First post, by Shponglefan
- Rank
- l33t
After creating my Ultimate Gaming Rigs list, I was curious about 1996's builds: namely the Pentium 200 and Pentium Pro 200. Back when Computer Gaming World showcased ultimate gaming rigs, the 3rd party builds all consisted of the Pentium 200. CGW broke with that trend and built their own ultimate rig around the Pentium Pro 200.
I've been curious which is the better rig from a gaming POV.
Digging through past threads, I found F2bnp's thread comparing the Pentium Pro 233 vs Pentium MMX 233 vs Pentium II 233. They had already compiled a comprehensive list of benchmarks of about 20 Windows games including Descent 3, Forsaken, Half-Life, Quake 1, 2, 3, Jedi Knight, Unreal and others.
As for DOS, I compiled my own series of benchmarks focused on DOS gaming. For testing I've compared both the 256kb and 512kb versions of the Pentium Pro 200, a Pentium 166 and Pentium 200, and Pentium MMX 200.
Test Setups
Pentium Pro 200 256kb / Pentium Pro 512kb
Supermicro P6SNE (Intel 440FX)
64 MB RAM
Matrox Mystique 4MB
Pentium 166 / Pentium 200
GA-586ATV (Intel 430VX)
64 MB RAM
Matrox Mystique 4MB
Pentium MMX 200
DFI P5BTX/L (Intel 430TX)
64 MB RAM
Matrox Mystique 4MB
Discussion & Conclusion
Having reviewed F2bnp's benchmarks, for Windows performance the Pentium Pro consistently beat out the Pentium MMX. In a number of benchmarks, the Pentium Pro was closer in performance to the Pentium II.
For DOS, the results are less favorable to the Pentium Pro. Without FastVid, the Pentium Pro lagged in most DOS benchmarks. Enabling FastVid did help level of the playing field at least for games like Doom and Terminal Velocity. Quake generally benefited the most from FastVid in 640x480. Duke Nukem 3D and Shadow Warrior showed only marginal benefit from FastVid. The Pentium 166 handily outpaced the Pentium Pro in SVGA modes.
From a gaming perspective, it really comes down to priorities. For DOS gaming and especially for Build-engine games, a regular Pentium or Pentium MMX is the better option. For Quake specifically and for future Windows gaming, the Pentium Pro was a better option. It would have been a more future-proof option as gaming shifted from DOS to Windows 9X.
Benchmarks to follow in subsequent posts.