Best video card and sound card available 1997 \ VOGONS

Best video card and sound card available 1997

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First post, by eehohelonline

Posted on 2021-09-25, 18:43

eehohelonline Offline

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Joined: 2021-09-25, 17:55

Hi All,

I recently was finally able to buy a very good condition Compaq Presario 4160 P150. The Compaq 4160 was my first PC my parents bought me back in 1997 when it came out. Because of moving around when I was young, I ended up throwing away by 4160 sadly, but I saved the P150 CPU which I put in once I got the 4160.

In any regard, one thing I remember back then was I wished I was able to get the best of everything.

After research I know it can do a max of 128mb memory, which I am in the process of trying to buy. It has a 2.1GB hard drive which I think is fine so I am not going to upgrade that.

I think the 4160 can do a max of 200mhz and fortunately I saved my 200mhz mmx I bought way back in the day (I save all processors I've used 🤣). So I plan to put that in.

I need help on best video card you can buy back in 1997 along with best sound card.

Thanks.

Reply 1 of 3, by jakethompson1

Posted on 2021-09-25, 19:35

jakethompson1 Offline

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In 1997 you'd likely have a Voodoo for "best" 3D as well as a separate "best" 2D card.
Matrox Millenium? S3 Trio64V+ or ViRGE ? ATI Rage?

Reply 2 of 3, by SScorpio

Posted on 2021-09-25, 19:51

SScorpio Offline

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Video I'd go Riva 128 + a Voodoo 1. Soundcard would be a Sound Blaster AWE 64. The original Aureal Vortex was out at this time, but an AWE 64 would give better DOS compatibility.

If you were willing to go into 1998 you could get a Riva TNT, dual SLI Voodoo 2s, Soundblaster Live, and Aureal Vortex 2.

You could always get everything and see what spending top of the line money got you, and then less than a year later hardware that was over double the performance came out and beat it all.

Reply 3 of 3, by eehohelonline

Posted on 2021-09-25, 20:20

eehohelonline Offline

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SScorpio wrote on 2021-09-25, 19:51:

Video I'd go Riva 128 + a Voodoo 1. Soundcard would be a Sound Blaster AWE 64. The original Aureal Vortex was out at this time, but an AWE 64 would give better DOS compatibility.

If you were willing to go into 1998 you could get a Riva TNT, dual SLI Voodoo 2s, Soundblaster Live, and Aureal Vortex 2.

You could always get everything and see what spending top of the line money got you, and then less than a year later hardware that was over double the performance came out and beat it all.

Thanks. One thing I realized and had to double check. The 4160 only has 2 PCI expansions. So looks like I can only do a PCI Video card and a PCI sound card.

Edit: It could work as I can free up an ISA by removing the modem, which I realize is not needed 🤣. I have another ISA with a 10M NIC.

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