VOGONS


First post, by greg2002tii

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I have a 486dx-50 ISA computer with only ISA slots and I'm getting very slow video playing Tex Murphy. It currently has an Orchid Pro Designer IIs video card installed and configured, and I'm looking for a recommended video card upgrade. I'm running DOS 7.0. What would you suggest ?

Reply 1 of 10, by PD2JK

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Do you have any other card at hand? I assume not, otherwise I think you would have tried.
Is your CPU cache working? How much and how is it set up?

If the issue is the only one, I guess the ET4000 doesn't play nice with that particular part of the game.

If you are looking for a replacement, I would aim for a Cirrus Logic GD-542x, WDC/Paradise WD90C30 or Trio64 card. Oops that one is PCI.

i386 16 ⇒ i486 DX4 100 ⇒ Pentium MMX 200 ⇒ Athlon Orion 700 | TB 1000 ⇒ AthlonXP 1700+ ⇒ Opteron 165 ⇒ Dual Opteron 856

Reply 2 of 10, by maxtherabbit

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I can say from experience that the ET4000 does just fine in the UAKM video test.

Either your ISA bus could be running at a reduced clock or the motherboard could be adding recovery waits

Reply 3 of 10, by greg2002tii

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maxtherabbit wrote on 2023-03-05, 22:56:

I can say from experience that the ET4000 does just fine in the UAKM video test.

Either your ISA bus could be running at a reduced clock or the motherboard could be adding recovery waits

Thanks guys.... There are some dip switches on the back I need to check. I found a Pro IIs manual online that help out.

Greg

Reply 4 of 10, by greg2002tii

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OK, I went ahead and I'm building a new DOS gaming machine. It's an ASUS VX97 (3 ISA, 3 PCI, and 1 combo slot). It's nice because it's a baby-AT board that fits into another AT 5170 case. I upgraded the cpu to a P1 MMX 233mhz. I have 128MB of memory coming in a few days, and most likely will move the SoundBlaster CT1770 (ISA) to the new box. So I can now entertain a PCI video card ! Recommendations ?? I will also try out the Pro Designer IIs in the new box, the other upgrades may be sufficient for Killing Moon.

Greg

Reply 5 of 10, by TheAbandonwareGuy

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greg2002tii wrote on 2023-04-08, 22:22:

OK, I went ahead and I'm building a new DOS gaming machine. It's an ASUS VX97 (3 ISA, 3 PCI, and 1 combo slot). It's nice because it's a baby-AT board that fits into another AT 5170 case. I upgraded the cpu to a P1 MMX 233mhz. I have 128MB of memory coming in a few days, and most likely will move the SoundBlaster CT1770 (ISA) to the new box. So I can now entertain a PCI video card ! Recommendations ?? I will also try out the Pro Designer IIs in the new box, the other upgrades may be sufficient for Killing Moon.

Greg

S3 Trio or Virge series. Cheap, effective, readily available, highly reliable. Virge will also provide primitive 3D rendering under windows

AFAIK the S3 PCI cards are basically the silver bullet, every major title runs fine on them. I know for a fact Under A Killing Moon runs fine on a Virge 325, as I've played it on mine (A not dissimilar rig from yours, I think mines a Pentium 200 with 32MB of RAM)

I also have a Trident ProVidia 9685 in my PCI 486 and it runs everything I throw at it too (including the notoriously hard to work with ST TNG: A Final Unity). As an additional bonus, it has composite and S-video outputs.

Theres also a compatibility Matrix for this: https://gona.mactar.hu/DOS_TESTS/

Cyb3rst0rms Retro Hardware Warzone: https://discord.gg/jK8uvR4c
I used to own over 160 graphics card, I've since recovered from graphics card addiction

Reply 6 of 10, by greg2002tii

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Thank you for the info !! I went to eBay and picked up a Trident ProVidia 9685 for $35, 2mb . I have a new unopened 250GB hard drive and leaning towards DOS 7 and W2K (NTFS of course). Can't install it yet as it currently has only 16MB of memory, which is why I have also purchased 4x32MB memory sticks (the max for this motherboard is 128MB).

Thanks again !
Greg

Reply 7 of 10, by TheAbandonwareGuy

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greg2002tii wrote on 2023-04-09, 21:13:

Thank you for the info !! I went to eBay and picked up a Trident ProVidia 9685 for $35, 2mb . I have a new unopened 250GB hard drive and leaning towards DOS 7 and W2K (NTFS of course). Can't install it yet as it currently has only 16MB of memory, which is why I have also purchased 4x32MB memory sticks (the max for this motherboard is 128MB).

Thanks again !
Greg

Depending on the motherboard you may find that 250GB drive doesn't work right unless you set the jumpers to limit its capacity (assuming a drive that new even supports doing that).

I have 80GB WDs in all my Pentiums IIRC.

Cyb3rst0rms Retro Hardware Warzone: https://discord.gg/jK8uvR4c
I used to own over 160 graphics card, I've since recovered from graphics card addiction

Reply 8 of 10, by greg2002tii

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Most of my other old unused drives only go to 80GB, and I have this one new in box. I'll install DOS first (maybe DOS 7.0 or DOS 7.1), then W2K. Hopefully it will see the entire disk and I will format it as NTFS. I'll know more tomorrow. The new 233MHz cpu works great and the 128MB 72-pin memory sticks today and work as expected !! So that maxes out the VX97 motherboard. Now on to the drives !!

Thanks for the comments !

Greg

Reply 9 of 10, by Malik

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S3 Virge (375) cards are easy to find, cheap and work well with almost all the games. Virge DX is another good variant.

5476332566_7480a12517_t.jpgSB Dos Drivers

Reply 10 of 10, by greg2002tii

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The Trident ProVidia 9685 under DOS 6.22 does play Killing Moon very efficiently !! Thx for the help, and I got one for only $35 !! I'm sure the beefed up CPU and memory add to the performance. I can't seem to find the software (drivers/utilities/manual) for it, but Win 2K seems to run just fine.

Greg