pshipkov wrote on 2020-07-20, 07:31:

Really like the look of these ASUS 386 mobos. I put the date to market of this one somewhere between late 1993 and first half of […]
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Really like the look of these ASUS 386 mobos.
I put the date to market of this one somewhere between late 1993 and first half of 1994.
If you dont care about period correctness then ISA GD-5434 will be a good fit, quite expensive these days.
Otherwise a "cheapo" et4000/w32i will be just as good I think.

This UMC chipset is not super fast, post some perf data if you can, it will be good to see how it does over there.

I dont know how that card compares to the GD5420 which ive got, but I guess I will have to settle for that until I can find such a card, I see there is a member here working on building them.
IDK much about the specs on this UMC chipset, but i was assuming its better than the 3 SiS chips used on the ISA-386 (and ive been told that those boards were real fast)

I dont have it in a system yet, but can try and grab some perf data (looks like i need linux?)

amadeus777999 wrote on 2020-07-20, 07:47:

That's one great looking board.
What software do you use it for?

I plan to run MS-DOS and windows 3.11

Will likely run most of the 2D DOSgames we used to play as kids on the school computer, duke nukem, commander keen, secret agent, and 3D games such as wolfenstein will likely work too, dunno about doom though, would probably need a 486 for that.

Can confirm that even the excellent FastDoom is quite a compromised experience on the 386: FastDoom. A new Doom port for DOS, optimized to be as fast as possible for 386/486 personal computers!

The hardware is brilliant for platformers & pinball of course. Jazz Jackrabbit tests the limits in places with the occasional slowdown, solved by turning the graphic detail down. Flight sims like Falcon 3.0 are great, as are driving games like Lotus 3 and Microprose Grand Prix. X-Wing and Wing Commander are great. TIE Fighter chugs.

Pierre32 wrote on 2020-07-20, 09:02:

Can confirm that even the excellent FastDoom is quite a compromised experience on the 386: FastDoom. A new Doom port for DOS, optimized to be as fast as possible for 386/486 personal computers!

The hardware is brilliant for platformers & pinball of course. Jazz Jackrabbit tests the limits in places with the occasional slowdown, solved by turning the graphic detail down. Flight sims like Falcon 3.0 are great, as are driving games like Lotus 3 and Microprose Grand Prix. X-Wing and Wing Commander are great. TIE Fighter chugs.

Seems doom performs wildly depending on the hardware I guess, many seem to claim it works fine on their DX40 from what ive been reading.

Anyway, I likely would use a 486, but could try it anyway, I do have a math co-processor if the game supports those.
I have played jazz jackrabbit on my ISA-386 with an onboard dx-33 and 8mb of RAM and it ran fine.
I was able to play Microprose f117a stealth fighter and it ran OK too, and that was with a cheap realtek graphics card in it.

Seems doom performs wildly depending on the hardware I guess, many seem to claim it works fine on their DX40 from what ive been reading.

It can perform fine in simplistic shareware Doom, but Ultimate Doom or Doom 2 will plummet FPS hard on late maps.

I should clarify - Doom is playable, it's just a lower framerate than I would prefer. Which wouldn't have bothered me back in the day, but these days I also have a K6 system to run that kind of thing nice and fast!

https://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/List_of_ … sensitive_games

I am working on a nice 386 computer right now too.
If that barrel battery replacement leaks you will be in trouble again.
Hard to find a nice motherboard in good condition.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2020-07-20, 10:15:

Seems doom performs wildly depending on the hardware I guess, many seem to claim it works fine on their DX40 from what ive been reading.

It can perform fine in simplistic shareware Doom, but Ultimate Doom or Doom 2 will plummet FPS hard on late maps.

I'm playing Doom2 on my 386DX40 that's quite "high end" in the components and sure it's hard to play.. low details, reduced window borders.. but maybe also EMM386 enabled seems to hit fps a bit. Which are the difference from original Doom and Ultimate Doom? I've the second one.

Difference in the new episode "Thy Flesh Consumed" which has more complex levels (it was designed after Doom 2) and increased monster count. Although some vanilla maps like Mt. Erebus are also quite taxing on CPU.
Heretic, in general, is even worse and episodes 4 and 5 will brutally murder anything below DX2-80. So if you really want to play Doom engine games, outside of "shareware timedemo demo3" bragging, DX4-100 is highly recommended.

Pierre32 wrote on 2020-07-20, 09:02:

Can confirm that even the excellent FastDoom is quite a compromised experience on the 386: FastDoom. A new Doom port for DOS, optimized to be as fast as possible for 386/486 personal computers!

