Jasin Natael wrote on 2021-10-04, 13:53:

I was just lucky and did some searching by generic board model, not by "3DFX Voodoo" or anything like that.

Yeah, if it has "3dfx" or "Voodoo" in title or description, prices will skyrocket.
So far I managed to "ninja purchase" three Voodoos.

The first one was in autumn of 2020. I got four complete machines for the symbolic price of 1€. They were in the middle of nowhere and there wasn't much info on them, so nobody was willing to drive there. I won a gigantic lot on Ebay (10 machines for 200€. Mostly newer ones like LGA1155, 775 and AM3, but also a Socket 370), so I was heading in that direction anyway. While on the way to the second location, "Hopefully there's a Voodoo or an ISA Sound Blaster in one of these machines" went through my head. And I got both! Voodoo2 12MB and SB16 PnP.

Now that I finally had a few systems with ISA bus, I was searching for "ISA sound card" on Ebay. Found an interesting lot named "ISA sound cards lot" consisting of a Voodoo3 2000, AWE32 PnP Value and a Vibra16 with a real OPL3 chip. All untested, but they work! Paid 60€ for the whole lot. Shipping included.

Number 3 was recently. I spotted a junk lot on Ebay, containing a Voodoo Banshee + 32 other cards. Got it for 50€. Sadly the Banshee has damaged VRAM. 🙁 But there was also a highend graphic cards for old Apple machines between the cards.

This is how you ninja purchase Voodoos. Don't expect to find any bargains when searching for "3dfx".

I mean Voodoo 3 is what I have in mine. But I got it cheap.
Plenty of other options. Geforce 4/MX....Radeon 7500 or even a 8500.
Quadro cards can be had cheaply if you look hard enough.
Be different and find a Kyro II would be cool....

Pentium 3 1Ghz was also quite commonly used with GeForce 3. Well, good luck with that though.

I'm surprised that no one proposed GeForce 256, as it is period correct. (at least from the sources i found)
Pentium III 1Ghz ~> Q1/Q2 2000
Geforce 256 ~> Q4 1999

I can't remember what people used at that time. My friends and i were around 13/14yo at that time, so none of us had high end computers. (we were already lucky to have a personal one instead of sharing the family box)

I had GeForce2 MX400 in then new P3 1GHz machine, along with inaudible Baracuda ATA IV 40GB and Plextor 24/10/40. But I guess GeForce2 GTS/Pro was the card to have.

In my experience with a PIII 800 MHz, even a GeForce 4 is well worth it for a lot of GPU demanding games. For example, Serious Sam 1, NOLF 2, ...

It is also very compatible with DOS games and Windows 9X.

(mine is a GF 4 TI 4800, but any model will do)

acl wrote on 2021-12-07, 09:23:

I'm surprised that no one proposed GeForce 256, as it is period correct. (at least from the sources i found) Pentium III 1Ghz ~> […]
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I'm surprised that no one proposed GeForce 256, as it is period correct. (at least from the sources i found)
Pentium III 1Ghz ~> Q1/Q2 2000
Geforce 256 ~> Q4 1999

I can't remember what people used at that time. My friends and i were around 13/14yo at that time, so none of us had high end computers. (we were already lucky to have a personal one instead of sharing the family box)

I'm not surprised. It is period correct, but not the best bang for the buck. It's generally priced the same as Voodoo 3 and OP said it's too much.
There are much cheaper cards with similar compatibility and similar or better performance.

GF2 GTS 32MB (Asus V7700) can usually be found south of 20€/$. Medion GF3 Ti 200 about the same, although 470uF SANYO caps regularly vent and need to be replaced . GF4 Ti 4200 go for +25€/$ depending on the model and memory.
GF256 DDR is collectors item.

RandomStranger wrote on 2021-12-07, 09:44:

There are much cheaper cards with similar compatibility and similar or better performance.

stef80 wrote on 2021-12-07, 10:50:

GF256 DDR is collectors item.

You're right 👍 I forgot about the price tag.
Even if GF256 SDR can occasionally be found in the 50-70€ range, that still high for the performance. The high price tag being more because of the card rarity/collection than for its raw performances.
As i'm a period correctness obsessed person, my heart would go to R100 cards. You can currently find some Radeon 7200/7500 below 10€ in France. But i'm sure that some GF4 perform better (but are more recent ~2002 and can cost a bit more)

acl wrote on 2021-12-07, 11:49:

You're right 👍 I forgot about the price tag. Even if GF256 SDR can occasionally be found in the 50-70€ range, that still high fo […]
Show full quote

RandomStranger wrote on 2021-12-07, 09:44:

There are much cheaper cards with similar compatibility and similar or better performance.

stef80 wrote on 2021-12-07, 10:50:

GF256 DDR is collectors item.

You're right 👍 I forgot about the price tag.
Even if GF256 SDR can occasionally be found in the 50-70€ range, that still high for the performance. The high price tag being more because of the card rarity/collection than for its raw performances.
As i'm a period correctness obsessed person, my heart would go to R100 cards. You can currently find some Radeon 7200/7500 below 10€ in France. But i'm sure that some GF4 perform better (but are more recent ~2002 and can cost a bit more)

Yeah they aren't cheap, especially for the level of performance you get with them. Not bad but nothing that a cheapie MX card can do for far less.
I have a 256 but it artifacts like mad. Kept it just cause it's a bit rare.

I'd say GeForce 2 gts would be pretty period correct. I have a cusl2 board laying around with a 1ghz coppermine in it. Probably going to pair it with a GeForce 3 ti 200 once I get a case for it all.

How do yall feel about the Radeon 9000 Pro and regular 9000 cards, in benchmarks back in the day they competed well with the Ti200, full DX8.1 support, and looking at fleabay you can usually pay under 20 USD for one so also affordable, and where faster than the MX440 and FX5200 back in the day.

Not a bad match for a Pentium III, same for the 9200 and 9250. But the latter 2 by my experience are a little hot headed. It's better to replace the heatsink a bigger one or have active cooling. I'd assume that's also true for the 9000, since it's essentially the same, but higher clocks and 4x AGP.

What would be really interesting is the 9100, since it's a rebranded 8500LE.

candle_86 wrote on 2022-11-25, 21:21:

How do yall feel about the Radeon 9000 Pro and regular 9000 cards, in benchmarks back in the day they competed well with the Ti200, full DX8.1 support, and looking at fleabay you can usually pay under 20 USD for one so also affordable, and where faster than the MX440 and FX5200 back in the day.

I've got a Gigabyte GV-R9000 Pro II with my P3-800 system. The original golden-colored heatsink and fan were long gone so I added a cheap fan in addition to an aftermarket heatsink, with power provided by main PSU via a molex connector with an adapter. Works well with very late DOS (3D accelerated) and early- to mid-Win9x games.

RandomStranger wrote on 2022-11-25, 21:58:

Not a bad match for a Pentium III, same for the 9200 and 9250. But the latter 2 by my experience are a little hot headed. It's better to replace the heatsink a bigger one or have active cooling. I'd assume that's also true for the 9000, since it's essentially the same, but higher clocks and 4x AGP.

What would be really interesting is the 9100, since it's a rebranded 8500LE.

Well I've got a 9000 Pro I tossed it into my P3 800 as I was just really unhappy with my Quadro2 MXR, still using the stock heatsink but the case has a front 80mm and a rear 40mm fan so it moves some air, combined with the ATX PSU having its 80mm exhuast with vents facing down.

Back in the early 2000s I had a Connect3D 9200SE for a while and on the stock heatsink it roasted itself. And that was the lower clocked version. Recently I got two 9250 to test and those are also very hot on their stock heatsink.