Wouldn't an FX card be bottlenecked by the motherboard since it only supports AGP speeds of 2X or 4X?

Also, I just found an unused 6600 GT while digging through old computer parts. According to the system requirements, it needs at least a Pentium III.. Should I just go with a slot 1 Pentium III and make this machine a late DOS/Win9x gaming machine? I have other old socket 7-based computers lying around that I could use strictly for older DOS games.

So many options. What to do??

GeForce FX 5800/5900 are pretty beastly for running old games with AA and AF. Don't buy less than a 5700 Ultra though because you'll be in GeForce 4 performance territory.

Or even under, if you put 5200 😁

cdosrun wrote:

Wouldn't an FX card be bottlenecked by the motherboard since it only supports AGP speeds of 2X or 4X?

Also, I just found an unused 6600 GT while digging through old computer parts. According to the system requirements, it needs at least a Pentium III.. Should I just go with a slot 1 Pentium III and make this machine a late DOS/Win9x gaming machine? I have other old socket 7-based computers lying around that I could use strictly for older DOS games.

So many options. What to do??

In my experience, AGP 2x is not an issue. It's surely a bottleneck in some way but it's not noticeable in gaming. I've actually played Doom3 on my 440BX board with the FX 5900 Ultra when I had the Tualatin 1400 in it.

The problem with GeForce 6 is they are usually not compatible with AGP 2x (3.3v) slots. Some will work (look at the slot keying) but they are uncommon.

When it comes to Win9x games, there is usually no concern with having too much CPU power. DOS is much more complicated. Some SVGA DOS games will love a PIII, but others will run 10x too fast unless you slow your system down.

Everyone should have a Voodoo 3 in their video card arsenal.

The problem with GeForce 6 is they are usually not compatible with AGP 2x (3.3v) slots. Some will work (look at the slot keying) but they are uncommon.

It's not a wise idea to rely just on the slot keying, there were quite a few cards that were incorrectly keyed as universal when they were actually 1.5V only. I don't think it was so much an issue on the higher-end cards like the 6600GT, but the 6200s were really bad about that for some reason.

True. There have been threads on here with regards to 6200 cards that people got working on BX boards so he could dig those up for specifics. But I would just not bother with GF6 on AGP 3.3v.

If you want to play early 3D accelerated games then a 3dfx card would be more advisable. Many of the early 3D games supported OpenGL/Glide.

If you want just one videocard in your sysyem, I would recommend either a Voodoo4 4500 or a Voodoo5 5500. If you have enough free PCI slots you might want to consider a Voodoo2 12MiB SLI setup besides your primary card.

Note that the Voodoo4 4500 card supports both AGP1x/2x @ 3.3Volt and AGP4x @ 1.5Volt (but only 3dfx' cards; Voodoo4 cards from other manufacturers do not support AGP4x @ 1.5Volts). The Voodoo5 5500 only supports AGP2x @ 3.3Volts.

cdosrun wrote:

...ASUS P2B-F...Pentium II 450...2x/4x 3.3v AGP...preferably NVIDIA...DOS and early 3D

The tricky part is "prefereably Nvidia" because early 3D screams out for Glide support, as already mentioned. To get Glide, a Voodoo 5500 would make a great 1-card solution - though not Nvidia - and is beefy enough to max out the CPU on the P2B if needed, and has good retro 2D compatibility.

The other routes to Glide previously mentioned are all viable but sacrifice either PCI slots or brute Glide performance.

elianda wrote:

Asus Geforce256 with Shutter Glasses.

...plus voodoo 2 SLI and you have a full retro 3D accelerated system! Really, everything higher then this would be an overkill for a P2/P3 under 1Ghz.

Somehow I tend to use a Voodoo2 SLI setup (I'm having 12MB cards), in my PII 400+ based system, with either :

1. TNT2 Ultra and/or
2. S3 Virge DX 4MB

My setup may be different because I always have DOS and Windows 3.1 installed alongside Windows 95c in such a system. And the above 2 cards have native Windows 3.1 drivers (TNT2 Ultra uses the TNT driver) and native Scitech + UNIVBE support for the above two cards' chipsets in DOS.

Can't argue with Malik's setup, you just need enough free PCI slots.

Old Thrashbarg wrote:

Perhaps, but one thing to keep in mind about his suggestion is that the overwhelming majority of 6-series cards don't support the 3.3V AGP on a BX board. Supposedly there are some that do, but finding one is likely to be... troublesome, at best.

I am sorry for any confusion I might have caused with my suggestion - to be honest I didn't really had in mind that there are problems with GF6 and BX-boards (and apparently those are the majority of cases). I just had a 6800 in a i815 for a long time and didn't really remember that BX only supports AGP 2x.

Well, it is a valid suggestion, it's just that it might not something a newbie would want to mess with, since it requires a fair amount of research and hunting to find a suitable card. It's more the sort of thing you'd play around with if you already had such a card in your parts stash.

Many people are suggesting adding a pair of Voodoo 2's and I would agree, if they were cheaper and more readily available...Hmmm but he did say best without mentioning budget... 🤣

Yeah, I'm kind of on a tight budget 🤣

Well V2 is sometimes cheap while others it is outright expensive. For mine that being two 8mb editions I paid $11 and change for the first one with sli cable, and $15 with change for the second. Had to barrow pass through cable from my v1 atm. eBay sometimes has them cheap but usually it gets bid pretty high.

I like using V3 or TNT/2 for p2 and p3 rigs. A 256 ddr is ok for the job for a little gta 3/vice city when the cpu is quick enough.

bushwack wrote:

Many people are suggesting adding a pair of Voodoo 2's and I would agree, if they were cheaper and more readily available...

😳
I got 2x diamond monster 2 12mb for 1$+porto off the ebay a couple of years ago.

If thats not dirt cheap, I dont know what is. We aren't really speaking about V5 6k here 🤑

elfuego wrote:

:shocked: I got 2x diamond monster 2 12mb for 1$+porto off the ebay a couple of years ago. […]
Show full quote

bushwack wrote:

Many people are suggesting adding a pair of Voodoo 2's and I would agree, if they were cheaper and more readily available...

😳
I got 2x diamond monster 2 12mb for 1$+porto off the ebay a couple of years ago.

If thats not dirt cheap, I dont know what is. We aren't really speaking about V5 6k here 🤑

A couple years ago? yes. He's looking for something now. The ebay landscape has changed very much the past couple years for 3dfx buyers. Voodoo 3's are still pretty easy to score but I figure a pair of V2's will run more then $50 and that might be a bit much for someone just entering the realm of the retro build.

Well just one Voodoo2/12mb is still a pretty good option. Then patiently wait for a second to fall into your hands at a good price. I wouldn't delay just because I couldn't score two at the same time and with the modded drivers available running mismatched brands is not an issue when you do.

In a way this argues for the Voodoo5500. In one fell swoop you take care of all your video issues. Yes it's not the easiest nor cheapest card to find on eBay but considering the alternative may be a 2D card AND 2 additional 3D cards it may make sense in a big-picture sort of way..

I was thinking about going with a GeForce2 Ultra AGP. On a somewhat unrelated note, what kind of soundcard should I get? ISA or PCI?