Might want to consider researching the TNT2 Pro as well. Just make sure you know what you're buying, look for card specific reviews by the exact brand/model
You might also consider the Diamond Stealth III S540 - I had this card briefly back in the day, it's a budget card and has some tradeoffs vs TNT based cards (it has an S3/Savage chipset). Ultimately I didn't like it because of some issues with some of my emulators and I think VESA display mode support... something like that. But still it can be found cheap sometimes and for low resolution work, may be up to the task. I remember playing Rogue Squadron 3D with this card and thought it ran pretty well. But that's not exactly a demanding game either.

There is also a bigger brother based on TNT chipset, the Diamond Viper V770

A lot of stuff from back then has confusing similar names, and that can cross over into auctions for one thing, thinking you're getting another.

If you really want a card that was released in that the 98-99 period, the TNT2 M64 can't be beat for price to performance. It can be had for next to nothing.

Among the 1999 cards, the fastest cards you can find for <$20 would likely be a Matrox G400 AGP and S3 Savage4. The GeForce DDR and TNT2 Pro/Ultra would almost certainly sell for beyond that budget.

You could probably also get an ATI Rage 128, which is about as fast as a Voodoo 2, but it has infuriating drivers and image quality issues.

For that budget you could also get 98 cards like S3 Savage3D and the Intel i740 but performance wise these are all Voodoo 1 class hardware, and pretty slow.

I would personally go for either a Matrox G400 or an S3 Savage 4.

You ought to really check out this thread for performance figures: '98

On that budget i would go for a geforce2 MX, works great. You might be searching a bit longer but a Geforce2 GTS would also be possible and a great match (i like a bit of overkill, free AA in old games).

TNT2 m64 is pretty slow (about the same speed as a TNT1 card), i would at least go for a ''normal'' TNT2 (such as the viper770) as it is much faster. But Geforce2 mx is an even better choice and easy to find.

meljor wrote:

On that budget i would go for a geforce2 MX, works great.

Oh, the irony. I have a GeForce 2 MX400; it just doesn't like my i440 chipset. It sucks, because like you said, it runs very well. I watched a video Phil made on it a while back, and he said it can get up to GeForce 256 performance. That being said, I'm also being very strict on time-accuracy; the GeForce 2 was released in 2000.

So the best option right now seems to lie in a TNT2 of some kind, though there seems to be many kinds. I'll have to take a look on eBay and see if I can find a Viper 770 or similar card. I want a cheaper GPU, but I also want one that runs at a decent speed and can play Half-Life and the such at a minimum of 800x600 at a decent frame-rate.

meljor wrote:

On that budget i would go for a geforce2 MX, works great. You might be searching a bit longer but a Geforce2 GTS would also be possible and a great match (i like a bit of overkill, free AA in old games).

TNT2 m64 is pretty slow (about the same speed as a TNT1 card), i would at least go for a ''normal'' TNT2 (such as the viper770) as it is much faster. But Geforce2 mx is an even better choice and easy to find.

GF2 MX is from 2001 though, not 98-99. GF2 GTS is from 2000 too, incidentally.

How do these few look?

32MB TNT2 M64:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/NVIDIA-TNT2-M64-Grap … bfauo:rk:4:pf:0

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Pine-NVIDIA-Tnt2-Mod … a6GZ:rk:33:pf:0

-------

32MB e-TNT2 M64:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Nvidia-SP5200B-e-TNT … 5.c100005.m1851

https://www.ebay.com/itm/Sparkle-e-TNT2-M64-3 … US!-1:rk:6:pf:0

-----

16MB TNT2 M64:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/VER-A-TNT2M64-16MB-G … US!-1:rk:3:pf:0

https://www.ebay.com/itm/MICRO-STAR-MSI-MS880 … R8tje:rk:9:pf:0

I chose these based on low shipping time (can you believe some of the ones I looked at said they'd get to me by DEC. 7TH?), and these are the ones that looked the best/hopefully weren't OEM cards of any kind. I know that any 16MB cards would theoretically be bad to pick, but not all VRAM is equal, and I've seen cards with 1GB of VRAM outperform those with 2GB, due to GPU clock/RAM speed, and bus width.

I'm also unsure of what this "e-TNT2" is opposed to the standard TNT2, and if it has any significance or is just a weird model number quirk.

I think the e- is a signifier of EVGA ?

About the only reference I can find.

Neco wrote:

I think the e- is a signifier of EVGA ?

Possibly, but I think the one that has the 'Sparkle' branding discounts that theory.

I'm just wondering what the best out of these are. I'm thinking that the 16MB ones aren't as powerful as the 32MB ones, but I'm not sure how many 32MB cards were available in early 1999.

I'm thinking of taking the TNT2 or e-TNT2 32MB, and ditching those 16MB cards. But that still leaves four of them, and with them all being the same 32MB type, I'm not sure how many performance impacting differences, if any, exist between them.

You have to be careful with that. A lot of times, even in modern times, manufacturers may give you a card with more memory but cripple it in some way, halving the data bus, or using slower RAM etc

in some cases this can lead to worse performance FPS wise, even if it allows you to improve graphical detail / assets loaded, etc.

It's a more evident on older, retro hardware than today tho.

In that case, wouldn't the cards labeled as nVidia only be a good option? Those seem to be nVidia-produced.

I'll look a little deeper into it and see what I can figure out.

[EDIT]

The plain nVidia labeled ones are EVGA.

I have a detailed schematic of the Pine card now.

You can label any card as "nvidia" as that is the graphics chip used. ASUS, ABIT, EVGA, Hercules, etc. Those are just brands / board partners.

As suggested earlier the best thing to do is narrow your cards down, then start looking for benchmark charts. I think this forum has a big benchmark thread of different graphics cards and would be a good place to start.

I know, but the fan stickers have the nVidia logo, is what I meant.

They don't have the manufacturer name, like the MSI logo or EVGA logo.

athlon-power wrote:

I know, but the fan stickers have the nVidia logo, is what I meant.

They don't have the manufacturer name, like the MSI logo or EVGA logo.

This means nothing.

I have an Asus AGP-V3800M from 1999 which seems to be cheap card on ebay.
All the good cards that I have unfortunately seem to be from 2000.

Baoran wrote:

I have an Asus AGP-V3800M from 1999 which seems to be cheap card on ebay.
All the good cards that I have unfortunately seem to be from 2000.

There are several versions of the 3800M (which is the TNT2 family) - the most common one is the (TF) which is an M64i but there are also Pro and Ti variants as well, which are fairly good cards.

I personally think that the Rage 128/128 Pro is better choice by far then the TNT2 M64 card....

From my experience the rage cards get way more hate then they actually deserve. Perhaps back in 98-99 drivers were as bad of as mess as people say, but I don't actually remember having one of these cards back then.

However, nowadays with up to date drivers I just haven't had any real issues that people speak of.

Now in DOS that might be a different story, but for a Windows 98 gaming PC the 32bit color mode and other performance features outweigh the bad vs a TNT2M64.

It's also less of a headache compared to the Savage 4 but that's just a personal opinion.

YMMV