I'm running a S3 Trio64 and did not have any problem in any game so far.
If I do another build I will switch to Trio64 V2.

My favorite DOS cards are Riva TNT2/TNT2 M64 and S3 Virge VX, they are fast, compatible and have good signal quality. Not the cheapest (~30€) and easiest to find though. A good budget solution would be Cirrus Logic (dirt cheap, decent speed and signal quality up to 800x600), but I've seen these go for ~30€ lately which isn't worth it.

Another fantastic DOS card is the S3 Savage 4, but it's mainly AGP and hard to find for PCI (~40€). I use this card in my Super Socket 7 machine, it's extremely fast with beautiful image quality, very similar to a Voodoo 3. Also good for light Windows 3D gaming.

If you care about video signal quality, avoid Riva 128 and generic S3 Virge cards (reduced RGB amplitude, poor contrast) and Trident cards (washed out colors). I've heard S3 Trio cards aren't great either, though I haven't tested one personally.

asdf53 wrote on 2026-02-19, 08:28:

My favorite DOS cards are Riva TNT2/TNT2 M64 and S3 Virge VX, they are fast, compatible and have good signal quality. Not the cheapest (~30€) and easiest to find though. A good budget solution would be Cirrus Logic (dirt cheap, decent speed and signal quality up to 800x600), but I've seen those go for ~30€ lately which they're not worth.

Another fantastic DOS card is the S3 Savage 4, but it's mainly AGP and hard to find for PCI (~40€). I use this card in my Super Socket 7 machine, it's extremely fast with beautiful image quality, very similar to a Voodoo 3. Also good for light Windows 3D gaming.

If you care about video signal quality, avoid Riva 128 and generic S3 Virge cards (reduced RGB amplitude, poor contrast) and Trident cards (washed out colors). I've heard S3 Trio cards aren't great either, though I haven't tested one personally.

Riva128 are amazing, amazing dos compatibility, perfect vesa3, work with moddified univbe, and latest nvidia with functional windows 3.1 drivers (for me this is a must)

I have two and picture quality is good, not diferent to another nvidia card i tested

Problem is good luck to find in PCI... well... good luck to find at all

S3 cards yes are a lottery! the brightness problem is horrible

theelf wrote on 2026-02-19, 09:06:

Riva128 are amazing, amazing dos compatibility, perfect vesa3, work with moddified univbe, and latest nvidia with functional wi […]
Show full quote

asdf53 wrote on 2026-02-19, 08:28:

My favorite DOS cards are Riva TNT2/TNT2 M64 and S3 Virge VX, they are fast, compatible and have good signal quality. Not the cheapest (~30€) and easiest to find though. A good budget solution would be Cirrus Logic (dirt cheap, decent speed and signal quality up to 800x600), but I've seen those go for ~30€ lately which they're not worth.

Another fantastic DOS card is the S3 Savage 4, but it's mainly AGP and hard to find for PCI (~40€). I use this card in my Super Socket 7 machine, it's extremely fast with beautiful image quality, very similar to a Voodoo 3. Also good for light Windows 3D gaming.

If you care about video signal quality, avoid Riva 128 and generic S3 Virge cards (reduced RGB amplitude, poor contrast) and Trident cards (washed out colors). I've heard S3 Trio cards aren't great either, though I haven't tested one personally.

Riva128 are amazing, amazing dos compatibility, perfect vesa3, work with moddified univbe, and latest nvidia with functional windows 3.1 drivers (for me this is a must)

I have two and picture quality is good, not diferent to another nvidia card i tested

Problem is good luck to find in PCI... well... good luck to find at all

S3 cards yes are a lottery! the brightness problem is horrible

It's definitely not a bad card, but just like an S3 Virge, it has a 10-15% lower contrast compared to the better cards. 10% doesn't sound a lot but it is very noticeable on a CRT which is pretty dim to begin with. The later cards from Nvidia don't have this problem.

I also think that the contrast problem of some S3 cards is baked into the chip. Even if you choose a high-quality card, the contrast will be poor. The S3 Virge VX and the S3 Savage 4 don't have this problem.

asdf53 wrote on 2026-02-19, 10:49:

theelf wrote on 2026-02-19, 09:06:

Riva128 are amazing, amazing dos compatibility, perfect vesa3, work with moddified univbe, and latest nvidia with functional wi […]
Show full quote

asdf53 wrote on 2026-02-19, 08:28:

My favorite DOS cards are Riva TNT2/TNT2 M64 and S3 Virge VX, they are fast, compatible and have good signal quality. Not the cheapest (~30€) and easiest to find though. A good budget solution would be Cirrus Logic (dirt cheap, decent speed and signal quality up to 800x600), but I've seen those go for ~30€ lately which they're not worth.

