I'd go with the VIRGE myself.

A Voodoo2 would be period correct for a 233 MMX. A Voodoo 1 is more or less a bottleneck for this CPU. I would avoid the V1. I don't know which of the mentioned GPU's I would pick as the primary card but I know which I wouldn't:
- Riva TNT
- Radeon 9250

The TNT was a Pentium II companion performance-wise and the Radeon 9250 has absolutely nothing to do in a 233 MMX system.

I'm using a Voodoo 3 PCI in my P2333 MMX build, really nice image quality and compatibility.

Well, so much people so much opinions but i favor the voodoo1 (and use it myself in the 233mmx system). Voodoo2 will work as well but will be bottlenecked a bit and i like to use them in sli.
Voodoo1 will scale up to p2-350 or maybe even a tiny bit higher.

I second the VIRGE, sucks you don't have a mystique

Jade Falcon wrote:

I second the VIRGE, sucks you don't have a mystique

Well, the Millennium II is basically a newer/faster version of the Mystique.

lvader wrote:

I'm using a Voodoo 3 PCI in my P2333 MMX build, really nice image quality and compatibility.

I do have a V3-2000 PCI but am planning on using it on a faster Socket 7 PCI/ISA system.

cyclone3d wrote:

lvader wrote:

I'm using a Voodoo 3 PCI in my P2333 MMX build, really nice image quality and compatibility.

I do have a V3-2000 PCI but am planning on using it on a faster Socket 7 PCI/ISA system.

Good, it would be wasted on the p233.

The S3 Virge + Voodoo 1 is the way to go.

It depends on your goals, in terms of image quality a Voodoo 3 will be far superior to an S3 Voodoo 1 combo. I oringally had the voodoo 3 in more powerfull setups that could make the most of the 3D capabilities but I kept going back to the p233 mmx build because it's great with games from the early to mid 90's which is the golden era for me. I've yet to find any card that gives me a better experience than I do with the Voodoo 3. My favourite games like Ultima 7 and Lucas arts adventure games have never looked or sounded better than they do now with the Voodoo 3, LAPCI and AWE 64 Gold.

Was thinking I had gotten a 233 MMX chip, but I had gotten a 166 MMX chip.

I tested all the PCI video cards I have except for the ATI 9250 cards.

Cards that may be faulty or maybe the board just doesn't like them:
Trident 9680 - neither will post
S3 - neither will post
Matrox Millenium II - posts, but if I turn the computer off it and leave it sit for a while it will not post. Switching to a different PCI slot fixes it until I leave it off for a while again.
Switching it back to the original PCI slot makes it work again. So strange. Think I am going to try this in a different board.

Cards that work.
Permedia 2v
TNT
Voodoo 3 - 2000
ATI Rage XL

The Permedia 2v card on post looks to have the best image quality, so I am probably going to use that.

Also tested out the different FSB settings on the board and found that it has an undocumented 100Mhz fsb setting that works. The board is an MSI Premio TX5.

cyclone3d wrote:

Was thinking I had gotten a 233 MMX chip, but I had gotten a 166 MMX chip. […]
Show full quote

Was thinking I had gotten a 233 MMX chip, but I had gotten a 166 MMX chip.

I tested all the PCI video cards I have except for the ATI 9250 cards.

Cards that may be faulty or maybe the board just doesn't like them:
Trident 9680 - neither will post
S3 - neither will post
Matrox Millenium II - posts, but if I turn the computer off it and leave it sit for a while it will not post. Switching to a different PCI slot fixes it until I leave it off for a while again.
Switching it back to the original PCI slot makes it work again. So strange. Think I am going to try this in a different board.

Cards that work.
Permedia 2v
TNT
Voodoo 3 - 2000
ATI Rage XL

The Permedia 2v card on post looks to have the best image quality, so I am probably going to use that.

Also tested out the different FSB settings on the board and found that it has an undocumented 100Mhz fsb setting that works. The board is an MSI Premio TX5.

100MHz bus on a 430TX 😳 🙄 😳 🙄
What clock generator does the board use?

wow 100mhz on a 430TX, let me know when your done with that board 😊

The markings on the clock generator are:

IMI
SC643AYB
9717 F3642

I was not able to find a datasheet on it. Anybody have any info on it?

Settings that are documented are:
50
55
60
66.6
75
83

I set the multiplier to 2 and was trying out the different available fsb settings that were not documented.
One of the undocumented settings didn't post, but the other one posted and showed a CPU speed of 200Mhz.

This board actually had the option of two different clock generators. The other one had different jumper settings and not as many documented speeds.

