Afaik the K6-III CPUs simply don't have a 1x multiplier. They go from 2.5x up to 6x. You can set it to 2.5x though.

Doornkaat wrote on 2023-06-13, 11:40:

Afaik the K6-III CPUs simply don't have a 1x multiplier. They go from 2.5x up to 6x. You can set it to 2.5x though.

2.5x lowest for K6-III? Aww, I was hoping for lower than that. Oh well.
Also, i made a mistake, my motherboard manual said lowest is 1.5x not 1x.

Thinking about it now, what about FSB Clock speed, could that be dropped to something lower and still work on this CPU? I'd never thought about it until now with this machine.
I know i can disable some of the cache to slow things down also.

Yes, you can drop the FSB as low as the board can go. The CPU will play along nicely.

Ooooh, 2.5x multiplier at 66Mhz would give me 165Mhz. It's close to what i was hoping to reach.
I'll give this a try. Thank you 😀

Doornkaat wrote on 2023-06-13, 12:12:

Yes, you can drop the FSB as low as the board can go. The CPU will play along nicely.

I've just changed those settings, and i shouldn't have worried about it not working.
My rig posted just fine after changing the Multiplier to 2.5x, and FSB to 66Mhz. I was just a bit surprised to get 167Mhz at post though.
I'll now need to experiment with some games and the settings in the BIOS, as i've long forgotten what settings i used back when this machine was new to me and when it was my daily driver. This will be fun. 😀

The thing is, you don't really need any of that. 😀

This is actually the true appeal of the Super Socket 7 platform: the fact that, by disabling the caches (CPU and motherboard cache), you essentially end up with the speed of either a 486 or a 386 PC. It's what we call "time machine PCs".
If you want even more flexibility, then an AMD K6-2+ or K6-3+ CPU would also allow you to modify the CPU multiplier from within DOS or Windows using the Setmul utility (not really a must-have feature for most use cases, but very nice to have). And, by the way, your motherboard (the Gigabyte 5AX), is actually one of the most sought-after SS7 boards and is fully compatible with the "plus" family of CPUs.

You can check Phil's video for a demo of how all of this works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAgQQ55MDEw

Regarding your Pentium 100 vs 150 dilemma... are there actually any games that run on a Pentium 100, but fail to run properly on a Pentium 150? Personally, I'm not aware of such games.
The speed sensitivity is mostly an issue with games from the 486 era or older.

bloodem wrote on 2023-06-18, 13:16:

The thing is, you don't really need any of that. :-) […]
Show full quote

The thing is, you don't really need any of that. 😀

This is actually the true appeal of the Super Socket 7 platform: the fact that, by disabling the caches (CPU and motherboard cache), you essentially end up with the speed of either a 486 or a 386 PC. It's what we call "time machine PCs".
If you want even more flexibility, then an AMD K6-2+ or K6-3+ CPU would also allow you to modify the CPU multiplier from within DOS or Windows using the Setmul utility (not really a must-have feature for most use cases, but very nice to have). And, by the way, your motherboard (the Gigabyte 5AX), is actually one of the most sought-after SS7 boards and is fully compatible with the "plus" family of CPUs.

You can check Phil's video for a demo of how all of this works: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BAgQQ55MDEw

Regarding your Pentium 100 vs 150 dilemma... are there actually any games that run on a Pentium 100, but fail to run properly on a Pentium 150? Personally, I'm not aware of such games.
The speed sensitivity is mostly an issue with games from the 486 era or older.

Hi Bloodem,
I already knew about disabling CPU and External cache from within the BIOS. My original idea was to see if i could get away with not turning off the CPU cache, but instead just slow the CPU down.
I'd also decided to stick with the CPU i currently have. 100-150Mhz was just an idea i had in order to avoid the headaches of the CPU being too fast for older dos games. For me it's mostly the voyage of rediscovery.
As much as i'd like to get a K6-3+, I wouldn't use it enough to justify the cost.
You're right though, the SS7 platform is EXTREMELY flexible, and finding that the GA-5AX was both a sought after board and highly valuable was also a nice surprise. So happy i didn't get rid of it.

I also can't praise PhilsComputerLabs youtube Videos enough. Some of the retro stuff he's talked about, i knew of before i discovered his channel, and other stuff he's covered i've either forgotten about or 'wow....I didn't know that.'

CodeFuApprentice wrote on 2023-06-18, 12:43:

I've just changed those settings, and i shouldn't have worried about it not working. My rig posted just fine after changing the […]
Show full quote

Doornkaat wrote on 2023-06-13, 12:12:

Yes, you can drop the FSB as low as the board can go. The CPU will play along nicely.

I've just changed those settings, and i shouldn't have worried about it not working.
My rig posted just fine after changing the Multiplier to 2.5x, and FSB to 66Mhz. I was just a bit surprised to get 167Mhz at post though.
I'll now need to experiment with some games and the settings in the BIOS, as i've long forgotten what settings i used back when this machine was new to me and when it was my daily driver. This will be fun. 😀

Awesome!😁👍
Have fun tweaking your settings for maximum compatibility.😃