I would get an S3 and a Voodoo 1 for a late 96 build if you want to do 3D games. Matrox is a good option for windows, not sure about dos support. Cirrus logic like Trident was the bottom of the barrel even though there are a few even worse brands out there but they are rare and almost pointless.

S3, ATI, and Matrox with a 3D accelerator like a Voodoo 1 then you are set.

I'd use: S3 Stealth64/Trio64, Tseng ET4000/ET6000, ATI Mach64, Matrox Millennium... Cirrus Logic 544X

Than for the advices! Regarding the Voodoo card, I already tried it on the Pentium 100/120 but wasn't it intended for the MMX later processors? It certainly runs as I remember (even Half life ran quiet good). I have the Matrox Millennium and it sound cool, but is it good in Dos too?

Some people ran it on even less when it was current, voodoo 1 is really meant for p1 systems like yours 😀

How much does the 3D accelerator help with games such as Flight Simulator?

386SX wrote:

Than for the advices! Regarding the Voodoo card, I already tried it on the Pentium 100/120 but wasn't it intended for the MMX later processors? It certainly runs as I remember (even Half life ran quiet good). I have the Matrox Millennium and it sound cool, but is it good in Dos too?

Wasn't Voodoo released the year before MMX though?

jheronimus wrote:

386SX wrote:

Than for the advices! Regarding the Voodoo card, I already tried it on the Pentium 100/120 but wasn't it intended for the MMX later processors? It certainly runs as I remember (even Half life ran quiet good). I have the Matrox Millennium and it sound cool, but is it good in Dos too?

Wasn't Voodoo released the year before MMX though?

I read late 1996 almost like the release of the MMX chip, isn't it? By the way I can imagine many people using the 3d card anyway having even older Pentiums.
I have tested the Millennium PCI 4MB and it's impressive how much improved frame rate in Quake.

MMX's a very 1997 technology. It was also overhyped, as if one doesn't need a voodoo to enjoy bilinear filtering (at a ViRGE-like framerate 😜) and a web plugin of an MMX-exclusive speedboat(iirc) game.

Since you have a Millenium and Voodoo Graphics, you're already all set for high end 96 period gaming, (both definitely existed long before there was MMX and was not designed for MMX - later 3dfx driver releases added driver optimizations for mmx (and 3dnow) however)

all that's left to worry about is the sound card - the ultimate equalizer of retro PCs with huge YMMVs. IMO for 96 high end period, an AWE64 is appropriate as several 95/96 games do have additional enhanced support for the AWE's EMU8000 chip. like the hrtf-esque high quality sounds in Eradicator. and sure you could also use an AWE32 from 94/95 for those, but it'll be very noisy.

leileilol wrote:

MMX's a very 1997 technology. It was also overhyped, as if one doesn't need a voodoo to enjoy bilinear filtering (at a ViRGE-like framerate 😜) and a web plugin of an MMX-exclusive speedboat(iirc) game.

Since you have a Millenium and Voodoo Graphics, you're already all set for high end 96 period gaming, (both definitely existed long before there was MMX and was not designed for MMX - later 3dfx driver releases added driver optimizations for mmx (and 3dnow) however)

all that's left to worry about is the sound card - the ultimate equalizer of retro PCs with huge YMMVs. IMO for 96 high end period, an AWE64 is appropriate as several 95/96 games do have additional enhanced support for the AWE's EMU8000 chip. like the hrtf-esque high quality sounds in Eradicator. and sure you could also use an AWE32 from 94/95 for those, but it'll be very noisy.

Thank! The Milennium give me the feeling it will beat any other 2D card in both speed and quality, it seems not fair for the other video cards. 😁 The point was that with this and the Voodoo, basically the P120 seems "old". But I don't want to use a 0,35u processor, I prefer the older ones. I have the AWE64 standard but looking at build date it was already late 1997. When it was released?

One question, when the Millennium 4MB was release which were the good alternative to its performances? Did it surpass anything until than?