The Matrox will have the best image quality, but it's DOS compatibility isn't as good. Still, I would start with this card and try out your games, chances are you won't run into any issues 😀

What board are you using? Does it have AGP?

I'd lean towards the Matrox or to give the other Trio64s a try (if you haven't already done so).

kaputnik wrote:

Managed to pick up a bunch of graphics card for next to nothing, of which a few were PCI ones. Now I have to choose one of them […]
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Managed to pick up a bunch of graphics card for next to nothing, of which a few were PCI ones. Now I have to choose one of them to replace the Trio64+ in my Pentium 200 rig, its video quality is absolutely horrible.

Primarily I want compatibility with older DOS games, secondarily decent video quality in Windows in 1280x1024. Performance isn't important, got other rigs for that.

The cards are as following:

Color Max Trio64V2/DX (got three of those, can't see any difference between them).
Diamond Multimedia Stealth III S540 (seems to be a Savage4 Pro based card, got no experience at all of that chipset)
Matrox Millennium (I believe at least, it's got a sticker saying "MGA-MIL/2/AS2" and the GPU chip is marked "IS-STORM R2")

So, any ideas? 😀

If compatibility with older games is your top concern then I would go with the Trio64 V2/DX. It's faster than the Trio64+ and has high compatibility ratings. But they will need to be at least 2MB to do 1280x1024 in Windows.

If image quality in 1280x1024 Windows is your top concern, then the Millennium.

I've found the Trio 3D/2X to be very good image quality wise and compatibility

but S3 cards are hit and miss my Virge DX is terrible quality wise, you could try the Savage and see what it's like.

If you want quality with windows and DOS it'd best to go with a Nvidia card it seems. I'm on the look out for a nice GF2 card

I'd suggest trying the Savage4. Apparently they did quite well in DOS games, and weren't all that pokey for hi-res 2D graphics in Windows.

Hah, since all the alternatives has been suggested, it seems like I'll just have to try them out one by one. Was hoping to avoid that, but then again, experimenting might be what the retro computing hobby is all about 😀

@Tetrium, it's a Gigabyte GA-586HX, no AGP. Would have been easy then, got a Virge GX2, which probably would have fitted the bill perfectly.

kaputnik wrote:

Managed to pick up a bunch of graphics card for next to nothing, of which a few were PCI ones. Now I have to choose one of them to replace the Trio64+ in my Pentium 200 rig, its video quality is absolutely horrible.

May I ask you what was so absolutely horrible about your Trio64s?

Tetrium wrote:

kaputnik wrote:

Managed to pick up a bunch of graphics card for next to nothing, of which a few were PCI ones. Now I have to choose one of them to replace the Trio64+ in my Pentium 200 rig, its video quality is absolutely horrible.

May I ask you what was so absolutely horrible about your Trio64s?

Of course. First and foremost the image is blurry. There are also some interference patterns coming and going, that I thought originated from crosstalk somewhere internally on the card (thoroughly been testing everything but changing cards before), but it's still there, even with the Matrox card. Might have to reevaluate my opinions, and re-do the testing, must have missed something...

That sounds like it could be a crappy cable, dirty connector or a monitor that's on the fritz, actually.

jade_angel wrote:

That sounds like it could be a crappy cable, dirty connector or a monitor that's on the fritz, actually.

Well, other computers looks just fine on the same monitor, using the same cable, and now I found out that other graphics cards got the same interference problem in the p200, so I don't know really. Feels like I've exhausted the suspects, if it's not the PSU or mobo. If it is, it's the first time I'm experiencing or ever heard of this kind of problems originating in those components.

Interference could be from the power supply - caps on their way out or snubber broken.

For time correct hardware and image quality I'd use the Millennium. For general usage and 3D and not really time correct I'd use the Savage 4.