Another fantastic DOS card is the S3 Savage 4, but it's mainly AGP and hard to find for PCI (~40€). I use this card in my Super Socket 7 machine, it's extremely fast with beautiful image quality, very similar to a Voodoo 3. Also good for light Windows 3D gaming.

If you care about video signal quality, avoid Riva 128 and generic S3 Virge cards (reduced RGB amplitude, poor contrast) and Trident cards (washed out colors). I've heard S3 Trio cards aren't great either, though I haven't tested one personally.

Riva128 are amazing, amazing dos compatibility, perfect vesa3, work with moddified univbe, and latest nvidia with functional windows 3.1 drivers (for me this is a must)

I have two and picture quality is good, not diferent to another nvidia card i tested

Problem is good luck to find in PCI... well... good luck to find at all

S3 cards yes are a lottery! the brightness problem is horrible

It's definitely not a bad card, but just like an S3 Virge, it has a 10-15% lower contrast compared to the better cards. 10% doesn't sound a lot but it is very noticeable on a CRT which is pretty dim to begin with. The later cards from Nvidia don't have this problem.

I also think that the contrast problem of some S3 cards is baked into the chip. Even if you choose a high-quality card, the contrast will be poor. The S3 Virge VX and the S3 Savage 4 don't have this problem.

mm.. never see any difference in brightness in my Riva compared to any other nvidia, look same to me, but i did not compare side to side neither. Just look fine in my crt

S3 cards yes, but the ones with brightness problem are most of times easy to deal, or flash a new bios or use software solution, only one card i have cant solve this, a stealth 2000 i think

theelf wrote on 2026-02-19, 07:26:

If you like 3dfx in dos, i will buy a cheap 2D card, s3, cirrus, etc and a voodo 1

a voodoo 1? as far as I can tell those are even harder to find than a voodoo 2 on ebay etc.; do you have any particular reccomendations for finding one or example listings etc.?

toshiba_t1000 wrote on 2026-02-20, 03:34:

theelf wrote on 2026-02-19, 07:26:

If you like 3dfx in dos, i will buy a cheap 2D card, s3, cirrus, etc and a voodo 1

a voodoo 1? as far as I can tell those are even harder to find than a voodoo 2 on ebay etc.; do you have any particular reccomendations for finding one or example listings etc.?

No sorry, i already have every card in my collection since years ago, then i did not buy much anymore sin long time ago

about voodoo 1 is better than 2 in pure DOS

Voodoo 2 DOS Glide compatibility matrix

But to be true, a 4m S3 Virge is cheap on ebay or whatever, dont know in your country here in spain is like 10 euro/dolar, and you wiill have another toy to play, s3 accelerated games, virge API

https://ctrl-alt-rees.com/2020-12-06-s3-virge … -downloads.html

For pure DOS i will never expend money in a voodo

jmarsh wrote on 2026-02-18, 20:28:

S3 Trio64V2 if you want a card with native VBE2.0 support (in the bios) rather than worrying about having to use utilities (which you won't get with the virge).

I agree on this one. Excellent 2D performance and VBE 2.0. best compromise on speed and compatibility. I have an Elsa Winner 1000 T2D and it is performing beautifully on my early pentium system.

leileilol wrote on 2026-02-18, 18:58:

Not a Voodoo 3 / Banshee for 15bpp support concerns (unless you really, really don't care about the Probe/Acclaim joints as some do).

Are there any patch-ins for 15bpp support on Voodoo3? Or even to disable it entirely. I've run into a brick wall with NFS:SE, I believe because it uses 15bpp if available and the card isn't having a bar of it.

