The Cirrus GD5446 is a competent 2D card. Nothing to write home about, but no slouch either. In DOS it does pretty well. In Windows, my only reservation would be the fairly low video RAM - all of them I've seen have been 1MB or 2MB cards.

To pair with a Voodoo2, however, it'd depend on what the rest of the box looks like. I rather like the Matrox G400 Max - pretty quick for D3D games, great image quality. It's serviceable for OpenGL games too, but at that point, might as well use the Voodoo2, since it's there (especially SLI).

With my Voodoo 1, I use a Matrox Millennium II PCI 4MB. Great card, good image quality and excellent performance in DOS SVGA games.

I also have a Voodoo 2 SLI paired with a regular Matrox G400... I did try with a couple of Viper V550s (Riva TNT) before, but I've had terrible luck with those cards: one was dead and the other one won't post half the time.

Back in the day (late 90s) I used my Voodoo 2 with a Matrox Mystique 220 for a while (was great for DOS/2D stuff) but soon after I got a Slot 1 motherboard and inexplicably decided to ditch the Mystique and use the integrated graphics, the wretched SiS 6326 (I clearly didn't know what I was doing).

How would you like to use the system WITHOUT the voodoo, ask yourself that question and base your choice on that. Just see the voodoo as a very nice bonus so the system can play glide games as well...

meljor wrote:

How would you like to use the system WITHOUT the voodoo, ask yourself that question and base your choice on that. Just see the voodoo as a very nice bonus so the system can play glide games as well...

Good point. Mostly mid 90s Dos games up to 1997 would be this builds purpose. I notice you are using the S3 Virge in your Voodoo 1 build. How do you like that card?

TheMobRules wrote:

Back in the day (late 90s) I used my Voodoo 2 with a Matrox Mystique 220 for a while (was great for DOS/2D stuff) but soon after I got a Slot 1 motherboard and inexplicably decided to ditch the Mystique and use the integrated graphics, the wretched SiS 6326 (I clearly didn't know what I was doing).

I think I have an SiS card somewhere. Are those generally not a good brand?

They're slow, kinda like Trident (except Blade3D, oddly those are OK). Not low-quality, exactly, but bargain basement.

For DOS games, Cirrus is a solid choice, actually - very compatible and, for PCI cards, comparable to Tseng and S3 speedwise. Matrox is up there too, but has some issues with a few games.

For those of you that have Voodoo1 do you see horizontal kind of wavy lines when you play your glide games? I just got mine installed and have noticed this.

fsmith2003 wrote:

meljor wrote:

How would you like to use the system WITHOUT the voodoo, ask yourself that question and base your choice on that. Just see the voodoo as a very nice bonus so the system can play glide games as well...

Good point. Mostly mid 90s Dos games up to 1997 would be this builds purpose. I notice you are using the S3 Virge in your Voodoo 1 build. How do you like that card?

I had many cards alongside the voodoo1, never had much problems. For a long time i had a g200 pci in there but i switched to the virge so i could try out some games that were actually supported by that card and see how it performed... Mostly the higher res that is supported in Destruction Derby got my attention. Unfortunately i never got that working and probably have the wrong version of the game.

I keep it in there because it is also good for old dos games it seems but i never had problems with the other cards. All my systems are build for glide games and i use them primarily for that.

In the v2 system i like the gf2 gts as it enables a few games that can normally not run on the k6-3 because it is a bit too slow so when a game supports hardware TnL it runs way better and that is a bonus.

The S3 Virge DX is my Voodoo's companion and it performs quite nice. Both are Diamond's editions: Monster and Stealth 3D Pro 2000.

I always go with Matrox cards for 2D. If it's Voodoo2 i go for Matrox G200 or Mystique 220. When it's a Voodoo1 i go for the original Matrox Mystique.

I used to pair my Canopus Pure3D 6mb Voodoo1 with a Matrox Millenium II/4MB. It has since been replaced with a S3 ViRGE/DX (Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 Pro 4MB) only to play Terminal Velocity in S3D (which sucks, btw). While the Millenium was a great card, it was incompatible with some DOS games. Diamond's S3 offering had good output quality too, esp. when compared to cheaper S3 cards. There was a DOS video card compatibility list somewhere here as well but I can't find the link right now.

So, that's pretty much Matrox and S3 for all of us... Rendition Verite anyone? 🤣

I suppose another fair option might be the ATI Rage 128, actually. IIRC, those work pretty well in DOS too. They have some 3D accel, but you'd rather use the Voodoo2 almost any time it's an option. (They get smeared by the TNT2, Voodoo2 and G400, IIRC)

I prefer the s3 virge DX cards for my current late dos early windows builds, matrox was a option aswell but has some problems with 2 games I play. The virge is excellent all round performer, there is a reason they choose to use it for dosbox

Captain NA wrote:

I always go with Matrox cards for 2D. If it's Voodoo2 i go for Matrox G200 or Mystique 220. When it's a Voodoo1 i go for the original Matrox Mystique.

Me too, when I tried Voodoo 1/2 builds of the one I have I choose the Mystique 220 PCI, imho a very good vga signal quality. With those pass trough cables, I think it's important to have the best time correct vga signal and the correct short vga cable.

.

Dated correctly? If so, honestly a Riva128 or TNT1 is nice, they have good DOS support and can cover the D3D holes the Voodoo doesn't do well at. I actualy use a Geforce 2 with mine and relegate the Voodoo 2 to glide only games.

SRQ wrote:

Dated correctly? If so, honestly a Riva128 or TNT1 is nice, they have good DOS support and can cover the D3D holes the Voodoo doesn't do well at. I actualy use a Geforce 2 with mine and relegate the Voodoo 2 to glide only games.

Pretty much the same here, Good chance a Voodoo2 system has a AGP slot, Why limit yourself and use a Nvidia card and have good dos and D3D support as well.

What about a (good brand) S3 Savage4?
It is quite capable for up to 800x600 and suffers almost no penalty while at 32bit colors. Also, it has very good image quality (when a good manufacturer is behind it).

A PII 450mhz, a Voodoo2 + S3 Savage4, 440BX chipset. Great period correct performer system (although, yes I know a S3 Savage 3D would be more 1998 than the Savage 4 which is early 1999).