I should mention that I did check Phil's thread but it does not seem that anyone submitted any 286 benchmarks to his spreadsheet:

Phil's Ultimate VGA Benchmark Database Project

Also if anyone is interested in the util program then I can tidy it up and post it, or the source.

My 286 box is offline now, but you can see its Landmark results here - Re: How many Landmark benchmarks?

Anyway, it's a well-known fact that per megahertz, the 286 is slightly faster than 386SX.
386SX has MMU = extra logic between the CPU core and memory = slowdown

I have a 286 that runs at 12MHz and 8MHz.

12MHz:

3D Bench: 3.9
Sys Info CPU: 6.7

8MHz:

3D Bench: 2.6
Sys Info CPU: 4.4

I also benchmarked Doom using a 386 overdrive chip at 12MHz. From what I remember I got 0.6FPS.

Grzyb wrote on 2026-09-02, 12:26:

Anyway, it's a well-known fact that per megahertz, the 286 is slightly faster than 386SX.
386SX has MMU = extra logic between the CPU core and memory = slowdown

Can confirm. Running a 386 overdrive on my 286 system, I recall all benchmarks being slightly slower than using a native 286 processor.

Shponglefan wrote on 2026-09-02, 12:30:

I have a 286 that runs at 12MHz and 8MHz. […]
Show full quote

I have a 286 that runs at 12MHz and 8MHz.

12MHz:

3D Bench: 3.9
Sys Info CPU: 6.7

8MHz:

3D Bench: 2.6
Sys Info CPU: 4.4

Thanks. So going by the 3D Bench then, it seems marginally faster than your 286 at 8Mhz .

Grzyb wrote on 2026-09-02, 12:26:

My 286 box is offline now, but you can see its Landmark results here - Re: How many Landmark benchmarks?

Hmmm. Well that tool varying the result so much between versions is rather concerning.

Grzyb wrote on 2026-09-02, 12:26:

Anyway, it's a well-known fact that per megahertz, the 286 is slightly faster than 386SX.
386SX has MMU = extra logic between the CPU core and memory = slowdown

Yeah, I had read this. It is quite interesting

I am not sure what speed sensitive games to try on it yet. The only one I have tried so far is Police Quest 2 (GOG release). I think the intro was still a little too fast.

RetroPCCupboard wrote on 2026-09-02, 12:37:

Shponglefan wrote on 2026-09-02, 12:30:

I have a 286 that runs at 12MHz and 8MHz. […]
Show full quote

I have a 286 that runs at 12MHz and 8MHz.

12MHz:

3D Bench: 3.9
Sys Info CPU: 6.7

8MHz:

3D Bench: 2.6
Sys Info CPU: 4.4

Thanks. So going by the 3D Bench then, it seems marginally faster than your 286 at 8Mhz .

It's meaningless to compare 3dbench results across platforms unless the VGA card is identical

maxtherabbit wrote on 2026-09-02, 14:35:

It's meaningless to compare 3dbench results across platforms unless the VGA card is identical

I'd argue that it's not meaningless. Though I agree that video card will have an impact.

In my case I am trying to judge whether my slowed 386 SX is comparable to an average 286 for the purpose of gaming. Mismatched hardware is kind of the point. I don't wish to add a slow video card to it to make it more 286-like as, primarily, I want to use it as a 386 SX 33Mhz.

I am using the onboard graphics. I am not entirely sure what it is, but it is S3 of some sort. It seems to have good compatability with games like Commander Keen.

Basically I want to be able to play any DOS game with 3 PCs. I think the following will cover most things:

- NuXT with 8088 (4.77-9.54Mz)
- 386 SX (8.88-33.33Mhz
- Pentium MMX (200-300Mhz, plus SETMUL for slowing it down)