Yep that's the Matrox G450-- pretty nice cards, they work under Windows 9x through Windows 7. If you need the driver ISO I have it. My university had one brand new for $14, so I just went ahead and bought it as it shocked me seeing that. I think Matrox still makes them? If not they made them for a long time.

The dual trio64 is a very good find. The adaptecs are always handy to keep around.

Can't say I'm a fan of the geforces though; simply because I see those every day when computers come in for recycling.

Thanks for the info. So it's a G450 then. I also got a G400, but it's AGP. The Dual Trio64V2 is also my favourite, then the Tseng ET6000 and Dual Cirrus Logic.

In case it isn't obvious, the dual GPU cards there are for dual monitor, not for some sort of extra acceleration like SLI. 😉

Stiletto wrote:

In case it isn't obvious, the dual GPU cards there are for dual monitor, not for some sort of extra acceleration like SLI. 😉

Yeah, that kinda goes without saying. 😉 Between the Cirrus and the S3, which of the two do you think is better in DOS and Win9x?

Um, the lowly FX5200 PCI would be pretty nice for DOS and Win9x actually. Defnitely usable 3D in 9x.

archsan wrote:

Um, the lowly FX5200 PCI would be pretty nice for DOS and Win9x actually. Defnitely usable 3D in 9x.

Thanks will keep that in mind. I do recall having some 3D related issues with NVidia Card drivers beyond Forceware version 20.xx though.

In my experience, it isn't always older is better (or vice versa) though. Good and crappy versions do exist both way. Btw what were you using with FW 20.xx?

Totempole wrote:

Thanks will keep that in mind. I do recall having some 3D related issues with NVidia Card drivers beyond Forceware version 20.xx though.

GeForce FX will generally require late 4x.xx or 5x.xx series drivers (depending on which card). I've never had issues with later drivers on GeForce FX (at least under XP) - my 5800U uses 7x.xx series without any problems thus far. 😊

I agree with archsan that older/newer isn't always better - it more depends on the specifics: what card, drivers, OS, application, etc are trying to work together, and if there's issues it can be the result of any one of those things (or all of them) not playing nice. 😀

obobskivich wrote:

Totempole wrote:

Thanks will keep that in mind. I do recall having some 3D related issues with NVidia Card drivers beyond Forceware version 20.xx though.

GeForce FX will generally require late 4x.xx or 5x.xx series drivers (depending on which card). I've never had issues with later drivers on GeForce FX (at least under XP) - my 5800U uses 7x.xx series without any problems thus far. 😊

I agree with archsan that older/newer isn't always better - it more depends on the specifics: what card, drivers, OS, application, etc are trying to work together, and if there's issues it can be the result of any one of those things (or all of them) not playing nice. 😀

@ archsan: Actually, I'm currently using Detonator drivers. Reason being that they offer the best compatibility across the board. They're not particularly stable though, and they don't support anything beyond Geforce 3.

I'm using Win 9x and the games I run don't go beyond about 2001.

Hm, for GF FX (in case of 5900 at least), I keep to 45.23 for compatibility in win9x, and latest version in XP.

Totempole wrote:

I'm using Win 9x and the games I run don't go beyond about 2001.

In that case it's between GF2 MX and FX 5200 (fanless = silent = good) for actual gaming use, and keep the rest for... collectibles? 😀
That dual Trio64's layout reminds me of Voodoo1 cards! 😎

archsan wrote:

Hm, for GF FX (in case of 5900 at least), I keep to 45.23 for compatibility in win9x, and latest version in XP. […]
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Hm, for GF FX (in case of 5900 at least), I keep to 45.23 for compatibility in win9x, and latest version in XP.

Totempole wrote:

I'm using Win 9x and the games I run don't go beyond about 2001.

In that case it's between GF2 MX and FX 5200 (fanless = silent = good) for actual gaming use, and keep the rest for... collectibles? 😀
That dual Trio64's layout reminds me of Voodoo1 cards! 😎

The FX 5200 should be faster of the two, if only by a little bit. But it won't work with 20.xx drivers. Shouldn't be a problem though - I'd at least test it out and see what you can see. 😀

archsan wrote:

In that case it's between GF2 MX and FX 5200 (fanless = silent = good) for actual gaming use, and keep the rest for... collectibles? 😀
That dual Trio64's layout reminds me of Voodoo1 cards! 😎

Now I never benched the FX 5200, but I have a feeling it's going to have some drawbacks with DOS and 2D performance. The Trio64s are awesome for 2D stuff.

