For anyone interested, the Rendition Verite works on the m919. At the same resolution as dosbench Quake I’m able to achieve 31.8fps in vQuake at 180MHz/1024k L2. Although chalk a couple frames up to vQuake using 1.08 for it’ base.

Update!

Forgot to do the jumper FSB trick. With the PCI bus running at a full 60MHz I’m able to hit 33.1 in vQuake! Which I believe is the fastest vQuake score I’ve recorded on a 486.

Update #2
VQuake appears to favor l2 in WB on this board. Im able to hit 33.3 now.

Wow nice score on Quake. With that frame rate the game should be nicely playable on that system.

I wouldn’t want to play quake at 320x200. 640x480 is tolerable, but if I recall, that Rendition Quake variant either didn’t do well at this resolution or doesn’t work. Can someone remind us what the result was with this?

maxtherabbit wrote on 2022-08-23, 18:36:

Should I buy more 5x86 chips to find one that runs at 180 on air? Feeling rather left behind here with my lucky star 486E only running at 3x50MHz

Errr, left behind by who exactly ?
Or do you mean the large crowd of 3, doing casual retro facts finding and posting about it in obscure forum watched by 5 more guys ?
:}

Joking aside - 480 @ 180/200 MHz is fun.
Can pass you an AWD CPU that can handle 180MHz on air at 4V, if you want.

@Chadti99
I don't have Rendition cards.
So no VQuake here.
Good numbers tho.

(with innocent voice) sooo how are those M919 + V3/V4 confirmation tests coming along ?

About that Chaintech 486SOM on EBay - actually i randomly bid on it while searching for a picture online.
Kept pressing the bid button until i came on top at around $130 or something. A moment of silliness.
But wonder now if i should consider it for real. Hmmm ...

@feipoa
To present day i play Q1 at 320x200, otherwise it feels awkward to me.
Higher resolutions only emphasize the lack of visual detail.

feipoa wrote on 2022-08-25, 00:54:

I wouldn’t want to play quake at 320x200. 640x480 is tolerable, but if I recall, that Rendition Quake variant either didn’t do well at this resolution or doesn’t work. Can someone remind us what the result was with this?

Yah at 320x200 it almost has a widescreen effect, it’s not quite full screen so it’s better to run it at 320x240 IMO. I really like the low res look myself but I can understand how it’s not everyone’s taste.

@pshipkov, will get those v3/v4 test results soon!

Is the Award bios worth testing on the m919?

Also have we tested the 1024k cache capable Shuttle HOT-433?

Chadti99: I found the HOT-433 1024K versions flakey. I'm pretty sure max was 60 MHz for the FSB.

Could you attach the Award BIOS for the M919?

pshipkov wrote on 2022-08-25, 06:09:

@feipoa
To present day i play Q1 at 320x200, otherwise it feels awkward to me.
Higher resolutions only emphasize the lack of visual detail.

I use a Voodoo2 and Voodoo3 to play GLQuake, so I don't notice any lack of detail.

“Could you attach the Award BIOS for the M919?”

Found it here:
http://th2chips.freeservers.com/syl8884/dwnld.html

Breaks Voodoo4 support but we have some interesting options to play with. It would appear this bios won’t force the pci divider , which is nice.

Edit: confirmed no forced pci divider! Unfortunately dark screen with Voodoo4 inserted. Also confirmed similar performance, still hitting 21.3 in dosbench Quake but with a Riva128 PCI.

Edit2: It also appears to fix the 64MB memory issue with Quake!

Note: the bios settings pictured are not the ones I settled on.

pshipkov wrote on 2022-08-25, 06:09:

Errr, left behind by who exactly ? Or do you mean the large crowd of 3, doing casual retro facts finding and posting about it in […]
Show full quote

maxtherabbit wrote on 2022-08-23, 18:36:

Should I buy more 5x86 chips to find one that runs at 180 on air? Feeling rather left behind here with my lucky star 486E only running at 3x50MHz

Errr, left behind by who exactly ?
Or do you mean the large crowd of 3, doing casual retro facts finding and posting about it in obscure forum watched by 5 more guys ?
:}

Joking aside - 480 @ 180/200 MHz is fun.
Can pass you an AWD CPU that can handle 180MHz on air at 4V, if you want.

Stable? Hell yeah. Send me a PM with details

This BIOS is the deal i guess.
Fixes annoying issues at the expense of no Voodoo4 PCI which is as rare and expensive as red snow and because of that a very minor factor.
Thanks !

Do you know if this is a M919 specific BIOS or a BIOS from another UMC 8881 board having similar PCB components? Does the Voodoo 3 work with the AWARD and AMI BIOSes and with Windows drivers?

feipoa wrote on 2022-08-25, 20:08:

Do you know if this is a M919 specific BIOS or a BIOS from another UMC 8881 board having similar PCB components? Does the Voodoo 3 work with the AWARD and AMI BIOSes and with Windows drivers?

No idea honestly if it’s specific to m919, assumed it was as it was grouped with other bios files for this mobo.

I’ve not pulled the voodoo3 for testing but it’s unlikely it will work with the award bios as the Voodoo 4 doesn’t.

I’ve not tried installing Windows on this mobo just yet but hopefully I can get to it soon. And I’ll try it with a Voodoo3 or 4.

Voodoo3 didn't work for me on any of the UM888# motherboards.
Ok, let's see what Windoz says about this mobo+V4 then.

As for the BIOS in general it should be applicable to other UM888# boards as well. But that has to be verified.
At least for SiS 49# or 471 bioses are cross-compatible.

This award bios might not be for the m919 specifically. So far not able to get much further than the memory test with any VLB cards I’ve tried.

VLB graphics and IDE or just graphics? I've always found the VLB port on the M919 to be a bit on the flakey side.

feipoa wrote on 2022-08-25, 22:43:

VLB graphics and IDE or just graphics? I've always found the VLB port on the M919 to be a bit on the flakey side.

I’ve only tried graphics on VLB so far. I was a bit excited as the ARK fired up but the screen goes black after the IDE drive is found just after memory test.

Okay so my Promise VLB EIDE controller is booting into dos with the AWARD bios.

So you got Ark1000 and Promise EIDE Pro working together, or just the IDE controller with some PCI card.

pshipkov wrote on 2022-08-25, 23:11:

So you got Ark1000 and Promise EIDE Pro working together, or just the IDE controller with some PCI card.

With the Award bios:

ARK VLB doesn’t work past initial post. And none of the other couple VLB graphics cards so far.

Promise EIDE VLB works just fine seemingly. It’s detected, boots right into DOS.

On another note, anyone know where to source a ps2 motherboard header? Not the thing with the ribbon cable but the same thing already present on the Biostar UUD. Thinking about adding that style header to my MS-4144. I found an AT case that has the cut out for both the AT keyboard and the ps2 mouse.