Host machine survey

[terub56]

Zup: In PCem window click in the option menu Misc->Machine, and in the Machine window select Speed history. The 100% mark corresponds to the second line from top in the graph. Start a machine with a Pentium CPU and check in the graph which is the fastest emulated CPU that never goes below 100%.

In my case, I get a 100% booting up MS-DOS 6.22 and some drops below 100% in Windows 95C with a Pentium 75 MHz.

[Araripe]

i7 4710MQ 2.5 Ghz
nVidia GTX 880M 4 GB GDDR5
16 GB RAM DDR3
128 GB SSD
1 TB HDD 5400 RPM
1 TB HDD 5400 RPM on USB 3.0

Guest (main):
Award 430VX PCI
Pentium 120
S3 ViRGE/DX
256 MB RAM
1 GB HDD for OS
2 GB HDD for Games
Windows 98 SE

[alexmocanu]

Host machine:
myria 8306 laptop (rebranded no-name toy, sold under many names)
Passively cooled Apollo Lake Celeron N3350@1.1 Ghz
4 GB RAM @800Mhz
32 GB slow EMMC
Windows 10

Fastest guest I could run (never dropped below 95% and ran at 100% for most of the time) with the poor Celeron boosting to about 1.5 Ghz:
AMI 486 Clone
486SX @16Mhz
Phoenix S3 Trio
Windows 95
no recompiler

With the recompiler turned on I was able to push the emulated cpu to 486DX@33Mhz but I couldn't install Windows (errors in SUWIN.DLL and other dll's) so I disabled it.

[RealNC]

Core i5 2500K (Sandy Brdge, 3.3-3.7GHz)
16GB RAM
Linux

[Tale]

Core i7-4770 (Haswell, 3.40-3.90 GHz)
8 GB RAM
Win10 Pro x64 (1803)

[Jimage]

Dell Latitude E6230
Core i7-3540M 3GHz
8GB RAM
Linux Mint 19, Arch Linux

Gets good performance with a high end 486 guest.

Lowest spec I'm currently planning to run it on is a spare Latitude E4200:
Core2 Duo SU9600 1.6GHz
3GB RAM
Linux Mint 19

[Mangalon]

Host machine:
myria 8306 laptop (rebranded no-name toy, sold under many names)
Passively cooled Apollo Lake Celeron N3350@1.1 Ghz

My experience with Hydromax X30 was awesome as well. I gained almost 0.5 inches within half an hour though temp.With the recompiler turned on I was able to push the emulated CPU to 486DX@33Mhz but I couldn't install Windows (errors in SUWIN.DLL and other dll's) so I disabled it.

Intel Core i7

The experience is dope...

[talbin]

Intel Core i5-10600k (6 core 4.1GHz)
Gigabyte H470M DS3H
Intel UHD Graphics 630
16GB DDR4 2133
Windows 10

Guest (Main)
[Socket 7] Shuttle HOT-557
Intel Pentium MMX 233
S3/Virge DX + Voodoo 2 4MB
128MB RAM
Windows 98 SE

[hawkuletz]

Intel Core i3-4030U (laptop) / 8GB RAM, AMD Radeon R5, running Slackware Linux

I'm usually emulating rather slow guests (386/486 at most) so I have no problems regarding performance.

[CryptidWorks]

MSI x570-A Pro Motherboard
R5 3600X
Deepcool GAMMAXX 400 CPU Cooler
RTX-2070 Windforce Edition
16GB DDR4@2400Mhz
250GB Samsung Evo 750 SSD (Boot Drive)
2x1Tb Mechincal HDD Storage (all files and the software running off of these)
Windows 10 Enterprise

I'm running Windows 98 with a Pentium MMX 233Mhz and a Voodoo 2. No issues so far unless I try to run games from an actual disc instead of an ISO. If I actually read a disc from the host drive it stutters every-time it has to load data from it.

[karr]

Core i5-4670
4GB RAM
Windows 10 Pro

[danaeckel]

Desktop:
Core i7 7700 4.2 GHZ
64 GB ram, 8GB dedicated to RamDrive
nVidia Geforce 1080
Samsung 970 Pro 1TB drive

[marquisor]

Hi there!

I run PCem on:

i7-6700k @4.0 GHz (stock)
GeForce GTX 1060 6 GB
16 GB RAM
WD Raptor SATA HDD
Win 8.1

I can use Super Socket 7 with Intel Pentium MMX 233 MHz quite well, on Win98SE I have 98% of the time at 100% Emulation speed. K6-2, 2+, III even at 400 MHz my Host CPU Setup seems to be too low? Especially if running Win98SE.
Anything between 233-400 not tested,yet.
I've setup Voodoo 1 Card, but I have to fiddle with the drivers first to have it run. NFS3 doesn't want the Windows 98 stock driver

[yochenhsieh]

Hello,
Host machine:
AMD Ryzen 5 1400 (3.2-3.4Ghz)
AMD Radeon RX 470 4GB
8GB RAM
Windows 7 SP1

The cpu I mostly used are Pentium 120. I've installed Win95, Win95B, Win95C, Win98SE with pcem v12, 13 and 15. Voodoo can be configured but the program I run doesn't need it.

