What retro things have you done today?

Have you installed an updated DirectX? I just use the latest personally (9.0c Dec 2006), but I've seen others recommend 7.0a also. Perhaps try both versions and see if that has any effect.
 
paradigm said:
Nah, I’m ok for RAM, I’ve got a bucketload in the loft, I just have to find it.

You are getting more CPU marks at 401MHz than I’m getting at 500! What RAM are you running, and what GPU?

I could swap in my K6-2 350 I guess.
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I had to run at 640x480 because of my videocard! So that might bother it??

I was using 2x32mb EDO Simms but switch to a single stick of sdram 128mb as one of the simm slots is a little bit tired and access is under 2 ide cables and a floppy cable..

I am using an SIS 6326 8mb as its my "best" pci option, all my other pci cards are older. or way too modern. It is a terrible card! Looking at tnt2 on ebay to replace it as something better matched.
 
I have a Vanta TNT2 PCI you could have for free (Creative CT6950), only thing is the VGA connector could do with resoldering or replacing as some of the joints are dry (bought a replacement connector but still yet to buy a soldering setup!). I also had it freeze during 3dmark 99, but I'm not sure if that was due to a iffy motherboard or the fact it's quite a hot running card that could do with better cooling. Basically it may be faulty, but hey if you want it just say.
 
hohum said:
I have a Vanta TNT2 PCI you could have for free (Creative CT6950), only thing is the VGA connector could do with resoldering or replacing as some of the joints are dry (bought a replacement connector but still yet to buy a soldering setup!). I also had it freeze during 3dmark 99, but I'm not sure if that was due to a iffy motherboard or the fact it's quite a hot running card that could do with better cooling. Basically it may be faulty, but hey if you want it just say.
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I wouldnt say no to that mate thats a perfect fit! Is there anything you are looking out for? Be happier to trade than take freebies :)
 
Not really bud but thanks :) Quite happy to just let it go given that I don't use it (any stuff I build uses AGP for graphics now), plus as I say it could be faulty. Trust me your details and I'll post it sometime soon.
 
Cheers mate have pinged you a message!

Last night after the talks of poor performance I decided to look into my system a bit more. There is also a very similar thread up on vogons which gave me a couple of tips. Firstly I enabled DMA mode which does seem to make the pc feel snappier. The box wouldnt stay ticked in windows so I checked the bios and changed it from auto to the highest udma mode it had. Now it stays ticked.

Secondly I changed the cas from 3 to 2 and it is stable but no real difference.

I then thought I would try my luck with 75mhz fsb for 450mhz. It posted fine and started to load windows but did not make it. After that it would not post so back to 66mhz.

Also thought I would run 3dmark on the sis just for fun. The card has no heatsink or fans but actually started to make wierd noises!!





That card is so bad. it has weird lines in certain resolutions (in dos) and also refuses to load quake at all (monitor says out of range but this works fine on my S3virge)

I also tried both my Yamaha soundcards as they are supposedly better than the vibra16 but the noise on them both is unbearable. And if you disable the amplifcation then they are way too quiet.
 
@LewisRaz I believe the "similar" thread on Vogons is mine!

I've got a few more hundred points on both CPU can GPU in 3DMark99 MAX, but it's still not right. Going to reinstall the OS now and see if I've simply made a hash of the Voodoo 3 Drivers.
 
@hohum Your Voodoo 3 arrived. I've currently got it looping 3DMark99 MAX and so far I've not had any issues (well one, your Voodoo 3 causes my K6-III to not boot at 500MHz, but it's fine at stock 450MHz), it's around an hour in and still running just fine if a touch warm (the stock heatsink is terrible).

One thing it has proven though is that my Voodoo 3 isn't physically at fault, as the performance has remained around the same between cards.
 
I did some benchmarks on my K6-III+ for reference. This is with the CPU clocked at 500mhz on a Asus P5A-B motherboard 128mb PC100 Ram. Voodoo 3 3000 AGP at stock clocks but AmigaMerlin Drivers

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Hmm, my K6-III 450 (running at 500MHz) isn't quite that high on dhrystone (1287 MIPS), but is about right on whetstone (599 MFLOPS), however I think we're running different versions of SiSoft Sandra (I'm on 2001, I get different comparison systems).

