VOGONS


First post, by athlon-power

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I've recently upgraded my Windows 9x gaming build (primarily used to play HL, GLQuake, QII, QIII, and Unreal, and any others I find in the future) from a Pentium III Katmai 500MHz all the way up to an Athlon XP 2600+. The main reason for this was to be able to run these games without lag or the sort that my time-accurate hardware was seeing. I can say that the PIII Katmai was for sure quite a bottleneck considering the TNT2 32MB I have runs HL at a constant 100FPS in Hazard Course, something that it couldn't do while using the Katmai.

Anyways, I was wondering what AGP card would be best paired for this CPU, not just for Windows 9x gaming, but in general. I had an FX 5200 and a Radeon 9600, but neither of them seem to work, so I'm searching for a good AGP card for cheap that pairs well with this CPU. This is the version with the 266MHz FSB instead of the 333 or any higher, but it's also the highest CPU this motherboard will support. Any help is greatly apprecated.

(Also, there's a few chips on top and bottom edges of the die, but the CPU works fine- is this a situation of "it's either dead or completely works"? It ran Memtest86+ just fine and installed Windows, also it obviously played Half-Life and I suspect a damaged CPU wouldn't even POST, but I want to make sure)

Where am I?

Reply 1 of 3, by Mamba

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To have full support of SM3.0 and take your chance on multiple games, I suggest you search for x1950pro or 7600gt/gs(ddr3 version).
Prices are still ok.

There are cheap hd3650 ddr2 (ddr3 agp version is rare), that are faster but I am not sure your CPU would be happy.

Reply 2 of 3, by clueless1

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Radeon 9800 Pro, GeForce 6600GT or 6800GT are also good choice.

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Reply 3 of 3, by stef80

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I'd go with X800Pro/XT.
Realisticaly, card is an overkill for XP 2600+ and can be found cheaper than Nvidia's equivalent. Also, there are no hickups or driver issues with SM2.0 AAA titles like HL2 or FarCry. Basically, last available (legacy) driver just works.