[resle]

I got a Threadripper 2990WX, 32 cores / 64 threads, and so far it has been tremendously inconsistent with SMT turned on, randomly stuttering performance and the likes. Frankly, it exhibits similar behavior with other single-thread intensive software too.

With SMT turned off, performance is consistent, but it seems to be as good as my venerable Xeon W3960, a 10 years old machine.

I have to say, I am only emulating an AMD 386/40 with MSDOS 6.22 and I don't have very stressful software or games except for Ultima 7 and OMF 2047.

I doubt other host hardware and software details make a big difference for pcem (128gb ram, geforce 2080rtx, Win10)

[Araripe]

16 GB RAM DDR4
AMD Ryzen 7 3700X
NVIDIA RTX 2070
1 TB HD / 256 GB SSD

So far i have only tried 386/486s for a couple retro games. Pretty stable.

[wart]

Laptop Specs:
MACHINE: Fujitsu Lifebook A555
CPU: Intel Core i5-5200U
RAM: 4GB
GPU: Intel HD Graphics 5500

Desktop Specs:
MACHINE: Asus Crossblade Ranger
CPU: AMD A10-6800K
RAM: 8GB
GPU: AMD Radeon R9 270X

On both machines, a pentium 75 seems to be the limit for stable performance, when running DOS. Windows 9x is slow to the point of being unusable, unfortunately.

[gen_angry]

Upgraded from my trusty 6700K:

3700X w/ Gigabyte Aorus Elite
16G DDR4-3200
RTX 2060

Have not tried to see how far I can take PCem but I'd imagine not too much further than my old machine anyways.

[Xanarki]

I'm finally satisfied enough to stick with this stabilized setup. It's consistently at 100% with the vast majority of PC games, at least up until late 1998/early 1999, when they started to demand the 233mhz as a minimum requirement, which my host simply can't handle.

Host-
Intel I5 7400 3.4GHZ
8GB of RAM
Win10

Setup-
CPU: Intel OverDrive MMX 180mhz
RAM: 64MB
GPU: S3 ViRGE/DX and Voodoo2 SLI 4MB
Sound: Sound Blaster AWE32
Network: Realtek
OS: Windows 98 SE

[CryptidWorks]

Host system:

MSI x570-A Pro Motherboard
Ryzen R5-3600X (Precision Boost enabled, hitting 4.1Ghz all-core and up to 4.3Ghz single core)
Deepcool GAMMIX 400 CPU Cooler
16GB DDR4 (2400Mhz)
RTX-2070 Windforce Edition (Max boost around 2Ghz)

----------------------------------------------
Emulated Machine:

Pentium MMX 233Mhz
Voodoo 2 (4MB)
128MB of RAM
Soundblaster PCI 128
5GB HDD
Windows 98


The Pentium 233 works great and I've tested several heavier games with 3D acceleration like Quake II, The War in Heaven, and the PC Gamer Shogo demo with zero issues. 2D games like Doom 95 and the various other shareware and edutainment games I've tested work flawlessly as expected you'd see on one of the faster MMX chips. The PC Gamer Croc demo (which has broken hardware rendering on even real hardware from what I could find) shows software rendering also working fine.

The 266Mhz and 300Mhz start to show some emulation slow-down and the AMD K6/2s are borderline unusable with even loading everything at windows start-up dropping down to like 80% speed. Quake II just crashed outright when I tried to run it on one of the K6/2s and I haven't tried testing games further than that.

[xenaretos]

Hm, interesting. That description is almost matches what I get with my 2600X (although I use Voodoo1 - but it shouldn't be a big deal since it's processed in a separate thread).

Guess it doesn't quite benefit from that massive single threaded performance improvement of the 3rd gen with the way PCem is built.

[tk421]

Host Machine is a Lenovo gaming laptop:

i7 9750H (2.6 Ghz - 4.5 Ghz turbo boost, typical speed is 4 - 4.25 Ghz)
16 GB RAM
GTX 1660 Ti - 6 GB

PCem emulated machine:

Pentium 233 MMX -> Mobile Pentium 300 MMX (300 Mhz offers excellent performance too)
64mb RAM
Voodoo 2 + SLI mode option
Virge DX (+ many other high performance 2D and 2D/3D video cards)
Sound Blaster 16
2 GB Hard Drive

I have noticed that while VMWare tends to push the CPU far past 4 Ghz, PCem does not achieve the single core boost of 4.5 Ghz, but instead holds at 4 - 4.25 Ghz. I have no idea if PCem can push the 9750H past 4.3 Ghz. VMWare can easily push my CPU to 4.45 Ghz. Overall PCem performance is still top notch.

