The newer the series, more limited the selection of driver releases. I'm sure the 6800's suffer some glitches just for that. No paletted textures, should still do table fog. Externally, the 6800's lack 3.3V AGP compatibility, so they won't be run in any old BX builds.

It is a significant performance jump, though, and a much improved design in other ways.

Why the hell will you even need so much newer card on win 98 ? Even something like Voodoo 3 or GEforce 2 or Radeon 8500, Radeon 9000 will be enough for that old windows...
Most people go for Voodoo builds on windows 98.

Radical Vision wrote:

Why the hell will you even need so much newer card on win 98 ? Even something like Voodoo 3 or GEforce 2 or Radeon 8500, Radeon 9000 will be enough for that old windows...
Most people go for Voodoo builds on windows 98.

There a few latter games that support 9x, like KOTOR 1/2, Biohazard 4 and AOE3, I recall seeing doom3 run on 98 as well. Some like to play games at higher screen resolutions too.
But for 90%+ of games, I'm with you. A 6800 or 5900 is way overkill. If you need a card like a 6800 ultra use 2k or xp, don't let the OS limit your system.

I think no one have enough space in their houses, but x2 based systems is nice to have. For example dual builds one to be perfectly matched on the wears of the parts, and no cheats, while the second one can be cheated as hard as possible, using on the AGP slot GEforce 7950GT AGP, on other systems the HD3850 AGP, SSD drives and other. I don`t have space for much builded machines...

The power is useful if you like 1600x1200 or higher and want maximum frame rate. Especially if you also like anti aliasing and anisotropic filtering. 5900 and 6800 are much quicker at both than previous chips.

Advantage to 5900 is ability to run 44-45.xx drivers. Later drivers cause glitches in some old games. Note that the 5700 and 5900 XT series can't run these drivers. They launched with the 50 series. 5900 XT could possibly be forced to run them.

swaaye wrote:

The power is useful if you like 1600x1200 or higher and want maximum frame rate. Especially if you also like anti aliasing and anisotropic filtering. 5900 and 6800 are much quicker at both than previous chips.

You get what I'm after here. 😀 I already have a Slot 1 BX board with a Voodoo 3/Tualatin - the 5900/6800 is to be paired with a S939 A64+. To be clear I'm not going to play early Windows XP games that can be run on 9x here - I just want to max out those demanding games, released prior to XP, that can do 1600x1200 and AA/AF without dropping below 50-60 FPS. Can a 5900 Ultra achieve this? Or is that now 6800 Ultra territory?

Advantage to 5900 is ability to run 44-45.xx drivers. Later drivers cause glitches in some old games.

Has anyone made any kind of compatibility list the way we have for 3dfx or DOS 2D scrollers? I'm wondering specifically if any of these games that glitch even offer settings like AA/AF and UXGA.

For instance, Firage mentions 8-bit palettized textures and I think to myself -- any games that utilize this feature may not have settings or resolutions that would push the Voodoo 3 BX machine. I will in all likelihood be including a PCI card for DOS since there are definitely high resolution software rendered games that eat up all the power the A64+ gives but cards beyond even GF3 can be really flaky in these games.

infiniteclouds wrote:

Has anyone made any kind of compatibility list the way we have for 3dfx or DOS 2D scrollers? I'm wondering specifically if any of these games that glitch even offer settings like AA/AF and UXGA.

For instance, Firage mentions 8-bit palettized textures and I think to myself -- any games that utilize this feature may not have settings or resolutions that would push the Voodoo 3 BX machine. I will in all likelihood be including a PCI card for DOS since there are definitely high resolution software rendered games that eat up all the power the A64+ gives but cards beyond even GF3 can be really flaky in these games.

It's a complicated topic but I'm not sure what doesn't work on the 45.23 drivers. Pretty solid for oldies. Bust out the GF3 if you need to for some case.

The need for Glide can usually be solved with DGVoodoo1 or Zeckensack's Glide Wrapper. These work well with GeForce FX, even benefiting from the 8-bit texture support. Frankly I like doing this more than using the Voodoo5. It's faster and looks better.

Yeah there certainly are SVGA DOS games that benefit from a lot of CPU power.

