higher resolutions.
You can try S3Refresh and S3VBE tools, both can be found here.
https://ideafix.name/old/video/S3/Util/

I've been running Univbe in my autoexec and it seems to help.

chinny22 wrote on 2020-10-12, 12:20:

You may want to upgrade to PCI ATI or Nivida card, won't help much in dos (The S3 is actually considered a very good dos chip) but will improve Windows games. Just check it's compatibility in dos first
https://gona.mactar.hu/DOS_TESTS/

I am thinking of finding a Diamond Multimedia Monster 3D II PCI 12 MB 3dfx Voodoo 2.

You know how well it runs in DOS?

I've heard good things about the voodoo cards in dos.

Voodoo 1 and 2 are not 2D cards at all so you will still use your current card in DOS.

The voodoo banshee, voodoo 3 and onwards are 2d/3d cards and their performance in DOS is great. I think the AGP and PCI versions are both as good as each other (someone correct me if this is not right).

The voodoo 1 and 2 still play a few DOS games and they do look great, but they don't do it all; just 3d parts of the games that support that hardware (in Glide mode) like Tomb Raider and Screamer. Most of these games are 2d by default and then need a 3dfx voodoo patch to run in hardware 3d.

OP doesn't have an AGP slot so will be limited to PCI

Foil fresh is right, Voodoo1 and Voodoo 2 are add on card rather then a full on graphics card and will only benefit games that support glide.
For dos Voodoo 1 is easier to get up and running but bit of extra work voodoo2 can be made to work and have better performance.
Voodoo 2 DOS Glide compatibility matrix

Banshee, Voodoo 3 are full on graphics cards and have great dos compatibility which is what I think you have heard.
Problem is cost and availability with the PCI ones been more popular then AGP.

If your not worried about Glide games but want to improve Win9x I'd got for a PCI Nvidia card which is more common, cheaper and better D3D performance and also has great dos compatibility.

Alright here's a quick update!

I went a little nuts and hit up ebay and amazon for some old parts to play with and here's what I found.

- Retro Diamond Stealth III S540 Savage4 Pro 32MB PCI Graphics Card (NEW Oldstock) - I bought this thinking it might be all I need, I'm hoping DOS compatibility is good because this actually was pretty expensive. I watched a few reviews and saw the Pros and Cons. I read that the Drivers for it early on were pretty bad, but now the newer drivers have fixed most of the issues that bothered tons of people around the time it was released.

- AOPEN AW744L II - Yamaha XG YMF744 YMF724 OPL3 (NEW Oldstock) - I like the sound of the OPL3 and thought this was a good option considering it's basically new. DOS Compatibility is good as well!

- Gravis Game pad Pro#1. - I was playing Wolfenstein 3D on the SNES and thought how much it fun it would be to have a similar experience using a gamepad on the PC. I decided to get the original version with the gameports.
- Gravis Game Pad Pro #2 - Bought a second one in case i needed to do any repairs. Also this one came with a Box and CD.

- Creative Labs Sound Blaster Live 5.1 - Bought this for high quality 330 General Midi output and test how well it sounds in some DOS Games.

- Geforce MX4000 128mb PCI - This was cheap, and I'm not even sure if this will run or not in my system. Hopefully it runs!

- Diamond Radeon 9700 64MB VGA/DVI/TV Out PCI - Another Cheap card and again I'm not sure how this will work in the 300GL. If it does I think this will come in handy for sending the signal to my old CRY TV.

- Belkin Sport USB 2.0 PCI Card - Expensive but I made the order and hopefully it will ship soon.

Also on top of all that I found a local seller giving away a box of old stuff for $40!

Inside was the following

- Another Soundblaster Live 5.1 PCI Card - One of the reasons I jumped on this box of stuff.
- Soundblaster X-Fi Extreme Gamer with SPDIF PCI Card - This card is selling for $100 USED on amazon right now! Might be good for a future build.
- Maddog SC3000 Soundcard PCI Card - No idea what this is, but its being sold for under $20 on Ebay.
- AVerMedia AVerTV PVR 150 Plus PCI Card - TV Tuner card? It also only works under WinXP and up.
- Pegatron RV620_DVI PCIE Card - Some kind of OEM based Radeon, not sure beyond that.
- Bunch of assorted old cables
- A few LED case fans (Brushless)
- Intel CPU Cooler and Heatsink
- And a few other things

So I took the GL300 apart and stuck in one of the LED Case Fans so now it's got this glowing green light emitting from it which looks kind of cool. Better yet I think it will help keep the system cooler as well! I'm trying to find out if i can stick a Pentium III into this MOBO or not, and if so I will upgrade it.

Savage4 is great in dos, on that side you wont be disappointed. Win9x performance is pretty average but you do have the option to try out S3TC in Quake3 and UT

MX4000 much better Win9x performance and pretty good match for your CPU, I'd probably switch to this once done playing with the Savage4.
It'll work fine (actually had a GF2 MX in my P2/400 back in the day which this card is based off)

Radeon 9700 was a great WinXP/DX9 card in it's day but better alternatives now. Not so great dos or Win9x compatibility. PCI cards are always useful for testing though.