The 5200's biggest drawback is not performance at all. It's about incorrect 3D rendering in certain mid-late 90's games.

In a totally unrelated note. What do you think I should do with this Tape Drive monstrosity? I certainly have no use for it.

Totempole wrote:

In a totally unrelated note. What do you think I should do with this Tape Drive monstrosity? I certainly have no use for it.

If it works, try selling it or gifting it away - there's probably someone out there who does have a use for it. No idea what would be a reasonable price would be, but probably don't expect a ton of money either way. 😊

Which games have you observed the FX having trouble with? (I'm just curious)

obobskivich wrote:

Totempole wrote:

In a totally unrelated note. What do you think I should do with this Tape Drive monstrosity? I certainly have no use for it.

If it works, try selling it or gifting it away - there's probably someone out there who does have a use for it. No idea what would be a reasonable price would be, but probably don't expect a ton of money either way. 😊

It's not really about money for me. It's more about finding a good home for these things.

obobskivich wrote:

Which games have you observed the FX having trouble with? (I'm just curious)

It's been so long I can't remember. It would probably have related to games like Monster Truck/Midtown/Motocross Madness 1 or 2, or perhaps some other early Direct3D game, could also have been a 2D issue. I recall having issues on newer forceware drivers with Direct Draw games like Road Rash, where objects such as the sidewalk would disappear. It's certainly not specific to the FX5200 though, it was driver related.

Totempole wrote:

It's not really about money for me. It's more about finding a good home for these things.

Something else that came to mind - you might see if there's a library or museum that wants the device and has a use for it; (working) hardware that reads old/obtuse media may be valuable to such an organization. 😊

It's been so long I can't remember. It would probably have related to games like Monster Truck/Midtown/Motocross Madness 1 or 2, or perhaps some other early Direct3D game, could also have been a 2D issue. I recall having issues on newer forceware drivers with Direct Draw games like Road Rash, where objects such as the sidewalk would disappear. It's certainly not specific to the FX5200 though, it was driver related.

Interesting. Can't say I've ever played/owned any of those games on PC (otherwise I'd gladly let the FX 5800U and 5900XT be guinea pigs), but I've not had issues with any games I can actually get to run on the FX cards/systems looking wrong - off the top of my head the oldest D3D games I've tasked to the cards are Lego Island for the 5800U, and Dark Forces II for the 5900XT; in both cases everything looked right (and both happily run with max AA/AF, max in-game, and still put up hilarious frame-rates).

We have a retro hardware finds thread over hmyah: Bought these (retro) hardware today

😀

raymangold wrote:

Now I never benched the FX 5200, but I have a feeling it's going to have some drawbacks with DOS and 2D performance. The Trio64s are awesome for 2D stuff.

I'm not much a benchmarker myself, but why not test out that feeling? 😀

The FX has good 2D performance, and it's also trouble-free (at least with late DOS SVGA+ games). I'm quite sure FX5200 has the same 2D core as the higher models in the family so I won't hesitate using it as replacement for, say Riva128 or Voodoo3 in a Socket7/P2/P3 rig (I'd keep the S3 Trio64 for a 486 rig if I had one). I think I've read similar "testimonies" from vogoners using various FX cards in DOS.

obobskivich wrote:

The FX 5200 should be faster of the two, if only by a little bit. But it won't work with 20.xx drivers. Shouldn't be a problem though - I'd at least test it out and see what you can see. 😀

Yeah, I don't know about the PCI version, but the AGP FX5200 should be at least faster than GF2 GTS/Ultra in D3D/OpenGL. Also, chances are the FX 5200 will give better output quality than the GF2MX (esp. if you're using DVI output) but this may depend on brands.

Very nice finds! All those PCI cards are great for DOS. The nvidia cards are great for both DOS and legacy directx-opengl games. The nvidia cards support paletted textures AFAIK, so they'd definitely be a top choice for Final Fantasy VII and VIII (unlike the riva tnt), in addition to quality DOS gaming; they probably have antialiasing as well. The FX5200 does have paletted texture support too (the last nvidia architecture to have it IIRC), but it's extremely hard to find the driver that supports this properly. Good stuff!