HanSolo wrote on 2023-01-07, 11:55:
AlessandroB wrote on 2023-01-06, 19:49:
I have to specify why I was not clear. The Pentium 200/233 doesn't have to cover the entire gaming period of win98, I would like to use win98 because I find it more complete than w95, easier to install with all the drivers, including the USB ones. The P200/233 should primarily serve as a PC DOS where the DX4 can't get enough horsepower plus run the operating system to use it as a file manager, file copy, no hard work. It will actually have to run win9.x games up to about 1997/98 max. I have to make a boot menu as suggested by someone and use dos7 instead of 6.22 since I seem to have understood that it is even better. I'm just afraid that games like screamer2 or they work badly... For the very few titles that require high performance in win98 I would use the Pentium4, I just wanted to know if the P200/233 can cover that gaming range or if it already struggles with 1996 games .
Do you have a P4-board with ISA-slot? You say you want to run DOS games on it when the DX4 is too slow, but that might be problematic without an ISA soundcard.
As I read it, he wants this P200 to run the fast DOS games, not the P4 😉
I'm not totally sure a P200 is fast enough to cover all of the last, fastest DOS games. I ran a similar setup but occasionally noticed thing slowing down, so I moved my late DOS setup to a P3-450. For old DOS I use a 486SX-33 (well, UMC U5S-33 actually) with turbo button. I find anything will run on one or the other. For Win98 I have a P3-1400S. Anything too demanding for that will run on my Ryzen 😉
Note that I'm not after 'period correct' in terms of speed. I lived through that period and was constantly frustrated by thing running too slowly and - worse - being unresponsive. No need for that anymore, which is why I run software on hardware a generation or two newer than would have been the case. If you do want the 'authentic' feel of being hardware-limited, by all means go for hardware that was contemporary to your software.