• Please review our updated Terms and Rules here

Windows 95, Slow Video Performance

S

strra

Member
Joined
Aug 4, 2015
Messages
36
Location
Michigan
Hello!
I'm working on setting up a PC for some DOS gaming and pulled out an old Acer.
I'd like to avoid reinstalling Windows 95 (drivers....) so I was hoping someone could assist me with the video performance of this.
All drivers are installed and I've added a Voodoo 2 card, however the video performance within Windows 95 is incredibly sluggish, having to redraw the screen strip by strip.
Also I've increased the Color palette to 16bit, but it doesn't seem to have taken... everything is still flat and ugly as if it in 256 color mode.
Any ideas/tips?
Thanks!
-Randy
 
Could you describe the hardware in more detail i.e. which Acer model, CPU and memory? Also, what graphics card are you pairing with the Voodoo 2? At least, I think the Voodoo 2 needed to be paired with a fast VGA card to get acceptable performance. Trying to use the Voodoo 2 with integrated video gets very poor results.
 
krebizfan said:
Could you describe the hardware in more detail i.e. which Acer model, CPU and memory? Also, what graphics card are you pairing with the Voodoo 2? At least, I think the Voodoo 2 needed to be paired with a fast VGA card to get acceptable performance. Trying to use the Voodoo 2 with integrated video gets very poor results.
Click to expand...

Hey, thanks for the response!
It's an Acer 500SB with a Pentium 100 and 32MB RAM.
It is, indeed, using the integrated graphics. I was getting the same sluggish results with only the integrated graphics. I imagine that the integrated graphics aren't the best but that shouldn't really explain the level of sluggishness I'm seeing here.
 
Check the graphics performance settings in the system control panel. It could be that hardware acceleration is turned down. Since you can get 256 color and 16-bit color modes, I would assume you have the correct video driver installed. Although if this was one provided with Windows, hunting down a chipset-manufacturer's driver might improve things.
 
SomeGuy said:
Check the graphics performance settings in the system control panel. It could be that hardware acceleration is turned down. Since you can get 256 color and 16-bit color modes, I would assume you have the correct video driver installed. Although if this was one provided with Windows, hunting down a chipset-manufacturer's driver might improve things.
Click to expand...

I just checked the performance settings and they were all the way up... just as a test, I turned it all the way down and rebooted... the computer acted exactly the same as with it all the way up..:confused:
 
This this: Pull the Voodoo out of the system and see what happens. If you are still sluggish it might be a chipset driver issue with with the on-board video. Next, disable the on-board (integrated) video in the PC BIOS and try it with just the Voodoo. I don't think you will be able to use the Voodoo with the on-board video. I suspect that there's no where to cable the Voodoo to the the motherboard.
 
Agent Orange said:
This this: Pull the Voodoo out of the system and see what happens. If you are still sluggish it might be a chipset driver issue with with the on-board video. Next, disable the on-board (integrated) video in the PC BIOS and try it with just the Voodoo. I don't think you will be able to use the Voodoo with the on-board video. I suspect that there's no where to cable the Voodoo to the the motherboard.
Click to expand...

Hi!
The sluggishness came before I added the Voodoo. I was hoping it would help but no dice. I've just added a Diamond Stealth 64 to put in tandem with the Voodoo and I am still having the same results..
 
An update: When I run a game, I get an error that it requires SVGA with 256 Color. With the combination I have, I feel it should handle SVGA. Am I missing something?
 
Sounds like the drivers for your onboard video are not installed properly, and Windows falls back to its default (S)VGA driver, which is indeed very slow, and not very capable.
In some cases you need to install your chipset drivers first, because the video card is connected to the AGP interface, which is not supported by the default Windows drivers.
 
at this moment, i'm not using the onboard video anymore and i'm still seeing crummy performance. I will see if I can find the chipset drivers (good luck to me!) and try to reinstall them.
 
If you go in to control panel -> display properties -> setting and then click the advanced button, what adapter/display information does it show?
 
SomeGuy said:
If you go in to control panel -> display properties -> setting and then click the advanced button, what adapter/display information does it show?
Click to expand...

Here's what is shown (I apologize for the bad image quality. Temporary phone!):
IMG_20151104_111054.jpg
IMG_20151104_111120.jpg
 
strra said:
Here's what is shown (I apologize for the bad image quality. Temporary phone!):
attachment.php

attachment.php
Click to expand...

I know you're frustrated. Check and make sure that your resolution is not exceeding your monitor specs. For example, I use an old 15" Dell that tops out at 1024 x 760.
 
Agent Orange said:
I know you're frustrated. Check and make sure that your resolution is not exceeding your monitor specs. For example, I use an old 15" Dell that tops out at 1024 x 760.
Click to expand...

I'm not frustrated per se. I'm probably going to be doing mainly DOS gaming on it anyway. Just curious and it's become personal! ha...
Anyway, Right now I have the computer on a newer (relatively speaking) Lenovo flat panel 1280x1024 monitor. At home it's on an older CRT but I had that running at 1024x768 with 16 bit color on another computer. (Which I'm unfortunately replacing with this because the CMOS battery died and is soldered to the motherboard)
 
Chuck(G) said:
1 MB isn't much video memory for 1280x1024--I'm surprised that it's even possible.
Click to expand...

to be honest, i haven't even tried at that resolution.. partly because it bumps it down to 256 color mode. right now it's at 800x600.
 
Well, I'd expect those higher resolutions to be problematic. I vaguely recall an early S3 integrated graphics chip (on some 486 or early Pentium IBM machine) that was capable of displaying 24-bit color, but in that mode it was insanely unusably slow. Switching to 16-bit color and it was fine.

The point is, in some of these higher resolution graphics modes they may disable various acceleration features either due to limited memory or because the drivers didn't take these extremely high resolutions in to consideration yet.

Another thing you might try is running the Landmark Speed.com speed test. I recall one machine (possibly the same one as above) who's integrated chipset only scored about the same as an ISA video card. (low thousands of CPS, I think).

Also, you don't really say how slow is "Slow". A P100 with 32MB of ram is not going to be zippy. Really for Voodoo games of that era you are probably going to want around a P166-233. Also, with 32MB of ram or less, you will probably see a visible speed increase if you allocate a permanent swap file.
 
SomeGuy said:
Well, I'd expect those higher resolutions to be problematic. I vaguely recall an early S3 integrated graphics chip (on some 486 or early Pentium IBM machine) that was capable of displaying 24-bit color, but in that mode it was insanely unusably slow. Switching to 16-bit color and it was fine.

The point is, in some of these higher resolution graphics modes they may disable various acceleration features either due to limited memory or because the drivers didn't take these extremely high resolutions in to consideration yet.

Another thing you might try is running the Landmark Speed.com speed test. I recall one machine (possibly the same one as above) who's integrated chipset only scored about the same as an ISA video card. (low thousands of CPS, I think).

Also, you don't really say how slow is "Slow". A P100 with 32MB of ram is not going to be zippy. Really for Voodoo games of that era you are probably going to want around a P166-233. Also, with 32MB of ram or less, you will probably see a visible speed increase if you allocate a permanent swap file.
Click to expand...

Forgive my terminology. The computer is by no means "slow"... the problem is just video... everything loads in strips and the screen repaints for every movement (plus, everything looks like it's in 256 color mode even when set to 16bit). This is all at 800x600.
 
strra said:
Forgive my terminology. The computer is by no means "slow"... the problem is just video... everything loads in strips and the screen repaints for every movement (plus, everything looks like it's in 256 color mode even when set to 16bit). This is all at 800x600.
Click to expand...

Check to make sure the display is not set in an interlaced mode.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top