assortedkingdede wrote on 2023-01-03, 00:45:

I was looking at buying a Nvidia GeForce4 Titanium Ti 4200 128MB made by Inno3D for a AGP 4x based motherboard. Is it any good? I have seen models that are 64mb but I have heard that 128mb is advisable for DirectX 9 games. Any info will help, thanks!

The GeForce 4 series is hardware compatible up to DX 8.1 I think. DirectX 9 games will run, but at reduced detail or performance - if I remember correctly.
Given the choice, I'd pick a 64 MB variant with faster clocks or timings over some 128 MB models...

GeForce 4 series are DirectX 8.1 cards. You'll need to jump to at least the 5 series for DirectX 9 features, but the 6 series is fully 9.0c compliant. With that said, the 4 series is a great all-around card from DOS to Windows XP, with few exceptions. The 64MB cards are usually clocked higher on the VRAM, but you can manually adjust the clock yourself on the 128MB version if needed (or for fun). If you're playing DirectX 9 games, the 128MB of RAM probably won't help as much because the card won't be powerful enough core-wise, that is if you're playing at higher resolutions and expecting 60fps+ gaming. Vendors add extra VRAM to lower-end cards to puff them up for unsuspecting consumers.

For true DX9, I'd recommend Radeon 9500 Pro or 9600XT. Those can usually be found for cheap.

stef80 wrote on 2023-01-03, 01:03:

For true DX9, I'd recommend Radeon 9500 Pro or 9600XT. Those can usually be found for cheap.

If I get one of these, should I get one of the models with the fan or heat sink? I have seen many with either a fan, a heat sink (usually cheaper), and in one case, a vga silencer. Also is there an equivalent NVIDIA card? I have found that Radeon drivers struggle with a lot of games and act weird.

As a side note, what NVIDIA cards should I be looking for? I need one that can adequately run most if not all windows 98 games at a good frame rate.

probably FX lineup .... FX5700 or FX5900XT

assortedkingdede wrote on 2023-01-03, 02:21:

As a side note, what NVIDIA cards should I be looking for? I need one that can adequately run most if not all windows 98 games at a good frame rate.

It depends on what resolution you want to run your games in, and if you want to crank up Anti Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering. Also, it matters which year you take as the cutoff point for Win9x gaming.

For example, the GeForce 4 Ti4200 that you mentioned is great for playing Win9x games made before 2002 in the 1280x1024 resolution at 60+ FPS, as long as AA and AF are kept at low to moderate values. If you want to play later games, or use higher resolutions like 1600x1200 with maxed AA and AF, you'll need a GeForce FX 5900 or a Radeon X800 series card. Be advised that the GeForce 4 is slightly more compatible than either of those cards, so there's a trade off for the extra performance.

Also, DirectX 9 is not really relevant for Win9x gaming as it came out in December of 2002. The use case for a DX9 capable GPUs under Win9x (other than extra performance) is usually to run something like nGlide. Playing actual DX9 games on Win9x is not recommended, as they will run much better on WinXP where they can utilize newer, more powerful hardware.

Ti4200 is a sweet card and a great start for a system, but what's the rest of your system like? Also, tell us what kind of games you'd like to play, do you have a specific range of years in mind?

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-01-03, 08:59:

Also, DirectX 9 is not really relevant for Win9x gaming as it came out in December of 2002. The use case for a DX9 capable GPUs under Win9x (other than extra performance) is usually to run something like nGlide. Playing actual DX9 games on Win9x is not recommended, as they will run much better on WinXP where they can utilize newer, more powerful hardware.

GeForce 6 runs nGlide much better then FX, if that is the goal. As for DX9/nGlide, I'd also run it on XP.
So, what is the use of DX9 on 98?

stef80 wrote on 2023-01-03, 09:41:

GeForce 6 runs nGlide much better then FX, if that is the goal. As for DX9/nGlide, I'd also run it on XP.
So, what is the use of DX9 on 98?

Personally, I don't use nGlide on my GeForce FX rig, since I have other systems which house actual Voodoo cards.

I guess the use case for nGlide under Win9x would be to play some of the Glide only games with 3D acceleration? But, as you say, that can be done on WinXP as well.

leonardo wrote on 2023-01-03, 01:00:

The GeForce 4 series is hardware compatible up to DX 8.1 I think. DirectX 9 games will run, but at reduced detail or performance - if I remember correctly.
Given the choice, I'd pick a 64 MB variant with faster clocks or timings over some 128 MB models...

depends on the game - some DX9 games will run, but later stuff like UT3 that requires SM 3.0 won't even start. also i'd imagine that the 128 megs might offer some advantages if trying to run 2005 titles that mostly do still run on this card...

also worth mentioning that if win98 is to be used, later nvidia drivers are all sorts of broken.

It's a really good card for a 2000\2001 and really early 2002 system and previous if you want to play older games with high resolutions, filters and framerates, after that for me it's radeon territory with the 9000 series and DX9.