In 1997 it would be the Riva 128 or an ATI Rage Pro. Optimally you would pair that with a Voodoo. I would use a Virge GX with a Voodoo for good DOS compatibility and early windows support.

In 1998 you get the voodoo 2, Rage 128, and Riva TNT, which are all huge upgrades.

Rage 128 technically is a 1998 card as it was completed and already sent out to sites to review it such as anadatech in December 1998. It had a delayed launch tho and wasn't shipped until 1999.
AS you can see on the PCB it says 1998 top left corner.

So Id probably recommend to use a PCI rage 128 in your build honestly as it was not uncommon for people to upgrade their computers 1 year later especially graphics cards. Just be careful becasue most of the PCI rage 128 cards are Apple cards and they wont work in a PC.

Source
https://www.anandtech.com/show/389

For 1997, you could checkout 3D Labs Permedia 2.

RIVA 128 without a question.

The blending precision being poor is a decent compromise compared to the Rage Pro's inability to alpha blend in hardware.

Depends on what you mean by "good". From what I know, most RIVA 128 cards looked like complete ass for 2D graphics (particularly the windows desktop). As in blurry with poor colour rendition. When I assembled my PC in August 1997, 3D graphics weren't even on the radar. Maybe it was just me, but as I was moving up from a 486 at the time, true colour at high resolution on the desktop was far more important to improve the internet experience.

The killer cards were Millennium I for 2D and Voodoo 1 for 3D. Rage Pro was a good compromise in the middle. Riva 128 came later and its 2D sucked ass IIRC.

I think the Hercules Voodoo Rush was 1997. Not the fastest card, also not the most expensive, but available as PCI. Probably other VR cards, my Stringray 128 3D says 1997 on it.

appiah4 wrote:

The killer cards were Millennium I for 2D and Voodoo 1 for 3D. Rage Pro was a good compromise in the middle. Riva 128 came later and its 2D sucked ass IIRC.

My Millenium (Gateway OEM) got me all the way from 1995 to Baldur’s Gate and AGP. I toyed with M3D and Voodoo along the way but really wasn’t doing much 3D gaming.

appiah4 wrote:

The killer cards were Millennium I.

Both my Millennium I (PCI) and Millennium II (AGP) are dated 1997, so a Millennium II is correct date wise

Well, realistically - as others already suggested - in 1997 you'd go for a decent 2D card plus a Voodoo Graphics as a 3D accelerator. Also remember in 1997 software rendering was still totally common. The P200 MMX is a good CPU for that too.
In terms of 2D image quality the best cards of 1997 are probably the Tseng Labs ET6000 / ET6100 or a Matrox Mystique / Mystique 220. The Mystique + Voodoo Graphics combo was extremely popular as a high end gaming setup back then. A card of the S3 Virge variety (especially the Virge VX with a 220MHz RAMDAC) would also give you a very decent 2D image but they received rather bad press due to the incomplete 3D feature support.
If you can find one maybe go for one of the 6MB Voodoos - the Miro Hiscore 3D or the Canopus Pure3D. There are 8MB versions of the Voodoo Graphics but IIRC those first came to the market in 1998.

If you want a real unicorn you might go for the VideoLogic Apocalypse 5D (Sonic) which is a Tseng Labs ET6100 plus a PowerVR PCX2 on the same card. The Sonic version also includes an ESS Agogo XP sound chip. You can still pair this card with a Voodoo Graphics for extra Glide compatibility.

For an avaliable single card you might go with a Riva 128 because it just works™. It's not pretty but if you simply need your pixels drawn reasonably fast it'll do the job.

You might also look into the ATi Rage II variety of cards because they're reasonably fast as well and were a popular choice in 1997 especially for their various video features but they lack a bit in terms of games compatibility, especially in DOS. They do come with their own API though but it's not widely supported.

The various Voodoo Rush combinations are probably not what you'd get to combine with a CPU like the Pentium MMX 200. They're a bit wonky and not as fast as a regular 2D card + Voodoo card combo. It'll be a more unique build with the Rush but they are better suited for slower systems IMHO.

Warlord wrote:

Rage 128 technically is a 1998 card as it was completed and already sent out to sites to review it such as anadatech in December 1998.

That's probably why mothergoose729 recommended a Rage Pro. 😉

S3 Virge or Matrox combined with a Voodoo 1, unlike you want to go for some odd solution, which in the end won't get you very far when it comes to having a good and compatible system for games.

From what I remember, I choose the Riva 128 over other cards because it had a better image quality.
Better graphics, color, and clarity.

There is no Riva TNT 128. There's a Riva 128 and a Riva TNT, these are two different cards. Only the Riva 128 is from 1997 and would fit his time frame. However, Riva 128 cards are quite expensive these days.

Intel486dx33 wrote:

From what I remember, I choose the Riva 128 over other cards because it had a better image quality.
Better graphics, color, and clarity.

I last tried one on a CRT three years ago. I think it was an ELSA model. The image quality was rather mushy. I believe the TNT had a better DAC.

derSammler wrote:

However, Riva 128 cards are quite expensive these days.

From your name I take it you are a fellow German? I regularly see those cards for offer around 5€ here. Mayve some special variants are expensive but generally they seem to be avaliable and cheap to me.

Yes, as my location says. 😉

Were do you see these for 5€? The asking price is around 30€ normally for the PCI version. Could be that the AGP variant is cheaper, never cared about the AGP variant.

Oh yeah, there's more than just a name. 😁
I find them on Ebay Kleinanzeigen. Don't look for specific names, search for more general terms. One will show up at least every couple of weeks. 😀
30€ is extremely steep IMHO even for the PCI variant.

Well, searching eBay Kleinanzeigen just now for "Riva 128" returns no results. You may get one cheap there with some patience, but not currently.

red-ray wrote:

appiah4 wrote:

The killer cards were Millennium I.

Both my Millennium I (PCI) and Millennium II (AGP) are dated 1997, so a Millennium II is correct date wise

My bad, I meant Millennium II.

For 1997 Matrox G200 is also a decent choice but I never saw it as PCI even though it existed.

derSammler wrote:

Well, searching eBay Kleinanzeigen just now for "Riva 128" returns no results. You may get one cheap there with some patience, but not currently.

As I said

Doornkaat wrote:

Don't look for specific names, search for more general terms. One will show up at least every couple of weeks. 😀

30€ for that card is a total rip off at least in Germany and only worth it if for whatever reason you really need it fast.