I guess that a GeForce 4 MX 440/460 will be just fine. Skip the MX4000 as it cannot use older drivers (which perform better and have better compatibility with very old games). You can go GeForce 4 Ti too if you want to be fancy, or even FX, but do not get a 6x00 series card or newer.

If you want to be more period correct, though, a TNT2 will be your top choice. Matrox cards might be an interesting choice, since you won't have to deal with the driver issues from that time.

Yeah. Matrox G400 or G400max is probably the way to go here.
Take a look at my "Zitech" build. It can handle NFS2000 as the most demanding game.
It runs in 640x480x16 though. Diablo 1, Diablo 2 and Quake 2 runs great enough.
And you seem to have a better fpu when dealing with P2/P3 compared to K6-2.

If you want a really fast P3-500 performer.
Then go for an Intel VC-820 board.
128 to 256mb PC-800 (RD-Ram).
And top it with an Radeon 9600 Pro 128mb.

Tested NFS-2000 on such an setup and it ran
smooth in 1024x768x32. And it ran Diablo1+2.
UT99 was a real joy too.

Isn't RDRAM kind of a waste with a P3 anyway? Also, he wants an SB16 compatible sound card for DOS, so he might want ISA, therefore a BX (for 100mhz) or even a VIA Apollo 133 based motherboard would be a better choice.

Motherboard will almost certainly be my favorite rock solid Intel SE440BX2. Just have to order another one.

Very interesting about the Matrox G400, I had one ages ago and had forgotten about it entirely. It isn't 100% DirectX 7.0 compliant, with it's lack of hardware T&L, but I do not think that will matter.

Ups. Forgot about that need for an ISA slot.
440BX is the way to go then i guess.

Other than that. RD-Ram will give it a boost
at about some 5 to 10%. If we have to believe
all the old articles and benchmarks.

Well, I read an old article that, thanks to the increased latencies of RDRAM, it was actually slower since the P3 could not keep up with the increased bandwidth. Unless on select cases, the article I read (showing tom's hardware benchmarks) showed the 820 consistently losing to both the BX, the 815 and the Apollo Pro 133, and only the double-channel enabled 840 was able to throw some punches. Granted, the gap wasn't that big, but it was there.

alexanrs wrote:

Well, I read an old article that, thanks to the increased latencies of RDRAM, it was actually slower since the P3 could not keep up with the increased bandwidth. Unless on select cases, the article I read (showing tom's hardware benchmarks) showed the 820 consistently losing to both the BX, the 815 and the Apollo Pro 133, and only the double-channel enabled 840 was able to throw some punches. Granted, the gap wasn't that big, but it was there.

Yeah, true. Have been checking up on this too. The i820 with RD-Ram is only 1 to 5 points out of say 300 points faster than 440bx with PC-100 Ram. So it must be the latency as you are saying. Sometimes we all just remember stuff the wrong way, don't we. 😁

I think I might order one of these new-old-stock Matrox G400's. If it will handle DirectX and OpenGL without having to change driver versions for different games and be fast enough it sounds perfect for this box. Thoughts?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/400438-001-400273-001 … =item5d36d65771

G400 is a nice card. G400 max a bit faster though. Other models offer DVI too. But that's 500 series I believe.

For v-sync control I use an older version of PowerStrip. It's forced on by default I believe.

Thanks Phil, I have been reading up on the G400 and it looks like I need to bump the CPU speed up a bit to get its full potential. So instead of a Pentium III 450 I'm looking for a cheap Pentium III 550-750.

squareguy wrote:

I think I might order one of these new-old-stock Matrox G400's. If it will handle DirectX and OpenGL without having to change driver versions for different games and be fast enough it sounds perfect for this box. Thoughts?

http://www.ebay.com/itm/400438-001-400273-001 … =item5d36d65771

Nice card. Had one my self. Gave it away to my brother installed in the P2-400(or so mhz) that I also gave to him.
He was able to run UT99 in 640x480x16, allmost smooth. Despite that he wanted a Win98 box for Dos games.
The card I have been using in my build's, is the Dualhead with 32mb of ram. A model just like this one...

http://www.ebay.com/itm/HP-5064-9194-Matrox-M … =item2319c65505

I am looking for more information and links about the original GeForce 256 GPU. I know it is fully DirectX 7.0 certified but were any of the older hardware features removed from the first GeForce?

I found the info I needed. Scope creep always gets the better of me... i can add another 128MB RAM, upgrade the video card to this, do that, add that other thing too... and get completely away from the original concept. I have decided on the Matrox G400 16MB, single headed card. 16MB is plenty, the non-MAX version is plenty fast enough for the games and resolutions I will be playing, I do not need DVI, I do not need hardware T&L and I will get to enjoy the simplicity of using a single driver playing windows games up to the DirectX 7 era, which is what I originally wanted.

I will get this project off the ground soon and post pics as I get things accomplished. I am planning on using all 100% standard parts. I have a Gateway 2000 desktop case from a socket 7 system that I may use once I figure out if it can house a standard PSU (possibly with a custom adapter plate) such as a micro-ATX PSU. I don't want to get stuck trying to find non-standard parts down the road. I love beige and to be honest the OEM cases were miles ahead in the quality department with rare exception.

EDIT: I bought two for a little less than US $27 including shipping.

Now to hunt down another Aureal Vortex 2 card. Hunting down the parts if half the fun 😉

Lol, I'm on fire tonight! Nabbed a Vortex 2 for US $8.00 with free shipping. Now where is that Slot 1, P3 650 for $10 with free shipping ???

Well not perfect but close enough. Found a Pentium III 550E Coppermine CPU (SL3XH). Should do lovely.

Ordered the mainboard tonight. New-old-stock Intel SE440BX-2, my favorite slot one board. It might not have bells and whistles, or be overclockable, but it is rock solid and the build quality is exceptional. I would have owned one way back then if I could have afforded it and the CPU to go with it, at least I can now. I had an Abit BH6 back then, with a Celeron 300A running at 450-MHz.

One nice thing about the Matrox cards, they have the option of a DVI daughter card.

http://www.matrox.com/graphics/media/pdf/supp … als/en_fpg4.pdf

Now that is cool. Of course you understand I have to try and find one now.