a classic config would be Matrox with voodoo 1 or 2.
maybe I would throw in a voodoo 3 2000

Depending on your choice of monitor, you might want to avoid the S3 family on a LCD.

Remember that Rendition has slow VGA so don't use the screaming 3D unless you really want to play Papyrus racing games 😀

Mystique is sharp and fast, keen stutters and there's a fix for that now. Just pay no mind to the creepy jester art

I'm using an original Packard Bell CRT, my matrox seems to make games like pod display in odd frequencies my monitor doesn't like. 😒

King_Corduroy wrote:

Hey guys, I'm upgrading a computer and I'm wondering what the best card is I could hope to put in a Pentium 1 computer system. I […]
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Hey guys, I'm upgrading a computer and I'm wondering what the best card is I could hope to put in a Pentium 1 computer system. It's a Packard Bell btw so conflicts might be a thing. 🤣

Here are some cards I have atm:
Diamond Multimedia Speedstar 64
ATI RAGE II+
S3 Virge VX
S3 Virge DX
S3 Trio 64V
S3 Vision 968
Matrox Mystique
Sierra Screaming 3d (Rendition Verite 1000-E) (Seems to have some sort of conflict in Windows)

DOS or Windows?

voodoo 5 5500 pci, is a good card for gaming 😁

And so easy to come by... 😵

I've been considering the geforce mx4000 pci but not seen much talk about it when it comes to MS DOS compatibility

I Have an S3 Virge DX PCI card but it's not good with an LCD monitor

As gdjacobs asked, DOS or Win? For DOS, my top choice is TNT2 M64 (if you don't care about period-correctness). It's the fastest AND most compatible I've tested on my Pentium 1 system.

I'm not sure how a TNT2 M64 would do in Win9x on a Pentium 1. Maybe it would be more than enough still?

Depends on what you use the machine for. I have a Pentium 133 running an S3 Virge DX, and it's fantastic... but I mostly use it for older games, and the excellent compatibility of the S3 cards is a major factor for me. If you're running Windows, then it might depend on what games you like to play. If you want to be able to run Glide games, then a Voodoo 3 would be a good choice... If Glide isn't important, then a TNT2 would also be good (anything beyond that would probably be wasted, as the CPU/bus would bottleneck things). Matrox cards are known for their excellent display quality if that's important to you.

--Zero

S3 cards have great compatibility with DOS games and good speed. Matrox cards are not very friendly towards some games but great in windows. Out of the newer cards, the Voodoo 3 and Voodoo Banshee are great for both dos and windows, as well as having glide support for early 3d games. In my pentium boxes I use a combination of S3 + Voodoo 1 or 2. From the list you posted I'd use one of the virge cards - preferably one with 4mb of vram - add a voodoo card and the machine is complete.

leileilol wrote:

Depending on your choice of monitor, you might want to avoid the S3 family on a LCD.

Remember that Rendition has slow VGA so don't use the screaming 3D unless you really want to play Papyrus racing games 😀

Mystique is sharp and fast, keen stutters and there's a fix for that now. Just pay no mind to the creepy jester art

Not all S3 cards have the LCD gamma issue - most high end cards (like the ones from ELSA, Prolink and Diamond) work perfectly with LCD monitors. I've only encountered the gamma issue with cheap noname cards.

Keen isn't the only game that stutters - there's also Supaplex, Golden Axe, Jazz Jackrabbit and others.