I looked your 3DMark99 Max scores and they are out of line for old Rage Pro, maybe you can try my Rage3 drivers?
You shoul get at least 25-30% boost, probably more, its the 5.40x2611x3D driver, its has also good OpenGL boost!

Re: ATi RagePro drivers and software

looks like I might have had the frame rate capped for quake 2. Maybe I retest some day and include the 3dnow patches.

marxveix wrote on 2025-10-18, 18:17:

I looked your 3DMark99 Max scores and they are out of line for old Rage Pro, maybe you can try my Rage3 drivers?
You shoul get at least 25-30% boost, probably more, its the 5.40x2611x3D driver, its has also good OpenGL boost!

Re: ATi RagePro drivers and software

I’ll have to try that. Seems like drivers were almost always the issue for ATi in that period

douglar wrote on 2025-10-18, 18:25:

marxveix wrote on 2025-10-18, 18:17:

I looked your 3DMark99 Max scores and they are out of line for old Rage Pro, maybe you can try my Rage3 drivers?
You shoul get at least 25-30% boost, probably more, its the 5.40x2611x3D driver, its has also good OpenGL boost!

Re: ATi RagePro drivers and software

I’ll have to try that. Seems like drivers were almost always the issue for ATi in that period

What driver you used for those low scores? 3DMark99 Max @ default 800x600x16 settings with test 1 + test2 and
AMD K6-II+ 400Mhz got 1380 up to 1395 from my last tests with ATi Rage XL and MVP3 MB, it was long time ago.
Havent tested it lately again, Rage Pro 8MB AGP gets bit less score, but not that big difference,that you have here.

marxveix wrote on 2025-10-18, 19:08:

What driver you used for those low scores? 3DMark99 Max @ default 800x600x16 settings with test 1 + test2 and AMD K6-II+ 400Mhz […]
Show full quote

douglar wrote on 2025-10-18, 18:25:

marxveix wrote on 2025-10-18, 18:17:

I looked your 3DMark99 Max scores and they are out of line for old Rage Pro, maybe you can try my Rage3 drivers?
You shoul get at least 25-30% boost, probably more, its the 5.40x2611x3D driver, its has also good OpenGL boost!

Re: ATi RagePro drivers and software

I’ll have to try that. Seems like drivers were almost always the issue for ATi in that period

What driver you used for those low scores? 3DMark99 Max @ default 800x600x16 settings with test 1 + test2 and
AMD K6-II+ 400Mhz got 1380 up to 1395 from my last tests with ATi Rage XL and MVP3 MB, it was long time ago.
Havent tested it lately again, Rage Pro 8MB AGP gets bit less score, but not that big difference,that you have here.

Rage Pro: Rage Pro-w95-r435
Rage 128: ATI All-In-Wonder and All-In-Wonder Pro Created 03/26/97 (Creation Date)

Thanks for the info about Macxw4 4.35 driver, 5 series has more mature Macxw4.drvs and latest are 5.38.
5.40 Ati2ddad drivers are mostly renamed Macxw4 drivers, just harder to use regular Macxw4 files there.

What operating system did you use on the K6 build ?
What was your OS installation process including updates and patches ?
Some peoples have a hard time getting a reliable stable OS on the K6

After skipping through this, I like my SS7 board even better.
It has a few shortcomings but in general is good natured.
Making choices for a (super) socket 7 for DOS - Win98SE. Only 3 cards can be installed!

Intel486dx33 wrote on 2025-10-19, 09:34:

What operating system did you use on the K6 build ?
What was your OS installation process including updates and patches ?
Some peoples have a hard time getting a reliable stable OS on the K6

I used Win98SE on all of the systems. I used a windows scripted install, msbatch.inf. It's pretty much Win98se RTM with a couple edits---

[Edit.Files]
%10%\system.ini,386Enh,,"ConservativeSwapfileUsage=1"
%10%\system.ini,386Enh,,"MaxPhysPage=3B000"
%30%\msdos.sys,Options,,"Logo=0"
%30%\msdos.sys,Options,,"BootGUI=0"

Edit: I also installed 4in1443v.exe for the GART and stuff.

ux-3 wrote on 2025-10-19, 11:39:

After skipping through this, I like my SS7 board even better.
It has a few shortcomings but in general is good natured.
Making choices for a (super) socket 7 for DOS - Win98SE. Only 3 cards can be installed!

