I also did get an HP Pentium 2. Built in ATI Rage 32MB but no AGP slots, not sure of the number of ISA slots, if any. If that seems like a better option?

*moved to marvin*

How about combining a compatible card, like the S3 Trio64, with a V2-SLI setup?
You get good compatibility in Dos 2d and since you have sub-1ghz P3, then V2 might be the way to go.
You can allways refer to this chart in the link below, in order to find good Dos VGA cards.

https://gona.mactar.hu/DOS_TESTS/

My personal rig uses a GeForce 2 MX. This has about perfectly fine DOS gaming compatibility, but I always use DOS in window, which seems to have better support with my SB Live!

What I hate about ISA cards is the lack of DMA, so they cannot load soundfonts from system memory without using CPU time, thus the need for tiny, useless memory expansions that will never fit my 250MB+ soundfonts.

Currently I have only tested Duke Nukem with my SB Live, as all my other games are windows games. If you have SB Link on your motherboard, you can use that to have near perfect DOS control over the sound card, you just need to get a cable or make your own.

I think a Voodoo 2 is a bit weaksauce for a P3, and maybe even a Voodoo 3 would be. Of course 3dfx stuff is DAMN expensive, so if you already have the cards, use what you got.

If you're looking for a good ISA soundcard, AWE32 is I think better than AWE64 because you can use regular SIMM memory expansions on it. Don't use a Sound Blaster 16 unless you intend to use OPL3 MIDI or you have a wavetable expansion for it, as MIDI is VERY well used in MANY games. You can of course grab an MT32 or Sound Canvas, but those are also really fricking expensive, and they require special MIDI interfaces. If you honestly don't care about MIDI, then you can pick whatever's cheap for you, as anything SB16+ will do just fine for sound. I can't live without great sounding MIDI, so I need a good card for it.

Where would, if applicable, a Soundblaster Extigy fall in to all this? It might do good for 98 games and I can pass any other soundcard like SB16/AWE through it.

brostenen wrote:

How about combining a compatible card, like the S3 Trio64, with a V2-SLI setup? You get good compatibility in Dos 2d and since […]
Show full quote

How about combining a compatible card, like the S3 Trio64, with a V2-SLI setup?
You get good compatibility in Dos 2d and since you have sub-1ghz P3, then V2 might be the way to go.
You can allways refer to this chart in the link below, in order to find good Dos VGA cards.

https://gona.mactar.hu/DOS_TESTS/

Awesome link. Thanks!

S3 Trio64's seem quite affordable on ebay. If you mean V2 SLI as Voodoo 2 then YIKES! Vodoo 3 seem more affordable.

What about a Voodoo Rush? I had one back in the day, 2d and 3d on the same card, no need for passthrough.

Is there an S3 Virge that would do up to 1024x768?

GiSWiG wrote:

Where would, if applicable, a Soundblaster Extigy fall in to all this? It might do good for 98 games and I can pass any other soundcard like SB16/AWE through it.

I guess there might be some scenarios in which that might make sense, but I have a hard time conceiving of them.

As always, it depends on what, exactly, you want to play. (If your answer is "Everything!" then I guarantee you will spend far more time building computers and looking for parts and mucking with configurations than you will ever spend actually playing games.) If you aren't playing anything that particularly uses the features of a PCI Sound Blaster card (namely EAX or big soundfonts), then perhaps an ISA card alone will suffice.

GiSWiG wrote:

What about a Voodoo Rush?

For various reasons it is pretty crappy. Better by far to stick with either a Voodoo2 or a Voodoo3 if you insist on having Glide (though I might add that a Glide wrapper might easily suffice depending on your needs); there's nothing really wrong with passthrough.

The goal is mostly for playing games that won't in XP or higher and more accurate DOS play than DOSBox. Its also a nostalgia kinda thing and just plain fun. Back in the day I had an 8088, then 286, then Pentium 75, 100, 133, 233, then AMD K6-2, K6-3, etc. My first Soundblaster was a SB 8bit, then SB16 and an AWE32. I did have a Voodoo 1, Voodoo 2 Rush, Voodoo 3. I haven't come across anything Win10 can't play that WinXP couldn't do but there are plenty Win98 that don't work on XP. I do have an XP machine capable of running anything in between.

GiSWiG wrote:

and more accurate DOS play than DOSBox.

Is there something you have found particularly inaccurate in DOSBox? If that is your goal then you should plan your system accordingly.

but there are plenty Win98 that don't work on XP.

Again, is there something specific you have in mind? Things are getting better all the time with dgVoodoo.

GiSWiG wrote:

Awesome link. Thanks! […]
Show full quote

brostenen wrote:

How about combining a compatible card, like the S3 Trio64, with a V2-SLI setup? You get good compatibility in Dos 2d and since […]
Show full quote

How about combining a compatible card, like the S3 Trio64, with a V2-SLI setup?
You get good compatibility in Dos 2d and since you have sub-1ghz P3, then V2 might be the way to go.
You can allways refer to this chart in the link below, in order to find good Dos VGA cards.

https://gona.mactar.hu/DOS_TESTS/

Awesome link. Thanks!

S3 Trio64's seem quite affordable on ebay. If you mean V2 SLI as Voodoo 2 then YIKES! Vodoo 3 seem more affordable.

What about a Voodoo Rush? I had one back in the day, 2d and 3d on the same card, no need for passthrough.

