F2bnp wrote:

vetz wrote:

Fine, I'm getting a bit tired of this AGP overclock problem so many is talking about with no facts to document it with. This weekend I'll test all my AGP cards (and I have alot) in my ASUS P3B-F Tualatin 1400mhz (FSB at 133mhz). I've never had any problems I can remember. Normally a FX5950 Ultra is installed in this system.

Uber interesting. Will hold out on buying a Tualeron 1400 and maybe buy an actual Tualatin 1400. Been thinking of installing one on a P3B-F.

It's easy to find video cards that work at 89MHz, I wouldn't let it hold you back. Lots of people used to do this at the time.
I'm curious how well this would work with newer (Shader Model 3 era) cards, but those usually don't support the BX's 3.3v AGP slot.

You say you have an awe64. If you don't mind 16-bit color why not look for a Voodoo 3? There's also the Rage128 with 32-bit color support if you don't need glide, and it helps old DOS games run at normal speed on fast systems (like P3); but it won't run build engine games fast above 640x480 (640x480 on Build games drop to 25fps at times). I'm not sure how a Voodoo 3 or Rage128 would behave on a 440bx agp slot oc'd.

As for the fx5200 I wouldn't say it's a bad card, but I don't think it's a good card on a P3. I personally think it'd be better on a k6. I personally wouldn't go beyond a Geforce 3 on a P3 system (especially ones slower than 900mhz). Come to think of it, if you got a voodoo 2 the fx5200 would probably work way better than a Matrox, and you'd have the best of 32-bit color and glide support along with some simple shader ability; yeah actually the fx5200 would allow a pretty sweet voodoo 2 rig (I'm pretty sure it wouldn't bottleneck SVGA DOS games either). I wouldn't underestimate the fx5200... Heck I'd go so far as to say completely forget about anything else and go for a fx5200 with a voodoo 2; unless you don't want certain DOS games to run too fast.

Holering wrote:

You say you have an awe64. If you don't mind 16-bit color why not look for a Voodoo 3? There's also the Rage128 with 32-bit color support if you don't need glide, and it helps old DOS games run at normal speed on fast systems (like P3); but it won't run build engine games fast above 640x480 (640x480 on Build games drop to 25fps at times). I'm not sure how a Voodoo 3 or Rage128 would behave on a 440bx agp slot oc'd.

As for the fx5200 I wouldn't say it's a bad card, but I don't think it's a good card on a P3. I personally think it'd be better on a k6. I personally wouldn't go beyond a Geforce 3 on a P3 system (especially ones slower than 900mhz). Come to think of it, if you got a voodoo 2 the fx5200 would probably work way better than a Matrox, and you'd have the best of 32-bit color and glide support along with some simple shader ability; yeah actually the fx5200 would allow a pretty sweet voodoo 2 rig (I'm pretty sure it wouldn't bottleneck SVGA DOS games either). I wouldn't underestimate the fx5200... Heck I'd go so far as to say completely forget about anything else and go for a fx5200 with a voodoo 2; unless you don't want certain DOS games to run too fast.

The only real problem I have with using a Voodoo 3, aside from obtaining one, is the fact that it lacks hardware T&L. I want to be able to run some 2000-2002-era stuff on this thing, even though I understand a Pentium 4 may be more optimal for this.

I may have to give the FX 5200 another chance, since I'm pretty sure I have one that's not an OEM Dell POS, provided I can find decent drivers for it. I'd be running MOHAA at low settings anyway due to the CPU bottleneck. 😉 I know MOHAA can run easily on newer systems, but I just like the idea of having one system to fufill my retro needs. Maybe two, since I want to throw together a 486 system for early VGA/Soundblaster FM-based DOS games.

Holering makes a really good point on the 5200 - GF4 Ti or a better FX would also fit into that logic as well. I doubt 5600s are that expensive, and they will have more power (and afaik they're all 128bit cards, even OEM ones). 5200 may be passively cooled though, so in theory you could build a super quiet machine going that route...

A good fx5200 is as fast as a mx440-mx460. A 64bit version gets beaten by a geforce2gts.

Take a ti4200 and get free AA on a p3 system.

So, say I have a non-OEM FX 5200, an FX5600, and ti4200, which cards would deliver the best in these departments:

- Win9x/2000 driver stability (I might dual boot for a few games to get some performance gains 😉 )
- VESA support
- EMBM support
- Other "legacy" support (like table fog, etc.)
- Overall performance
- Overall image quality

Being able to run Glide wrappers semi-reliably would be kinda cool as well, because it's hard to find 3DFX stuff around here for a decent price. I would eventually LIKE to have a Voodoo 2 SLI setup though.