Many Socket 5 chipsets can't cache more than 64MB so there may be some advantage to sticking to 64MB.

Unless the board is using an interposer to run the K6-300, it's likely way over-volted as Socket 5 is 3.3V and a K6-300 takes 2.2V.

I would just go with some variant of PCI S3 ViRGE. You won't be using the 3D features on a system like this anyway, but the extra video memory and dot clock support will let you run higher resolutions and color depths if you want. A lot of the cards newer than that are designed for AGP, with a PCI version available as a backward compatible option.

So my recollection of the 5V PCI issue is: all consumer boards, even the very last ones with PCI, supplied 5V-logic slots. The 3.3V issue is that there are extra pins supplying 3.3V power to cards so that they don't have to have an onboard voltage regulator to run it. AT boards didn't supply that (although some have an extra power header for 3.3V) while ATX boards did since the power supply has 3.3V. The "keyed the opposite way" PCI slots, that may have been on servers, actually switched from 5V-tolerant to 3.3V logic levels, which is a different issue than needing 3.3V power.

Actually, it looks like the onboard video is an S3 ViRGE on that motherboard, so you might consider whether you need to upgrade it at all.

jakethompson1 wrote on 2025-10-24, 22:05:

Actually, it looks like the onboard video is an S3 ViRGE on that motherboard, so you might consider whether you need to upgrade it at all.

Are you sure it's an S3 ViRGE onboard? The video chip on-board reads CL-GD5430 (https://dosdays.co.uk/topics/Manufacturers/ci … ic/clgd5429.php), which seems to be a couple years older. The specific board can be found here (https://theretroweb.com/motherboards/s/intel- … nced-hl-hillary). I should've posted these links in the first post, my bad! Thank you so so much for your recommendation and help, it really means a lot!

I see. When I googled Intel Hillary motherboard, one with a ViRGE onboard popped up.
CL-GD5430 is pretty low-end, I agree. It was commonly found on PCI 486 systems. These aren't like modern integrated graphics though. The onboard video is the same parts someone would have had on a discrete card, just slapped on the motherboard. It doesn't even steal video RAM from main memory in this era, but has its own separate RAM.
I'd still go with some variant of a ViRGE. You can get them on eBay for less than $20. Others may chime in with which variant you should get if you want to spend more.

Matrox g450 pci. Cheap, plentiful and same or better performance then a riva tnt2 m64, so adequate for what you have there

jakethompson1 wrote on 2025-10-25, 01:00:

I see. When I googled Intel Hillary motherboard, one with a ViRGE onboard popped up.
CL-GD5430 is pretty low-end, I agree. It was commonly found on PCI 486 systems. These aren't like modern integrated graphics though. The onboard video is the same parts someone would have had on a discrete card, just slapped on the motherboard. It doesn't even steal video RAM from main memory in this era, but has its own separate RAM.
I'd still go with some variant of a ViRGE. You can get them on eBay for less than $20. Others may chime in with which variant you should get if you want to spend more.

A virge isn't any better 2d acceleration wise then a gd5430 though, and probably actually worse compatibility wise, and let's not even get into the black isn't black on most cards issue (high pedestal?)... Not saying it's not an okay card, but I wouldn't consider it much of an upgrade unless your previous card was a trident or something on the isa bus

Shrug, some of us find the 5430 to bench even worse than 542x, (there's something really off with it vs. 5434 and 5446) and at least a $20 virge would have more video RAM for higher color depths and resolutions.

You could always go with a CL-GD5446. It's what I had instead when the ViRGE was current anyway.

Thank you all so much again for the suggestions! I have to wait for a new card to come in, so I've got some time to decide. Both options seem pretty enticing, although the Matrox seems more "future-proof" if I ever decide to upgrade or swap builds and such, while the ViRGE seems maybe more time-appropriate. I'll let you know how it goes : )

In the meantime, I checked to see if the processor has an interposer, and it does. Out of curiosity, how common were these back in the day? It's only something I've personally heard about in passing while starting the project and looked into it when you brought it up.

Hope you're all having a great day!!

-0verthegrid

I'd also agree I see little point in replacing the onboard video, unless you are wanting some specific feature the required card has that the onboard doesn't.
It's unlikely the replacement card will be the difference of a game that is playable vs not.
In fact for dos CL-GD5430 is more compatible then the Matrox.

As far as interposer popularity, I wouldn't call them common but that's due to lack of demand as much as anything.
Somewhat like Slocket Adapters for Slot 1 to S370. For every 1 person that got an adapter, another 3 simply upgraded the motherboard or computer at the time.
Having one now though is always a nice thing and opens up choices on builds.

Well, I was mostly looking to upgrade due to some VRAM issues on the main board (that and 1mb seems quite limiting), it has some graphical errors during warm-up that will cease usually within 5 minutes or so. Figured it would be best just to get GPU, since I wanted one anyway, and according to the UKT support settings page (https://theretroweb.com/motherboard/manual/pa … 68807721741.pdf) onboard video is disabled when a video card is detected. Another thing I probably should have mentioned..... Lesson learned, better to be concise than short. Or better yet, short and concise.

Another question about the interposer: Would Super Socket 7 processors such as K6-2 or K6-3 work with an interposer to Socket 5? I assume there would be some sort of bottleneck or downside. I don't think I would ever actually want to that, but it would be nice to know I would have the option.

Interposer with K6-3 CPU works most on Socket 5 Board (i have already checked on SIemens PCD-5L )

Limit is chipset memory throughput

only real difference memory makes on these early video card is maximum resolution.

That said even if your onboard was working perfectly finding memory modules is almost impossible forcing you to buy a entire septate card just to remove the memory chips.
And if your doing that then agree may as well buy something a bit better.

For me in this era I like to "double up" and get a card that also had it's own 3d api, much like the S3 Virge.
Don't get the wrong idea. Most of the time even these "special edition" games are not much of an improvement over the standard version and you will be using it as a general card. But it's nice to have the option to play around with.

You can find a list here
3D Accelerated Games List (Proprietary APIs - No 3DFX/Direct3D)