My current MMX system has a Voodoo3 PCI. I don't care much about era correctness and I always like having some overkill, especially when it comes to graphics. Before I found a cheap PCI Voodoo3, It had a Matrox Mystique and a Voodoo2.

There are dirt cheap S3 cards of newer generations (Trio64, Virge, etc.) around, so I suggest at least going for one, if you choose to go with S3. But you might also want to consider your CPUs limitations, after some point CPU is the real bottleneck, not the GPU. I don't know if it is a viable option for you, but for games like Blood, I would use a PII/PIII class system.

If I remember correctly, I was still using an MMX 233 in 1998-1999, and my last display card with that system was an AGP Asus 3400 with Riva TNT chipset.

filipetolhuizen wrote:

A Riva128 would be a good choice for this system.

second that, also an excellent choice for this system

Putas wrote:

TNT only paper launched in March with wrong specs. I would like to see those 128 reasons, Riva beats Rage Pro in both DOS and 3D gaming.

The Riva is a fine card, and perfectly era correct. My statement was that the TNT would be the max card you could still get away with and still be close to the correct era. In fact, I have a spare Diamond Viper V330 in my stash to this day.

That said. I'm sticking to my guns... I'd still say TNT (or Rage Pro) + Voodoo1 would give you the best of everything (2D acceleration + 3D + Image Quality + Video acceleration) for the time.

As for the 128 reasons, it's a catch phrase, not to be taken literally. Anandtech perpetuated it in this article highlighting some of the disappointing aspects of the initial Riva 128 launch. You see, the Riva was supposed to be the Voodoo killer. But it didn't turn out that way until the TNT came along.

Among the gripes of the Riva 128 were poor image quality, no initial FSAA, poor drivers for most of it's lifetime, poor opengl ICD implementation, per-polygon mip-mapping (only option until late drivers), memory limited to 4MB, and issues with the PCI version and super socket FSB speeds. Your mileage may vary. Most of these were fixed in later drivers revs and much improved with the release of the Riva 128ZX.

You seemed to bristle and be shocked.. as if what I'm saying doesn't square with some lasting impression you had. I can assure you these gripes were well documented:

http://vintage3d.org/riva128.php
http://www.vogonswiki.com/index.php/NVIDIA#NV … _128_.26_128_ZX
http://www.anandtech.com/show/206
http://www.anandtech.com/show/195
http://www.anandtech.com/show/197/5
http://www.anandtech.com/show/11/2#Incompatibilities
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIVA_128#Image_Quality
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RIVA_128#Drivers_and_APIs
http://www.tomshardware.com/reviews/nvidia-an … a-128zx,58.html
https://groups.google.com/forum/#!topic/3dfx. … cts/s0wSG9uXA0M

QBiN wrote:

Putas wrote:

TNT only paper launched in March with wrong specs. I would like to see those 128 reasons, Riva beats Rage Pro in both DOS and 3D gaming.

The Riva is a fine card, and perfectly era correct. My statement was that the TNT would be the max card you could still get away with and still be close to the correct era. In fact, I have a spare Diamond Viper V330 in my stash to this day.

But Diamond Viper V330 is no TNT, it's Riva128. 🤣

QBiN wrote:

You seemed to bristle and be shocked.. as if what I'm saying doesn't square with some lasting impression you had. I can assure you these gripes were well documented:
http://vintage3d.org/riva128.php

Thanks.

RacoonRider wrote:

But Diamond Viper V330 is no TNT, it's Riva128. 🤣

Like I don't know what the models are? 🤣 You're funny. Stating I had a V330 was just to express that I don't personally have anything against the Riva. It has it's place. I also have a V770 Ultra. I wouldn't personally put in my V770 in anything earlier than a P3, though.

I seem to have a skewed feeling of what's "era correct" when it comes to graphics cards. I guess I've always bought video cards for systems which were older than the card.
Whenever I read about which cards were actually on the market alongside a given era of motherboards and CPUs, it always sounds strange to me.

QBiN wrote:

RacoonRider wrote:

But Diamond Viper V330 is no TNT, it's Riva128. 🤣

Like I don't know what the models are? 🤣 You're funny. Stating I had a V330 was just to express that I don't personally have anything against the Riva. It has it's place. I also have a V770 Ultra. I wouldn't personally put in my V770 in anything earlier than a P3, though.

I'm just in a mood for a little trolling, never mind 😀 Personally I find whatever Riva you can find on PCI a nice option for P1. Unfortunately, both my V330 and V770 are AGP (not that I know of any PCI TNT2). And Riva128 AGP gets the worst of it: too old to put in a PII and can't be used in a PI for obvious reasons... 😀

RacoonRider wrote:

And Riva128 AGP gets the worst of it: too old to put in a PII and can't be used in a PI for obvious reasons... 😀

Only if you restrict yourself to Intel chipsets, no problem if you use an SS7 board with AGP.

Thanks for all the input, I'm not trying to stay era correct but I just found an old pc shop flyer from May 1996 and they already list the S3 968

slimbag wrote:

Thanks for all the input, I'm not trying to stay era correct but I just found an old pc shop flyer from May 1996 and they already list the S3 968

S3 Vision chips (864, 868, 964, 968) were released in 1994. For 1996 S3 released Virge chips.

Tnt works and are cheap, you do get 32bit color and seeing that a p1 can't max it out anyway you could enjoy 32bit color at the same fps anyway

i am in the similar situation, i’m start to looking for a graphic card for an PMMX 233 to 290 and K6III 400. Onboard c&t69000 and i already have a pci 9250 128Mb. What suggest? Only a voodoo3? my Ati is faster than all other card mentioned in this thread? tnks

candle_86 wrote on 2020-05-13, 17:42:

Tnt works and are cheap, you do get 32bit color and seeing that a p1 can't max it out anyway you could enjoy 32bit color at the same fps anyway

Well, I hope that in those five years since this thread's creation, the OP has found the card for his system...

Riva-128. Great 2D, and good enough 3D. No messing with passthrough video.

candle_86 wrote on 2020-05-13, 17:42:

Tnt works and are cheap, you do get 32bit color and seeing that a p1 can't max it out anyway you could enjoy 32bit color at the same fps anyway

Please start a new thread next time.