Does it work in Glide mode?

You could run speedsys to rule out bad performing CPU/cache/RAM.

UT99 needs a 233 MHz CPU as a minimum.
The MMX versions have double L1 cache, you could look out for these and maybe OC it to 233.

Grab Phil's Benchmark Pack ans run Quake Benchmark in Addition

Even if you were using Glide with that Voodoo 1, I think the framerate would be very poor. Minimum specs given for that game are not realistic.

"IBM Aptiva" doesn't tell us much. Performance varies wildly depending on other specs.

I just tried it on my Pentium 200 MMX in software mode. Low settings. I got about 12FPS in the first tutorial map. I'd expect the MMX to be slightly faster than yours, but not by that much

I tried Glide with Voodoo 1, but it just crashes. I think maybe it needs an 8mb graphics card

PD2JK wrote on 2025-12-06, 18:58:

Does it work in Glide mode? […]
Show full quote

Does it work in Glide mode?

You could run speedsys to rule out bad performing CPU/cache/RAM.

UT99 needs a 233 MHz CPU as a minimum.
The MMX versions have double L1 cache, you could look out for these and maybe OC it to 233.

My motherboard can't fit a mmx processor. I have 64MB, but with windows 98 it shouldn't be a problem, right?, maybe i have some tweaking bad in bios.

edit: Pentium 90 software renderer https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uh_ZpSsMZ3o

AncapDude wrote on 2025-12-06, 19:00:

Grab Phil's Benchmark Pack ans run Quake Benchmark in Addition

I will take a look, thank you!.

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-12-06, 19:11:

Even if you were using Glide with that Voodoo 1, I think the framerate would be very poor. Minimum specs given for that game are not realistic.

I don't expect 20fps, but... 2fps in software renderer it seems too much.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2025-12-06, 19:58:

"IBM Aptiva" doesn't tell us much. Performance varies wildly depending on other specs.

I already told that specs.

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-12-06, 20:06:

I just tried it on my Pentium 200 MMX in software mode. Low settings. I got about 12FPS in the first tutorial map. I'd expect the MMX to be slightly faster than yours, but not by that much

Yes, 12fps is more or less the performance of a pentium 1, 8 to 10 in my case (non mmx).

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-12-06, 20:11:

I tried Glide with Voodoo 1, but it just crashes. I think maybe it needs an 8mb graphics card

Are you sure?... welll, is a 1999 game, but...

Señor Ventura wrote on 2025-12-06, 20:50:

[...]

My motherboard can't fit a mmx processor. I have 64MB, but with windows 98 it shouldn't be a problem, right?

Depends on the motherboard chipset - that you didn't tell us.

[...]
I already told that specs.

No you didn't. Exactly which Aptiva model? Which motherboard chipset does it have?

There can be up to 50% difference in performance of So5/So7 systems depending on chipsets and some of the early Aptivas had some very exotic - and slow - chipsets.

200MHz CPU is bit at lower end for Unreal games and its UT, i would get Voodoo working,
making clean Win95B install if low in memory, enable DMA or UDMA. Try other drivers.
Usual VGAs@4MB should start with Unreal Tournament, how they play is a question.

marxveix wrote on 2025-12-06, 22:04:

200MHz CPU is bit at lower end for Unreal games and its UT, i would get Voodoo working,
making clean Win95B install if low in memory, enable DMA or UDMA. Try other drivers.
Usual VGAs@4MB should start with Unreal Tournament, how they play is a question.

Yes, but, you know... 2fps was totally unexpected ^^u

dionb wrote on 2025-12-06, 21:03:

Depends on the motherboard chipset - that you didn't tell us. […]
Show full quote

Señor Ventura wrote on 2025-12-06, 20:50:

[...]

My motherboard can't fit a mmx processor. I have 64MB, but with windows 98 it shouldn't be a problem, right?

Depends on the motherboard chipset - that you didn't tell us.

[...]
I already told that specs.

No you didn't. Exactly which Aptiva model? Which motherboard chipset does it have?

There can be up to 50% difference in performance of So5/So7 systems depending on chipsets and some of the early Aptivas had some very exotic - and slow - chipsets.

All right, yes, i skip this information. The chipset is 5511/12/13 + integrated video card SIS 5598, but i pu in there a dedicated S3 trio64+.

Maybe vesa 2.0 helps...

I wouldn't expect that to be very playable nor perform much better then a slideshow. I am playing Half Life rn on a 233mmx overclocked to 290mhz (83mhz fsb) with a 12mb voodoo2 and at 640x480 I'd call it just barely playable, even though the minimum requirements were probably around a p166.

