VOGONS


Reply 122 of 238, by tayyare

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Somebody already mentioned but did not provided a link. Here you can find some pacthed up Windows 3.1 SVGA drivers that work with modernish VGA cards. I checked it with GF2 and GF4 and it works with both.

https://sites.google.com/site/chitchatvmback/misc

It has many limits and issues but it works somehow.

GA-6VTXE PIII 1.4+512MB
Geforce4 Ti 4200 64MB
Diamond Monster 3D 12MB SLI
SB AWE64 PNP+32MB
120GB IDE Samsung/80GB IDE Seagate/146GB SCSI Compaq/73GB SCSI IBM
Adaptec AHA29160
3com 3C905B-TX
Gotek+CF Reader
MSDOS 6.22+Win 3.11/95 OSR2.1/98SE/ME/2000

Reply 124 of 238, by Matzo

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I've been asking the same question recently, I do think this should be two questions ie. best card for DOS/3x and best card for Win9x. For DOS/3x there is a clear cut answer where as with 9x there is not. I've tested quite a range of fairly modern PCI cards (not PCI-E/X) with Windows 98SE, whilst you can get the drivers for 9x not all features on the card may be supported because you are limited to using lower versions of DirectX.

There are some cards which some older motherboards do not support, if you have a motherboard too new then you may not get 9x running on it. I do have a collection of PCI graphics cards that work with 9x, I can say now that even though the Voodoo3 is good it is not on the top of the list. I'll continue to test and will publish the results.

Reply 126 of 238, by kikendo

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Hello, new here, and I started building my own retro rig and wonder what I could do for video, as the motherboard-provided chipset is rather crap.
When I got this PC I was so excited to finally be able to buy for dirt cheap and enjoy a Voodoo card, then I went to eBay and realized how freaking expensive they are still! 😲

So, I have a Compaq Presario with a Celeron@600 Mhz, and it only seems to have PCI ports, no AGP.
Back in the day when I had a Pentium III, I used to run a Riva TNT 64MB card. Would love to do better than that.

I'm sure I can do better today, without going all the way to the stupidly expensive 3dfx. Any recommendations?
i'm mostly interested in DOS stuff, but if it works well with Windows 98, great.

Reply 127 of 238, by Baoran

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kikendo wrote:
Hello, new here, and I started building my own retro rig and wonder what I could do for video, as the motherboard-provided chips […]
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Hello, new here, and I started building my own retro rig and wonder what I could do for video, as the motherboard-provided chipset is rather crap.
When I got this PC I was so excited to finally be able to buy for dirt cheap and enjoy a Voodoo card, then I went to eBay and realized how freaking expensive they are still! 😲

So, I have a Compaq Presario with a Celeron@600 Mhz, and it only seems to have PCI ports, no AGP.
Back in the day when I had a Pentium III, I used to run a Riva TNT 64MB card. Would love to do better than that.

I'm sure I can do better today, without going all the way to the stupidly expensive 3dfx. Any recommendations?
i'm mostly interested in DOS stuff, but if it works well with Windows 98, great.

I don't think either rive tnt or riva tnt2 supported 64Mb ram. You could always try early geforce cards like for example geforce 2 mx400 pci should not be too expensive.

Reply 129 of 238, by rodimus80

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I also use a Voodoo 3 3000 for my DOS/Win3.x/Win9x Time Machine Build along with a AMD K6-III 400+. The build was inspired by PhilsComputerLab. That Voodoo 3 has given me zero trouble. DOS runs and looks great. Windows 3.11 never looked better, and Windows 95 and 98 work great too. I find myself constantly switching CF cards between the 3 Operating Systems. Some days I'm in a Windows 95 mood. Others Windows 3.11 with my Star Wars Screen Entertainment running like it was 1994 again. 😉

Reply 130 of 238, by Terracresta

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Reading this thread and looking up options, I guess I'll stick with the S3 Trio64V2/DX the old PC I'm getting is coming with. Found someones long test table with countless GPUs and even different GPU BIOS versions and it seems one of the best for DOS compatiblity.

Here a link to the list for the ones interested:
https://gona.mactar.hu/DOS_TESTS/

There are also downloads like VESA fixes at the bottom of this page.

Reply 131 of 238, by Jo22

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I'm also happy with the Trios and the Virge325 here, since they simply work.
In the rare cases VBE support is an issue (below 2.x), writing another VGA BIOS into the 27xxx EPROM often solves it.
For ancient DOS programs (SVGA, VBE1), an ISA-based Trident 8900(D), PVGA or WDC90xxx (say WD90C31) card is also fine.
Also, all of these seem to work out-of-box on OS/2, which is a nice bonus.