Is there an S3 Virge that would do up to 1024x768?

Yeah...
You could go for a Voodoo3, as they are good for late era Dos games (Doom, Duke3D and newer)
I did mean Voodoo2, as V1 and V2 are the only add-on Voodoo's.
Regarding the Rush. It sucks, compared to V3 and V2.
I do not know how high Virge can go, as I am not using any of those cards in Windows.
They are being used in pure MS Dos 6.22 machines at my place. The reason for me to talk about
those cards in the first place, was only to give you more ideas than the usual Voodoo3 and Banshee
cards that people usually recommend. Not saying that they are bad. Only based on your need for
playing dos games. You know compatibility.

Speaking of that 1024x768 again. I do not go higher than stock resolution in Dos games.
The reason is that I like it that way, because that is the way most people used to set up games.
On the other hand. I have an idea that S3's can go as high as that. Only a question of memory.

If you'r plan is to build yet another machine more suited to early dos games, then I clearly
recommend Voodoo3 for this P-III that you are asking about gfx for.
A good machine for early dos games, would be something like a 486 machine or a SS7 time machine.
Perhaps even a Pentium-133/166 that can be slowed down by disabling cache.
A machine like that, running MS Dos 6.22, will be a sweet machine to run a CL-5446/S3-Trio64v+/S3-Virge325.
Install an auditian32 card or SB Pro 2.0 in that too and you have a great Dos machine.

What does your XP machine have? Could it potentially be used as a 98 machine as well?

There's a window of compatibility for DOS sound that pretty much closed during the P4 period. There are Pentium IV boards that support either an ISA slot or one of the PCI compatibility methods, just the same as with the socket A platform, but they aren't generally very common. You can build a machine that runs Win98 and DOS with high performance which loses compatibility for some speed sensitive games and isn't as fast as possible running Windows titles, or you can build a more speed flexible system which runs a broad range of DOS games well but loses top end performance. For that reason, from my point of view it makes sense to have a machine more focused on DOS as well as a machine focused on Windows gaming.

So I did pick up a few more PCs and parts (we have classifieds at work).

Motherboard - PC Chips M848A SiS chipset, 8x AGP, Athlon XP 2600+
Dell Dimension 8300, P4 3.0 GHz, AGP (most likely Intel Chipset)
all the cards from them:
Geforce 2 Pro 64mb AGP
Geforce FX 5200 AGP
Creative/Ensonic AudioPCI 5100 - 1371 chip (has an interesting heatsink for a sound card)
Soundblaster Live 5.1 Digital (Dell's model SB0220)

I picked up the DOS drivers for the AudioPCI here: Ensoniq / Creative AudioPCI

GiSWiG wrote:

So I did pick up a few more PCs and parts (we have classifieds at work).

Jorpho wrote:

If your answer is "Everything!" then I guarantee you will spend far more time building computers and looking for parts and mucking with configurations than you will ever spend actually playing games.

It begins. 🤣

Jorpho wrote:

It begins. 🤣

Its a lot like modding Oblivion except it costs much more.

Yes, I want to rebuild what I once had. I had a Tandy 1000 RLX 286CPU and it had a Sound Blaster 8-bit. Best to put that to DOSBox cause that would be very hard to find. I think I had a Biostar with a Pentium 233MMX. I had an ASUS P5A and I know I had a K6-2 450. Then a K62-550, probably same board. I had a K6-3 400-450 somewhere in there too. After the P5A, I had nothing but ASUS and AMD up until my MSI GAMING M7 currently. I still have my Phenom II X4 and X6 systems. A lot of my favorite games were probably mostly voodoo compatible. I know I had 3Dfx Mechwarrior 2 Trilogy which is probably the oldest DOS Voodoo game I had.

I think really that DOSBox would cover mostly everything 486/Pentium and older. I know how to emulate MIDI in DOSBox and I have not been disappointed. I would like a Voodoo 3 3000 setup although I can't remember how well it did with DOS. I did have an Intergraph Intense Voodoo Rush that I don't remember as being 'bad'. That might have been my first Voodoo card? I'm not sure.

So enough 'memory lane', what is the best way of getting a Voodoo 3 at a good price? Sometimes they are on ebay at a reasonable price in the US. I don't really want to order any from Russia or any international; I just don't trust it unless anyone here can say otherwise?

Well said! ^^
Also, if you're going to use a Virge take the 325 into consideration, too.
It's not the fastest, but it is more compatible with the popular S3 Trio32/64/Trio64V+.
Does anyone still have a S3 Trio 32/64/Virge cards?
Plus, you don't require any of these patches to play Virge games.

Anyway, good luck with your builds! 😀

The Voodoo3, in general, does very well for DOS games, both in terms of compatibility and speed. If you find one for a reasonable price, go for it.

I've ordered a bunch of vintage parts from international sellers. Through eBay you don't have too much to worry about as far as outright scams go (though be on the lookout for the usual hallmarks of a scam - it's not like there aren't occasionally a few, even if you stick to US/Canada sellers). I've had a few issues with expensive shipping or long shipping times, but that's to be expected.

The motherboard I'm currently using in the 486 build I'm working on came from Lithuania, for example, and the video card from Austria.

I so miss my Voodoo3 from back in the day. It might be a while before I get one. I've gotten enough for now.

Curious, how well does glide emulation in DOSBox Daum hold up against the real thing? I can't seem to find any real good comparisons.