Without using money to solve the problem, I might suggest:

Dropping down to 512x384 resolution, if possible - it still looks good, in my opinion.

Here's a Half-Life 2 3Dnow! patch; might be worth a shot:
https://web.archive.org/web/20001208080800/ht … w.net/files.htm (credit akula65 [SOLVED] Where could I download the unofficial 3Dnow! patch for half life ?)

Console commands to tweak graphics (such as gl_picmap):
https://www.gamerconfig.eu/commands/half-life/

You really can't do a whole lot. You are mostly CPU limited with Half-Life, it just doesn't run that well on the K6 chips. At the time that level of performance was more than acceptable though, I had a friend who played through the game on the software renderer with an MMX 166 !

Thanks guys. The 3DNow! idea was one worth exploring. The suggested patch did not work for me, the game would hang as soon as I tried to load anything (hazard course, new/saved game, multiplayer). But I tracked down a couple of other options over here - http://falconfly.3dfx.pl/minigl.htm. Changing from the default (as of 1.1.1.0 at least) 1.45 MiniGL driver to 1.47 made a huge improvement, with one area going from around 10fps up to around 22, and another going from around 9 up to 16 or so. It doesn't sound like a lot but it makes it much more enjoyable to play.

I tried the Creative Labs MiniGL V1.1.2.0030 patch as well and I think it was just about the same as MiniGL 1.47.

I don't know why I'm punishing myself trying to play it on this box though. The next rung up on my ladder of old tat is an Athlon 1200 and Geforce 2 GTS machine, which would obviously do a much better job. But there's just something neat about playing through the game again on _exactly_ the same spec system as I first did all those years ago 🥲

The 500 is highly bottlenecked by the 100 MHz platform and motherboard cache. I would try to run it at 112 MHz FSB with 4.5x multiplier. And try to optimize the RAM timings as much as possible. Run a 128-256MB PC133 CL2 on it and that makes this easier.

Banshee is an excellent choice for it.

110 or 115 MHz I believe, looking at the manual. I'm a bit wary of overclocking such old equipment though... am I right to worry about that? Not sure how the Banshee would feel about it either. The motherboard and the graphics card are quite hard to get hold of now of course.

What does your gut tell you?

Also, no one here is going to refund your equipment if it breaks down.

With that said, I blast the crap out of my stuff, well-ventilated and cooled, of course. However, I don't operate old hardware at loony speeds day in and day out - only for quick bursts. I've never had any equipment flame out on me outside of user error (crooked heatsink or I didn't save BIOS changes properly). No one is advocating for you to be a nut, either, though. I'm presenting the craziest case possible, heh.

For daily practicality, If I need something faster, I just go up a rung to the appropriate equipment. It doesn't make sense (for me) to keep the old stuff running continuously crazy, even if it's cheap.

Shadzilla wrote on 2023-11-20, 18:57:

110 or 115 MHz I believe, looking at the manual. I'm a bit wary of overclocking such old equipment though... am I right to worry about that? Not sure how the Banshee would feel about it either. The motherboard and the graphics card are quite hard to get hold of now of course.

It's probably a valid concern. But in the olden times I always tried to push the FSB up on these systems. I think as long as you leave the voltages alone there isn't much risk.

The fastest Super 7 configurations were K6-3 CPUs on 133 MHz FSB with the motherboard cache disabled. The motherboard caches usually can't take that clock rate because of the chips being specified for 100 MHz. With a K6 with on-die cache the FSB is the main performance bottleneck so the motherboard cache can just be disabled in pursuit of that. I don't remember if some chipsets had a divider to bring PCI/AGP into spec at 133...

Normally, yes as it can potentially reduce the lifespan but 110-115 MHz FSB isn't a big deal for AGP cards nor the PCI bus clock up to 37.5 MHz.

Hmm fair point on the K6-3s of course, the board does support them too. I might give it a try at some point if I feel like messing around with jumpers and DIP switches again.

But yeah my gut says, "don't f'kin break it you idiot!". I've acutally had some stability issues with this system, it's been randomly rebooting, so I'm extra wary. I just downgraded from the F7b to the F6 BIOS in the hopes that will cure it. The board has already been re-capped and I've got a big cooler blowing against the Banshee because they do get toasty. Tried all the usual things (swapped the CPU, RAM, and PSU). Keeping an eye on it again for now.

Shadzilla wrote on 2023-11-20, 19:21:

Hmm fair point on the K6-3s of course, the board does support them too. I might give it a try at some point if I feel like messing around with jumpers and DIP switches again.

But yeah my gut says, "don't f'kin break it you idiot!". I've acutally had some stability issues with this system, it's been randomly rebooting, so I'm extra wary. I just downgraded from the F7b to the F6 BIOS in the hopes that will cure it. The board has already been re-capped and I've got a big cooler blowing against the Banshee because they do get toasty. Tried all the usual things (swapped the CPU, RAM, and PSU). Keeping an eye on it again for now.

Well, I probably wouldn't recommend pricing out a K6-III/2+/3+ really. They certainly make things snappier. Windows will seem noticeably more responsive. But games are still not going to perform particularly well on there. Even a K6-3+ cranked to 600 MHz gets spanked by a P3-450, particularly for minimum frame rates.

Back in the ancient times the K6 people liked to upgrade to Duron. Going from a K6-2 450 to a Duron ~700 was an eye opener. You'd go from 20 fps in UT to locked 60 fps.

I remember the ancient times very well!! I upgraded from my K6-2 500 to an Athlon T'Bird 1000 @ 1200. That was a revelation - suddenly I could play MP3s without them skipping 😅

Even with multitexturing with a V2/V3 Half-Life will be bottlenecked by the CPU just as much. One perk with the banshee experience though is that you get GL's overbrights

that mentioned MP3 skipping issue sounds like PIO mode

Xash3D, a fan-made game engine for Half-Life is faster than the original Half-Life game engine, if your PC can run it:

https://www.moddb.com/engines/xash3d-engine

https://github.com/FWGS/xash3d-fwgs

Hope that helps,