We were less spoiled in those days - we knew minimum requirements really meant "good luck with these" and usually just put up with some abysmal resolution to have a chance at playing (and still got slideshows when more enemies showed up)

Ok. I take back what I said about it not working on Voodoo 1 4mb. I have just tried it on another machine that has Voodoo1 (this time paired with a Pentium MMx 233Mhz @300Mhz). It runs at 512x384 low settings at 24fps in Glide.

If I run in software mode @320x240 on this machine (with S3 Trio 3D card) I get 17FPS. So definitely the Voodoo 1 gives a better experience.

It has been stated already, but that system is under-specced for Unreal Tournament.

Minimum requirements at the time meant that a game would "run"... while looking bad and performing in the sub-15fps range. Sadly, that was just the standard at the time.

Also, UT was just not a game that people played in software mode, especially on a CPU that didn't meet the minimum requirements. Even on a top of the line Pentium III 500Mhz from the time it likely would have been unplayable in software mode at 640x480.

A Voodoo 1 is going to be very slow in a game like that too. Really, from a retro-computing perspective, the first Voodoo is only a good match for the first generation of Glide and Direct3D games (1996 to mid 1997). After that any newer card from 3dfx or Nvidia (and some others) is pretty much required to get a decent experience.

This might be a helpful page to look at:
https://www.philscomputerlab.com/3dfx-voodoo- … ut-project.html
Using a 1.1Ghz Pentium III from the year 2000 (Probably 6+ times as performant as a Pentium 200 MMX) a Voodoo 1 managed 25fps at 640x480 in Unreal Tournament, compared to 72FPS at 800x600 on a Voodoo 3 2000 (a $99 entry level card from 1999).

What you have there is a very solid system for games up to 1996-1997, but I wouldn't push it beyond that. Having used P 200 MMX and a Rendition Verite 1000 back in those days, I have a soft spot for that level of system, but things were advancing very fast back then, so you have to keep expectations in check.

I would recommend checking out this thread for some discussion of games that run well on a Voodoo 1:
Games that run smoothly on Voodoo 1

Enjoy the system. 🙂

I guess the question is, do any games that it should be running at good framerates also run slowly? The fact UT runs so much slower than it should may be an indication of another issue.

By the way, whilst testing this game on a Geforce MX 460, I have found that the framerate is terrible, probably worse than 2FPS, if colour depth is 32 bit. At 16 bit it runs fine. I am not sure if same is true of software mode.

Has OP got it set on 32-bit or 16-bit? I think the S3 Trio isn't even capable of 32-bit. So presumably not that, but worth checking.

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-12-07, 08:27:

By the way, whilst testing this game on a Geforce MX 460, I have found that the framerate is terrible, probably worse than 2FPS, if colour depth is 32 bit. At 16 bit it runs fine.

That's probably a driver bug. Try an older driver version, and make sure that the game is fully patched as well. Back in the day, I played UT on a TNT2 in 32-bit color, and it ran ok (around 30 FPS at 800x600). I recently tested it on a GeForce 2 MX400 and it ran even better at the same resolution.

That said, Unreal Engine 1 games are very demanding on the CPU. So even if the GPU is capable, frame rates will be CPU limited in most cases.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2025-12-07, 08:51:

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-12-07, 08:27:

By the way, whilst testing this game on a Geforce MX 460, I have found that the framerate is terrible, probably worse than 2FPS, if colour depth is 32 bit. At 16 bit it runs fine.

That's probably a driver bug. Try an older driver version, and make sure that the game is fully patched as well. Back in the day, I played UT on a TNT2 in 32-bit color, and it ran ok (around 30 FPS at 800x600). I recently tested it on a GeForce 2 MX400 and it ran even better at the same resolution.

That said, Unreal Engine 1 games are very demanding on the CPU. So even if the GPU is capable, frame rates will be CPU limited in most cases.

I could try a different driver I guess. That test was done under Windows XP with Pentium 4 3.0Ghz. When I swapped the GPU for an FX 5500 the game was smooth at 32 bit. 60FPS (vsync was on). I think the driver version is in the 9x.xx range. This is my testbed PC for verifying new purchases. It has PCIe, AGP and PCI slots. Very handy to have!

bertrammatrix wrote on 2025-12-07, 00:59:

I wouldn't expect that to be very playable nor perform much better then a slideshow. I am playing Half Life rn on a 233mmx overclocked to 290mhz (83mhz fsb) with a 12mb voodoo2 and at 640x480 I'd call it just barely playable, even though the minimum requirements were probably around a p166.

