fosterwj03 wrote on 2022-01-06, 23:03:
I have a 6800 GS working with Windows 9x, but the system has a lot of stability issues. Nvidia supported PCIE cards in the 60-series GeForce drivers for Windows 9x. You might need to add the PCI ID for your specific card to the .Inf file to get the installer to run.
I prefer the ATI Radeon x800 (also PCIE) for Windows 98/Me. Much better performance than the 6800 GS, and the drivers have much better stability.
Good to know, the 6800's are much easier to find. So I think I will go pick up a 6800 and keep an eye out for an X800/X850 (they seem to be harder to come by).
cyclone3d wrote on 2022-01-07, 01:59:
Windows 9x should not care about PCIe, even if there aren't specific Windows 9x .inf files to identify them.
If you look at the Intel chipset drivers, they are just .inf files to identify them in Device Manager.
Wow, you just sent me down a whole new rabbit hole 😉
I always thought that PCIe host bridge required a different driver. But it turns out to be just a superset of the PCI host bridge (from the software perspective that is).
I knew that PCIe-PCI (hardware) bridges existed, but I always assumed that they needed some driver. But it turns out PCI devices connected to these bridges can even provide their own option ROMs to the BIOS. My mind is now officially blown 😖
This means that by using a PCIe-PCI bridge, add some signal buffering and power supply circuitry, it would be possible to create an PCIe-AGP convertor card. Such a convertor could provide AGP2x bandwidth (albeit without side banding). A PCIe-PCIX convertor might even work, to provide AGP4x bandwith (I am not sure if PCIX can do 32-bit 133Mhz).
Any AGP VGA card should boot up just fine...
cyclone3d wrote on 2022-01-07, 01:59:
On the Nvidia side, the GeForce 7900GTX, which is PCIe works with Win98SE.
I have heard this before, but it seems that the Geforce 7000 series are quite buggy under Win98SE. There is only a single beta driver from nVidia with Win98 and Geforce 7000 support. After that, nVidia stopped all Win9x driver development.