X-Fi Extreme Gamer, wouldn't pay $100 for it but really good card for a WinXP build.

Maddog SC3000, Don't know this but looks to based off the C-Media CMI8738 chip. What's interesting about this is apparently it has dos support?
https://www.philscomputerlab.com/c-media-cmi8738.html

Pegatron RV620_DVI PCIE, That's a Radeon HD3450 Not very interesting in PCIe IMHO

Re CPU upgrade what's the exact model? I'm assuming a 6285 which is the Slot 1 version. Found 1 post where someone said they upgraded to a P3 500Mhz so would expect you can go upto a P3 600 Katmai

chinny22 wrote on 2020-10-27, 12:46:

Re CPU upgrade what's the exact model? I'm assuming a 6285 which is the Slot 1 version. Found 1 post where someone said they upgraded to a P3 500Mhz so would expect you can go upto a P3 600 Katmai

This is the 6287-61U and based on this document I found I think I can stick a Pentium III 550 into this! Not sure about a 600 though.

Document is here for those interested : https://psref.lenovo.com/syspool/Sys/PDF/with … book/dwbook.pdf

Other info
Released on January 1999 or March 1999 or April 1999

Processor(s): Intel Celeron 333, 366, 400 or 433MHz1 with 66MHz system bus or Pentium II 350, 400, or 450MHz with 100MHz system bus or Pentium III 450, 500, or 550MHz, with 100MHz system bus
Processor Upgrade: None supported by IBM / no SMP

Implementation: Processor and L2 cache in Single Edge Cartridge (SEC) in
Intel Slot 1 CPU connector / motherboard has one Slot 1
L2 Cache: Celeron: 128KB std / 128KB max / can enable ECC / full speed Pentium II/III: 512KB std / 512KB max / can enable ECC / half spd All: Integrated in SEC / 4 way set associative / write-back

Graphics - Type : SVGA / 128-bit accelerator / Baseline AGP / 66MHz
Graphics - Controller : S3 Trio3D (on planar) / no sideband / no split transactions
Graphics - Memory : Celeron: 2MB std / 4MB max / upgrade with 2MB SO-DIMM via open socket on motherboard
Pentium II/III: 4MB std / 4MB max
Graphics - Features : 100MHz SGRAM / 230MHz DAC
3D hardware accelerator / dithering, double-buffering, 16-bit Z-buffer, fogging, depth-cueing, gouraud shading, texturing / color space conversion / hardware scaling / VESA DPMS, DDC1/DDC2B

Power Supply : 145 watts with variable speed fan / universal / manual switch / built-in overload and surge protection / Wake on LAN support

Memory - std /max : Celeron: 32MB std / 512MB max
Pentium II/III: 64MB std / 768MB max

Memory - Sockets : Celeron: Two 168 pin gold-plated DIMM sockets / one used
Pentium II/III: Three 168 pin gold-plated DIMM sockets / one used

Memory - Type: SDRAM / 100MHz / non-parity / PC100-compliant /industry standard / unbuffered / 3.3 volt
Memory - Support: Non-parity / ECC memory not supported

Motherboard: MicroATX / different motherboards for Celeron and Pentium II/III systems / All connectors and slots on motherboard
Bus Slots: PCI 2.1 (33MHz) and ISA slots (see below)

- Slot1: halfsize,32-bitPCI2.1(5v)
- Slot2: halfsize,32-bitPCI2.1(5v)
- Slot3: halfsize,32-bitPCI2.1(5v)
- Slot4: halfsize,16-bitISA

Architecture: 440BX AGPset / PIIX4E for EIDE, ISA Bridge, USB

Disk : Vary: None (Authorized Assembler Program) or one EIDE disk /
all disks SMART6 II and SMART Reaction
Disk controller: Enhanced IDE busmaster on planar (PIIX4E) / 32-bit PCI 2.1 /
Ultra DMA/33 and PIO modes 3, 4 support / 2 IDE connectors on motherboard

Universal Serial Bus: Two USB ports / 1.5MB/sec (12Mbps) max speed
Diskette Drive : 3.5" 1.44MB diskette drive

Audio: Pentium II/III: 32-bit PCI / ESS 1938 on motherboard / internal speaker
Audio Connectors : Pentium II/III: Headphone jack / line out / microphone jack (all in back / 3.5mm) /
15-pin joystick/MIDI interface (in back)

Btw Chinny22 thanks for the responses and info! Appreciate it!

Dosboxxer wrote on 2020-10-11, 22:49:

So like my title states, I did go ahead and buy a used IBM 300GL (Tower version) on eBay along with a SB16 ISA (CT2770) and a S3 Trio 64 2MB Expertcolour (DSP3364P) PCI Card. I was originally going to buy a Pentium 120 like I had as a kid but the prices are outrageous, and I was concerned about aging components and stuff so I wanted a happy medium and went with a Pentium II system.

I have a 300GL system still in a sealed at the factory box that I picked up years ago. I really hate to actually open it so there it sits, still waiting to be opened.

That is but an example of my OCD. 😊