3DMark99 is showing me 2337 3DMarks and 5721 CPU 3DMarks.

This is now on a freshly reinstalled system, reduced to 128MB (single stick), and with all advised BIOS tweaks made, so I'm stumped.
 
paradigm said:
@hohum Your Voodoo 3 arrived. I've currently got it looping 3DMark99 MAX and so far I've not had any issues (well one, your Voodoo 3 causes my K6-III to not boot at 500MHz, but it's fine at stock 450MHz), it's around an hour in and still running just fine if a touch warm (the stock heatsink is terrible).

One thing it has proven though is that my Voodoo 3 isn't physically at fault, as the performance has remained around the same between cards.
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Ah right good to hear, although I don't think it's necessarily load-related given that both times it's dropped VGA signal whilst more or less idle - once on the desktop, and once whilst running memtest outside of Windows. This is why I was more suspicious about the cap near the VRM rather than the GPU core itself. Still, interested to hear how you get on! :)
 
I’m starting to think that this DFI P5BV3+ board is simply a bit weak.

I swapped in my K6-2 333AFR which would happily run at 95x4.5 (428MHz) so not a million miles from my K6-3 at stock (450MHz) and the performance was woeful. About half the FPS on 3DMark99 MAX and a poor experience overall. This would indicate that the K6-3 is working correctly, giving me better performance clock:clock and really scaling the Voodoo 3 up.

Not willing to throw more money at SS7 as I’ve got plenty of Slot1 and Socket 370 to be getting on with. Voodoo 3 might end up getting paired with a PIII 650 in my 440BX Slot 1 board.

Edit: Though at some point this week my Geforce 2 PRO will arrive, and that’ll need a home (or I guess it can live in the ever growing pile of AGP cards from Geforce 4 to Geforce 7900GS :rolleyes:)
 
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paradigm said:
I’m starting to think that this DFI P5BV3+ board is simply a bit weak.

I swapped in my K6-2 333AFR which would happily run at 95x4.5 (428MHz) so not a million miles from my K6-3 at stock (450MHz) and the performance was woeful. About half the FPS on 3DMark99 MAX and a poor experience overall. This would indicate that the K6-3 is working correctly, giving me better performance clock:clock and really scaling the Voodoo 3 up.

Not willing to throw more money at SS7 as I’ve got plenty of Slot1 and Socket 370 to be getting on with. Voodoo 3 might end up getting paired with a PIII 650 in my 440BX Slot 1 board.

Edit: Though at some point this week my Geforce 2 PRO will arrive, and that’ll need a home (or I guess it can live in the ever growing pile of AGP cards from Geforce 4 to Geforce 7900GS :rolleyes:)
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That V3 and P3 sound like a good (better) pairing to be honest, performance wise. At least with Slot 1 you can use ATX PSUs, cases...

Luckily my AT PSU didn't kill my 386 board I was trying it with at the time. TBH I can't see any popped caps (and no magic smoke) when it went so maybe... it was something else?

I am now however in need of a basic ISA soundcard as my SB 2.0 needs a -5v rail which my modern PSU can't provide.

This evening I will be installing Windows 3.1 on this 386 PC. Never used 3.1 before, not sure what to expect. Do I need video drivers?
 
Spotted two parcels delivered by mistake at my door, and delivered at the correct street. WITHOUT GOING ON TWEETER and having a meltdown about it. Quite old school, sorting some small problem without using #.
 
almoststew1990 said:
That V3 and P3 sound like a good (better) pairing to be honest, performance wise. At least with Slot 1 you can use ATX PSUs, cases...

Luckily my AT PSU didn't kill my 386 board I was trying it with at the time. TBH I can't see any popped caps (and no magic smoke) when it went so maybe... it was something else?

I am now however in need of a basic ISA soundcard as my SB 2.0 needs a -5v rail which my modern PSU can't provide.

This evening I will be installing Windows 3.1 on this 386 PC. Never used 3.1 before, not sure what to expect. Do I need video drivers?
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From my use windows 3.1 has always had basic drivers for the cards ive used.
good news for the 386 board!
retrospectre on youtube has done some fairly in depth repairs on PSUs if you have time to watch some of those. I think they were in his 286 repair series. Quite daunting messing around inside a PSU but he makes it look fairly easy.
 
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