I'd go with the 9600pro out of those two. I tested similar radeons in Win98 and did not run into any game breaking bugs. The Nvidia 6 series requires newer drivers that have some compatibility problems with 90s games like NFS 3. That's why with Nvidia people generally recommend not getting anything newer than the FX series for Win 98 gaming, because those cards can use older drivers.

I see... I would like to get an FX series for highest compatibility, but I don't have any games that I want to play that will make use of 8bit palleted textures or table fog so that's why I considered those 2 options since they're quite cheap.

I do play NFS3 on this machine so, I'd be bummed to lose the ability to continuing playing it, so I guess the 6600 is out of the question... Will the 9600 Pro allow me to use something like nglide or dgVoodoo so that I can keep playing older glide only games? From what I read since it supports DX9 and Pixel Shader 2.0 it should be fine?

You may as well run XP with the system.

It should be fine for nGlide or dgVoodoo, although I personally haven't tried it with that card, and you might need a faster cpu for smooth gameplay with those.

ptr1ck wrote on 2022-09-25, 18:17:

You may as well run XP with the system.

Eh, true that I'd have more options as an XP machine but I'd like to just get a nice, really fast 98SE build (I really like win 9x too 🤣), mostly for the "buy hardware I couldn't get at the time" factor, the nostalgia of the older games and playing them with settings I couldn't achieve back then. For an XP machine I'd probably go with something like an Athlon 64 X2 and a GeForce 7 or Radeon X1K series, but that I already had a system like that back then.

pixel_workbench wrote on 2022-09-25, 22:20:

It should be fine for nGlide or dgVoodoo, although I personally haven't tried it with that card, and you might need a faster cpu for smooth gameplay with those.

Well, I think I'll bite the bullet then. If my Voodoo3 was PCI it would be perfect and just have both, but given that upgrading the CPU is in the pipeline, a glide wrapper shouldn't be much of a problem, besides, it's to run those games that are exclusive to 3dfx.

Upon thinking a bit, I might have to actually go socket 478 as I have fairly standard 350W ATX PSU that will most likely struggle with the high power requirements of the Socket A Athlon XPs on the 5v rail...

The thing is, you're not going to max out to many games with a P3 733, especially if you're using a wrapper.

ptr1ck wrote on 2022-09-26, 12:35:

The thing is, you're not going to max out to many games with a P3 733, especially if you're using a wrapper.

CPU upgrade is in the pipeline, I'd like to stay with socket 370, but it is quite a bit expensive to go into higher end with something like a 1266S or a 1400S, hence me mentioning I'm looking for a Northwood (or Prescott and disable HT) core P4 CPU and a skt 478 mobo with good 98SE support. That 733 is beyond under powered for a 9600Pro, and I've found that in some cases, it actually bottlenecks the Voodoo3.

Good luck. You may find that upgraded CPU still a bottleneck for that video card. I'm a fan of GeForce4 for 9x machines. Period correct and plenty fast enough for the era of games up until XP released. If I'm going to max a game out, there's typically patches and stuff so I can just run it on my i9-3060ti system, like GTA RE3.

Your V3 3000 fits very well with your CPU and Win98. Any newer Game, that your machine cannot serve, would run with WinXP and you have a lot of other good and cheap hardware options.

If you want to max out your mainboard under Win98, I would recommend to upgrade your CPU to a 1400/512 Tualatin and add a GF FX5900. But it is very expensive for a little advantage.

ptr1ck wrote on 2022-09-26, 13:34:

Good luck. You may find that upgraded CPU still a bottleneck for that video card. I'm a fan of GeForce4 for 9x machines. Period correct and plenty fast enough for the era of games up until XP released. If I'm going to max a game out, there's typically patches and stuff so I can just run it on my i9-3060ti system, like GTA RE3.

Thanks. Yeah, picking the 9600Pro as I am eyeing one at a very good price and should run pretty much anything I throw at it up to very late 98 era/early XP. I could get a GF4 Ti4800SE but it's a bit more expensive than the 9600...

PC-Engineer wrote on 2022-09-26, 15:43:

Your V3 3000 fits very well with your CPU and Win98. Any newer Game, that your machine cannot serve, would run with WinXP and you have a lot of other good and cheap hardware options.

If you want to max out your mainboard under Win98, I would recommend to upgrade your CPU to a 1400/512 Tualatin and add a GF FX5900. But it is very expensive for a little advantage.

Yeah, I'd like to keep it period correct but... a Tualatin 1.4GHz whilst still essentially just about twice as fast as my 733 but, it is very expensive for what it is, same goes for the FX5900... I can get a socket 478 CPU, mobo, RAM and the 9600Pro for just about the same price as the Tualatin alone. I'm also not entirely sure if the mobo I have can support them either.

I figured it would be better to go a generation forward and get the lower end of the spectrum, whilst still being as fast or faster and still maintain compatibility. I know it may be weird, but wanna stay with 98SE for nostalgia sake.

Nostalgia is a helluva thing. It's part of the reason I'm using ME instead of 98.

I also agree to go where it's cost effective. The mobile CPU I'm using only cost me $6 earlier this year.

True! I considered windows ME but as I kid I mostly used 95 and 98... I'm going to bite the bullet and get the 9600 Pro but from the pictures of the card on sale, it seems to have a very anemic heatsink and fan, wonder if I can find something better nowadays... Would love to push that card a bit further than stock if possible! Also shame that you can't unlock the 9600 like you could with some 9500s...

Now I just need to find a nicely priced socket 478 set...