The struggle with win NT.4.0 also GPU recommendation.

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GPU-Collector@reddit (OP)

It's a Haller stiletto. About 30 years old

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XFX1270@reddit

Honestly with these specs just run Windows 2000.

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GPU-Collector@reddit (OP)

Ok then. You all convinced me. 2000 it is then I'll update you in the next days.

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zodzodbert@reddit

Windows 2000 is just so much nicer than NT 4.0.

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Ok-Web-7451@reddit

Ati Mach32, the original Matrox Millenium, S3 Vision964 or Voodoo3 should work in NT, maybe early NVidia Rivas or GeForce up to 2 MX

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GPU-Collector@reddit (OP)

I have a GF2 Ti, GTS, Ultra and MX. I think I have a Mach64 but no 32 I'll have to check

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ddrfraser1@reddit

Honest question, what's the benefit/use case for a dual CPU mobo? I have picked up a couple over the years but don't know what to do with them yet.

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Depends on what you do with your PC. You need to run an OS that supports multiple processors and you need to run an application that can utilize them, many 3d design and image/video editors supported SMT very early on.

Obviously you could also run 2 heavy applications at the same time without one slowing the other down.

Games of this era couldn't use multiple CPUs and could potentially even run slightly slower, but the overall system responsiveness would still be much better.

My old pentium 3 couldn't run a game and winamp at the same time without very noticeable slowdown, on a dual pentium 3 system there is no difference if there is winamp in the background.

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istarian@reddit

I'm not entirely sure what you mean by "this era".

Some older games (especially between the trailing end of Windows 9x and early days of Windows XP) do actually have a processor affinity config option.

That setting allows you to declare up front that the operating system should always prioritize running the game on particulat physical or logical CPU.

So you can sometimes benefit from multiple CPUs even if the process or threads cannot be intentionally delegated to another processor.

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Aggropop@reddit

Late 90s early 2000s. AFAIK Quake 3 is the only game from that time that could be run multithreaded with the "r_smp 1" console command, but even then the results were mixed at best.

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istarian@reddit

There is, for sure, no way to benefit from SMP if the game is either (a) architected as a tightly integrated process that executes linearly and does everything itself or (b) packaged as a single binary executable without threading support built-in.

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istarian@reddit

Systems with a dual CPU design are the predecessor to systems using multi-core processors.

The caveat is that you need to run an operating system that support multiple processors or you end up only able to use one processor.

And if applications aren't designed to operate in such environments, they may suffer performance hits or other issues related to accessing shared resources.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Symmetric_multiprocessing

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Processor_affinity

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scsnse@reddit

There's a reason why we hardly anybody used an NT kernel OS before Win2k/XP for anything non work related- even the graphics modes were limited. You don't get backwards compatibility with DOS, early DirectX support was lesser and slower, and many games simply weren't ever ported to anything prior to Win2K. Is there any reason why you have to use it? I know you've got the dual CPU setup but at that point I would stick to 2k.

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GPU-Collector@reddit (OP)

The sound card is the main reason. There are no newer drivers for it than NT

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kent1146@reddit

Try the drivers in 2k.

If I recall, 2k let you re-use NT drivers with some limited success. If you must use an NT kernel, and must use this sound card, it's worth a try

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GPU-Collector@reddit (OP)

No but I always wanted to run something off of the ISA bus, since I have never had the opportunity to do so

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LightStruk@reddit

Running an ISA sound card in Windows NT / 2K / XP provides none of the compatibility benefits of an ISA sound card, since you have no access to real-mode DOS.

Instead, you have a sound card with no acceleration features, no spatial audio, limited max sample rate (usually 44.1 KHz at best instead of 48), and usually worse noise (sound card manufacturers got better over time).

The Sound Blaster Live! is so much fun if you like messing with audio. It's pretty cheap used. Its included software can do real-time audio processing on whatever is coming out of your applications, including pitch shifting. If you get the optional Live Drive, you get front panel volume knobs, 1/4" headphone and input jacks (great for guitars), full size MIDI ports, and digital audio I/O ports.

