PhaytalError wrote:

So anyway, I was doing some testing [Diamond Stealth 64 Video PCI + 4mb RAM module vs. ATI Radeon AGP] and to my suprise the AGP card rendered DOS games; I honestly didn't even know that DOS games would "see" the AGP card.

DOS uses interrupt 10h to drive the display, so it will work with any video device the system BIOS supports.

If you really want to get very serious about dos gaming lets say 1995 and earlier with opl3/medi then you are going to need something older. 😉

Your comparison is a bit pointless, since you obviously didn't used the s3vbe and s3spdup (speedup) driver. A Stealth 64 with stock BIOS is a config no serious DOS user would use if he is going for fast framebuffer games. An indication is that you don't see any LFB modes in Quake.
You are also mixing 2D and 3D mode, which is essentially identical in DOS as 3D games use also dumb framebuffer filling. The only difference to consider is banked vs. LFB mode.

For the cards: S3 is already quite good for DOS, alternatives would be Riva128, 3dfx Banshee, 3dfx Voodoo3.

elianda wrote:

Your comparison is a bit pointless, since you obviously didn't used the s3vbe and s3spdup (speedup) driver. A Stealth 64 with stock BIOS is a config no serious DOS user would use if he is going for fast framebuffer games. An indication is that you don't see any LFB modes in Quake.
You are also mixing 2D and 3D mode, which is essentially identical in DOS as 3D games use also dumb framebuffer filling. The only difference to consider is banked vs. LFB mode.

For the cards: S3 is already quite good for DOS, alternatives would be Riva128, 3dfx Banshee, 3dfx Voodoo3.

Thanks for that info, I forgot DOS could utilize drivers for video cards since under normal conditions they "just work". I'll install s3vbe and s3spdup drivers or try univbe and fastvid or sddspeed and re-do my testings. Also the PCI card and the AGP card were not in the system at the same time, I shoulda mentioned that I tested them seperately.

Don't forget the CPU. To play SVGA games in DOS you want as much CPU power as possible. P3 with 1GHz or higher...

Ok so, univbe + fastvid = WOW! o.o

Quake 640x400 VESA mode ~60fps that's double of what I was getting on the Radeon in that VESA mode.
Quake 800x600 VESA mode ~40fps
Quake 1024x768 VESA mode ~30fps

With s3vbe + s3spdup

Quake 640x400 VESA mode ~30fps
Quake 800x600 VESA mode ~15fps
Quake 1024x768 VESA mode ~9fps

[There's actually no speed increase with s3spdup enabled for some reason even though it loads into memory.]

So it seems like the best logical config for me would be to use univbe + fastvid.

Once again elianda thank you for pointing me in the right direction! 😁

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Don't forget the CPU. To play SVGA games in DOS you want as much CPU power as possible. P3 with 1GHz or higher...

My CPU is a P3 550Mhz and I get silky smooth framerates now in Quake [60fps in 640x400 VESA], and GP2 with maxed out graphics + SVGA mode = flowing smooth as silk and no slowdown so far. 😁

PhaytalError wrote:

I was lucky enough to locate and purchase a brand new [factory sealed] AWE64 Gold

Factory sealed!? Next time you find something like that, you ought to flip it on eBay; you might well end up with more than enough money to buy another perfectly good AWE64 Gold (or two!) in slightly less pristine condition. In theory, anyway.

So I have replaced the Radeon AGP card with the Diamond Stealth 64 Video PCI card for now...

Your BIOS setup will probably let you switch between using AGP for video and PCI for video, so if you want you can feasibly leave both cards inside and switch between them whenever.

I used to run Battlespire in hi-res (640x480?) on my PII-450 with an AGP nVidia TNT1. The video card supported VESA and I think LFB at the BIOS level.

well really you should be playing quake in opengl

Indeed, there are so very many ports for Quake that I really can't understand the appeal of going out of one's way to play it on a DOS machine

Jorpho wrote:

Your BIOS setup will probably let you switch between using AGP for video and PCI for video, so if you want you can feasibly leave both cards inside and switch between them whenever.

In my experience that tends to be a no go depending on what motherboard you are using. The option may be there in the bios to choose which to boot from, and Windows 98 will show them both installed fine, but you will get motherboard warning beeps as Windows starts up and 3D aps crash or freeze the computer if your motherboard doesn't like running the two cards.

Cases like that I have even tried disabling the pci card in device manager, but the end result is the same simply because the motherboard didn't like the card being there. To be honest I have really come to respect the S3 Trio64 line. As far as 2d use goes for Dos and Windows, the card excels well and so far its the only card I have run into that can display Xmen COTA correctly with my Sony Trinitron VGA. Card can always be paired with a Voodoo 2 too.