That's very similar to the board that got me started on all this. I was looking at the board thinking that it looked OK but there was no AGP and how much of a hit would it take if it only ran PCI. I vaguely remember reading an article back in 1999 where the answer was "not much" so I wanted to check it out. I imagine that since it is ATX, it gives much better 3.3v power to the PCI slots, so those PCI cards that didn't work for me would likely work for you. If you can find a PCI MX4000 PCI card that works for you, it's probably going to be as fast as anything else you could put in the board (except on Doom maybe)

I would have tested with a FIC VA-503+ using AGP power connectors, but it seems like mine didn't feel like booting in 2025. I'll have to get back to it some day.

douglar wrote on 2025-10-19, 13:55:

That's very similar to the board that got me started on all this. I was looking at the board thinking that it looked OK but there was no AGP and how much of a hit would it take if it only ran PCI. I vaguely remember reading an article back in 1999 where the answer was "not much" so I wanted to check it out. I imagine that since it is ATX, it gives much better 3.3v power to the PCI slots, so those PCI cards that didn't work for me would likely work for you. If you can find a PCI MX4000 PCI card that works for you, it's probably going to be as fast as anything else you could put in the board (except on Doom maybe)

I would have tested with a FIC VA-503+ using AGP power connectors, but it seems like mine didn't feel like booting in 2025. I'll have to get back to it some day.

I inherited this board in 2001 or 2002. I tried it with the AMD K6-2 500 MHz and basically everything from Voodoo1 to Voodoo3. The results were disapointing. The board performed much worse with these cards than a Pentium 2/3 would. I concluded for myself that I am not going to play games on this machine that can run on a Voodoo3. So I stored it away. When I found it again, I was thinking DOS on Pentium MMX mainly.

ux-3 wrote on 2025-10-19, 14:43:

douglar wrote on 2025-10-19, 13:55:

That's very similar to the board that got me started on all this. I was looking at the board thinking that it looked OK but there was no AGP and how much of a hit would it take if it only ran PCI. I vaguely remember reading an article back in 1999 where the answer was "not much" so I wanted to check it out. I imagine that since it is ATX, it gives much better 3.3v power to the PCI slots, so those PCI cards that didn't work for me would likely work for you. If you can find a PCI MX4000 PCI card that works for you, it's probably going to be as fast as anything else you could put in the board (except on Doom maybe)

I would have tested with a FIC VA-503+ using AGP power connectors, but it seems like mine didn't feel like booting in 2025. I'll have to get back to it some day.

I inherited this board in 2001 or 2002. I tried it with the AMD K6-2 500 MHz and basically everything from Voodoo1 to Voodoo3. The results were disapointing. The board performed much worse with these cards than a Pentium 2/3 would. I concluded for myself that I am not going to play games on this machine that can run on a Voodoo3. So I stored it away. When I found it again, I was thinking DOS on Pentium MMX mainly.

that was k6-2's fault, not the board.

marxveix wrote on 2025-10-18, 18:17:

I looked your 3DMark99 Max scores and they are out of line for old Rage Pro, maybe you can try my Rage3 drivers?
You shoul get at least 25-30% boost, probably more, its the 5.40x2611x3D driver, its has also good OpenGL boost!

Re: ATi RagePro drivers and software

I'll give them a shot this week.

douglar wrote on 2025-10-20, 12:55:

marxveix wrote on 2025-10-18, 18:17:

I looked your 3DMark99 Max scores and they are out of line for old Rage Pro, maybe you can try my Rage3 drivers?
You shoul get at least 25-30% boost, probably more, its the 5.40x2611x3D driver, its has also good OpenGL boost!

Re: ATi RagePro drivers and software

I'll give them a shot this week.

Let me know how it went and for OpenGL use included bat files, Thank you!

I had a chance to test with some matrox g450cards. The picture quality on those cards makes you feel like you upgraded your monitor, but the PCI version takes a notcable the performance hit woth the way it uses a pci bridge to put an AGP chip in a PCI slot. And the OpenGL was touchy compared to ATI and Nvidia cards from the same year. And even the AGP version has trouble keeping up with a Riva TNT in direct 3D when using a slower processor.

marxveix wrote on 2025-10-20, 14:23:

douglar wrote on 2025-10-20, 12:55:

marxveix wrote on 2025-10-18, 18:17:

I looked your 3DMark99 Max scores and they are out of line for old Rage Pro, maybe you can try my Rage3 drivers?
You shoul get at least 25-30% boost, probably more, its the 5.40x2611x3D driver, its has also good OpenGL boost!

Re: ATi RagePro drivers and software

I'll give them a shot this week.

Let me know how it went and for OpenGL use included bat files, Thank you!

