HomeLate wrote on 2023-10-01, 09:07:

I recently acquired a Compaq Professional Workstation AP550 pretty cheap and in good condition. I was told it was used in a music studio and it came with a Terratec DMX6 Fire.

It has a dual PIII-733 and 1Gb RDRAM. Since it's a dual cpu setup, I installed Windows XP.

Which would be a suitable, period correct gpu to pair it with? I know games don't benefit from the dual cpu's and it is a workstation. But I would like to play some games from that time period on it.

Sure you'll have some ideas / favourites of your own, but the attached is Compaqs own guide for workstation graphics (my own AP550 came with a Matrox G400, though I also use a 3D Labs Oxygen GVX1 Pro )

PC Hoarder Patrol wrote on 2023-10-01, 09:31:

HomeLate wrote on 2023-10-01, 09:07:

I recently acquired a Compaq Professional Workstation AP550 pretty cheap and in good condition. I was told it was used in a music studio and it came with a Terratec DMX6 Fire.

It has a dual PIII-733 and 1Gb RDRAM. Since it's a dual cpu setup, I installed Windows XP.

Which would be a suitable, period correct gpu to pair it with? I know games don't benefit from the dual cpu's and it is a workstation. But I would like to play some games from that time period on it.

Sure you'll have some ideas / favourites of your own, but the attached is Compaqs own guide for workstation graphics (my own AP550 came with a Matrox G400, though I also use a 3D Labs Oxygen GVX1 Pro )

Compaq Workstations Graphics Product Positioning.pdf

Thanks! Mine came with a standard Elsa NVidia based graphics card. It produces a really sharp image, but 3D performance is lacking ofcourse.

I do have:
- Matrox G400 Max (currently in use in another dual P3 build)
- 3DFx Voodoo 3 2000 (needs a reflash and another one is in use in single P3 build)
- ATI Radeon 9000-series (9600/9700/9800... but these are more suitable in P4-builds.)
- Power VR Hercules Prophet 4500 32Mb

That's it. I don't own any other P3-era NVidia based gpu's unfortunately

I installed the Prophet 4500 for the time being until I find another suitable gpu.