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387sx any performance gain?

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PgrAm

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I was just looking at a couple of 386sx systems I had lying around and I noticed that their 387 slot was empty. Does anyone have a 387sx co-processor on their 386sx systems? do you notice any significant performance gain over using cpu alone? I'm looking for a boost in 3d games like Wolfenstein 3d.
 
Wolfenstein 3D and a lot of other 386/486-era 3D games don't make use of the FPU, they use fixed-point math instead. (AFAIK, Quake is the first shooter to actually use an FPU. Don't quote me on that, though.) Still, it wouldn't hurt.
 
I have a 386DX-20 machine with a 387DX-20.
Tried with and without, didn't notice any changes (besides the floating point benchmark that is lol).
I left it in because it's cool to have the socket filled. Only applications that have been especially written to make use of it will use it - normally CAD and Spreadsheet programs that do lots of floating point math - no idea if Wolf3D does or not (my guess is not but I don't actually know).
 
Most games dont. that being said, if you are a fan of sim city, it uses the fpu EXTENSIVELY. Its almost a 50% performance boost! Also some flight-sims use the fpu but apart from that, I'd only install one just to satisfy my ocd to fill all available holes.
 
luckybob said:
Most games dont. that being said, if you are a fan of sim city, it uses the fpu EXTENSIVELY. Its almost a 50% performance boost! Also some flight-sims use the fpu but apart from that, I'd only install one just to satisfy my ocd to fill all available holes.
Click to expand...

does sim city 2000 use the fpu? the game runs a little slow
 
Last edited:
PgrAm said:
does dim city 2000 use the fpu? the game runs a little slow
Click to expand...

I never tested 2000, but i know for sure classic does. I'm willing to bet that 2000 does as well. That said, 2000 is going to be slow on a 386 no matter how you slice it.
 
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