Using a joystick tends to be a challenge, but on this machine I can use v13.1 with a joystick with no problems. Other test machines worked better with a joystick using v14. For whatever reason v15 will not work with a joystick.

DOS games tend to work much better with v15. CDs and diskettes work very well with v15 too.

The performance of Windows 95/98 games is very impressive. I have yet to run X-Wing Alliance with 3D acceleration, but disabling the Voodoo allows the Virge DX to run TIE Fighter, X-Wing and X-Wing vs TIE Fighter with 3D acceleration. I have not been able to test these games with v15 because of the joystick issue.

If I were to buy a desktop PC it would probably be based on the i9 9900ks CPU. I have no idea how well PCem would run with a CPU like that running at 5 Ghz. For any laptop customer these days I would say almost any modern i7 CPU will produce excellent results with PCem. It is a great program.

[ruthan]

Core i9 9900K
32 GB DDR4 3600
Geforce 1070
Win 10 1909

Core i7 4700S
32 GB DDR3 2133
Geforce 970
Win 10 1909

Laptop:
Core i7 7700HQ
16 GB DDR4 2400
Geforce 1050TI
Win 7 64

I have others when i would make sense to run it.. For example GPD Win 2 machine.

[omarsis81]

I have others when i would make sense to run it.. For example GPD Win 2 machine.

What is the most powerful CPU that can be emulated with that GPD Win 2?

[ruthan]

What is the most powerful CPU that can be emulated with that GPD Win 2?

Unfortunatelly i cant say right now, my device need some repair, hinge died.

[CryptidWorks]

Host:

MSI X570-A Pro
R5-3600X (PBO enabled)
16GB DDR4@2400Mhz
RTX-2070 (2Ghz at max boost)
Windows 10 Pro
PCEM, the HDD image, and all ISOs running off a 7200RPM HDD

---------------------------------------
Emulated Machine:

Pentium MMX 233Mhz
128MB of memory
Voodoo 2
S3 ViRGE
Soundblaster PCI-128
5GB HDD
Windows 98SE



It's rock-solid stable with no real speed drops, even in higher-end hardware accelerated games that are pushing the emulated hardware to it's limits like Blood 2 and Shogo.

[TuKulo]

ASUS M5A78L-M USB3
AMD FX-8320E Socket AM3+ Eight-Core Processor
16 GBytes DDR3 1866 MHz
nVidia GeForce 9600 GT
Windows 10 Pro

---------------------------------------
Emulated Machine:

Machine: [Socket 7] ASUS P/I-P55T2P4
CPU: Intel Pentium 100/66 # Anything beyond 100 MHz slows down the performance notably. The faster the CPU speed I set, the more the performance drops.
Memory: 64 MB
Device: S3 ViRGE/DX
Speed: Default
Voodoo Graphics:
Voodoo type: Voodoo2
Framebuffer memory size: 4 MB
Texture memory size: 4 MB
Bilinear filtering
Render threads: 2
Device: Sound Blaster 16
HDD: [IDE] Standard IDE
FDD1: 3.5" 1.44M
CD-ROM: 24X
Drive 0 Primary Master (C:)
Type: Hard drive
Sectors: 63
Heads: 16
Cylinder: 8322
Size: 4096mb
Drive 1 Primary Slave (D:)
Type: CD-ROM
Mouse: 2-button mouse (PS/2)

Windows 98 SE

[figment]

Core i7 1.73 GHz Quad-Core
8G DDR3/1333 RAM
nVidia GeForce GT 425M

Emulated machines:

All over the map, from 8088 up to P-233 MMX and everything in between, though more often on the lower-spec end, and mostly running DOS. It all works quite nicely.

[PentiumMMX]

Host Machine
ASUS M2N68-AM Plus AM2/AM2+ Motherboard
AMD Athlon II X4 640 3.0 GHz CPU (4 Core/4 Threads)
4 GB DDR2/800 RAM
500 GB Seagate Hard Drive
2 TB Seagate Hard Drive
nVidia Geforce GTS 450
Windows 7 Ultimate SP1

Emulated Machines
8088
Phoenix XT Clone
8088 4.77 MHz
640 K RAM
CGA
Drive C: 120 MB
AdLib
MS-DOS 5.0

386
AMI 386DX Clone
Intel 386DX 33 MHz
8 MB RAM
Trident TVGA8900D
Drive C: 1 GB
Drive D: PCemCD 4x
Sound Blaster Pro v2
DOS 6.22/Windows for Workgroups 3.11


486
Award SiS 496/497
AMD Am486DX2 66 MHz
16 MB RAM
Cirrus Logic GD5429
Drive C: 8 GB
Drive D: PCemCD 24x
Sound Blaster Pro v2
Windows 95 OSR 2.1

[mforan89]

ASUS Z87A Motherboard
Intel Core i7 4770 @ 3.50GHz
16 GB DDR3/800 RAM
2 TB Western Digital Hard Drive
256 GB Samsung 840 EVO SSD
PNY Nvidia Geforce 1050 2GB
Windows 10 Home x64