We were less spoiled in those days - we knew minimum requirements really meant "good luck with these" and usually just put up with some abysmal resolution to have a chance at playing (and still got slideshows when more enemies showed up)

Speaking about a p166... i once had a notebook with a pentium 166 mmx, only software renderer, and unreal was a bit more than unplayable, but unreal tournament definitely was good (with low expectations, 10 to 15fps, that for me is all right).

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-12-07, 07:12:

Ok. I take back what I said about it not working on Voodoo 1 4mb. I have just tried it on another machine that has Voodoo1 (this time paired with a Pentium MMx 233Mhz @300Mhz). It runs at 512x384 low settings at 24fps in Glide.

If I run in software mode @320x240 on this machine (with S3 Trio 3D card) I get 17FPS. So definitely the Voodoo 1 gives a better experience.

Yes, this is the point. Unreal tournament demands another kind of hardware, but, Why 2fps in my case?. Now i see that my system lacks 15fps!! (well, you know, this is not a exact science).

Ozzuneoj wrote on 2025-12-07, 07:45:

It has been stated already, but that system is under-specced for Unreal Tournament. […]
Show full quote

It has been stated already, but that system is under-specced for Unreal Tournament.

Minimum requirements at the time meant that a game would "run"... while looking bad and performing in the sub-15fps range. Sadly, that was just the standard at the time.

Also, UT was just not a game that people played in software mode, especially on a CPU that didn't meet the minimum requirements. Even on a top of the line Pentium III 500Mhz from the time it likely would have been unplayable in software mode at 640x480.

A Voodoo 1 is going to be very slow in a game like that too. Really, from a retro-computing perspective, the first Voodoo is only a good match for the first generation of Glide and Direct3D games (1996 to mid 1997). After that any newer card from 3dfx or Nvidia (and some others) is pretty much required to get a decent experience.

This might be a helpful page to look at:
https://www.philscomputerlab.com/3dfx-voodoo- … ut-project.html
Using a 1.1Ghz Pentium III from the year 2000 (Probably 6+ times as performant as a Pentium 200 MMX) a Voodoo 1 managed 25fps at 640x480 in Unreal Tournament, compared to 72FPS at 800x600 on a Voodoo 3 2000 (a $99 entry level card from 1999).

What you have there is a very solid system for games up to 1996-1997, but I wouldn't push it beyond that. Having used P 200 MMX and a Rendition Verite 1000 back in those days, I have a soft spot for that level of system, but things were advancing very fast back then, so you have to keep expectations in check.

I would recommend checking out this thread for some discussion of games that run well on a Voodoo 1:
Games that run smoothly on Voodoo 1

Enjoy the system. 🙂

Thanks for the references.

Yes, i hasn't big expetectations further more than i got when i had a p133+voodoo, or p166 mmx without any 3d card. Really i don't need more than 10 to 15 fps when the hardware struggles with the requeriments like mine, so, i don't ask to my p200 to run smoothly... but, man, 2fps is maybe kind a harshly faily ^^u

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2025-12-07, 08:27:

I guess the question is, do any games that it should be running at good framerates also run slowly? The fact UT runs so much slower than it should may be an indication of another issue.

By the way, whilst testing this game on a Geforce MX 460, I have found that the framerate is terrible, probably worse than 2FPS, if colour depth is 32 bit. At 16 bit it runs fine. I am not sure if same is true of software mode.

Has OP got it set on 32-bit or 16-bit? I think the S3 Trio isn't even capable of 32-bit. So presumably not that, but worth checking.

That's the point i wanted to reach with this thread... What is happening?.

I installed grand prix 2, and it struggles near the 10fps frontier with aslmost all the configurations in high... not so sure if i played this with this performance time ago, with my p133.

Since this game is only software renderer, i have here 66mhz more, and seems like it lacks something.

Señor Ventura wrote on 2025-12-07, 10:41:

That's the point i wanted to reach with this thread... What is happening?.

Well as others have already said, it's time to run some benchmarks and see if the system is performing as it should, or if you/we can spot the reason from your pictures

konc wrote on 2025-12-07, 11:02:

Señor Ventura wrote on 2025-12-07, 10:41:

That's the point i wanted to reach with this thread... What is happening?.

Well as others have already said, it's time to run some benchmarks and see if the system is performing as it should, or if you/we can spot the reason from your pictures

Yes, i'm on it, but just for information, these games doesn't performed like that in a p133+voodoo, or p166mmx alone.