First post, by red_avatar
- Rank
- Oldbie
I've been googling but I can't find a definite answer so here goes:
I'm putting the final touches on my IBM PC 330 PC. It was originally a Windows 95 machine with a regular Pentium 150Mhz CPU (not MMX) which I managed to upgrade to a Pentium 233 MMX. It runs 3D games as fast as you'd expect but I've noticed that the 2D performance leaves a great deal to be desired. As a 2D card I installed a Matrox Millennium G200 4MB since the original S3 V64's 1MB was just too little to run the full colour mode & resolutions I wanted.
I notice that many 2D games that should run with ease, have serious issues with slow down on this system:
- Puzzle Bobble 2: runs really slow yet the game's recommended CPU is a Pentium 166
- Captain Claw: unplayable unless I turn all special effects off - Intel Pentium 75 is minimum specs!
- Get Medieval: constant slow downs whenever transparent effects are used - Intel Pentium 133 MHz recommended
etc.
My question is: would a better 2D card help or is it the system itself that has bottlenecks that cause the slow downs?
You'd think a Matrox card would be powerful enough and I can't immediately find a good alternative without going towards a Voodoo 3 PCI which costs a great deal of money ... . I also noticed the Matrox does not have the best DOS compatibility so it wouldn't annoy me to have to replace it ... Or perhaps there's other tips to get improved performance ... ?
Thanks for any help you can give.
Retro game fanatic.
IBM PS1 386SX25 - 4MB
IBM Aptiva 486SX33 - 8MB - 2GB CF - SB16
IBM PC350 P233MMX - 64MB - 32GB SSD - AWE64 - Voodoo2
PIII600 - 320MB - 480GB SSD - SB Live! - GF4 Ti 4200
i5-2500k - 3GB - SB Audigy 2 - HD 4870