Intel 486 DX2-66 is generally considered the affordable performance sweetspot since 1993. It's adequate enough for games up to most of the 1996'ers. I said most, because there's some clear exceptions starting with Quake and the titles that were technically influenced afterward... though you can still game on some of the few adventure games of the following year.

The 486-66 was the gaming sweet spot for a long time and probably one of the most produced machines also.

Well, I didn't mean which 486 constituted the sweet spot of the 486 line, though your responses confirmed what I'd been thinking on that point.

I meant what specific games benefit most from running on a 486 vs a slower 386 or anything that came after the 486 era. Are there any games too fast for a 386 but too slow for a pentium or beyond?

That's what setting up the turbo button is for 😀

For me the sweet spot is on 100 mhz.. I know the differents between 66mhz and 100mhz isnt huge.
But as two examples:

Doom games run more smoothly on the 100mhz (Yes it can run on 66mhz, but it would not run very smooth on screen)
GTA1 needs minimal an DX4 100mhz cpu.. to run.
And there should more games that needs at least an 100Mhz cpu so it could run the game..

How would warcraft 2 fare on a DX2-66? I'd imagine on the larger maps it would struggle.

Robin4 wrote:

For me the sweet spot is on 100 mhz.. I know the differents between 66mhz and 100mhz isnt huge. But as two examples: […]
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For me the sweet spot is on 100 mhz.. I know the differents between 66mhz and 100mhz isnt huge.
But as two examples:

Doom games run more smoothly on the 100mhz (Yes it can run on 66mhz, but it would not run very smooth on screen)
GTA1 needs minimal an DX4 100mhz cpu.. to run.
And there should more games that needs at least an 100Mhz cpu so it could run the game..

Yes...but in terms of this topic, It doesn't matter if DOOM or GTA1 runs better on a 486/100, you might as well use a Pentium class machine to run Doom and GTA1.

I think the original question still begs for an answer on whether there are games that run better on a 486/66 over a faster Pentium system or a slower 386 system.

For me there are some Flight simulators that I have played that run too slow on a 386, and a little too fast on a Pentium. One example for me is Falcon 3.0.

When I ran it on a 386 it was a bit choppy at times, but when I ran it on a Pentium, it was ok for the most part, except sometimes it felt like it was running too fast (i.e. when you would roll, I think the f-16 would roll too quickly and it didn't feel smooth)...but when I ran it on a 486/66, I had a nice balance of smoothness and speed.

The big advantage I find with a lot of games that I would rather run on a 486/66 (that still run fine on a 386) is when it comes to cutscene and start/introduction screen loading times. Most of these types of games still run smooth on a 486/66, but you get the added benefit of intro/cutscene screens running faster...one example of this is World of Xeen.

I do like playing XWIng and Tie Fighter on a 486/66 over a pentium or a 386 as well (especially a 386 because it's too slow on that)...Some of the slower Pentiums are not too fast for games like Xwing and Tie fighter, but I think some of the faster Pentiums make everything run a little too fast on these games.

dirkmirk wrote:

How would warcraft 2 fare on a DX2-66? I'd imagine on the larger maps it would struggle.

again, who cares? Just run Warcraft 2 on a faster Pentium...it runs too slow on a 486/66.

That was exactly the kind of thing I was looking for.

I was digging through my parts and it turns out I have 2 DX2/66s, so I'm set on that end.

I look forward to seeing what you build around your 486 DX2/66 CPU.

I faced the same dilemma as you for a while, thinking about if it was worth building a 486/66 system...I finally did, and it was worth it even though I had a 386 and a P166MMX system. If you have the space, I say just go for it because, as I mentioned, I did find some games to benefit from being faster than a 386 and slower than a Pentium. Another added benefit is that I found that a 486/66 system is a good one to experiment with different sound cards with. If you build a 386 with the sound cards you want (ideally the ones that Mau1wurf1977 has in his Time Machine) and if it works good for all older DOS games, I wouldn't mess with that...I would leave it be and just use your 486/66 system to try different sound cards if you want...that way your 386 will always be there to play most of your DOS games adn the 486/66 will be there to allow you to play some games faster and with different sound card combinations....it's just a suggestion...look forward to seeing a post of your 486/66 build if you decide to go that route.

Warcraft II DOS is one of those games that lie outside the 486DX2/66 sweet spot, but the scrolling becomes too fast when you run it in a Pentium II. Fortunately, Blizzard released the battle.net edition that seems to solve that problem, provided you are willing to run Windows 95/98.

I have a full boxed warcraft 1 and 2 here so i can look the system requirements.

Warcraft 1 system requirements:

VGA graphics - DOS 5.0 or Higher
4MB of Ram and harddrive required
20mhz 386 or faster Mouse required
General MIDI, Sound blaster, ADLIB
Soundblaster PRO, Pro Audio Spectrum or
Compatible Required for digitized speech
and sound effects.

Warcraft II

MS-DOS Win95, Win 3.11
Super VGA graphics, Dos 5.0 or higher
33Mhz 486 or faster, 8MB ram Hard drive
CD-Rom drive (double speed recommend)
Supports redbook audio, general MIDI,
Soundblasterm ADlib, Pro audio spectrum, Gravis
And compatibles.

I preferred the AMD DX2-80 over the DX2-66 back in the day. It had that little extra "oomph" for more demanding games without forcing you to mortgage your eldest child to buy it.