The hardware is brilliant for platformers & pinball of course. Jazz Jackrabbit tests the limits in places with the occasional slowdown, solved by turning the graphic detail down. Flight sims like Falcon 3.0 are great, as are driving games like Lotus 3 and Microprose Grand Prix. X-Wing and Wing Commander are great. TIE Fighter chugs.

How does Falcon 3 compare with and without the FPU?

gdjacobs wrote on 2020-07-21, 01:32:

Pierre32 wrote on 2020-07-20, 09:02:

Can confirm that even the excellent FastDoom is quite a compromised experience on the 386: FastDoom. A new Doom port for DOS, optimized to be as fast as possible for 386/486 personal computers!

The hardware is brilliant for platformers & pinball of course. Jazz Jackrabbit tests the limits in places with the occasional slowdown, solved by turning the graphic detail down. Flight sims like Falcon 3.0 are great, as are driving games like Lotus 3 and Microprose Grand Prix. X-Wing and Wing Commander are great. TIE Fighter chugs.

How does Falcon 3 compare with and without the FPU?

That's a great question. You've given me some homework.

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2020-07-20, 15:50:

I am working on a nice 386 computer right now too.
If that barrel battery replacement leaks you will be in trouble again.
Hard to find a nice motherboard in good condition.

Funny you say that about the battery, from what I can tell, its never had a NiCad battery on this board, there is no jumper to switch cell types from rechargeable to lithium, but it had an AAA battery holder with 2 alkaline batteries installed in the case, with wires soldered to the board. I have since installed a new lithium cell in the same fashion.

Pierre32 wrote on 2020-07-21, 01:39:

gdjacobs wrote on 2020-07-21, 01:32:

How does Falcon 3 compare with and without the FPU?

That's a great question. You've given me some homework.

So it seems that setting the FPU to 'not present' in BIOS makes no difference; if it's installed it's installed. Falcon 3.0 delivers the same options and performance regardless of BIOS setting; same for the Quake benchmark.

That means I'll have to test by removing it, which will have to wait until next time I have the case open.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2020-07-20, 20:01:

Difference in the new episode "Thy Flesh Consumed" which has more complex levels (it was designed after Doom 2) and increased monster count. Although some vanilla maps like Mt. Erebus are also quite taxing on CPU.
Heretic, in general, is even worse and episodes 4 and 5 will brutally murder anything below DX2-80. So if you really want to play Doom engine games, outside of "shareware timedemo demo3" bragging, DX4-100 is highly recommended.

It's impressive how heavy those games were in the early 90's.. Doom was indeed a jump in the game graphic history together with Quake. I find Doom2 to be strangely too heavy compared to the general complexity even in the indoor maps.
Back in those times I didn't even knew about these games. I was still playing Wolf3D as fps when probably Doom2 was out there since a lot cause my 386SX20 couldn't even play Wolf3D that well at first..

Wolf3d, SoD, Blake Stone would have all been butter smooth on a 386DX40. Good stuff!

Few days ago I also restored this mobo with the same rev 2.1. If anyone has later rev (2.5 probably) then please post photo.
It is a very nice motherboard. Performance is better than others 386 which I have (~17500 on nssi)
Mr Bios 1.44 works well + Cyrix DLC (cpu/fpu)
2.4fps on quake 1 😀

From further improvenets then CPUs like DRX2 / 486SXL. Never try becasue don't have them.

mt777 wrote on 2020-07-24, 00:58:

Few days ago I also restored this mobo with the same rev 2.1. If anyone has later rev (2.5 probably) then please post photo. It […]
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Few days ago I also restored this mobo with the same rev 2.1. If anyone has later rev (2.5 probably) then please post photo.
It is a very nice motherboard. Performance is better than others 386 which I have (~17500 on nssi)
Mr Bios 1.44 works well + Cyrix DLC (cpu/fpu)
2.4fps on quake 1 😀

From further improvenets then CPUs like DRX2 / 486SXL. Never try becasue don't have them.

Good to know i scored a decent board out of the scrap bin for nothing!
Interesting to know about the other revisions too.
Im looking at maxing out the cache but was wondering what the lowest latency it would support.
Ive got some 15ns chips I could put in, but would this board support lower latency?

I was told you have to set the timings in the BIOS, but all I can see is fast and slow as the two options for cache timing.
Does that sound right?

Ultimate means the best achievable or imaginable of its kind.

That is still a very nice board congratz on your find.