Ti4200
It's still DX8 at most and the Ti4200 is around twice as fast as the FX5500.The FX can be good for late Windows 98, but not the low-end models.

The GeForce 4 Ti models (4200 and up) have slightly better compatibility with Win9x games. Performance wise, the higher tier FX cards like the 5600 Ultra and the 5900XT are better of course, especially if you like to use Anti Aliasing and Anisotropic Filtering at higher resolutions.

However, the FX cards need slightly newer drivers (lowest version is 45.23) which can prevent a couple of games from working correctly, e.g. some of the Need for Speed titles. Additionally, the FX cards also suffer from a text distortion issue in some older titles, which is unrelated to the driver version. This problem does not occur on the GeForce 4 cards.

Between the two cards that you mention, the GeForce 4 Ti4200 is the better choice overall.

Thanks a lot for the informative answers.

@Joseph_Joestar In that case I tis going to be the GF4 4200 ti then. I have checke out the highter tiers the FX series as well but the Ultra models too expensive for my liking.

What do you guys think about Radeon 9800pro for my needs. I came across this card during my price research for the Geforce 4200ti. The Radeon card is bit more expensive than 4200 but the price gap is not big enough to make the Radeon card a no go.

I am still more inclined towards the 4200 the be honest but I want to look out for other potential options as well.

theiceman085 wrote on 2023-03-22, 07:42:

What do you guys think about Radeon 9800pro for my needs.

It's faster than the GeForce 4 Ti4200, but slightly less compatible. Radeon cards don't support certain features like Table Fog and Paletted Textures which are used by some Win9x games. This isn't a huge issue and it doesn't seem to affect that many games, at least according to current findings.

With Win9x gaming, there is always a trade off between performance and compatibility when you start using more powerful GPUs. The GeForce 4 Ti cards are probably the most balanced in that regard, as they provide pretty good performance while retaining very solid backwards compatibility.

theiceman085 wrote on 2023-03-22, 07:42:

What do you guys think about Radeon 9800pro for my needs. I came across this card during my price research for the Geforce 4200ti. The Radeon card is bit more expensive than 4200 but the price gap is not big enough to make the Radeon card a no go.

Your 'needs' might be obvious to you, but they're not really obvious to the rest of us. 😁

Jokes aside, the Radeon 9800 PRO is a great card, it just has some limitations (lack of table fog / paletted textures support) which might or might not be important to you, depending on the games you play.
As a general rule, if you play older/early Win98 games, it's better to stick with a GeForce 4 Ti 4200. If, on the other hand, you want to play newer games, up to 2001/2002, then the Radeon 9800 will be awesome. This will be especially true if you prefer very high resolutions (1600 x 1200) with AA / AF.
That being said, the Radeon 9800 PRO will also work fine with quite a few older games, it's just that some might need a bit of tweaking to get things going, while others will simply not work (or look) properly.

Thanks a lot for the further replies.

then Radeon is out of the question. It sure has some bennefits for more modern games but I am more into the earlier Win 98 games so features like Table fog and palleted textures are quite important for me. ( the 1997 to 2000 era).

theiceman085 wrote on 2023-03-22, 08:54:

Thanks a lot for the further replies.

then Radeon is out of the question. It sure has some bennefits for more modern games but I am more into the earlier Win 98 games so features like Table fog and palleted textures are quite important for me. ( the 1997 to 2000 era).

To be fair, those features are nice to have, but their significance is blown way out of proportion. There are only a dozen or so games that support them and among them maybe a handful with any kind of significance. Driver, FF VII, FFVIII for paletted textures and Thief 2, Carmageddon 2 and NFS 3 and 4 for table fog.

We often have this itch to maximize compatibility in general with a certain era and overcomplicate things because of that or overpay for certain parts despite not practically benefiting from the added features. These features are only important if you actually plan to play those specific games that support it.

@RandomStranger you got a point. It is really good advice not to overcomplicate stuff. The only game of the bunch you mentioned I want to try out would be Thief 2. I really enjoyed the first one back then but could never get into the second one. As soon as my rig is finished I will change that.

if that is the case I will still keep considering the 9700pro.

RandomStranger wrote on 2023-03-22, 09:34:

To be fair, those features are nice to have, but their significance is blown way out of proportion. There are only a dozen or so games that support them and among them maybe a handful with any kind of significance.

Of significance to whom is the question. Different people like different games.

If anyone had bothered to click the links that I provided above, they would see that the list of games is a bit longer than what you posted. We also don't know the full extent of games which use these features. The wiki only lists those that have been tested and confirmed to do so. Still, I will repeat that this isn't a big issue in my view, and some workarounds do exist for Radeon cards.

Ultimately, it's important to document things as thoroughly as we can, so that people are free to make a well informed decision.

theiceman085 wrote on 2023-03-22, 10:37:

if that is the case I will still keep considering the 9700pro.

Uhm... if this is actually a cheap & fully working 9700PRO (instead of the 9800PRO you previously mentioned), then don't even think about it. Just. Buy. It. Now. 😁