jasa1063
Experienced Member
I was looking into building a Cyrix 5x86 system, but then decided on a Cyrix MediaGX system since this has a Cyrix 5x86 core. I thought this would be a much more interesting build. The biggest obstacle is finding a motherboard. I saw a video on this topic on the CPU Galaxy YouTube channel and he had a link to a seller on eBay. I ordered a motherboard, CPU and accessories. Here are the system specs:
ECS P5GX-M motherboard
Geode GXm-266P CPU @2.9v overclocked to 300MHz (Same as a MediaGX just sold by National Semiconductor after buying Cyrix)
256MB (2x128MB) PC100 SDRAM
3Com Etherlink III network card
TopView ET6000 4MB video card
8GB CompactFlash with a CF to IDE adapter
1.44MB 3.5" floppy drive
16x DVD
Windows 98 SE with Unofficial Service Pack 3
I opted not to use the onboard video as this made overclocking easier and tighter memory timings. I did end up using the onboard SB16 audio. The next issue to resolve was finding a way to tweak the MediaGX register settings. Thanks to this post on vogons.org, I was able figure out how to use CTCHIP34 to tweak the MediaGX CPU including enabling Branch Prediciton. I already posted some results in that thread.
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=45756&p=469004&hilit=mediagx register#p469004
I have CTCHIP34 in my AUTOEXEC.BAT with the following parameters:
CTCHIP34 cx586 /20:=7
CTCHIP34 cx586 /0e8:=0f8
I have no stability issues, Here the results of some DOS benchmarks.
No tweaks applied:
Speedsys v4.78 visual results
3DBench 1.0c - 156.6 FPS
Chris's 3D Benchmark - 320x200 - 124.3 FPS
Chris's 3D Benchmark - 640x480 - 35.7 FPS
PC Player - 320x200 - 48.7 FPS
PC Player - 640x480 - 19.1 FPS
Doom - Max Details - 86.54 FPS
Quake - 320x200 - 35.2 FPS
Quake - 640x480 - 13.7 FPS
Norton SI 8.0 = 793.9
Topbench 40a - 686
SpeedSys 4.78 CPU Performance Index - 151.09
Tweaks applied:
Speedsys v4.78 visual results
3DBench 1.0c - 162.3 FPS
Chris's 3D Benchmark - 320x200 - 128.9 FPS
Chris's 3D Benchmark - 640x480 - 35.7 FPS
PC Player - 320x200 - 50.2 FPS
PC Player - 640x480 - 19.7 FPS
Doom - Max Details - 89.02 FPS
Quake - 320x200 - 39.8 FPS
Quake - 640x480 - 15.6 FPS
Norton SI 8.0 - 1020.6
Topbench 40a - 690
SpeedSys 4.78 CPU Peformance Index - 179.82
Overall this has been a fun build. It's basically like having a 486 system on steroids
Computer front view
Windows 98 SE with Cpu-Z info
ECS P5GX-M motherboard
Geode GXm-266P CPU @2.9v overclocked to 300MHz (Same as a MediaGX just sold by National Semiconductor after buying Cyrix)
256MB (2x128MB) PC100 SDRAM
3Com Etherlink III network card
TopView ET6000 4MB video card
8GB CompactFlash with a CF to IDE adapter
1.44MB 3.5" floppy drive
16x DVD
Windows 98 SE with Unofficial Service Pack 3
I opted not to use the onboard video as this made overclocking easier and tighter memory timings. I did end up using the onboard SB16 audio. The next issue to resolve was finding a way to tweak the MediaGX register settings. Thanks to this post on vogons.org, I was able figure out how to use CTCHIP34 to tweak the MediaGX CPU including enabling Branch Prediciton. I already posted some results in that thread.
https://www.vogons.org/viewtopic.php?f=46&t=45756&p=469004&hilit=mediagx register#p469004
I have CTCHIP34 in my AUTOEXEC.BAT with the following parameters:
CTCHIP34 cx586 /20:=7
CTCHIP34 cx586 /0e8:=0f8
I have no stability issues, Here the results of some DOS benchmarks.
No tweaks applied:
Speedsys v4.78 visual results
3DBench 1.0c - 156.6 FPS
Chris's 3D Benchmark - 320x200 - 124.3 FPS
Chris's 3D Benchmark - 640x480 - 35.7 FPS
PC Player - 320x200 - 48.7 FPS
PC Player - 640x480 - 19.1 FPS
Doom - Max Details - 86.54 FPS
Quake - 320x200 - 35.2 FPS
Quake - 640x480 - 13.7 FPS
Norton SI 8.0 = 793.9
Topbench 40a - 686
SpeedSys 4.78 CPU Performance Index - 151.09
Tweaks applied:
Speedsys v4.78 visual results
3DBench 1.0c - 162.3 FPS
Chris's 3D Benchmark - 320x200 - 128.9 FPS
Chris's 3D Benchmark - 640x480 - 35.7 FPS
PC Player - 320x200 - 50.2 FPS
PC Player - 640x480 - 19.7 FPS
Doom - Max Details - 89.02 FPS
Quake - 320x200 - 39.8 FPS
Quake - 640x480 - 15.6 FPS
Norton SI 8.0 - 1020.6
Topbench 40a - 690
SpeedSys 4.78 CPU Peformance Index - 179.82
Overall this has been a fun build. It's basically like having a 486 system on steroids
Computer front view