Well you can use a benchmark like 3d mark 2000 and compare the results. But i think the CPU is your problem. You maybe consider upgrade to a p4 system (northwood 3GHz).
That would push your geforce better for sure. The min specs from this timeline are really not a good point to go for.

Generals is quite demanding on the CPU.

Tualatin's are nice, but Generals could use a 533/800 FSB P4 or fast Athlon XP.

Jackhead wrote on 2024-01-19, 19:08:

Well you can use a benchmark like 3d mark 2000 and compare the results. But i think the CPU is your problem. You maybe consider upgrade to a p4 system (northwood 3GHz).
That would push your geforce better for sure. The min specs from this timeline are really not a good point to go for.

PD2JK wrote on 2024-01-19, 19:24:

Generals is quite demanding on the CPU.

Tualatin's are nice, but Generals could use a 533/800 FSB P4 or fast Athlon XP.

Thanks for the insight guys. I was afraid this was the case.. I initially went with a PIII because I wanted better compatibility with DOS and ISA soundcards.

Do you think a dual p3 board would be a better option? Perhaps x2 1Ghz PIII's? (or even a dual 1.4Ghz Tualatin setup, If I ever manage to find such a thing still in the wild!).

Failing that, is there another, more powerful processor, which could handle Generals, but also have the same level of compatibility for older games/hardware that the Pentium 3 does? I know that P4s are notorious for having virtually no options for boards that also have ISA slots - Are Athlon XP's better in that regard?

Again, thanks so much for your help. I'm still very new to the world of vintage computing!

Dual processors isn't likely to help since games back then were still largely single core.

You're basically running the common issue of trying to maintain backwards compatibility while maximizing performance. There are always going to be trade offs.

For DOS compatibility, are you talking about booting directly to DOS or running DOS software under Windows 98? If it's the latter, you don't need a ISA card to get sound in DOS as there are PCI sound cards that can support DOS titles. You could build a PCI-only Windows 98 setup with a Pentium 4 or Athlon XP system.

Another option is to do multiple builds tailored to specific time periods. You could build a more power Core 2 Duo system designed for 2000s era games, while sticking with the Pentium III for 1990s gaming.

Shponglefan wrote on 2024-01-19, 21:20:

Dual processors isn't likely to help since games back then were still largely single core. […]
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Dual processors isn't likely to help since games back then were still largely single core.

You're basically running the common issue of trying to maintain backwards compatibility while maximizing performance. There are always going to be trade offs.

For DOS compatibility, are you talking about booting directly to DOS or running DOS software under Windows 98? If it's the latter, you don't need a ISA card to get sound in DOS as there are PCI sound cards that can support DOS titles. You could build a PCI-only Windows 98 setup with a Pentium 4 or Athlon XP system.

Another option is to do multiple builds tailored to specific time periods. You could build a more power Core 2 Duo system designed for 2000s era games, while sticking with the Pentium III for 1990s gaming.

Although I wish I did, unfortunately I just don't have the space for multiple systems, which is why I was trying to build a system which had the best all-round compatibility for the aforementioned period of time.

I was mainly playing the DOS-era stuff from within 98, although there was a few titles which I could only seem to get to work by booting into DOS. So keeping that as an option would be preferable..

So with that in mind, we're saying P4/Athlon XP are my best options, if I wanted to stick with 98, but also have the speed to run the early 2000s stuff?

CorruptJelly wrote on 2024-01-19, 22:10:

So with that in mind, we're saying P4/Athlon XP are my best options, if I wanted to stick with 98, but also have the speed to run the early 2000s stuff?

Yup, for early 2000s games I'd go at least a Pentium 4 or Athlon XP build. They'll offer a noticeable speed improvement over the P III.

You could also consider an Athlon 64 or even a Core 2 Duo build. I know some folks have built Windows 98 systems around those processors as well.

Hey haven't you tried lowest setting @640x480 ?

I remember trying this game at a LAN circa 2003 on a 2.0 GHz Pentium 4 and an original GeForce 3 and finding it unplayably slow.

Back then I had Athlon XP 1800+ and GeForce 4 MX440 (128bit) and I remember Generals to be perfectly playable, but definitely not with details maxed out. So yeah, that P3 is probably too slow for this particular game. I'll test it on my P3/1GHz + GF4MX440 and I'll share the results, stay tuned 😉

Edit: Sorry, looks like I'll not test it, even with the latest patch, it just crashes right after starting a match 🙁

ciornyi wrote on 2024-01-20, 07:12:

Hey haven't you tried lowest setting @640x480 ?

Yeah I did. It lags hideously 🙁

This is why I thought I may have been doing something wrong. As the games minimum requirements are apparently a 800Mhz pIII and a 32mb video card.. considering my setup already surpasses these requirements, I would have assumed the game would at least be playable, but I guess not.. 😒

On some games even the recommended requirements are too low for a good experience. Morrowind comes to mind.

Sadly, I have to agree with the others in this thread. C&C Generals is a favorite of mine as well, I'm a fan of the entire franchise.

From your listed specs, you're just above the minimum requirements to run the game in terms of your processing power. Your video card and RAM should be OK.

You really do need a Pentium 4 or Athlon XP as close to the 1.8GHz speed they recommend for the game to get it into playable territory.

I always hated the "minimum/recommended requirements" developers often listed on their games. The real minimums were often much higher than they listed, and like Shponglefan said, even the recommended was sometimes just enough to get a game playable at lowered settings. I quickly started ignoring the minimums and looked at the recommended as my minimum when it came to any sort of 3D gaming.

I really wish there was better news, it really is a great game to play! 😀