The dip switch settings for both are silkscreened onto the motherboard.

Pretty sweet board as it has a 4PCI/4ISA setup and dual IDE controllers.

I don't plan on getting rid of it.

cyclone3d wrote:

The markings on the clock generator are: […]
Show full quote

The markings on the clock generator are:

IMI
SC643AYB
9717 F3642

I was not able to find a datasheet on it. Anybody have any info on it?

Settings that are documented are:
50
55
60
66.6
75
83

I set the multiplier to 2 and was trying out the different available fsb settings that were not documented.
One of the undocumented settings didn't post, but the other one posted and showed a CPU speed of 200Mhz.

This board actually had the option of two different clock generators. The other one had different jumper settings and not as many documented speeds.

The dip switch settings for both are silkscreened onto the motherboard.

Pretty sweet board as it has a 4PCI/4ISA setup and dual IDE controllers.

I don't plan on getting rid of it.

I have found the datasheet. It seems that the jumpers are mapped to these pins:

4 - S0
5 - S1
6 - FTS

If it's true, the non-bootable combination is ON-OFF-ON and mapped to "Reserved for IMI use only", and the other OFF-ON-ON is mapped to 75MHz. But how come you got 200MHz internal speed... 😕

lazibayer wrote:

I have found the datasheet. It seems that the jumpers are mapped to these pins: […]
Show full quote

I have found the datasheet. It seems that the jumpers are mapped to these pins:

4 - S0
5 - S1
6 - FTS

If it's true, the non-bootable combination is ON-OFF-ON and mapped to "Reserved for IMI use only", and the other OFF-ON-ON is mapped to 75MHz. But how come you got 200MHz internal speed... 😕

I just double checked the switch settings.

ON-OFF-ON works and is what gives me the 200Mhz speed with the 2x multiplier.

OFF-ON-ON does not post.

Voodoo 3 2000 on an MMX 166? What will we be playing, Quake 3? 😀 Keeping it within a year or two at most ahead of the processor is often sensible IMO. Seeing as the MMX is pasically a '96 processor, the GPU choices from a selection between 96-98 is rather.. exciting, as it was a time when 3D technology was really just born and developing in many directions at once..

That said, if you want to get everything sorted with just a single PCI card and don't want any 3dfx add-on cards, then I would definitely go with wither the Rage Pro PCI or the Matrox Mystique 220; these will have decent 3D/Win9x 3d acceleration on the level of a Voodoo 1 (no glide, of course) and decent DOS compatibility at the same time. Seeing as you already have a Millennium II there, and if it works on your Socket 7 board (is it PCI?) I would use that for this system, most likely.

The better choice is of course to go with a PCI card with great DOS compatibility (an S3 Trio or Virge are good choices here) and a 3dfx Voodoo card (Voodoo 1 is a great fit but only 640x480 capable; the Voodoo 2 is greatly handicapped by the 166 MMX but lets you play at 800x600 at around 30fps so why not if you can get it) for 3D acceleration. But you don't have one. And in my experience Voodoo 1/2 cards really destroy 2D image quality because of the VGA passthrough thing.

The TNT is not a bad choice either, I feel. At least it would free up the Voodoo 3 to serve in a more fitting system.

Well, originally I was thinking I had a Pentium 233 MMX, which I still would not want to use a Voodoo 3 for.

The Millennium II has weird issues with this board as I mentioned in an different post. Not sure if it is flaky or if the board just doesn't like it.

Looks like the Rage XL is just a die-shrunk Rage Pro.

I'm really not too worried about stellar 3d performance for this system as I will be building faster systems that will be able to make use of the higher end cards.

Back when this hardware was out, I was still running 486 class hardware. After my 5x86-133 that I ran at 160, I jumped directly to K6 and then shortly after to K6-2. Never even had a regular socket 7 board. I went straight to SS7.

I do have a Voodoo 2 12MB card, but it is in need of repair as one of the chips has had a lot of the pins on two sides of the chip come loose from the board. Not a soldering project I am looking forward to. I figured out how to solder them back in place fairly easily, but it is tedious and time consuming.

Instead of using the passthrough on the voodoo1, I could always just use 2 monitors so I don't have to mess with switching cables around to avoid the passthrough.

Bringing this back up since I have a 233MMX to put in this board now.

I think I am leaning towards putting a PCI V3 2000 in it for now as well as a STB/Compaq GUS Interwave sound card and probably another 1 or two ISA sounds cards in there as well.

It will be primarily for DOS, but also probably run Win98SE for some things.