In terms of period correct, I can tell you the setup I had as a teenager.

It was a Pentium 133, on a Gigabyte motherboard, S3 Trio 64 V+ PCI graphics card and a Orchid 3dfx Voodoo. It was super compatible, I don't think there was anything that this machine wouldn't run.

I had a 17" CRT, a Sound Blaster 16 and a Sound Canvas wavetable board. Not sure about RAM and storage. I later sold it to my brother who used the machines for quite a few years before upgrading to an Athlon XP machine 😁

brostenen wrote:

And V1 is from 1997.

My Biostar V1 is silkscreened 1996, and my Aopen V1 sais 96-10 on it (so 1996). I have a CT6670 that sais 1997 on it (brown PCB) and a couple others screend 1998 with green PCB (also CT6670)

I prefer not to use Matrox cards when it comes to dos gaming. Too many issues. Blood, Quake and Duke 3D will run great on a Matrox, but some older games (early 90's - late 80's) will have some trouble running correctly.

On the other hand, most S3 cars are poor image quality - but not all. An S3 Virge made by a big company like Diamond, ELSA and alike will have image quality comparable to a matrox at lower resolutions (up to 800x600 maybe) - but cards from cheap manufacturers will have overly bright output and muddy colors.

Period correct eh?

My uncle purchased a PC @ 1997, which consisted of:

Intel i430TX baby AT mobo
32MB EDO RAM (2x16MB simms)
Seagate Medalist 2.1GB HDD
Pentium MMX 166MHz ceramic with unlocked multiplier
S3 Trio64V+ 1MB PCI
Opti 16 ISA crappy sound
A single floppy drive and nothing else 😜
Windows 95B

A year later it was upgraded with a CD-ROM drive.

MrEWhite wrote:

I am acutally looking for just a 2D card at the moment. I rather it not have a 3D chip.

Then you better go for a Millennium II (1997) or Mystique 220 (1997). They are somewhat improved versions of Millennium (1994?) and Mystique (1996). You can also always go for an S3 (Trio64 variety or even a Virge), it would be cheaper but less cool. 🤣 It just worths to mention that all these cards (Mil. II/ Myst. 220 / S3 Virge) are actually also 3D cards, but in a very rudimentary way. In my mind, I don't really consider them as 3D accelerators.

Getting a 3D card that supports some propertary 3D standard might be a good idea, like a good quality Virge.

brostenen wrote:

Then wait and have patience my friend. Look locally. At some point a cheap one will find it's way to you. P-Pro is a 1994/95 CPU […]
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MrEWhite wrote:

brostenen wrote:

80!!! Damn expensive. 15 to 22 is what I have gotten them for in the past two years.
Shipping not included of course.

It is the only one on EBay at the moment, and this one comes with a passthrough cable.

Then wait and have patience my friend. Look locally. At some point a cheap one will find it's way to you.
P-Pro is a 1994/95 CPU. And V1 is from 1997.
Most games are not really Voodoo ready as standard from that narrow period.
Though patches was later created for some games. Just not all.
Getting the right 2D card is more important.

voodoo is 1996, voodoo2 is 1997. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3dfx_Interactive

I'd suggest a riva 128 which is highly compatible & fast in DOS and does d3d matched up with his voodoo2s, but it's 97 which apparently isn't period accurate so that leaves the original voodoo with s3 or matrox as people have already pointed out.

awgamer wrote:

I'd suggest a riva 128 which is highly compatible & fast in DOS and does d3d matched up with his voodoo2s, but it's 97 which apparently isn't period accurate so that leaves the original voodoo with s3 or matrox as people have already pointed out.

1997 is acceptably period correct for Pentium Pro. I was using a PPRO 200 workstation as a I-DEAS CAD rig, running Windows NT 4 in 1997 and 1998.

kanecvr wrote:

My Biostar V1 is silkscreened 1996, and my Aopen V1 sais 96-10 on it (so 1996). I have a CT6670 that sais 1997 on it (brown PCB) and a couple others screend 1998 with green PCB (also CT6670)

I prefer not to use Matrox cards when it comes to dos gaming. Too many issues. Blood, Quake and Duke 3D will run great on a Matrox, but some older games (early 90's - late 80's) will have some trouble running correctly.

On the other hand, most S3 cars are poor image quality - but not all. An S3 Virge made by a big company like Diamond, ELSA and alike will have image quality comparable to a matrox at lower resolutions (up to 800x600 maybe) - but cards from cheap manufacturers will have overly bright output and muddy colors.

Just remembered V1 as a 1997 invention. Yeah. I was wrong. 🤣

And the Pentium Pro 200 1 MB cache introduced 18-Aug-97.
The Pentium Pro 200 256 KB got introduced 1-Nov-95.

source: http://www.cpu-world.com

So I should get a Matrox then?

MrEWhite wrote:

So I should get a Matrox then?

Like what's been stated. In simple terms it comes down to s3 = compatibility Matrox = faster, better image but worse compatibility. What about ET6000 based cards? I never hear them suggested. I know the ET4000 was all the rage in the 386/486 era but Noone ever mentions the ET6000. Was it a good 2d card?

tayyare wrote:

S3 (Trio64 variety or even a Virge), it would be cheaper but less cool.

yup 😁 - I'll stick with compatibility nevertheless. I do own a small matrox card collection (Two Millenniums, one Mystique, Two Millennium 2, one G100, one G200, two G450, etc) but I rarely use them. I love having and looking at them. The G450 cards are pretty kick-ass, I use those quite a lot. The earlier PCI ones... not so much.

bjt wrote:

Consider ATI Mach64 as an alternative. I had one back in the day, it was OK.

+1 on the suggestion of an ATI based card. Mach64 all the way to Rage-II would be era appropriate. You'll find a LOT of these ATI chips embedded in server motherboard of the time (and later). They had great 2D acceleration, good drivers for every OS, and VESA BIOS support, and broad compatibility.

I'm thinking on an ATI Mach64. But I might get a S3 Trio64 instead, kinda split between the two.

Just bought a card lot for 25 bucks on Ebay + free shipping
Includes...
Diamond Stealth 64 2001 Series

Trident ProVidia 9685

Maxi Gamer Cougar PCI

3DFX Monster 3D 2 12MB

Trident TGU19680-1

Trident 3D Image 9750

Cirrus Logic 8260B V2

TSeng Labs ET6000

Bought it mainly for the 3DFX card and the ET6000 which makes the bundle worth while.

The 3D Image 9750 is also a very compatible vídeo card, I'm just not sure about speed. Should be more than OKay for anything DOS-related, and I'd be willing to bet it beats the Virge in Direct 3D. Just go with whatever gives you the best image and is reasonably period correct.

Probably gonna use the ET6000 and wait for a Voodoo 1 to pop up with a passthrough cable.

I just saw that the 3D Image 9750 has 0 compatibility problems from that DOS Image Tests page. Probably gonna use it and I looked up some performance tests and it looks really nice from the numbers. Thanks Alex.

Any single Voodoo 1 card anyone recommends?

soviet conscript wrote:

MrEWhite wrote:

So I should get a Matrox then?

Like what's been stated. In simple terms it comes down to s3 = compatibility Matrox = faster, better image but worse compatibility. What about ET6000 based cards? I never hear them suggested. I know the ET4000 was all the rage in the 386/486 era but Noone ever mentions the ET6000. Was it a good 2d card?

Nobody is recommending Cirrus Logic 5446 too.
I am using one such in my P133 rig, and it never fails me.
Good reliable card for the all rounder. Not as great as S3.
It's just a decent card.