Grab an FX5500 PCI or a 5700 LE PCI if you want to run retro games both support DX9, I will say the experience wont be great since the PCI bus is the bottleneck here but they have what you want. Avoid the cheap chinesium recycled FX5500 PCI cards and grab a nice 256Mb BFG one, the chinesium ones have issues.

There is also a 6200 PCI but I cant recommend you use that ....its like sticking a potato in your exhaust with a small hole in it, you might be able to drive you car but itll be a terrible experience.

If you dont have any retro requirements then you could also source a Zotac GT430 PCI or one of the Radeon HD5000, HD6000, HD 7000 PCI cards.

There are others like the GT510 and GT610 both of which would work well enough if you have no period correct aims.

My understanding is that this greatly limits me in what I can use. Is that true?

Not really. You can use PCI-PCIe adapter + low profile PCIe GPU.

The Serpent Rider wrote on 2025-03-11, 04:32:

My understanding is that this greatly limits me in what I can use. Is that true?

Not really. You can use PCI-PCIe adapter + low profile PCIe GPU.

While this does work it'll be a really shit experience since the PCI bus is slow as shit so anything past a a certain point is just burning money and an adapter wont really improve anything other than selection. (Assuming the selected GPU is compatible with an adapter)

The Radeon HD PCi cards are dirt cheap, they pretty much cant give them away.

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-03-11, 04:03:

Grab an FX5500 PCI or a 5700 LE PCI if you want to run retro games both support DX9, I will say the experience wont be great sin […]
Show full quote

Grab an FX5500 PCI or a 5700 LE PCI if you want to run retro games both support DX9, I will say the experience wont be great since the PCI bus is the bottleneck here but they have what you want. Avoid the cheap chinesium recycled FX5500 PCI cards and grab a nice 256Mb BFG one, the chinesium ones have issues.

There is also a 6200 PCI but I cant recommend you use that ....its like sticking a potato in your exhaust with a small hole in it, you might be able to drive you car but itll be a terrible experience.

If you dont have any retro requirements then you could also source a Zotac GT430 PCI or one of the Radeon HD5000, HD6000, HD 7000 PCI cards.

There are others like the GT510 and GT610 both of which would work well enough if you have no period correct aims.

Hmm. Would the FX5500 work though? It appears to be keyed differently. The PCI slots on this machine has only one gap in it, whereas the FX5500 has two. Or would it "just work"?

The plan is to put XP build 2428 on this machine. I have no problems buying several PCI cards if it means finding the theoretical "best" one for this.

They are keyed for compatibility with old PCI.

AvalonPlex wrote on 2025-03-11, 16:15:

The plan is to put XP build 2428 on this machine. I have no problems buying several PCI cards if it means finding the theoretical "best" one for this.

More reason to grab a PCIe adapter.

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-03-11, 04:43:

While this does work it'll be a really shit experience since the PCI bus is slow as shit so anything past a a certain point is just burning money and an adapter wont really improve anything other than selection. (Assuming the selected GPU is compatible with an adapter)

I would argue that the price of an adapter + low profile GeForce 6200 or Radeon X600 (both are DX9 cards with proper 16-bit dithering and Win98 compatibility) could be cheaper than PCI option.

AvalonPlex wrote on 2025-03-11, 16:15:

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-03-11, 04:03:

Grab an FX5500 PCI or a 5700 LE PCI if you want to run retro games both support DX9, I will say the experience wont be great sin […]
Show full quote

Grab an FX5500 PCI or a 5700 LE PCI if you want to run retro games both support DX9, I will say the experience wont be great since the PCI bus is the bottleneck here but they have what you want. Avoid the cheap chinesium recycled FX5500 PCI cards and grab a nice 256Mb BFG one, the chinesium ones have issues.

There is also a 6200 PCI but I cant recommend you use that ....its like sticking a potato in your exhaust with a small hole in it, you might be able to drive you car but itll be a terrible experience.

If you dont have any retro requirements then you could also source a Zotac GT430 PCI or one of the Radeon HD5000, HD6000, HD 7000 PCI cards.

There are others like the GT510 and GT610 both of which would work well enough if you have no period correct aims.

Hmm. Would the FX5500 work though? It appears to be keyed differently. The PCI slots on this machine has only one gap in it, whereas the FX5500 has two. Or would it "just work"?

The plan is to put XP build 2428 on this machine. I have no problems buying several PCI cards if it means finding the theoretical "best" one for this.

Define best here, you are limited by the PCI bus itself but if you really dont care about burning cash you could as suggested buy an adapter and grab a low profile 4Gb 750TI to throw in it. its about the "best" you could hope for.

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-03-11, 22:16:

AvalonPlex wrote on 2025-03-11, 16:15:

Trashbytes wrote on 2025-03-11, 04:03:

Grab an FX5500 PCI or a 5700 LE PCI if you want to run retro games both support DX9, I will say the experience wont be great sin […]
Show full quote

Grab an FX5500 PCI or a 5700 LE PCI if you want to run retro games both support DX9, I will say the experience wont be great since the PCI bus is the bottleneck here but they have what you want. Avoid the cheap chinesium recycled FX5500 PCI cards and grab a nice 256Mb BFG one, the chinesium ones have issues.

There is also a 6200 PCI but I cant recommend you use that ....its like sticking a potato in your exhaust with a small hole in it, you might be able to drive you car but itll be a terrible experience.

If you dont have any retro requirements then you could also source a Zotac GT430 PCI or one of the Radeon HD5000, HD6000, HD 7000 PCI cards.

There are others like the GT510 and GT610 both of which would work well enough if you have no period correct aims.

Hmm. Would the FX5500 work though? It appears to be keyed differently. The PCI slots on this machine has only one gap in it, whereas the FX5500 has two. Or would it "just work"?

The plan is to put XP build 2428 on this machine. I have no problems buying several PCI cards if it means finding the theoretical "best" one for this.

Define best here, you are limited by the PCI bus itself but if you really dont care about burning cash you could as suggested buy an adapter and grab a low profile 4Gb 750TI to throw in it. its about the "best" you could hope for.

Definitely way too new for that build of XP (built on January 29th, 2001, so at least 7 months before XP was released), though there's a chance the GT430 PCI would work as it has Windows 200 drivers, which is arguably closer to 2428 than XP RTM (2600)

Haha, that'd be awesome... I'm going to highly consider what you've mentioned regarding buying a PCI to PCIe adapter. It's amazing such a thing even exists. That is like, revolutionary I think. Could very easily revive an old machine (even if performance isn't the best, or close to what the card can actually output)

Its quite a bit lower than what the card can do, even the FX5500 PCI is hampered by the PCI bus but itll do what you need it to.

You can also get a Radeon X1550 PCI, I have one and its a very solid card, the only issue is that they are hard to find but there is an X1300 PCI that are much more common.

From what I see, X1550 and X1300 are essentially the same thing (performance wise) and all PCI cards are 64-bit memory anyway. You definitely can get 128-bit X1300 low-profile PCIe. Or get a low-profile Radeon HD 4650. There are many options which are dirt cheap.