From the cards you listed, the S3 Virge is the most compatible one with regards to DOS games. Followed closely by the Nvidia cards, then Ati and Matrox. See here for more details: https://gona.mactar.hu/DOS_TESTS/

As for VBE 3.0, it allows you to run VBEHz and similar tools which can set the refresh rate of certain DOS games to higher values. This is useful if you are using a CRT monitor and want to play WarCraft2 at 120 Hz for example. The S3 Virge also has a custom tool which can increase the refresh rate, but that one caps out at 85 Hz.

I use S3 Virge/GX for DOS gaming and yes, it is great, no problems at all.

Thanks...I guess the pci card it is...feels weird because usually you want the "best" option

whats the problem with the TNT2

Warlord wrote on 2021-03-06, 00:33:

whats the problem with the TNT2

Nothing it works fine, but my knowledge is limited s I was asking for advice to avoid issues down the line

Looking around I see some are Vesa 3.0 others Vesa 2.0 and you can use univbe to get to Vesa 3.0 although I'm not sure how important the Vesa version is for dos

VBE 3.0 card can be tweaked by VBE 3.0 utilities and does not require strict chip identification to tweak refresh rate or resolution. VBE 2.0 cards are limited only to their chip specific utilities or UniVBE.
That leads to a problem with lazy ass manufacturers like ATI. ATI didn't integrated VBE 3.0 on cards after ATI Rage Pro and they cannot be tweaked, because UniVBE does not support them.