1. just 8-16MB. Stuff demanding 16-32 also would demand a higher-end 486 (DX4 100mhz+) or Pentium anyway. Going over 16mb is excess, unless you're going to run Windows NT

3. Not Quake, that's for sure 🤣. Though Command & Conquer (NOT GOLD OR RED ALERT), Diablo and Duke Nukem 3D could be played to the end with those specs. there ain't going to be a top-end game that'll be fluid.

16MB should be more than fine. It is way above what was common by the time 486DX2-66 were the top PC processor. It should not hurt to get more (unless you go over what the motherboard can cache), you can always create a huge RAMDisk or rum SmartDrv with an obnoxiously big cache.
Look for games up to 1993. That is the year the original Pentium was released. Given that the original 60/66MHz Pentium commanded a premium, even games from 1993 should run pretty well in a DX2. Also, although DX4 and Socket 5 Pentiums came mid-to-late 1994, not everyone upgraded straight away. So even stuff from 1994 might run pretty well on that CPU.

I do not think installing Windows NT will be a machine only intended to MS DOS 6.22 and Windows 3.11 and its games that really work well in speed of 486 DX2 66MHz I want a pure machine at this speed for other operating systems have proposed other retro pc pentium 60-120 - 166 and up to 200 mmx.

So if I see important in this machine 486 DX2 66 is to expand integrated motherboard is a T4000w32 vga I have 2 sockets free expansion and different type s3 vga, sis, logic cirrus the chart, desoldering his memoirs but not to memories will the right to expand my vga 2 mb I do not like to break anything it gives me a little afraid to break the motherboard ????

As it should do ??????

16 mb in a DX2 is really a nice choice, if it's a MS-Dos rig with Win-3.11.
Back in the day's, we had 4 to 8 megabyte in those kind of computers.

For Windows 3.1/3.11 16 MB as others have suggested is enough and 32MB is enough for running Windows 95 without the IE4 Windows Desktop Update.

i got 64Mb in my DX4, runs DOS, Windows 95 and Debian Etch.
32Mb wasnt enough for Win95 and Linux. (Cacheable Area is 64Mb so i'm fine.)
16Mb is enough for MS-Dos.

Most Games don't requiere more RAM.
And the Games that need more, would also need a Pentium to run flawless.

(Hope spelling is correct.)

I recommend 8 MB as minimal when in dos and or windows 3.1 / windows 3.11 ( when bought new mostly it was equiped with 8 MB of ram. Only 486 SX version came equiped with 4 MB only, because ram was very expensive back in the day.
But as standard i would recommend at least 16MB.. (in the same situation as above)
If you want to use memory manager i would recommend to go 20MB as minium.

When if you want to run windows 95 on the system i would at leas recommend to go for 32MB as minimal.

1. depends entirely on what you want to run on it. But there's no reason not to upgrade to 32MB or more
2. you didn't mentioned what BUS this 486 has. Probably VLB or PCI. Tseng ET4000/w32i (or p) get a great speed increase with 2MB of memory - but in Windows only!
3. I played Warcarft II a lot with 486DX2-80

To Point 1:
Just Upgrade to more RAM if your Cache can Cache your whole Memory.
Many Operating Systems will slow down, if your Cache can't cover all RAM avaible.
Or Upgrade your Cache.

WT:
32kb 8MB
64kb 16MB
128kB 32MB
256kb 64MB
512kb 128MB
1024kB 256MB

For WB just divide RAM :2.
32Kb = 4Mb cacheable
256Kb = 32Mb cacheable..

Back in the day I had 4MB in my 486, later upgraded to 8MB.

Nowadays, for a DOS games rig I like to have 12-16MB as you can run SMARTDRV which speeds up disk access a bit and also configure 4MB as EMS for any games that require it. This lets you run the vast majority of DOS games without having to use a boot disk or set up a boot menu with different system configs.
There is still the odd game out there that will refuse to work in this config (like Ultima 7 or Turrican 2) so you can't get away from it completely.

8MB was a more likely pairing, but 16MB is perfect. I wouldn't consider more than that in any DOS/Win 3.1 machine or even Win95 until about a P100, because the benefits are marginal and there are DOS games that actually present issues with more memory.

Really, more than 8MB was only required if you ran OS/2, NT or Unix. I'm not sure there's many DOS games that need more than 4MB, but there's definitely a number that need over 2MB.

ynari wrote:

Really, more than 8MB was only required if you ran OS/2, NT or Unix. I'm not sure there's many DOS games that need more than 4MB, but there's definitely a number that need over 2MB.

Star Wars Dark Forces and Bioforge was the first 8MB games I've ever played (1994 or 1995) and I remember that, me and my mate put together a single 8MB 486 from our own 4MB machines to play them.

Descent was the first 8mb game i've played. Using it with 4mb reduces a lot of the sound and sprite animations

ROTT ostensibly ran with 4MB IIRC but 'strongly recommended' 8MB. It's a little earlier than Descent or Dark Forces but not much. I seem to remember Doom being acceptable on 4.

xjas wrote:

ROTT ostensibly ran with 4MB IIRC but 'strongly recommended' 8MB. It's a little earlier than Descent or Dark Forces but not much. I seem to remember Doom being acceptable on 4.

Doom was acceptable (to me) on a 4MB 386DX40. 😈

I seem to recall Doom sometimes struggling to run smoothly in certain levels on my Cyrix 486DLC-40.
I know that, back then, a framerate below 30fps was acceptable but, I always tend to notice this and it frustrated me.
I would still recommend at least a 486 DX2-66 with 8 MB RAM for a more pleasurable playing experience.
4 MB, in some cases, would require a user to create a boot disk to free up enough RAM.

For gaming purpopse, 24MB.

later DOS game like Descent 2, Blood need pure 18MB without HDD swapping & smartdrive. (still need good graphic card for DX2-66)
Remember higher ram cause problems getting more UMBs with XMS & EMS service. (4MB is recommended only for Japanese Bi-sho-Jo games, higher is better if apps not need specific Memory service.)

Above 32MB can cause some apps insufficient memory because of wrong ram detection. In this case make a ram drive, reduce ram less than 32MB.

The "classic" tended to have 8x 30 pin simm slots loaded with 1MB for a total of 8, or later era maybe 4x 72 pin simm slots loaded with cheapskate 1MB for 4, with the option of loading with 4x 4MB for 16.

In Windows 3.1, I saw plenty of 386/sx systems starting with just 2MB (the minimum for Windows to go to 386 mode).
486's usually had 4 or 8, going to 16 if you needed to run something big.