With this old games i would go to mx440 for compatibility, or ti4xxx for Performance/compatibility

With this old games i would go to mx440 for compatibility, or ti4xxx for Performance/compatibility

I'm currently using a Ti4200. It works well, though I did opt to replace the stock cooler with a fanless heatsink.

Thank you. Thinking about getting an FX5700 for nglide support. 3dfx are super pricey.

drew2020 wrote on 2022-09-11, 22:35:

Thinking about getting an FX5700 for nglide support. 3dfx are super pricey.

An FX 5700 needs 5x.xx Nvidia drivers, which might not work with certain games from the Need for Speed series, while also causing Thief 2 to freeze with a black screen. For best compatibility under Win9x, you need 45.23 drivers or below. And while nGlide can be used on FX cards, it will be much slower than native D3D/OGL. Your CPU speed plays a role there as well.

For gaming in 1280x1024 under Win9x, a GeForce4 Ti4200 is an excellent choice. While the FX cards are certainly more powerful and allow you to play around with AA and AF in some games, they are slightly less compatible as well, and not just because they need newer drivers. For example, FX cards and later suffer from this issue in Gothic, while a GeForce4 Ti renders that game perfectly.

Thanks for the FX feedback. It looks like a cornucopia of video cards is a valid option.

The FX is not bad for late Windows98 with decent early W9x compatibility. Especially the first revision of cards which do work with driver version 45.23. But the FX5700 is not one of them. It's 56.64 with that one. Some of the issues can be resolved like the one regarding the Need for Speed series. I didn't try Gothic and Thief 2 though. I might investigate the issue.

For the games you listed, the MX440 is more than fast enough.

RandomStranger wrote on 2022-09-12, 05:39:

I didn't try Gothic and Thief 2 though. I might investigate the issue.

I don't think the Gothic issue is fixable, sadly. I scoured the web for a solution, and outside of using fan-made patches (which change more than just that) the problem seems to always occur on Nvidia cards newer than the GeForce 4 series. For Thief 2, using 77.72 drivers will make it work again, but that driver version is incompatible with some other Win9x games.

For the games you listed, the MX440 is more than fast enough.

The MX440 is indeed the best budget oriented Win9x card, assuming it's the 128-bit version of course. However, it doesn't have EMBM support since it's based on the GeForce 2 architecture. Personally, I don't think this is a big deal for Win9x gaming, and I'm just mentioning it for the sake of completeness.

drew2020 wrote on 2022-09-11, 22:35:

Thank you. Thinking about getting an FX5700 for nglide support. 3dfx are super pricey.

Pricey card if you can find it (non LE / VE variants) . It comes with 3.6ns memory (550MHz). FX5900XT is more common and easier to fit good aftermarket cooler.
Regarding drivers and nGlide, later ones are better (tested with 71.89 on XP).

Does these issues with Gothic and Thief 2 affect the GoG version the same way? That's the one I can get the fastest and from tomorrow I won't be around my retro stuff for around 2 weeks. Maybe I can take a quick look at those.

RandomStranger wrote on 2022-09-12, 07:25:

Does these issues with Gothic and Thief 2 affect the GoG version the same way?

The GOG version of Thief 2 already has some fan-made patches integrated (T2Fix) so it's not suitable for true retro compatibility testing. You want the retail CD version + latest official patch 1.18.

As for Gothic, I think the GOG version is mostly fine, but it ships with some overly modern DirectX 9 .dll file which makes the game crawl on retro rigs. Deleting that .dll file from the game's folder should resolve the issue.