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East-Resist6940@reddit

Absolutely no reason to go with an ISA card for NT.

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Lord_Frick@reddit

Interest

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LightStruk@reddit

AFAIK Windows 2000 does support the non-PnP ISA SoundBlaster 16 with built-in drivers. You have to go to Add/Remove Hardware in Control Panel and tell it to search for a new device since it won't be auto detected.

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SpicyMeatballAgenda@reddit

Ditch the sound card. It's just 1 version of the Creative Sound Blaster 16. There are lots of variants, many will have drivers on Win2k.

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8funnydude@reddit

Yeah I've found that NT 4.0 is a bitch OS on anything that isn't a VM.

I tried to run it on my IBM Thinkpad 600X, which has factory NT 4.0 restore CDs. Even with SP6a, changing the volume was enough to crash and freeze up the system.

Went back to Windows 98SE on that Thinkpad and have been happy since. You should try Windows 2000.

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istarian@reddit

It's very likely that NT 4.0 and earlier are simply "picky" about the hardware they run on or "sensitive" to hardware differences that the user is often unaware of.

Most VM software does not support the emulation of all possible hardware configs, but sticks to a handful of systems that were well supported. Due to the nature of hardware emulation and hypervisors they are also aware of things about the emulated system and can tweak the environment to suit.

So it makes perfect sense that NT 4.0 would run well in a VM.

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Littlegoblin21@reddit

Any interest in Win2k? It's soooo much easier to deal with than NT. If you are set on NT, look for hardware pre win2k since after Windows 2000 came out, NT wasn't long for this world, although nvidia and ATI are probably your best bet. Have you tried your sound card on Win2k or XP for that matter? I've run into what you described before and it turned out there were built-in drivers for it in Windows (2k/XP). At the very least, if you've got another hard drive around, it might be worthwhile experimenting with just to see, as 2k would make your life so much easier than NT.

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istarian@reddit

Technically Windows 2000 and Windows XP are successive versions of Windows NT that are branded differently; they are NT 5.0 and NT 5.1 to be specific.

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Littlegoblin21@reddit

Yep, and vastly improved!

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Martli@reddit

If you want to play games I recommend dual booting 98 and either 2000 or XP. 98 will cover off DOS games, but as you know won’t utilise both CPUs.

A GeForce 4 or fx series card would be a great choice for this era.

A Soundblaster live! or Audigy 2/2zs will have the wmd drivers you need for 2000, use vxd drivers in 98.

Hope that helps

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NightmareJoker2@reddit

Try a Matrox G400 or G450. You don’t need a GeForce 5 class card unless you want to play games and use pixel shaders or dual-boot Windows Vista and have working Aero (that’s the earliest cards the LDDM driver supports). For the sound, try a PCI Soundblaster 128 or Sound Blaster Live! (any variant is fine). ISA based Sound Blaster 16 and ESS AudioDrive cards will also work, but ISA may be a bit unstable under NT 4, and cost a lot more than those PCI cards because they are sought after for DOS games.

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DiplomaticGoose@reddit

GPU reccomendation?

I'd say some sort of Matrox card, not too obscure and not too expensive these days.

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Aaron707@reddit

FX 5200 Is what I have used with NT4 before. Something similar would be good. Maybe Geforce 2MX. And you will need to do some stuff to get newer DirectX working since NT4 doesn't natively support past DX3. So OpenGL games will be mostly what it does well at. I hope you plan to dual boot Windows 2000, as that is what this combo really needs.

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GPU-Collector@reddit (OP)

Does 2000 have multi cpu support

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Plaidomatic@reddit

Yeah.

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ZarK-eh@reddit

And XP and Vista and... Not win95/98/ME or DOS

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CyberTacoX@reddit

Might be worth asking in r/WindowsNT , too.

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GPU-Collector@reddit (OP)

Thanks for pointing that out

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