"Time, it seems, doesn't flow. For some it's fast, for some it's slow.
In what to one race is no time at all, another race can rise and fall..." - The Minstrel

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Reply 132 of 238, by creepingnet

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From my own personal experience.... with 486 era hardware of course (since that's about where my interest stops).

ISA - WDC Chipset Cards - Used to have a 512K SVGA ISA WDC card, and thing ran great up through Windows 98 SE with the drivers for it. I forget the exact number as it was over 10 years ago, but it was a great 256 color card and not at all slow.

VLB - Chipsets by Cirrus Logic and S3 are the ones I've had the best luck with myself. I use a S3 805 in my current 486 with 2MB of VRAM, it's the ONLY VLB Card I ever got to work with CD-ROAST (which runs in some interlaced 1024x768 graphics mode and looks FANTASTIC on my 14" Micron CRT). It may not be the fastest card but it definatley can hold it's own. I've had TONS of Cirrus Logic cards both in the form of a VLB card and on the motherboard of 486 "pizza box" machines over the years and they never fail to work no matter what O/S I'm using.

PCI - ATI RAGE II - I think I MAY have a driver CD somewhere with drivers for the ATI Rage series, but I've used a ton of those RAGE PCI cards from 2MB to 8MB in Pentium systems, and I had an AMD 5x86 133 with a 2MB model in it, that thing was super happy running Windows 2000 Pro SP2.

Granted, this is ALL historical stuff, I don't have anywhere near the hardware I used to have, though I MIGHT have stashed some stuff away at my childhood home that might get "rediscovered" someday - the majority of it 386-486-Pentium era.

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Reply 133 of 238, by matze79

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TNT1 also will work fine on Windows 3.x / 9x

Eg. Diamond Viper V550 for example

https://www.retrokits.de - blog, retro projects, hdd clicker, diy soundcards etc
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Reply 134 of 238, by Scandy

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Hi,
I have a P4 build with a ASUS P4PE XTE motherboard.
It is known how the integrated video card will perform in DOS? I'm trying to build a "modern" MS-DOS PC just with some parts that I already own.
Thank you

THE NIGHTLAND is my board + video game for Commodore 64.

Reply 135 of 238, by Anonymous Coward

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I have only tested two relatively modern cards with 3.x...a V3, and a TNT1. The V3 works, but slightly feature limited (no 24-bit colour, at least as far as I could tell). I found the driver for the TNT card had a lot of graphical glitches and I gave up on it.
I always liked the ATi cards for Windows 3.x. Flexdesk lets you change resolution, colour depth and refresh rates on the fly. Back in those days, ATi had great windows drivers.
S3 is also supposed to have pretty darn good 3.x support, but I've never used anything beyond the 968.

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V'Ger XT|Upgraded AT|Ultimate 386|Super VL/EISA 486|SMP VL/EISA Pentium

Reply 136 of 238, by kikendo

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Sorry to drag this up again, but I am now able to have an AGP card and I wonder what my best choice would be.
I am interested in both Windows 98 and DOS compatibility. My system is Pentium II based.
My options are:
- Riva TNT 64 (I used to have one in my PIII rig back in the day, seemed good)
- Riva 128
- ATI Rage 128 (there's a "Theater" version of this, is it any different?)

Anything I am missing?
Not hugely interested in 3D stuff on Windows so I don't need like a Geforce or a costly Voodoo. I'm looking for a cheap card.
I currently have an S3 card but it seems like it's on the blink and I would like to get something better.

Reply 137 of 238, by BushLin

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If Windows 3.1 support is no longer required then pretty much any Nvidia card up to 2003 models will all be fine for Win98 drivers and DOS compatibility with the 1.5v/3.3v AGP slot being the most obvious thing to watch out for.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nvidia_ … rocessing_units

Screw period correct; I wanted a faster system back then. I choose no dropped frames, super fast loading, fully compatible and quiet operation.

Reply 138 of 238, by kikendo

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BushLin wrote:

If Windows 3.1 support is no longer required then pretty much any Nvidia card up to 2003 models will all be fine for Win98 drivers and DOS compatibility with the 1.5v/3.3v AGP slot being the most obvious thing to watch out for.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_Nvidia_ … rocessing_units

I had a 2 MX that didn't fit it. My AGP slot is the older type I guess (3.3V)
Also I thought it was a poor choice for DOS, but is it? What about any of the cards I mentioned?

Reply 139 of 238, by BushLin

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The Nvidia cards will be great, the ATI not as great.
https://gona.mactar.hu/DOS_TESTS/

Screw period correct; I wanted a faster system back then. I choose no dropped frames, super fast loading, fully compatible and quiet operation.