Fast computer still runs Dosbox sc2 slow

[Alaric Heiss]

Hello
   I am having difficulties getting dosbox to work up to speed, and was hoping someone here could give me some help.  SC1, SC2 and Melee consistently run just a fraction below the real game speed, with stuttering audio.  This is particularly clear when a ship explodes in Melee.   Also, the audio is delayed about half a second behind the video.  
   I am running the game at 4000 cycles, and I believe I have set up dosbox as directed in the help page.  Overclocking Dosbox with the ctrl-f12 function seems to improve things a very tiny fraction, but the game still noticably slows when in close combat, and the audio is still choppy.  I am running win 2000 on a P4 2.4ghz with 1 gig of ram, so think that I should have the appropriate processor-power to handle this.  Hopefully there is simply something I can tweak.
   I am multi-booting win 98 to get real dos, but I have found problems with that too.  I have a soundcard that's built-in to the motherboard which forces the audio through the internal pc speaker when playing sc2 in true dos. Dosbox seems like the best solution for me since I prefer the PC release of sc2 to UQM's voice-overs.  If anyone has any suggestions I would be deeply abliged to hear them.  

[Niffiwan]

Try changing the number of cycles!
I've found that the game actually runs faster if I lessen it to 1800 (this is because I have a SLOW computer, and it stutters so much at 4000cycles that it plays it very slowly; 1800cycles puts less strain on it so it plays it faster).

Even though you have a fast computer, you may have too much on your hard drive, or a lot of things using up your memory, etc.

I don't claim in any way to be an expert on this, but I figured I'll give my two cents worth since nobody else is replying.

[DEFIANT]

yes im having the very same problems. ive tried lowering the cycles, and yes it does improve the sound from skipping but the melee is slow and planet info load times are painfully slow. when i use ms dos everything is fine but i like to able to use my usb gamepad, wich dosbox lets me do. hopefully theres a good solution that some one has found that might be of some use.

dont worry Alaric Heiss, were all in the same boat so im pulling for you too. ~DEFIANT

[Chad]

All the info I can offer is here:

http://www.classicgaming.com/starcontrol/faq/dosbox.shtml

But don't forget, DOSBox is far from "complete" and is by no means perfect software yet.

[Rider]

Now there's something wrong here, and since I (and other people) concider myself quite the expert on memory topics let me explain.

To run programs your computer uses 'conventional' memory. This is 640Kb of memory that is NOT on your hard-drive. It is stored in on of the many chips in your computer until you reboot. No matter how new or fancy your computer is you NEVER EVER have more then 640Kb of conventional memory.

Sometimes your computer calls in 'assistance' from the Upper memory block. This is a bit of memory that your computer can use to run OS bound programs without occupying your conventional memory (wich it uses to boot games and such, altough with all the new games, this memory blok has been out of use, conventional memory that is) This memory is NOT on your hard-drive

then there is EMS, this is your ***MB internal memory that is specified by the guy/girl who sold you your computer. This is always a multiple of 8. (and recently more a multiple of 128, wich is a multiple of this is the memory all NEW games and Windows utillity's use to store their data. again this memory is NOT on your hard-drive.

as you can see, none of the memory areas that your computer uses to boot programs is on your HD. alotof people think: Hmm, it runs slow, let's remove some files. Altough this is useless it MIGHT be usefull to empty your Windows\Temp directory since it is used every time you open a file, download something etc.

and your machine's speed is specified by the MhZ (Megahertz) or GhZ (Gigahertz) not your memory.