CPU¶

The cpu_cycles setting controls the speed of the emulated CPU; it’s the single most important performance setting in DOSBox Staging. Getting it right can mean the difference between a game that plays perfectly and one that stutters, crawls, or races through its intro sequence.

Too many cycles and you’ll get sound stuttering and input lag as your host CPU struggles to keep up. Too few and the game turns into a slideshow. Finding the sweet spot for each game is part of the charm of retro gaming.

As a rough guide: early 8088-era games (Alley Cat, Sopwith) need around 300 cycles. 386-era titles want roughly 3,000–6,000. 486-class games like Doom are playable at around 25,000 but might need up 50,000 cycles for a completely smooth experience. Late Pentium-era titles such as Quake need 50,000 to 100,000 cycles or even more. See the cpu_cycles table for further details, or the Getting Started guide for a practical walkthrough of finding the right speed.

The auto setting for core is the most sensible default — it uses the faster dynamic recompiler for protected-mode games and the more accurate normal interpreter for real-mode programs. You’ll rarely need to override this.

Protected and real mode¶

DOS games released before about 1993 use real mode (the legacy 16-bit programming model of the Intel 386), while games from 1993 onwards almost exclusively use protected mode (full 32-bit operation). The important distinction is that most CPU-hungry games are protected mode games (e.g., FPS games and flight simulators), while older real mode games generally have much less demanding performance requirements.

DOSBox Staging detects the current mode automatically and applies different default speeds:

Real mode: 3000 cycles/ms (roughly a 386SX at 20 MHz)
Protected mode: 60,000 cycles/ms (roughly a Pentium at 90 MHz)

The conservative real mode default prevents older speed-sensitive games from running too fast. The higher protected mode default gives demanding games the headroom they need.

You can easily tell which mode a game uses by watching the cycles value in the DOSBox Staging window’s title bar — it will show 3000 in real mode and 60,000 in protected mode (assuming default settings). You can also spot protected mode games by the presence of DOS extenders such as DOS4GW.EXE, PMODEW.EXE, or CWSDPMI.EXE in their game directories.

Finding the correct cycles setting for a game¶

While the defaults get most games running, manual tweaking is often needed to make a game run smoothly. Setting the cycles too high wastes host CPU power that could be used for glitch-free audio emulation — there’s no benefit to emulating a faster CPU than the game actually needs.

Use the cpu_cycles table as a starting point: look up what CPU the game was designed for, set the corresponding cycles value, then fine-tune from there:

Early DOS games from the 1980s usually run fine at 3,000 cycles (386SX/20 level)
For 2D games from the 1990s, 25,000 cycles (486DX2/66 level) handles virtually everything
3D games typically need 50,000–100,000 cycles (Pentium range)
3D SVGA gaming at 640×480 or above may require 200,000+ cycles

You can adjust the cycles on the fly while playing with Ctrl+F11 to decrease by 20% and Ctrl+F12 to increase by 10% (Cmd+F11 and Cmd+F12 on macOS). Once you’ve found a good value, update your config to match.

Always aim for the lowest cycles value that gives adequate performance — overdoing it only increases the chance of audio glitches and wastes host CPU resources.

Speed-sensitive games

Some games, particularly those from the 1980s and early 1990s, are sensitive to CPU speed. Setting cycles too high can cause them to run too fast, behave erratically, or crash outright (e.g., “integer divide by 0” errors). A few games may even fail sound card detection and refuse to start if the emulated CPU is too fast. If a game misbehaves, try lowering the cycles before investigating other causes.

For a hands-on walkthrough of finding the right cycles setting for specific games, the Getting Started guide walks you through a few a practical examples:

Configuration examples¶

Fixed speed globally — Roughly emulates an 486DX2/66 in both real and protected mode:

[cpu]
cpu_cycles = 25000
cpu_cycles_protected = auto

Different real and protected mode speeds — 20,000 cycles for real mode, 400,000 for protected mode, with throttling enabled so the host CPU doesn’t get overloaded:

[cpu]
cpu_cycles = 20000
cpu_cycles_protected = 400000
cpu_throttle = on

Max speed — As fast as your host CPU can handle. Useful when compiling programs, rendering 3D images, or playing late-90s 3D games at high resolutions:

[cpu]
cpu_cycles = max
cpu_cycles_protected = max

Warning

Using max cycles can cause problems: some games crash or misbehave when the emulated CPU is “too fast”. The effective speed varies across different host machines, and audio glitches are common. It’s best to use the lowest fixed cycles value that runs the game at an acceptable speed.

Configuration settings¶

You can set the CPU emulation parameters in the [cpu] configuration section.

core¶

Type of CPU emulation core to use.

