I don't think you realize how much you're asking there... "best" is very subjective, and there are a lot of different hardware combinations that would work well, depending on your goals. The Voodoo1 at least needs Pentium MMX chips or early PII's for best results, though there's nothing saying you can't go faster. S3 Trio and Virge cards are always a good choice for 2D, but there are plenty of other good options too. I'd suggest you start by doing some reading through the forums, decide what you want the system for, and look at what hardware other people are using to give you some general ideas.

But... Windows 3.1? There are a few DOS games that support Glide, but you really need Win95 to make the most of the Voodoo card. I don't even think there are Win31 drivers for it.

There are Glide patches for a few DOS games, but your really gong to need Windows 95 to get the most out of that Voodoo 1. I went through the same ordeal when I built my first retro machine.

Any regular Pentium 1 will make that Voodoo sing, but I figure get at least 166. You can always overclock it, or underclock.

i mainly want it for retro gaming ive got a load of socket 7 processors of varius speeds and manufactures so thats what id like to stick with been lookin at old computer mags and on this fourum at various things looks like a root round ebay and car boot time 🤣 .thanks for the help and advice

Well, if you want to play the early Glide/D3D games, a Pentium MMX will do the job. But if you ever want to load up Unreal or Half Life, I suggest a Pentium II 300.

Also, at least 64MB. 128MB much better.

2D: The absolute best DOS compatibility is with a S3 Virge or Savage probably. But their D3D is worthless. On the other hand a NV RIVA TNT/TNT2 is great for D3D and has only slightly worse DOS compatibility.

Sound: I suggest digging up a Diamond Monster Sound MX300. Or any other card that has Vortex 2. It's a great chip for those late '90s Win9x games. DOS support isn't terrible but a SB16 ISA companion would make it perfect.

swaaye wrote:

2D: The absolute best DOS compatibility is with a S3 Virge or Savage probably. But their D3D is worthless. On the other hand a NV RIVA TNT/TNT2 is great for D3D and has only slightly worse DOS compatibility.

Any specific examples where the Nvidia card is not as good?

One that comes to mind is the picky Terra Nova Strike Force Centauri. The only card that works perfectly with that is a S3 card. I tried a bunch of cards with it. There's an issue of pallette corruption. But you can get the NV cards to work if you use a VESA Fix TSR for Voodoo cards (believe it or not).

There are some people here on the forums who are much more on top of the various VESA quirks to video cards. They will all tell you Tseng or S3 though for best compatibility.

One that comes to mind is the picky Terra Nova Strike Force Centauri. The only card that works perfectly with that is a S3 card. I tried a bunch of cards with it. There's an issue of pallette corruption. But you can get the NV cards to work if you use a VESA Fix TSR for Voodoo cards (believe it or not).

Actually, there is a quite an easy fix for the Terra Nova. I was reading the manual one day and there is a command line switch +BADPALDAC in the game that fixes the problem.