VOGONS


First post, by XTac

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Hello,

I am almost finished with my Windows XP/98 hybrid build. I am running a Radeon HD 4650 1 GB DDR2 as my main AGP card (planning to change it to HD 3850 AGP, but thats beside the point).

Understandably so, the Radeon lacks Win9X drivers of any kind. So I need a PCI card as a supplement. Since the HD 4650/3850 will cover anything from 2000 to 2005, there is no need for a lot of raw power. The PCI card will just be there to support 90s (maybe very early 00s) Win9X games. So compatibility is the biggest concern.

Two main choices are Voodoo 3 and FX 5500. Voodoo 3 is an obvious choice, it supports Glide and has a great image quality. But it is a bit hard to find in the PCI version. The FX 5500 is a slightly more powerful rebrand of the FX 5200, but it is a little bit faster than Voodoo 3, is much cheaper and can run passively (a huge boon in my already very airflow restricted case). It can also potentially support 3DFX Glide, thanks to its DX9 "compatibility" (nGlide?).

Which one would be a better choice? To hunt down a Voodoo, or get a cheap FX 5500?

Thank you for all answers.

Reply 1 of 1, by vvbee

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Natively the 5500 needs newer drivers than e.g. the 5200. Nvidia's newer drivers = bad compatibility with 90s games. I gutted my 5500 for caps, they were good quality.