JSO wrote on 2020-07-29, 12:41:

I was wondering if I should make the switch from the K6-3+ build with Voodoo 3 and SB Live! to the Athlon.

I think your K6-3+ may be a bit more versatile in DOS games, but the Athlon will pack a lot more power in late-era Win9x games like Deus Ex and Thief 2. I have a similar build if you want more details.

a) Caches can be disabled to achieve slower systems, using setmul like on the sy-5ema+ with K6-2,3,+ and etc? Or from bios?

On my rig, SetMul only allows disabling L1 cache, but Throttle gives me a much wider range of slowdown options.

b) Pure DOS works without issues with this combination? I will install and the ISA Yamaha OPL3-SA3, just in cause some games have issues with the SB Live!

Yes, I'm using an ISA sound card in pure DOS without any problems. Some older games need the system do be slowed down or their sound won't work. Specifically, that happens with the floppy version of X-Wing in my case.

Thank you very much. I have tested and benchmarked the last two years my SS7 build, even using an ATZ K6-3+ processor and now it's time to test the K7 platform. I also have an i486Dx2 VLB build ready to boot up, if I need better compatibility with speed sensitive games.

On my Socket A build back on 2001 - 2002, I was playing some DOS games, like Beneath a Steel Sky, Legend Of Kyrandia, Indiana Jones and the Fate Of Atlantis, Ultimate Doom, from Windows 98 SE DOS prompt (I installed XP when I build the Athlon XP, but some drivers, like the one for the ISDN modem didn't work, so I reinstalled Windows 98SE and running them until 2004) without issues and the sound was working, but I realized later that this was occurring because the Audigy had DOS drivers...

Back on those days I didn't gave much of importance to the fact that PCI sound cards had issues with DOS support. My k6-2 build had SB PCI64 (ES1370) and DOS games running well.

But I remember some games didn't run at all due to the speed of the Athlon XP and had audio distortion.

I'll give it a shot, because I can run all the Windows 9x games until 2001 without issues.

For later games I have an Athlon Xp 3200+, Radeon 9600 Pro, Audigy 2ZS, Asus A7v880.

I've used the K7M quite a bit. I found the best GPU choices were 3dfx cards like Voodoo3 or better, or NVIDIA TNT2. Newer NVIDIA cards had AGP compatibility problems and so do Radeons. They automatically switch to AGP 1x I believe but still can be unstable.

Though I also remember GeForce FX cards being more stable than prior GeForce cards. Maybe the auxiliary power connection, or they had improved AGP compatibility in some manner. I remember forcing AGP 2x via Rivatuner and not seeing problems.

swaaye wrote on 2020-07-29, 17:41:

I've used the K7M quite a bit. I found the best GPU choices were 3dfx cards like Voodoo3 or better, or NVIDIA TNT2. Newer NVIDIA cards had AGP compatibility problems and so do Radeons. They automatically switch to AGP 1x I believe but still can be unstable.

Though I also remember GeForce FX cards being more stable than prior GeForce cards. Maybe the auxiliary power connection, or they had improved AGP compatibility in some manner. I remember forcing AGP 2x via Rivatuner and not seeing problems.

I'm aware of this and I believe from 1999 to 2001 for Windows 98 and DOS the best card is the Voodoo 3. My K6-2 from 1999 to 2001 had a Voodoo 3 2000 AGP.

Thank you!

K6 (2-3+) DOS - Windows 9x gaming machine is history.

I've just been upgraded to Athlon 750 Mhz and I'm very happy!

Everything works great on pure DOS with SB Live! or Opl3-SA3 ISA Yamaha sound card...

5005 3dmarks on 3Dmark 99 with Voodoo 3 on 1024x768...
3dmark 2000 , 2903 3Dmarks
3dmark 2001 SE, 1505 3Dmarks

Are these good scores?

When I disable the caches through bios I have a 386 class machine.

Only issue due to CPU speed, Desert strike has the divide overflow error.

Setmul cannot disable both the caches, maybe it's not compatible with my board.

A I recall first Athlons were locked for overclocking?

Only overclocking available is fsb without either opening up the CPU casing and changing the resistor locations or using a goldfinger device (for both multiplier and L2 cache divider settings).

Chances are, and really good at that, that 750 you have is actually a higher binned CPU that was sold as a 750. You could have up to a 950.

See here:
https://www.ocinside.de/workshop_en/amd_slot_a_oc/

JSO wrote on 2020-08-17, 14:38:

When I disable the caches through bios I have a 386 class machine.

Only issue due to CPU speed, Desert strike has the divide overflow error.

Setmul cannot disable both the caches, maybe it's not compatible with my board.

What do you mean cannot disable both caches? Disabling L1 cache turns off the whole cache system, you can't have L1 disabled and L2 enabled. Disabling just L2 is often available in bios on boards from that era, but the performance impact is minimal for DOS games. It would still be too fast with or without L2 if the game is speed sensitive.

K7 has huge L1 cache and disabling L2 cache (which is slow anyway) has even less impact than on P6 CPUs.

I was stuck to the fact that on my K6-2, 3+ build with the Soyo 5EMA+ motherboard I was able to disable L1 or L2 cache, or both. So I had a 386 and a 5x86+ class system according to speedsys...

Disable both caches I have a 386 at about 50 MHz.

Throttle is more suitable.

With K7 you're quite limited in choice in terms of slowing down the CPU, with only cache & throttle available. With K7 mobile (XP-M, Geode NX) you'll get multiplier control in addition to cache & throttle.

Quite a lot of desktop Thunderbird, Thoroughbred and Barton CPUs were fully unlocked. Mobile K7 versions just let you change multiplier in realtime.

I have and an Abit KT7 socket a motherboard with ISA slot, but I've always wanted a slot a build.

Throttle works great for my purposes.

Few games need to slow down the cpu speed.

For hard circumstances I will use my 486Dx2 VLB build.