Possible values:

auto default – normal core for real mode programs, dynamic core for protected mode programs. Most programs will run correctly with this setting.
normal – The DOS program is interpreted instruction by instruction. This yields the most accurate timings, but puts 3–5 times more load on the host CPU compared to the dynamic core. Therefore, it’s generally only recommended for real mode programs that don’t need a fast emulated CPU or are timing-sensitive. The normal core is also necessary for programs that self-modify their code.
simple – The normal core optimised for old real mode programs; it might give you slightly better compatibility with older games. Auto-switches to the normal core in protected mode.
dynamic – The instructions of the DOS program are translated to host CPU instructions in blocks and are then executed directly. This puts 3–5 times less load on the host CPU compared to the normal core, but the timings might be less accurate. The dynamic core is a necessity for demanding DOS programs (e.g., 3D SVGA games). Programs that self-modify their code might misbehave or crash on the dynamic core; use the normal core for such programs.

cputype¶

CPU type to emulate. You should only change this if the program doesn’t run correctly on auto.

Possible values:

auto default – The fastest and most compatible setting. Technically, this is 386_fast plus 486 CPUID, 486 CR register behaviour, and extra 486 instructions.
386 – 386 CPUID and 386-specific page access level calculation.
386_fast – Same as 386 but with loose page privilege checks which is much faster.
386_prefetch – Same as 386_fast plus accurate CPU prefetch queue emulation. Requires core = normal. This setting is necessary for programs that self-modify their code or employ anti-debugging tricks. Games that require 386_prefetch include Contra, FIFA International Soccer (1994), Terminator 1, and X-Men: Madness in The Murderworld.
486 – 486 CPUID, 486+ specific page access level calculation, 486 CR register behaviour, and extra 486 instructions.
pentium – Same as 486 but with Pentium CPUID, Pentium CR register behaviour, and RDTSC instruction support. Recommended for Windows 3.1 games (e.g., Betrayal in Antara).
pentium_mmx – Same as pentium plus MMX instruction set support. Very few games use MMX instructions; it’s mostly only useful for demoscene productions.

cpu_cycles¶

Speed of the emulated CPU (3000 by default). If cpu_cycles_protected is on auto, this sets the cycles for both real and protected mode programs.

Possible values:

<number> – Emulate a fixed number of cycles per millisecond (roughly equivalent to MIPS). Valid range is from 50 to 2000000.
max – Emulate as many cycles as your host CPU can handle on a single core. The number of cycles per millisecond can vary; this might cause issues in some DOS programs.

Ballpark cycles values for common CPUs (treat as starting points, then fine-tune per game):

Emulated CPU	MHz	Cycles	Year
8088	4.77	300	1981
286	8	700	1984
286	12	1500	1986
286	25	3000	1988
386DX	25	4500	1988
386DX	33	6000	1989
386DX	40	9000	1991
486DX	33	12000	1990
486DX2	66	25000	1992
486DX4	100	35000	1994
Intel Pentium	90	50000	1994
Intel Pentium	100	60000	1994
Intel Pentium	120	75000	1995
Intel Pentium	133	80000	1995
Intel Pentium MMX	166	100000	1997
Intel Pentium II	300	200000	1997
Intel Pentium III	866	400000	2000

Note

Setting the CPU speed to max or to high fixed values may result in sound drop-outs and general lagginess.
Set the lowest fixed cycles value that runs the game at an acceptable speed for the best results.

cpu_cycles_protected¶

Speed of the emulated CPU for protected mode programs only.

Possible values:

auto – Use the cpu_cycles setting.
<number> – Emulate a fixed number of cycles per millisecond (roughly equivalent to MIPS). Valid range is from 50 to 2000000.
max – Emulate as many cycles as your host CPU can handle on a single core.

The default is 60000.

Note

See cpu_cycles for further info.

cpu_throttle¶

Throttle down the number of emulated CPU cycles dynamically if your host CPU cannot keep up. Only affects fixed cycles settings. When enabled, the number of cycles per millisecond can vary; this might cause issues in some DOS programs.

Possible values: on, off default

cycledown¶

Number of cycles to subtract with the Dec Cycles hotkey (20 by default). Values lower than 100 are treated as a percentage decrease.

cycleup¶

Number of cycles to add with the Inc Cycles hotkey (10 by default). Values lower than 100 are treated as a percentage increase.

cpu_idle¶

Reduce host CPU usage when the DOS shell or an application is idle. With cpu_cycles set to max, this can reduce host CPU core usage from ~100% to around 25% when the shell is idle.

This also makes the shell more multitasking-friendly, which benefits Windows 3.1 DOS prompts.

The feature works by emulating the HLT CPU instruction, so it might interfere with third-party DOS power management tools such as DOSidle and FDAPM — disable it if you use those.

Possible values: on default, off