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Crimson skies performance woes, Duron and KT133A.

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First post, by Dan386DX

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Hi

TLDR: Is this issue more likely the Duron's small cache, the chipset, or just normal for this engine?

Trying to play Crimson Skies (2000) on my recently acquired system.

Performance is...suboptimal. Jerky, frame drops everywhere regardless of resolution and detail settings. Not the GPU, as happens in both Software and D3D. These specs should be overkill:

Duron 1000MHz (Morgan)
MX 420 64MB
512MB SDRAM 133, CL2
16GB SSD via IDE bridge
MS-6340v3 (KT133A)
Windows 98SE (also tried XP)

Have gone to great lengths to set up the KT133A

- VIA Latency Patch installed
- VIA Interleave Patch installed
- 4in1 driver pack installed; tried various versions as recommended in an old thread
- Tried system.ini tweaks
- Tried both Windows 98SE and XP
- Tried various GeForce driver versions, from the lighter 2x.xx through to the commonly recommended 45.23
- Tried powerstrip to reduce GPU latency
- Forced VSYNC always on @ 60Hz
- Experimented with DRAM speeds and CL
- Tried dozens of different BIOS tweaks, ACPI off, Fast Read/Writes off, shut off unused peripherals...nothing helps!

I'm not even that bothered about playing the game, more that I'm annoyed I can't fix it.

So is the wall here my specs, or just the fact it's a VIA chipset? KT133A is actually one of the better ones by VIA standards. Any thoughts?

Thank you.

90s PC: IBM 6x86 120Mhz. 128MB/6GB. ATI Rage Pro 3D.
Boring modern PC: R9 3900X, RX 7800XT. 32GB/1TB.
Fixer upper project: NEC Powermate 486SX/25. 16MB/400MB.

Reply 1 of 5, by marxveix

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I use via 405b with turbo mode with my kt133 board and i use it with my mvp3 as well.

Re: ATi RagePro drivers and software
download/file.php?id=230177

Best ATi Rage3 drivers for 3DCIF / Direct3D / OpenGL / DVD : ATi RagePro drivers and software
30+MiniGL / OpenGL Win 9x dll files for all ATi Rage3 cards : Re: ATi RagePro OpenGL files

Reply 2 of 5, by Dan386DX

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marxveix wrote on 2025-11-20, 22:30:

I use via 405b with turbo mode with my kt133 board and i use it with my mvp3 as well.

Re: ATi RagePro drivers and software
download/file.php?id=230177

Appreciate the tip- I'll try it out!

90s PC: IBM 6x86 120Mhz. 128MB/6GB. ATI Rage Pro 3D.
Boring modern PC: R9 3900X, RX 7800XT. 32GB/1TB.
Fixer upper project: NEC Powermate 486SX/25. 16MB/400MB.

Reply 3 of 5, by Dan386DX

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Update: KT133A probably not the culprit, other specs just not good enough.

After much BIOS fine tuning and the chipset tweaks, the problem is almost certainly a combination of the Duron's small cache being overwhelmed combined with the MX 420's lack of T&L.

A Athlon 1000MHz significantly smooths out performance, and I'll be dropping in a Radeon 9000 Pro this week for further testing.

90s PC: IBM 6x86 120Mhz. 128MB/6GB. ATI Rage Pro 3D.
Boring modern PC: R9 3900X, RX 7800XT. 32GB/1TB.
Fixer upper project: NEC Powermate 486SX/25. 16MB/400MB.

Reply 4 of 5, by Matth79

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I thought a MX420 had T&L, it's basically a Geforce 2 and even the 2MX had full DX7 T&L
For the Duron, if the multiplier was unlocked, I'd be lowering the multiplier and putting the FSB to 266 (or 133, depending on how you call it), to get the PC133 RAM at full speed - or seeing if it could get away with a 33% overclock, maybe a touch of voltage needed

Reply 5 of 5, by Dan386DX

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Matth79 wrote on 2025-11-23, 23:10:

I thought a MX420 had T&L, it's basically a Geforce 2 and even the 2MX had full DX7 T&L
For the Duron, if the multiplier was unlocked, I'd be lowering the multiplier and putting the FSB to 266 (or 133, depending on how you call it), to get the PC133 RAM at full speed - or seeing if it could get away with a 33% overclock, maybe a touch of voltage needed

Thanks for the message.

I thought that too, but from what I can find online: MX 440 and 460 got T&L but 420 did not sadly. EDIT: I'm wrong and you're right.

The multi on my Morgan Duron is locked, it will run with the 33% OC though; and the performance improvement is tangible, but surprisingly still worse in Crimson Skies and Deus Ex than the 1000MHz Thunderbird Athlon - I can only assume that's because of the big cache on the Athlon?

90s PC: IBM 6x86 120Mhz. 128MB/6GB. ATI Rage Pro 3D.
Boring modern PC: R9 3900X, RX 7800XT. 32GB/1TB.
Fixer upper project: NEC Powermate 486SX/25. 16MB/400MB.

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