DirectX 9 at 300MHz?

[pmc]

I have a 300MHz K6-2 w/128MB RAM and a 16MB PCI SiS 305 Video card. Win98SE. Classic games under MAME 0.36 run OK. Eventually I'll outfit the cab with a new Athlon mobo, but in the meantime I'm happy limping along like this.

But zsnes and other games require DirectX 8. Win98SE comes with 6.1. So the "right' thing to do in most cases would be to install 9 and be done with it. But it cannot be uninstalled and I fear that it'll tank the performance of my machine. Of course MSFT says that it'll make everything run FASTER. But it's bajillions of extra UNINSTALLABLE 3D texture mapping code that I don't really need and could kill performance on the machine in general.

What's the right move? Compromise and install 8? Anyone with experience with 7, 8, or 9 on an old platform and lame video card? I can't find much in qualitative commentary on the net (which seems crazy).

- Patrick

[paigeoliver]

Go ahead and install 8. You will be fine. I am pretty sure I installed 8 or 9 on my recent P2 350, and I have not had any problems.

Oh, and you can always uninstall it the hard way, by formatting and reinstalling.

Also, there are DOS or older directX versions of most emulators available, so you could always just use them. The emulators I used 4 years ago worked great then, I don't see why they wouldn't work great now.

[Howard_Casto]

For the record directx is simply an instuction subset for directx capable videocards(and as a side effect software rendring for lesser cards).  As long as it's 98 or above, system resources are irrelevant.  

[pmc]

For the record directx is simply an instuction subset for directx capable videocards(and as a side effect software rendring for lesser cards).  As long as it's 98 or above, system resources are irrelevant.  

I realize that, but since I have a "lesser" card, I had assumed that emulators that use DirectX will then be chewing on cycles harder than if it was not present. Net result is a slower box with better graphics. My other assumption was that lots of extra code may be loaded into memory and eating up RAM and swap that I really need.

I think some of the games out there use DirectX for sound and game controls and all that jazz and don't depend on all the graphics code that much.

In the end, I'm with you. I'll load up 8 and when it seems like I need to, I'll go to 9. Maybe I'll even get a few more FPS in MAME....

Thanks for all the input.

[Howard_Casto]

Nah dx is a great m$ product because, for the most part, it's completely backwards compatable.  That's why video games always say direct x version  or higher.  

[pmc]

FYI, the 8a installer appears to install 9 instead. In the end, performance seems identical on my machine. No worries after all. Thanks.