Matth79 wrote on 2026-02-18, 17:56:

Not expensive, that rules out VooDoo, TNT2, not sure how that fares as a DOS card as it's a 3D Windows card, don't know the ARK, S3 Virge - the notorious 3D decelerator, but solid in software mode, Trio 64, another solid base. Cirrus CL54xx in PCI would also be a contender, or maybe an ATI Rage that supports CIF

I would take ATi Rage Pro PCI 4-8MB if you are using Win9x as well, but if only for dos, then there are better options. Some 3DFx games capable, recommended 8MB PCI.

theelf wrote on 2026-02-20, 08:29:

about voodoo 1 is better than 2 in pure DOS

Voodoo 2 DOS Glide compatibility matrix

Oh, interesting, if I ever get a voodoo I'll definitely at least try moreso for a 1 then. though yeah, it's definitely not that worth it for dos, there are maybe 2-3 games I'd really want to play that use glide.

theelf wrote on 2026-02-20, 08:29:

But to be true, a 4m S3 Virge is cheap on ebay or whatever, dont know in your country here in spain is like 10 euro/dolar, and you wiill have another toy to play, s3 accelerated games, virge API

https://ctrl-alt-rees.com/2020-12-06-s3-virge … -downloads.html

ohhh, cool! I expect I'll probably go with a virge or trio64, they both seem like very nice options. I'll have to look into the virge api, haven't heard of that before.

My little advice - go for S3 Trio64 V+. It's also one of the most cheap cards. But... you need to get decent manufacturer, to get good VGA out output. Most of S3 Trio64 series were made very cheaply, so they can have lower quality.
But... if you are using 14''or 15'' CRT monitor in 320x200 up to 640x480 , it doesn't matter.

V2 version of Trio64 is little bit better, you can also find 4 MB ones. But, they are more expensive. Again, maybe you pay for nothing.

My advice - don't go for Virge, you pay for nothing, unless you want to use crappy 3D, which is really ridiculous and have only nostalgic value for those, who "suffered" on it in its time... or for ppl that likes nerdy stuff and interesting things.

You said you want to go DOS, not Windows, so that's it, S3 Trio64 from decent manufacturer is a way, I would personally opt for V2 version, just in case, it has VBE 2.0, so you don't have to use S3 VBE. But... they work great anyway, so even S3 Trio64+ is good option.

When to buy something more expensive - if you build the setup, play with it, and like it even after some weeks or months and feel you want to experimenting with something new.

W.x. wrote on 2026-02-28, 05:31:

My little advice - go for S3 Trio64 V+. It's also one of the most cheap cards. But... you need to get decent manufacturer, to g […]
Show full quote

My little advice - go for S3 Trio64 V+. It's also one of the most cheap cards. But... you need to get decent manufacturer, to get good VGA out output. Most of S3 Trio64 series were made very cheaply, so they can have lower quality.
But... if you are using 14''or 15'' CRT monitor in 320x200 up to 640x480 , it doesn't matter.

V2 version of Trio64 is little bit better, you can also find 4 MB ones. But, they are more expensive. Again, maybe you pay for nothing.

My advice - don't go for Virge, you pay for nothing, unless you want to use crappy 3D, which is really ridiculous and have only nostalgic value for those, who "suffered" on it in its time... or for ppl that likes nerdy stuff and interesting things.

You said you want to go DOS, not Windows, so that's it, S3 Trio64 from decent manufacturer is a way, I would personally opt for V2 version, just in case, it has VBE 2.0, so you don't have to use S3 VBE. But... they work great anyway, so even S3 Trio64+ is good option.

When to buy something more expensive - if you build the setup, play with it, and like it even after some weeks or months and feel you want to experimenting with something new.

3D in virge work really good, and a trio or virge are on same price level.

I can play tomb raider in 640x480 very fluid in my cyrix 5x86 using virge, while in software no more than 320x240 to reqch similar fps, tested in a 2mb and 4mb ones

Yes,not much supported games but are nice for a "free" option, since you will have same level of compatibility in a virge or a trio, of course, sadly depend on bios, this is a lottery.

I need to flash new bios to almost all my s3 cards anyways

Vote for VirgeVX (vs. Trio64, Trio64V+ and Trio64V2) for DOS Gaming:

• best compatibility, no issues with Sidescrollers (on par with Trio64)
• good signal and picture quality, as VX-cards were intended for high end market (better than Trio64 derivates)
• fast in VGA and SVGA Gaming (on par with Trio64)
• VBE1.2 and 2.0 Support via BIOS and VBE3.0 Support via Tool (on par with Trio64)
• 4MB Dual ported VRAM - high resulutions and colour depht and fast in Windows (better than Trio64 derivates)
• Win3.1 and Win9x support (on par with Trio64)
• easy and cheap to obtain (on par with Trio64)

Virge DX is dime a dozen. Virge VX is noticeably harder to find, especially if it's not 2 Mb.

What card would you suggest is the best one if I would choose one to build a dos-gaming-pc?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/94839221@N05/al … 57696602153410/
(I am not en expert on S3, I normally use matrox or ATI.