VOGONS


Reply 20 of 23, by Joseph_Joestar

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dionb wrote on 2021-04-11, 09:01:

Another potential advantage of newer ones - if you're not using an old CRT: DVI port. For trouble-free late DOS builds an FX5200 with DVI is hard to beat.

This does provide an advantage in terms of image quality, but some of the older cards can't do more than 60 Hz over DVI.

Since most DOS games run at ~70 Hz, this can cause sync issues and slowdowns.

PC#1: Pentium MMX 166 / Soyo SY-5BT / S3 Trio64V+ / Voodoo1 / YMF719 / AWE64 Gold / SC-155
PC#2: AthlonXP 2100+ / ECS K7VTA3 / Voodoo3 / Audigy2 / Vortex2
PC#3: Athlon64 3400+ / Asus K8V-MX / 5900XT / Audigy2
PC#4: i5-3570K / MSI Z77A-G43 / GTX 970 / X-Fi

Reply 21 of 23, by gerry

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dionb wrote on 2021-04-11, 09:01:

Another potential advantage of newer ones - if you're not using an old CRT: DVI port. For trouble-free late DOS builds an FX5200 with DVI is hard to beat.

But yes, another vote for "depends what and why you're building" here. If you're only after a platform to run old SW on, relatively low-end newer cards can be good. If you're looking to build the dream machine you could never afford in the day, less so. And if you're trying to recreate exactly what you once had, it depends on what you had of course, though that generally won't have been ultra high end.

Consider that in 1996 most people had a Cirrus Logic GD543x chip, in 1999 ATi Rage and a year or two later i810 and i845 integrated VGA were commonest. Compared to that even the unloved TNT2-M64 was lightyears ahead.

I have 3 TNT2's in total and have a fondness for them even though they are well below geforce 2 and others, a TNT2 still plays just about anything up to 1999 just fine and always seem to 'simply work', no fuss

Reply 22 of 23, by darry

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Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2021-04-11, 09:04:
dionb wrote on 2021-04-11, 09:01:

Another potential advantage of newer ones - if you're not using an old CRT: DVI port. For trouble-free late DOS builds an FX5200 with DVI is hard to beat.

This does provide an advantage in terms of image quality, but some of the older cards can't do more than 60 Hz over DVI.

Since most DOS games run at ~70 Hz, this can cause sync issues and slowdowns.

There is that and the softness of Nvidia's hardware upscaler is definitely not to everybody's liking .

There is a way to get 70Hz in DVI mode in DOS on at least some Geforce FX series cards . Using a card with an external TMDS chip seems to increase the likelihood of it working . See 70Hz in pure DOS at 1600x1200 (or other) over DVI on an old card (FX5900) with modern monitor is possible . This may also be possible on FX 5200/5500, which tend to default to 75Hz over DVI at least on my setup, with a specially customized emulated EDID and/or a vBIOS mod, but I have not investigated fully (maybe someone else has) . If FX5200/FX5500 generation Quadro equivalents that use a separate TMDS chip exist, they may be worth a try for their potential 70Hz ability .

AFAIK, there is no known practical way to work around Nvidia's soft scaling in DOS . Here are some examples of what things look like when using Nvidia scaling vs using an analogue VGA output plus an OSSC that converts to DVI/HDMI -->

HDMI/DVI captures :
Re: I tested several pci video cards for picture quality in dos games.

Photos of monitor output :
Re: Widescreen monitors and 4:3 aspect ratio compatibility thread

EDIT: Corrected a link

Reply 23 of 23, by gerry

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just as follow up, i didn't get that fx 5200 but got a geforce 6200 instead. also got a geforce 4 mx440 in a box of goodies very cheap. So it seems its budget cards all round, every PC with an AGP slot now has something bordering on respectable for its' era and budget ethos.

an XP2400 got Geforce 6200, freeing up fx5200 (had to try many different versions of drivers on one PC before it actually worked! frustating)
an Athlon 1400 gets the fx 5200, replacing geforce 2 mx400
a Duron 800 win98 got the GeForce 4 mx440 for hours of circa 2000 gaming fun!
another Duron 800 got the geforce 2
now i have 3 spare TNT2 cards and no machines to put them in! (lots of my machines are ultra cheap business machines, no AGP, or their too new for AGP)

i'm not sure any of it makes a huge difference, but it was fun to 'upgrade' everything!