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First post, by vico

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I built a retro PC mainly to play DOS games and some Windows 98 games.

Some specs:

Motherboard: Soyo SY-6VBA133
Processor: Pentium II - 300MHz
Ram: 512MB (Although only half is recognized)
Video card: NVIDIA RIVA TNT2 M64
Sound Card: CT4741 / Sound Blaster 16 / PnP
OS: Windows 98SE

Now, according to https://technical.city/en/video/Riva-TNT2-M64 my video card supports up to DirectX6.

However, there are some emulators that need higher Directx, for example Nestopia 1.40 needs Directx9.

Is there something wrong with installing a DirectX higher than the one supported by my video card?

Last edited by vico on 2024-04-12, 04:19. Edited 2 times in total.

Reply 1 of 5, by DEAT

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No, you'll be fine - it's important to make the distinction towards DirectX and Direct3D. The TNT2 supports Direct3D 6 features, and those features still exist in the DirectX 9 runtime. There's games that require DirectX 9 but will run on a 2D-only card.

Reply 2 of 5, by vico

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DEAT wrote on 2024-04-12, 00:00:

No, you'll be fine - it's important to make the distinction towards DirectX and Direct3D. The TNT2 supports Direct3D 6 features, and those features still exist in the DirectX 9 runtime. There's games that require DirectX 9 but will run on a 2D-only card.

I understand. Thanks for the clarification.

Reply 3 of 5, by Minutemanqvs

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The problems you might run into would be related to SSE if you encounter strange execution errors. Some later DirectX and drivers rely in it being present, but this was introduced with the Pentium III. So try to stay with versions that are "period correct" to your Windows 98 SE install and graphic card if you can just to be on the safer side.

Searching a Nexgen Nx586 with FPU, PM me if you have one. I have some Athlon MP systems and cookies.

Reply 4 of 5, by eddman

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Minutemanqvs wrote on 2024-04-19, 18:28:

The problems you might run into would be related to SSE if you encounter strange execution errors. Some later DirectX and drivers rely in it being present

I'm yet to see a DX dll have its requirements change. Things like d3dim.dll, etc. shouldn't require newer hardware.