I had this setup in my Compaq Presario, with Voodoo2 SLI. You get to play up untill games from the year 1999/2000. I'd say Quake 3 will be the cutoff.

Will also remind people that trading is against the community rules here on VOGONS. I'd suggest you make a request on Amibay, other than that you always have Ebay and Yahoo Auctions in Japan (which very often have these kind of adapters for sale if you want to try other brands than Powerleap).

Does you P75's motherboard have cache?

viper32cm wrote on 2020-12-02, 00:08:

Does you P75's motherboard have cache?

not for now but i can install until 512k of cache

Exactly which motherboard are you using?

Don't underestimate the impact of platfom (chipset+cache) on performance. A P75 system will generally have a very old So5 chipset - in the case of IBM I'd expect an Opti Viper (non-M). That will be slow, even with a faster CPU. With a K6-3 the cache performance isn't relevant, but bad memory and PCI speeds will. It will still be much faster than the P75, but don't expect similar performance to a contemporary K6-3 platform (like Aladdin V/MVP3, or even an i430TX).

If it's Opti Viper, it's probably going to be an exercise in frustration. I have an early socket 7 opti viper board, and my upgrade from a Pentium 100 to a Pentium 200 made very little practical difference in my mind. There's also a driver problem with the chipset in Windows 98. I've never tried Windows 95 with mine, but I just use it for DOS 6.22 and Win 3.11 with the P100 installed.

I'm assuming your board has a COAST socket with a jumper to select between asynch and PLB cache?

You might enjoy watching this guy's videos about his upgraded Packard Bell of the same vintage:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WHmNsRMy4Pw

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Im-aISn1s0M

With info you wrote here My new DOS machine... Pentium 75Mhz. Some advice... I believe you have an Intel 430FX chipset. You should not be concerned with low chipset performance then. Only thing keeping you back is the 66mhz FSB limit which means you can't compare directly to a SS7 system running 100mhz FSB.

Cache on the motherboard is of less concern if you get a AMD K6-III as it will become L3 cache and be of lesser importance.

My Compaq uses the 430VX chipset which is very similar in terms of performance with 430FX, so anything up to Quake 3 should run well.

Yes, my computer have Triton1 Chipset, not so bad i think.

Q: "Upgrading P75 with powerleap + voodoo2. How powerful will it become?"

A: "more powerful than you can possibly imagine"

sorry! 😀

AlessandroB wrote on 2020-12-02, 14:22:

Yes, my computer have Triton1 Chipset, not so bad i think.

A lot better (faster, more compatible) than the OPTi Viper, but still limited. Max RAM is 128MB, and only 64MB of that can be cached (but with K6-3 non-issue). It would probably do 90% of speed of K6-3 on i430TX with 66MHz FSB, which would be about 80% of speed of K6-3 on 100MHz FSB. So a K6-3 400 would run at about the same speed as a hypothetical K6-3 290MHz. It would be the fastest CPU on this motherboard, but not particularly impressive otherwise.

Another one to look for would be the Evergreen Spectra 400. I use one in a Compaq presarrio 4402 it works really well it helps out some more pep in it's step.

dionb wrote on 2020-12-02, 22:05:

AlessandroB wrote on 2020-12-02, 14:22:

Yes, my computer have Triton1 Chipset, not so bad i think.

A lot better (faster, more compatible) than the OPTi Viper, but still limited. Max RAM is 128MB, and only 64MB of that can be cached (but with K6-3 non-issue). It would probably do 90% of speed of K6-3 on i430TX with 66MHz FSB, which would be about 80% of speed of K6-3 on 100MHz FSB. So a K6-3 400 would run at about the same speed as a hypothetical K6-3 290MHz. It would be the fastest CPU on this motherboard, but not particularly impressive otherwise.

my needs are to have a computer suitable for games up to 1999 with this k6III (I have the particular version that works at 400 mhz both with bus at 100 and at 66) and a 3D card, be it voodoo2 or other.

AlessandroB wrote on 2020-12-03, 02:37:

[...]
my needs are to have a computer suitable for games up to 1999 with this k6III (I have the particular version that works at 400 mhz both with bus at 100 and at 66) and a 3D card, be it voodoo2 or other.

1999 should run, but don't expect much in terms of performance. I always prefer to have overpowered hw for software rather than underpowered. Yes, playing UT99 as a slideshow is very authentic (been there, did that on a Celeron 366 in 1999), but it's more fun when played on 2001 hardware (Tualatin). What you are proposing here is a compromised 1999-era upgrade to a 1995-era system paired with 1998 video hardware. That last bit alone would make me not want to push past 1998 software.

ok, if you tell me that 1998 can be the red line i trust you.

dionb wrote on 2020-12-02, 22:05:

It would probably do 90% of speed of K6-3 on i430TX with 66MHz FSB, which would be about 80% of speed of K6-3 on 100MHz FSB. So a K6-3 400 would run at about the same speed as a hypothetical K6-3 290MHz. It would be the fastest CPU on this motherboard, but not particularly impressive otherwise.

From my own experience and doing benches with super socket 7 boards and using a AMD K6-III with PowerLeap adapter in my Compaq I think the actual performance loss is much less, if any based on the chipset. From testing a Pentium 100 in terms of VGA speed, the Intel 430FX is actually faster than the SS7 chipsets. See: Socket 5 & 7 Motherboard VGA Benchmark comparison. I know this is not exactly comparable as the CPU speed is only 100mhz, but gives an indication. The performance loss will come from running the system at 66mhz FSB.

The cutoff date all depends on your own preference in terms of resolution and frames per seconds. I normally run my games in 1024x768 in my Compaq using the Voodoo2 in SLI mode and I require good framerate, else I'll just go for a newer machine. You mentioned you had a Pentium III in another post, which would be perfect to transition to when your IBM does not cut it anymore. From my own experience using the Compaq the cutoff date is 1999 with the exception of demanding games such as Quake 3 and to a lesser degree Unreal Tournament. High demanding games from 1998 (Unreal, Half-Life) all run fine. Not all games from that era had the same system requirements as Quake 3. For instance Dungeon Keeper 2 from 1999 is running fine on my Compaq.

ok, i think i have the proper information. Now the challenge become: find a powerlap 😁