I saw improvements on the Rage Pro card:
3Dmark '99 went from 771 to 1175 @ 800 x 600 52%↑
Quake 2 Crusher went from 13.6 fps to 16.2 @ 800 x 600 19%↑
3Dmark 2000 went from 363 to 599 @ 1024 x 768 54%↑
Quake 3 went down from 6.5 fps to 5.7fps @ 1024 x 768, but Quake 3 probably isn't playable on this card @ 1024, so perhaps this test isn't useful.

But in the other three scores suggest me me that the updated drivers should give a big enough bump that I suspect that DirectX 6 and early OpenGL games playable should be playable @ 640 x 480 on Super 7 and Slot 1 platforms

I’ve been thinking that it might be time to go back and finally finish HL Blue Shift after 24 years …

douglar wrote on 2025-12-08, 18:42:

I saw improvements on the Rage Pro card: 3Dmark '99 went from 771 to 1175 @ 800 x 600 52%↑ Quake 2 Crusher went from 13.6 fps […]
Show full quote

I saw improvements on the Rage Pro card:
3Dmark '99 went from 771 to 1175 @ 800 x 600 52%↑
Quake 2 Crusher went from 13.6 fps to 16.2 @ 800 x 600 19%↑
3Dmark 2000 went from 363 to 599 @ 1024 x 768 54%↑
Quake 3 went down from 6.5 fps to 5.7fps @ 1024 x 768, but Quake 3 probably isn't playable on this card @ 1024, so perhaps this test isn't useful.

But in the other three scores suggest me me that the updated drivers should give a big enough bump that I suspect that DirectX 6 and early OpenGL games playable should be playable @ 640 x 480 on Super 7 and Slot 1 platforms

I’ve been thinking that it might be time to go back and finally finish HL Blue Shift after 24 years …

I am sure of it, at least with RageXLAGP 64bit (4xram onboard), its fastest at Rage Pro hardware.
I have good results with 109-66700-01 : https://theretroweb.com/expansioncards/s/ati-ragexl

You could try to change OpenGL version for Quake3, 1068 up to 1107V2 should work, try maybe 1073 and 1107V1 or any other.

This video digs into the SDRAM - SGRAM question that crossed my mind when I was working on this--

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7VN6OyGcaL4

Interesting thread! I have been doing some benchmarking of my own system recently and your results are are useful comparison.

My specs in signature below. Onboard L2 disabled so I can max out the onboard RAM. In nearly all my tests, I get a speed boost from disabling onboard L2, even when I only have 64MB Ram (max cacheable on i430TX)

I have to thank Jan Steunebrink for Modding the BIOS on this board for me. I was able to get a stable and fast patched BIOS to support this CPU using BIOS patcher, but having it analyzed and tweaked by a professional is a real honour.

My voodoo3 2000 PCI is an SD RAM model

Running at 400MHz (66x6)
3dmark99 (800x600) 2843 3dmarks
Running at 450MHz (75x6)
3dmark99 (800x600) 3215 3dmarks
Running at 458MHz (83.3x5.5) -> my CPU can't do 500MHz at a sensible voltage 🙁
3dmark99 (800x600) 3413 3dmarks

My speedsys scores are similar for the CPU to yours, but the memory ones are interesting

RAM clocks (tighest timings available in BIOS)
66MHz: 135.38MB/s
75MHz: 152.43MB/s
83.3MHz: 169.25MB/s
100MHz: 203.78MB/s *I can get into DOS at 100MHz, but the IDE controller starts misbehaving and I can't get into windows

Conclusion: Unless you want to push SS7 further (550-600MHz) As long as you have a K6-3 you can moreorless skip Super socket 7 (and AGP) and keep the less temperamental socket 7 Intel chipsets

FullYes wrote on 2026-05-08, 08:08:

Interesting thread! I have been doing some benchmarking of my own system recently and your results are are useful comparison.

Thanks, glad you like it.

The thing that I found most unexpected was how PCI performance wilted on the nforce 2 chipset in the DOS benchmarks. I guess it makes sense that maximizing PCI performance in DOS no longer had the same emphasis in 2004 as it did 1994. And yes, I know that because PCI stopped being a mezzanine interconnect and had become a peripheral bus, replaced by hyper transport, it was bound to have some impact, but still. I didn't expect to be so exaggerated in DOS. Would I see something similar if I tested boards that use Intel AHA or Via V-Link ?

For the PCI Voodoo cards in DOS, it did seem like the banshee was faster in DOS than the Voodoo 2 PCI and nearly keeping pace with the AGP voodoo 3. I wish I had an AGP Banshee to test with.
For the Voodoo cards in Windows, I think the SGRAM on the PCI card was the reason that it holds its own against the SDRAM AGP card. So if you got a PCI Voodoo 3, you have a lot of motherboard options besides the super 7 odd balls.