Do you count a 3d decelerator as a 2d only card?

In that case, the entire virge gx2 / trio3d/2x lineup will do. They are great 2d cards.

The Matrox Millennium cards were seen as the heavy 2D hitters before then. Their 3D capabilities were tertiary (some old MGA api at best for a handful of games). Mystique and G100A carry similar heavy 2D bones (though the 3d probably disqualifies it here)

Ark Logic ARK2000 (several models)
Tseng Labs ET6000
Tseng Labs ET6100
ATI Graphics Pro Turbo 1600
These are nice 2d cards also.

Kruton 9000 wrote on 2025-09-05, 05:34:

Ark Logic ARK2000 (several models) Tseng Labs ET6000 Tseng Labs ET6100 ATI Graphics Pro Turbo 1600 These are nice 2d cards also. […]
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Ark Logic ARK2000 (several models)
Tseng Labs ET6000
Tseng Labs ET6100
ATI Graphics Pro Turbo 1600
These are nice 2d cards also.

ark2000: damn rare and i even doubt if 4mb cards ever existed.
et6100: fast but only up to 1280*1024*16bit and 1152*864*24bit by datasheet.
mach64: the high-end mach64gx with vram is a bit old, newer mach64ct/gt/vt are low cost with integrated ramdac and edo so i doubt if they would ever be as good as the old gx.

leileilol wrote on 2025-09-05, 04:47:

The Matrox Millennium cards were seen as the heavy 2D hitters before then. Their 3D capabilities were tertiary (some old MGA api at best for a handful of games). Mystique and G100A carry similar heavy 2D bones (though the 3d probably disqualifies it here)

Millennium is mentioned, i doubt if mystique and g100's integrated ramdac would ever be as good as millennium's external one. g200's 2d performance is well recognized though, which is a rather mature 3d card.

st31276a wrote on 2025-09-04, 16:09:

Do you count a 3d decelerator as a 2d only card?

In that case, the entire virge gx2 / trio3d/2x lineup will do. They are great 2d cards.

i doubt on that. s3 968 stood out for supporting up to 8mb vram and 250mhz ramdac, although elsa winner2000pro was probably the only one to have them, 4mb cards with 220mhz ramdac are more common.
in contrast, virge and trio64 has 135mhz ramdac, trio64v2 and virge/dx/gx has 170mhz but would still only go up to 1024*768*16bit and 800*600*24bit non-interlaced. trio3d supports 8mb and seemingly 220mhz ramdac, but was rather late when the higher-end savage3 with 250mhz ramdac is about out.

There is also the miroMagic 80SV with 8MB VRAM and 250MHz RAMDAC:

st31276a wrote on 2025-09-04, 16:09:

Do you count a 3d decelerator as a 2d only card?

In that case, the entire virge gx2 / trio3d/2x lineup will do. They are great 2d cards.

If we take into account the Virge/Trio 3D series, then the best option from it will be Virge /VX, as it has 220 MHz RAMDAC and supports up to 8 MB of video memory. And at the same time, it is the most primitive and slowest in 3D of the entire line. However, even Virge /VX is still a little behind the S3 968 if you don't take into account 3D support .

noshutdown wrote on 2025-09-05, 12:19:

mach64: the high-end mach64gx with vram is a bit old, newer mach64ct/gt/vt are low cost with integrated ramdac and edo so i doubt if they would ever be as good as the old gx.

User’s Guide for Graphics Pro Turbo 1600, Graphics Pro Turbo and related cards have copyright from year 1996. This is the same era as Matrox Millenium. 1600 model supports up to 1600x1200 16bit @76Hz mode.

Kruton 9000 wrote on 2025-09-05, 19:54:

User’s Guide for Graphics Pro Turbo 1600, Graphics Pro Turbo and related cards have copyright from year 1996. This is the same era as Matrox Millenium. 1600 model supports up to 1600x1200 16bit @76Hz mode.

oh really, but at least some pci Graphics Pro Turbo cards were made in 1994, and Graphics Pro Turbo 1600 is probably just the same gpu with upgraded external ramdac, with that copyright 1996 being the revision of manual.

