tayyare wrote:Tetrium wrote:Tbh, I've actually used a GF2MX to my satisfaction once or twice! :D […]
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tayyare wrote:
Yeah, we know... Just like 640KB was the largest memory that anyone would have required for the next century, eh? 🤣
To say the truth, GF4 MX440 is from 2002 and they are more than good enough for anything till (and including) 2000-2001, which is marking the end of W9x era for most people, anyways. For W9x, this alone makes them very good alternatives to "real" GF4s, of which only advantage over "fake" GF4s mostly, is being even more overkill as a W9x GPU. 🤣
I know GF4 Ti and GF2 is "cooler", and yes I have one in my W9x build, but before that I was using an MX 440 and there was nothing I was lacking with it compared to a GF2 Ultra that I have now, or a Ti4200 and Ti 4600 that I also tried in the same machine.
Tbh, I've actually used a GF2MX to my satisfaction once or twice! 😁
Passive cooling, very low power requirement, why swap it for a TNT2 Ultra?
I do admit it was probably a 2MX-400, but I think even the GF2MX-200 isn't a worthless card in itself (but frankly I wouldn't pay like €5 for an untested card or something). I got a couple cheap from buying second hand rigs and by buying some very nice stuff, then searching what else same seller had for sale and then asked the seller to include the crappy stuff for hardly anything extra 😁
He got rid of his crap (all in a single package) and in return received nice good feedback and I got extra stuff for basically nothing and virtually no extra effort whatsoever 😁
I consider TNT class display cards (including GF2 MX) more of a S7 type of hardware, and I consider a S7 machine more of a DOS type rig (1994-1997) than W9x. When it comes to W9x (1997-2001) my preference is a PIII Coppermine at least (Tualatin is my choice), and GF2/GF4/GF4 MX class display cards. The best kill is overkill. 🤣 I had enough of the cobbled together cheap parts in my youth already.
I tend to mostly match CPU and graphics card by performance and tweak my picks if I have some specific reason to do so (like prefer one graphics card over another due to matching colors or matching brands of that graphics card with the motherboard or due to PSU restrictions or whatever), but it comes down to personal preference.
I though there was some thread about how different Vogoners preferred to match their graphics card and CPU differently. Some may prefer to be able to play games in crazy resolutions and thus use a graphics card thats relatively powerful when compared to the rest of the system while others prefer to max the rest of the system and pick the slowest graphics card so the graphics card gets some heavy use.
I do like to cobble things together. One gains experience that way as what I've learned is that very often there's at least one unexpected problem blocking your path to glory...err I mean withholding the completion of your rig 😁
To me I tend to match CPU and GPU a bit like this (I'm skipping DOS as I think that's a different category and varies a LOT)
P1 233MMX + Virge + Voodoo 1
K6-2/333 + (some 8MB graphics card)
K6-III/400 or Celeron 400 + TNT2 M64 16MB + 1xVoodoo2 or Voodoo 3 2000
Pentium 3 600MHz/Celeron 800 + TNT2 (pro or ultra) or maybe GF2MX-200 + Voodoo SLI or just a single Voodoo 3 3000
Pentium 3 1000 + GF4MX or GF2 or maybe Voodoo 4 (if you can find one)
Pentium 3 1400MHz (Tualatin S) + GF3 or Voodoo 5 or so
Athlon XP 2000+ + GF4
Athlon XP 2500+ or P4 Northwood that's below 3000MHz + maybe FX5900
Athlon XP 3200+ (Barton) or 2.2GHz A64 or s478 Northwood of, say, 2.8GHz or faster + GF6800 or GF7600
and things get different again when it comes to PCI-E. As you can see, I've not mentioned any of the really high-end AGP cards, even though I have used em (I really loved my AGP 4670 1GB and it will only leave my presence with my bloody hand still attached to it 🤣)
And like I already mentioned, it comes down a lot to things that end up not being part of an ideal situation (unless you got too much money to burn and most probably don't) and maybe also about not being too perfectionistic 😜