What's the most optimal specs for Windows Longhorn Build 4015 (main)?

[44benjimd]

I want to have Longhorn Build 4015 to run fine but when i try to insert specific specs it goes laggy (maybe because of the 512MB of RAM or because of the 4GB of storage i gave it but i'm not really sure)
My specs:

[TC1995]

Longhorn builds are generally a pain and slow on 86box.

[44benjimd]

ok :(

[hkevinli]

What's your host CPU?

[hkevinli]

The performance will be laggy no matter how you configure your guest hardware. My Ryzen 5900X will emulate a Pentium MMX @ 200MHz comfortably but struggles to emulate, at full speed, any guest CPU beyond that. For reference, that's Windows 95/98 era hardware.

Your M1 can probably emulate a mid level Pentium II but that's still firmly in Windows 98 territory. It falls very short of what's needed for a responsive Windows Vista experience. For Windows XP and above, you're better off using a hypervisor rather than an emulator. You'll have to research hypervisors yourself as that's outside the scope of 86Box discussion.

Edit: After researching some more, it appears the single-threaded performance between M1 and Zen3 is comparable. I wouldn't be surprised if M1 is better suited for Pentium MMX emulation. https://www.anandtech.com/show/16252/mac-mini-apple-m1-tested/4

[44benjimd]

Ok, still im using 86box

Thanks for trying to help

Wait, @hkevinli Do you have any recommendations for a hypervisor that works on mac (and free)?

I can't use virtualbox, the only support for the Apple M1 chip is an unstable beta that I failed to make it work on

[hkevinli]

It looks like your M1 is ARM based, so hypervisor won't help to run x86 based Longhorn. Back to your current experiment, are you at least running a 3dfx based display driver? For example the AmigaSport driver in the screenshot?

[hkevinli]

Is your guest CPU running at 100% emulation speed? If you get drops, reduce your emulated CPU frequency. Also I suggest you use the Celeron instead of the Cyrix at least until you get your build set up and tuned correctly.

[44benjimd]

ok thanks

[hkevinli]

Also you don't need to select the 'Voodoo Graphics' checkbox. This enables voodoo1/voodoo2 emulation which isn't needed since you already chose a Voodoo3.

[44benjimd]

thanks

[hkevinli]

If you want to learn about 86Box and retro computing in general, you can practice with Windows 98 Second Edition and this build.

[General]
vid_renderer = qt_software

[Machine]
machine = 5ax
cpu_family = winchip2
cpu_speed = 250000000
cpu_multi = 3
fpu_type = internal
cpu_use_dynarec = 1
fpu_softfloat = 0
time_sync = local
mem_size = 65536

[Video]
gfxcard = trio64v2dx_pci
voodoo = 1

[Input devices]
mouse_type = ps2

[Sound]
sndcard = sb16
fm_driver = nuked

[Network]
net_01_link = 0
net_02_link = 0
net_03_link = 0
net_04_link = 0

[Storage controllers]
hdc = none
cassette_mode = load

[Hard disks]
hdd_01_parameters = 63, 15, 10672, 0, ide
hdd_01_fn = 5ax.vhd
hdd_01_speed = ramdisk
hdd_01_ide_channel = 0:0

[Floppy and CD-ROM drives]
fdd_01_type = 35_2hd
fdd_02_type = none
cdrom_01_parameters = 1, atapi
cdrom_01_ide_channel = 1:0
cdrom_01_speed = 72
cdrom_01_type = 86BOX_CD-ROM_1.00

[S3 Trio64V2/DX PCI]
memory = 4

[3Dfx Voodoo Graphics]
type = 0
framebuffer_memory = 4
texture_memory = 4
bilinear = 1
dithersub = 1
dacfilter = 0
render_threads = 2
sli = 0
recompiler = 1