How about the Number Nine Imagine 128 Series II?
https://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/companie … -imagine-128-ii

Up to 8MB frame buffer and a 250Mhz RAMDAC.

It has rudimentary 3D features, similar to the Millennium, but it's tough to call this a full fledged 3D card since it can't even do texturing and seems unlikely to work at all for most 3D games despite having a basic Direct3D driver.

https://vintage3d.org/n9.php
(Note: The 3D testing on that page is done with the later Revolution card, not the Imagine 128)

I'm not sure how it stacks up to the Millennium or S3 968, but it is probably somewhat competitive... other than in DOS of course, since it uses an old GD5424 for DOS applications.

Even the original Imagine 128 also supports 8MB on some models:
https://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/companie … ine-imagine-128

Additionally, there are probably some professional cards out there with powerful 2D-only configurations... though they are mostly made long after the 3D era began, so that isn't really what the thread is about.

For example, the XGI Volari Z7\Z9s\Z11 from 2005-2007:
https://www.vgamuseum.info/index.php/companie … -xgi-volari-z9s

Kruton 9000 wrote on 2025-09-05, 19:33:

st31276a wrote on 2025-09-04, 16:09:

Do you count a 3d decelerator as a 2d only card?

In that case, the entire virge gx2 / trio3d/2x lineup will do. They are great 2d cards.

If we take into account the Virge/Trio 3D series, then the best option from it will be Virge /VX, as it has 220 MHz RAMDAC and supports up to 8 MB of video memory. And at the same time, it is the most primitive and slowest in 3D of the entire line. However, even Virge /VX is still a little behind the S3 968 if you don't take into account 3D support .

I own this card which has 8mb of actual VRAM on a virge VX and not a mix of EDO and VRAM.
And i remember enquiring about it on Vogons and people mentioned that due to it lacking a better DAC ,
and something to do with the architecture there was no way to take advantage of the full 8mb ,
for things like having better resolution and color in windows which was a bit disappointing to find out.

Not to mention because its technically a NEC PC-98 card and not a IBM PC card the drivers were very janky and the resolution utilities were half functional and unreadable due to having broken kanji characters.

Maybe if someone made a similar Virge VX with that 250 mhz IBM DAC it might have been a more usable card?
Assuming you could actually make the that DAC communicate with the Virge which I'm not sure is even possible?

Kruton 9000 wrote on 2025-09-05, 19:33:

st31276a wrote on 2025-09-04, 16:09:

Do you count a 3d decelerator as a 2d only card?

In that case, the entire virge gx2 / trio3d/2x lineup will do. They are great 2d cards.

If we take into account the Virge/Trio 3D series, then the best option from it will be Virge /VX, as it has 220 MHz RAMDAC and supports up to 8 MB of video memory. And at the same time, it is the most primitive and slowest in 3D of the entire line. However, even Virge /VX is still a little behind the S3 968 if you don't take into account 3D support .

Performance wise, yes.

But in terms of DOS compatibility (S3D games), it's the original 325.
The patches for later cards seldomly work (I tried).

Please everyone note that the 325 uses conservative timings often and is basically underclocked by default.
There are tweaking tools that can help fixing this issue.

Anyway, for example,the Elsa Gloria XL had a Permedia Glint Delta chip for 3D/Windows NT (OGL) and a ViRGE 325 for 2D GUI/Windows 9x (D3D/S3D).

Edit: The ViRGE 325 is my favorite 2D companion card for 3dfx Voodoo 1.
It often has a VBE 2.x BIOS and the 2D core is S3 Trio32/64 compatible.
Not in terms of 2D GUI acceleration, but in terms of VGA core and pinout.

Kruton 9000 wrote on 2025-09-05, 19:33:

If we take into account the Virge/Trio 3D series, then the best option from it will be Virge /VX, as it has 220 MHz RAMDAC and supports up to 8 MB of video memory. And at the same time, it is the most primitive and slowest in 3D of the entire line. However, even Virge /VX is still a little behind the S3 968 if you don't take into account 3D support .

yes i think the virge/vx 988(not the 3xx or 7xx line) was intended to be the replacement of the 968, but doubt if it fully did the job.