The readme for the 45.23's on windows 98 show it works with...

================================================================================ NVIDIA Display Driver for Windows 9x […]
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================================================================================
NVIDIA Display Driver for Windows 9x version 4.14.10.4523, 07/28/2003
================================================================================

Operating systems supported
---------------------------
Microsoft Windows 95
Microsoft Windows 98
Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition (Windows Me)

Adapters supported
------------------
NVIDIA RIVA TNT
NVIDIA RIVA TNT2
NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Pro
NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Ultra
NVIDIA Vanta
NVIDIA Vanta LT
NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64
NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64 Pro
NVIDIA Aladdin TNT2
NVIDIA GeForce 256
NVIDIA GeForce DDR
NVIDIA Quadro
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 200
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 400
NVIDIA Quadro2 MXR
NVIDIA Quadro2 EX
NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS
NVIDIA GeForce2 Pro
NVIDIA GeForce2 Ti
NVIDIA GeForce2 Ultra
NVIDIA GeForce2 Integrated GPU
NVIDIA Quadro2 Pro
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440-SE
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 460
NVIDIA Quadro NVS
NVIDIA Quadro4 500 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 550 XGL
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX Integrated GPU
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420 with AGP8X
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440SE with AGP8X
NVIDIA Quadro4 NVS with AGP8X
NVIDIA Quadro4 380 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 580 XGL
NVIDIA GeForce3
NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200
NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500
NVIDIA Quadro DCC
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4400
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4800
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4800 SE
NVIDIA Quadro4 700 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 750 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 900 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 780 XGL
NVIDIA Quadro4 980 XGL
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800 Ultra
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1000
NVIDIA Quadro FX 2000

You can probably ini mod all the FX cards to work with the 45 series.

If you look in the nvagp.inf driver you will see a few more supported...

NVIDIA RIVA TNT2/TNT2 Pro" NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Ultra" NVIDIA Vanta/Vanta LT" NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro" NVIDIA GeForce […]
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NVIDIA RIVA TNT2/TNT2 Pro"
NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Ultra"
NVIDIA Vanta/Vanta LT"
NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 Model 64/Model 64 Pro"
NVIDIA GeForce 256"
NVIDIA GeForce DDR"
NVIDIA Quadro"
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX/MX 400"
NVIDIA GeForce2 MX 100/200"
NVIDIA Quadro2 MXR/EX"
NVIDIA GeForce2 Integrated GPU"
NVIDIA GeForce2 GTS/GeForce2 Pro"
NVIDIA GeForce2 Ti"
NVIDIA GeForce2 Ultra"
NVIDIA Quadro2 Pro"
"NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 460"
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440"
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 420"
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440-SE"
NVIDIA Quadro4 550 XGL"
NVIDIA Quadro NVS"
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440 with AGP8X"
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX 440SE with AGP8X"
NVIDIA Quadro4 580 XGL"
NVIDIA Quadro NVS with AGP8X"
NVIDIA Quadro4 380 XGL"
NVIDIA GeForce4 MX Integrated GPU"
NVIDIA GeForce3"
NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 200"
NVIDIA GeForce3 Ti 500"
NVIDIA Quadro DCC"
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4600"
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4400"
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200"
NVIDIA Quadro4 900 XGL"
NVIDIA Quadro4 750 XGL"
NVIDIA Quadro4 700 XGL"
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4800"
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4200 with AGP8X"
NVIDIA GeForce4 Ti 4800 SE"
NVIDIA Quadro4 980 XGL"
NVIDIA Quadro4 780 XGL"
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800 Ultra"
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5800"
NVIDIA Quadro FX 2000"
NVIDIA Quadro FX 1000"
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600 Ultra"
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600"
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5600SE"
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200 Ultra"
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5200"
NVIDIA Quadro FX 500"
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900 Ultra"
NVIDIA GeForce FX 5900"
NVIDIA Quadro FX 3000"

So using a 6800 Ultra negates the possibility of using those drivers... that breaks quite a lot of games ?

This is why building collections is so important if you want to play the widest range of games possible and no its not cheap but when compatibility is the biggest issue there isn't much of a choice unless you decide to concede the fact that you will have to miss out on some games.