VOGONS


First post, by MrEWhite

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So, lets here the story of this PC...
I bought it off Ebay last year, the IBM PC 365. The graphics card was screwed but other than that, the machine was perfect.
It had a Pentium Pro 200 with 256k cache gold topped, 128 MB of RAM, so... perfect for Windows NT right?
HELL NO!
The main reason I like this PC so much is it's DOS performance, just hear me out on this one. The PPro was pretty much faster than any PC at the time, so it is perfect for DOS games from around that era, and even beyond in my current testing! I will admit it does run better under NT, but... It runs DOOM, Duke3D, and even Quake at a decent framerate. So this, in my opinion, this would make a perfect DOS machine for mid to late DOS games and even some Windows 95 games like Blood II and Quake 2 (albeit at a sub-30 FPS framerate). So, lets get to the planned specs of the machine!

First off, the graphics card is a ET6000, one of the best, if not the best 2D cards out there.
And I removed the hard drive which came with the PC (Forgot the size, it was small) and replaced it with a 6GB hard drive.
And for the sound card, I'll be getting a Soundblaster 16 CT2290 for it's Yamaha OPL3 chip.
And for a 3D accelerator to make this baby really fly I will by getting a Orchid Righteous Voodoo 1 to be as period correct as possible with a 3D accelerator

I'll take pics of the machine and it working when I get the sound card and 3D accelerator in.

Last edited by MrEWhite on 2016-06-07, 16:18. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 2 of 8, by clueless1

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Sounds awesome. Looking forward to pics and stats. 😀 Will 6GB be enough? I've had to re-partition my DOS PC a couple of times. 😳

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
OPL3 FM vs. Roland MT-32 vs. General MIDI DOS Game Comparison
Let's benchmark our systems with cache disabled
DOS PCI Graphics Card Benchmarks

Reply 4 of 8, by MrEWhite

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Errius wrote:

Yes the PPro makes a fine late DOS platform. You can also disable cache to get it down to 386 speeds.

Don't think the BIOS has a cache option sadly. (Edit: yes it does 😀)

Last edited by MrEWhite on 2016-06-07, 02:23. Edited 1 time in total.

Reply 6 of 8, by Scali

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Windows 95 is a poor choice for a Pentium Pro however.
Because of the way it works, breaking up x86 instructions into micro-ops, using register renaming etc, it is inefficient at running 16-bit code.
Since Windows 95 is a blend of 16-bit and 32-bit, it is quite inefficient on a Pentium Pro. Of course, DOS is entirely 16-bit, so that's no good either. However, games from that era such as Doom and Quake used a DOS extender, and were basically fully 32-bit.
Running older 16-bit games will be suboptimal, but the Pentium Pro is plenty fast anyway, so that won't be an issue.

Pentium and earlier do not suffer from this issue. And in the Pentium II, Intel solved it. So the Pentium Pro is the one x86 that doesn't run 16-bit code well. So running Windows NT on it will be an improvement.
Of course, all the great early Win9x games won't work, or will work, but won't have 3D acceleration etc. I have the same problem. My Pentium Pro is the host for my PowerVR PCX2 card. So I have to run Windows 98SE on it. There are no drivers for any NT-variation of Windows.

http://scalibq.wordpress.com/just-keeping-it- … ro-programming/

Reply 8 of 8, by clueless1

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MrEWhite wrote:
Errius wrote:

Yes the PPro makes a fine late DOS platform. You can also disable cache to get it down to 386 speeds.

Don't think the BIOS has a cache option sadly. (Edit: yes it does 😀)

It looks like setmul is at least partially compatible with the Pentium Pro:

-Pentium Pro/2/3 toggle L2 cache: parameters L2D / L2E

You may be able to disable L1 too without having to mess with the BIOS.

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
OPL3 FM vs. Roland MT-32 vs. General MIDI DOS Game Comparison
Let's benchmark our systems with cache disabled
DOS PCI Graphics Card Benchmarks