Pentium Pro 1MB motherboard requirements + bench \ VOGONS

Pentium Pro 1MB motherboard requirements + bench

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First post, by kixs

Posted on 2017-06-13, 17:56

kixs Offline

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I skipped PPro in those days and have limited knowledge.

I have one motherboard with PPro 200MHz with 256KB cache. I'm wondering if PPro 200MHz with 1MB cache requires some other specification or would work just the same as drop in replacement?

Can't check the model of my motherboard at the moment as it's stashed somewhere 😒

Last edited by kixs on 2019-05-01, 09:27. Edited 1 time in total.

Requests are also possible... /msg kixs

Reply 1 of 6, by RJDog

Posted on 2017-06-13, 18:51

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I'm not hugely familiar with Pentium Pro systems, but my experience is that if it is an Intel 440FX chipset, then you should be good to go... nothing unexpected to change out the CPU for any different spec'd Pentium Pro CPU. I would expect it would be the same with other Pentium Pro chipsets (are there other PPro chipsets..?).

Reply 2 of 6, by Anonymous Coward

Posted on 2017-06-14, 00:30

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I used to have one of those Dual Asus boards with the CPU cards. I could never get the 1MB Ppros going in that system, even though I flashed the BIOS with multiple versions. Apparently it can work, but you really have to play with it (maybe a beta BIOS?).

I would definitely check to see if your board has BIOS support.

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Reply 3 of 6, by kixs

Posted on 2017-06-15, 07:51

kixs Offline

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It seems this is the motherboard - Acer Altus 900Pro:
http://arvutimuuseum.ee/th99/m/A-B/35974.htm

I can't find any BIOS updates. Maybe 512KB version is maximum it takes. I don't have 1MB version at hand so I can't test it. But I don't want to buy it if there is a possibility it won't work.

Requests are also possible... /msg kixs

Reply 4 of 6, by sunaiac

Posted on 2017-06-16, 07:08

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I put a 1mb in a gateway p6 200 on an oem vs440fx not supporting it and except for the wrong cache size reported by the bios it works flawlessly.

R9 3900X/X470 Taichi/32GB 3600CL15/5700XT AE/Marantz PM7005
i7 980X/R9 290X/X-Fi titanium | FX-57/X1950XTX/Audigy 2ZS
Athlon 1000T Slot A/GeForce 3/AWE64G | K5 PR 200/ET6000/AWE32
Ppro 200 1M/Voodoo 3 2000/AWE 32 | iDX4 100/S3 864 VLB/SB16

Reply 5 of 6, by BastlerMike

Posted on 2017-06-16, 17:21

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You have to take care what VRMs you are using. Many older/cheaper models can't handle the power required by the 1 MB processors.

Reply 6 of 6, by kixs

Posted on 2019-05-01, 09:14

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Did some benchmarks with Intel VS440FX motherboard and Pentium Pro 200 1MB cache at 233MHz and P-II 333 Overdrive. DOS games benefit hugely with FastVid enabled.

BIOS doesn't have advanced chipset settings. I used TweakBIOS program to see what are the current settings. It seems the optimal are already set. I've only changed "Fast RAS to CAS Delay" to Enabled. This seems to speed the main memory a bit. But it only showed a half of FPS improvement in Quake and 0.1 point improvement in CPUmark32. Elsewhere it was the same as before.

Here are the results and photos: