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86Box | Blog: 86Box v5.3

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December 21, 2025 – Written by RichardG867

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This is the December 2025 update for 86Box, which brings performance improvements, bug fixes, and some new hardware just in time for the holidays.

Main characteristics

Made several small and localized performance improvements to emulation performance, including a new C runtime library windows host systemOptimizations used for the “new” dynamic recompiler ARM and Apple Silicon Host SystemsAlso improvements in multithreading of Magic And other video cards. We are continuing to investigate more potential performance improvements for the next release.

floppy drive sounds Features added in previous releases get a major update better accuracy Exclusively in Head Seeks, and from new recordings two 3.5″ And Three 5.25″ floppy drive. The recording has been moved to a new package outside the ROM set, so read below for more information before upgrading.

significant change

asset pack and floppy sounds

Due to its large size, the floppy drive sound collection was removed from the ROM set and moved to a new set. asset packwhich is now included in release version Of 86Box downloaded from GitHub assets folder inside .zip on Windows, or AppImage on Linux, or embedded within an app bundle on macOS. linux packages An asset pack may or may not be included; We recommend maintainers to include this in /usr/share/86Box/assets As part of the standard x86box package.

If you use our experimental construction or any other package without the asset pack, floppy sounds will not be available until install pack The same way you would install a ROM set. Download it and decompress it assets The folder next to (not inside!) roms Folder in any similar location: next to the 86Box application (Windows executable, Linux AppImage or macOS app bundle) or in one of the system-wide locations for your host operating system.

On top of asset pack changes, mitsumi And teak Floppy drive recording has been removed from v5.2 for technical reasons, so you may need Reconfigure floppy sounds After upgrade.

Windows 7 and 8 support

Windows 7 and 8 host systems are still supported, but on those Windows versions, Visual C++ 2015 Redistributable Should now be installed. You probably already installed it through other applications or Windows Update, but if you haven’t and 86Box complains about a missing DLL, an installer can be downloaded from Microsoft’s website (get the x64 version).

of change

emulator

  • overall performance improved windows host By upgrading to Universal C Runtime
  • couple asset pack Floppy drive for sound and other future features
  • Customizable added Ctrl+Alt+Page Down Keyboard shortcuts to show or hide the user interface in full screen mode
  • toolbar button added, action Menu options and customizable Ctrl+Alt+I keyboard shortcuts for Temporarily disable the dynamic recompiler For annoying applications
  • Added relative path conversion to disk images Located next to the x86box application or one level above the machine folder (for portable setups)
  • fixed OpenGL renderer Emulator crashes while taking screenshot
  • fixed emulated display resolution change Sometimes the emulator crashes

user interface

  • added one instrument panel With quick orders to the manager
  • couple mouse for some menu entries
  • fixed refresh rate indicator Displaying incorrect numbers when Voodoo add-in card is activated
  • changed emulation speed Indicator to be consistent in CPU frame size options
  • Updated and cleaned up several translations

machines

  • 808x
    • Added real time clock I/O port and IRQ configuration Multitek PC-500 And PC-500 Plus
    • fixed tandy 1000 family Display shake effect used by some games
  • 286
    • Extended memory support enabled C&T PC/AT machines
    • fixed amstrad pc5286 Keyboard problems when emulating a PS/2 mouse
  • 386
    • Added Socket 1 486 CPU support IBM PS/55 Model 5550-V
    • by changing name IBM PS/55 Model 5550-T To 5550-S/T Stage II
    • by changing name IBM PS/55 Model 5550-V To 5550-V0/V1 and changed the category to 386DX/486
  • 486
    • Fixed incorrect on-board video BIOS IBM PS/ValuePoint 433DX/SI
  • 586
    • Socket 5 machine added: hp pavilion 50×0/70xx
    • Socket 7 machines added: ASUS TX97-XV, HP Pavilion 51xx/7070/7090/71xx, 52xx/53xx/71xx/72xx, 73xx/74xx
    • Added on-board Crystal CS4232 sound Intel Advanced/AS, Advanced/ATX And Advanced/M.A
    • RM Accelerator 350P2XB/450P3XB BIOS variant option added Aopen AX6BC
    • Added Rewards BIOS option to msi ms-5124 And MS-5146
    • Fixed BIOS settings for serial and parallel ports Intel Advanced/ATX
  • 686
    • Slot 1 Machine Added: MSI MS-6199VA (Plus Compaq and Packard Bell BIOS variants)
    • Socket 370 machines added: msi ms-6318 (plus Elonex, Fujitsu-Siemens, HP and Median BIOS variants), Samsung Cairo-5
    • Added more BIOS version options ABIT AB-BX6
    • Added Leadtek WinFast 8000BX BIOS variant option Supermicro P6SBA
    • Maximum RAM changed to aopen ap61

hardware

  • main
    • CPU performance improved ARM hostsEspecially on MMX applications
    • Fixed FPU bug on ARM hosts Which is causing loss of sound in some Windows games
    • fixed Congress,December instruction validity error
  • Display
    • Better emulation performance of Magic, ultra mach64 And s3 video card
    • fixed VideoMagic ETW32PVS (Tseng ET4000/W32P) VLB video card is not selectable on Linux and other case-sensitive systems
    • fixed IBM 8514/A ATI MCA variant crashing emulator on startup on some hosts
    • fixed incorrect refresh rates On multiple cards (again)
    • fixed S3 Virje Rendering glitches on full motion video applications (again)
    • fixed ibm xga Render errors at specific color depth
    • fixed matrox And of Magic Texture glitches on 3D applications
    • fixed Voodoo Banshee/3 Text rendering errors on Linux
    • Fixed rendering issues with specific drivers. S3 9xx And Tseng ET4000/W32 card
    • Fixed transparency issues with more games of Magic card
    • Fixed VGA scrolling behavior not matching actual hardware. ultra mach64 And Tseng ET4000/W32 card
    • Corrected incorrect dark gray color IBM 5153 cga monitor
  • input
    • fixed XT keyboard Key Count option not taking effect
  • sound
    • couple Crystal CS4232 isa sound card
    • couple opti 82c930 And 82c931 isa sound card
    • fixed sonic blaster 16 And AWE Sound problems in some DOS games
    • Fixed wrong default I/O port on kovax voice master key
    • taken out Increase codec interference option from Aztec Sound Galaxy card because it is no longer needed
  • ports
    • Stable simulation stalls with successive passthroughs windows named pipes In server mode (Known issue: VMware serial port fails to connect if 86Box is pipe server; instead use VMware as server and 86Box as client)
  • storage
    • improved the accuracy of floppy drive sounds
    • Added a new set of floppy drive sounds
    • Added IDE CD-ROM drive models: hitachi cdr-8435 (For RM Accelerator 350P2XB/450P3XB (AOpen AX6BC)), Toshiba CD-ROM XM-6102B
    • SCSI CD-ROM drive models added: NEC CD-ROM Drive:900, PLEXTOR CD-ROM PX-12CS, PX-12TS, PX-83CS, Toshiba CD-ROM XM-3701B
    • Fixed missing DVD support on hitachi gd-7500 And HL-DT-ST DVDRAM GSA-4160 CD-ROM drive model
    • fixed Panasonic/MKE CD-ROM drive not being detected by OS/2
    • Fixed a crash caused by floppy drive controller inaccuracy. 1b/v3
    • Mitsumi and Teak were eliminated floppy drive sounds which could not be updated to a better system
  • Other
    • Added base memory backfill support to Everex EV-159 isa memory expansion card



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