Maybe (and if compatible with your system I don't know) I would try Mystique 4MB + Voodoo 1 or a Riva 128 PCI, obviously for very old accelerated games.

Im using a Mystique 4MB with my dual Pentium Pro system running NT4, if it was a single CPU system running DOS I would have used a S3 Trio64 or Virge.

Tried looking up "pci voodoo" on eBay, and everyone wants a fortune for anything that matches that description.

Would the ATI RADEON 7000 64MB PCI DDR be a decent option? Found one for $15.

Only an opinion: the first generation Voodoo based card (usually 4MB of ram) is a 3D only accelerator that need another 2D video card to run (it will not run alone). A Radeon 7000 is a much newer card that usually would require much more powerful cpu to be used at best. It depends on what someone need for a system config like that. And it also depends on what would be fully compatible (chipset,motherboard,bios..) or not.

Good luck finding a Riva 128 pci as those are Rare these days, a pci TNT or TNT2 is ok even though still a bit strong for the system but are much easier and often cheaper to get.

Depends what your usage will be. If it's for playing games that came out when the Pro was relevant and you'd like to stay "period correct" then I'd get a Matrox + Voodoo. It's hard to properly slow down a Pentium Pro, so I would not worry about compatibility with older games (which the S3 Virge can provide). The Matrox cards are very fast in DOS and Windows, plus they have excellent output VGA quality (which I value).

Good alternatives (that arent exactly period correct) is the Voodoo3/5 PCI. Glide support, fast in DOS & Windows and good compatibility. It's the card I'm using in my Pentium Pro 200 system 😀

I would suggest a riva128 PCI too... Excellent card for fast 2d stuff. Combine it with a voodoo1 or 2 and you are set!
I had no idea PCI ones are less common, got a bunch here and always found that agp ones are the hard to get... Maybe now days all flavors are hard to find... 🤣

I'm a bit confused with what you guys are saying about combining cards. You're saying use more than one video card? I don't believe I ever did anything like that back in the day.

Win98 puts you in DX6, 7 & 8 territory. DX6 would be the best match era-wise, but a newer card would be more versatile (can be used on PIII systems, etc.) and probably easier to find (and therefore cheaper).

DX6:
ATi Rage 128 or Pro
ATi RIVA TNT2 or M64
3dfx Voodoo 3

DX7:
ATi Radeon 7000
nVidia MX 440

DX8:
ATi Radeon 8500
nVidia MX4000
nVidia FX5200

The 5200 is the latest PCI card I own, but I don't know if there are later.

brassicGamer wrote:

Win98 puts you in DX6, 7 & 8 territory. DX6 would be the best match era-wise, but a newer card would be more versatile (can be used on PIII systems, etc.) and probably easier to find (and therefore cheaper).

Yeah, I'm finding most everything period-correct suggested here is extremely expensive on eBay--$50-$100+

I'll probably just go with something newer and cheaper.

AllUrBaseRBelong2Us wrote:

I'm a bit confused with what you guys are saying about combining cards. You're saying use more than one video card? I don't believe I ever did anything like that back in the day.

Most popular and most compatible 3d accelerator of that time were add-on Voodoo cards by 3dfx.

Voodoo1 and Voodoo2 are not video cards - they are 3D accelerators only. Voodoo Banshee/3 and beyond are fully fledged graphics cards.

IMHO a Banshee would be a great single-card solution for that system, but good luck finding a PCI Banshee. For earlier 3DFx cards the Voodoo2 is much easier (and cheaper) to find than the Voodoo1 in my experience, and would go well with your Matrox.

Putas wrote:

Most popular and most compatible 3d accelerator of that time were add-on Voodoo cards by 3dfx.

So the basic video card of the time only did 2-D, and you had to add a separate card for 3-D, correct? Sounds complicated.

Would something like the ATI 7000 do both 2D & 3D?

AllUrBaseRBelong2Us wrote:

I'll probably just go with something newer and cheaper.

Voodoo 3 PCI cards are quite expensive, but brand new Matrox G450 PCI cards are quite cheap:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/32MB-Matrox-Millenniu … FYAAOSwrklVNqs7

Here is a Riva 128 PCI for 15 EURO:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/CARTE-VIDEO-PCI-ELSA- … tAAAOSwu-BWP0Y0

Voodoo2 12MB PCI for 30 USD:
http://www.ebay.com/itm/STB-3dfx-Voodoo2-grap … UEAAOxyYANTa430

AllUrBaseRBelong2Us wrote:

So the basic video card of the time only did 2-D, and you had to add a separate card for 3-D, correct? Sounds complicated.

Would something like the ATI 7000 do both 2D & 3D?

The thing about 3D back then is that it took a while for things to become a standard. 3DFx cards (the Voodoos) also get you Glide API support - which the Radeon will not.

IMHO before buying a card you should first look at the games you wanna play - sereval early 3D games (specially DOS) did not support either D3D or OpenGL, but proprietary APIs and Glide was the most popular one. If you wanna play games that support Glide only, no way to escape getting a Voodoo besides using wrappers (but those would need a more powerful PC anyway).

For early OpenGL games, if memory doesn't fail me, you are better off with NVidia cards. Something TNT2 or GeForce2 MX in PCI form.

AllUrBaseRBelong2Us wrote:

Would something like the ATI 7000 do both 2D & 3D?

sure, but that is year 2000 hardware

AllUrBaseRBelong2Us wrote:

I'm a bit confused with what you guys are saying about combining cards. You're saying use more than one video card? I don't believe I ever did anything like that back in the day.

Voodoo 1 and Voodoo 2 were 3D-only cards, they only do 3D stuff.
So if you intent to use either of those, you'll need a second graphics card for displaying 2D stuff like your Windows desktop 😜
It doesn't matter if your 2D card can also do 3D btw, Voodoo is all about the Glide 😀

edit:
Personally, especially if Glide isn't an issue anyway, I'd say just get one of those PCI TNT2 M64, Vanta-16 or, if need be, anything with GF MX that fits in a PCI slot without a hammer 😁

Tetrium wrote:

Personally, especially if Glide isn't an issue anyway, I'd say just get one of those PCI TNT2 M64, Vanta-16 or, if need be, anything with GF MX that fits in a PCI slot without a hammer 😁

+1. Get something versatile as a starting point, then keep those eyes peeled for a Voodoo bargain later on to make your system perfect. You're more likely to find one when you don't need one. 😀

Using a Voodoo 3 3000 PCI with my Pentium Pro 200. Total overkill, but I seriously couldn't go wrong with the great IQ it offers, plus the fact that it's just one card instead of 2 or 3. Now to find a 440FX motherboard to replace my 450NX and we're cookin' 😉.