on my Celeron 900mhz machine (emachines e320) I went with an ATI Radeon 9000 PCI 64mb card as I had one from back in the day, and the machine has no AGP slot, it's newer than what you're currently looking at but works great, HL looks fantastic especially if you can use the OpenGL mode with the high def effects pack(cant remember exactly what it's called).

My pentium 2 rig has AGP slot so I'm using a Rage 128 pro ultra 32mb card. Never tried the RAGE 128 PCI cards so don't know if there's much difference

Personally I'd go with something that supports hardware TnL, you can always pair whatever card you pick with a voodoo PCI card for 3dfx games
S3 cards are an option if you want MSDOS compatibility.

Well the V is easily the fastest card out of that lot. Shame you got no regular tnt2...

I don't think the TNT2 was a 1998 card, I think it didn't come out until 1999 but please correct me if I'm wrong since I also built a Win 9x rig with a 1998 cut off date. I ended up going with 2x voodoo 2 in SLI and a Matrox G200. I figured the V2's would be doing most of the gaming work but the G200 would handle 2d stuff and its superior image quality would help offset the hit to image from using a v2 passthrough cable. I have heavily considered switching over to a TNT though since it's more gamer oriented then the G200 and still has decent quality....if the TNT2 was out in 98 though......

I also have odd graphical issues with the g200 now and then, desktop icons being corrupted sometimes after a running for awhile. I think its a driver issue. this has happened with 2 G200s I've used so I don't think it's bad video ram. I'm also using the later cooler running g200 revision with a heatsink I slapped on it so I cant blame overheating either.

PhilsComputerLab wrote:

Well the V is easily the fastest card out of that lot. Shame you got no regular tnt2...

Yeah. I have a regular TNT, but it's AGP...

I think the V3 should be more than capable, though.

soviet conscript: you're right about the TNT2. But technically, the Voodoo3 is also from 1999. I'm okay with that though. It was pretty typical back in the day to have a machine from a certain year, then upgrade the graphics card the next year. So I'm fine if the graphics card is from 1999.

edit: and the fact I'm running 98SE (which was released in 1999)...🤣

If that Matrox G100 chip is integrated into the motherboard, why don't you just get a Voodoo2 card and be done? You don't need a completely new card for 2D performance, since the G100 chip will do that just fine. Get a Voodoo2 12MB card and a VGA pass-through cable. The Voodoo will run Half-Life pretty sweet, especially being pushed by the 400MHz Pentium II. It runs pretty sweet on my 350MHz Pentium II.

A Voodoo2 is more 98'ish than Voodoo3.

Back in the day, 1998 for me was the year of the ATI Rage Pro, and wishing I had money for a Voodoo2. I couldn't afford a TNT2 until 2000.

If you want to be period-accurate, stick a V2 in there together with the integrated G100.

Yeah, the V2 would be ideal. I'm trying to use what I got, though. V2s are going for $30-$60, and I've already got a V3 I'm not using. But I've now got a V2 on my wishlist. 😉

You could stick in a PCX2 as well, as that was also a sucker......budget option in the day. Voodoo Graphics also had huge pricedrops and clearances in that year so that's also period appropriate

But that PCX2 and a Voodoo2 on top of a G100 would be grand as you'd keep G100's sharper VGA signal

Don't knock the PCX2. It's the best card for playing Mechwarrior 2!

Maybe... but these days it looks like you can have 4 or 5 voodoo2s for the price of one of them, judging by current prices on ebay.

gdjacobs wrote:

Don't knock the PCX2. It's the best card for playing Mechwarrior 2!

I like it for Tomb Raider as well, I think the water looks best with it.

Is a Cyrix 166mx with a PR rating of 133 enough power to push a PCX2, I have it in my Aptiva along with the on board video (Rage II+ DVD) and am searching for a copy of Mechwarrior 2 to see how well it renders. Just curious if I am going to be happy or disappointed.

Tommaso

No. PCX2 = Pentium territory. K5, and 6x86 are off limits and will perform badly with the card, and it's more due to FPU-heavy drivers than the hardware itself.

A Voodoo will be fine.

I have been using a Banshee on my P2B and I really like the way it looks and feels. There are better cards but it is simple and cheap for a voodoo. Obviously not going to stand up to a V3 but for 98 it is a great choice. I personally would use the V3 until you can pick something else up.

leileilol wrote:

No. PCX2 = Pentium territory. K5, and 6x86 are off limits and will perform badly with the card, and it's more due to FPU-heavy drivers than the hardware itself.

A Voodoo will be fine.

just a quick question, what is the reason a voodoo will be fine and not a pcx2? just curious, and what would be the optimum pentium to use with it, thanks!

Tommaso