The 128 Pro was comparing favorably against TNT2, so is better than OG TNT and a DX generation higher. Then I think the TNT Ultra pwned it so they had to bring out the Rage Fury MAXXXXXXXXXX or something. Whether the MX4000 gets you anything depends on how crappy it's memory setup and PCI implementation is, hearsay I heard back in the day was to avoid MX4000 cards because they were slower than MX200s, so that might only put it level with the 128 Pro, but you get DX7. You may find this commentary on the 128 Pro useful... NVidia Riva TNT2 or ATI Rage 128?

Definitely TNT2 over Rage 128 pro as TNT2 has better DOS compatibility which you want from a retro rig. Back in the day when I had rage 128 I didn't play DOS games anymore so I didn't care. Windows 98SE supports up to 120GB drives which is endless space for that era. You can also have single partition for DOS.

If you want your rig to last, get a spare board.

AlexZ wrote on 2021-08-20, 20:21:

Definitely TNT2 over Rage 128 pro as TNT2 has better DOS compatibility which you want from a retro rig. Back in the day when I had rage 128 I didn't play DOS games anymore so I didn't care. Windows 98SE supports up to 120GB drives which is endless space for that era. You can also have single partition for DOS.

What are the prices for a TNT2 based card right now on ebay? I don't really see myself wanting to spend more than $50 ($60 absolute limit) on additional parts and I know how the retro scene can be. If I can get a card for $20-30, what kind of storage upgrade should I try to get with the remaining budget.

EDIT: Found a "Aztech Nvidia RIVA TNT2 128-bit 32MB AGP 4X" for $20, was aztek a good brand?

retrogamerguy1997 wrote on 2021-08-20, 20:49:

What are the prices for a TNT2 based card right now on ebay? I don't really see myself wanting to spend more than $50 ($60 absolute limit) on additional parts and I know how the retro scene can be. If I can get a card for $20-30, what kind of storage upgrade should I try to get with the remaining budget.

EDIT: Found a "Aztech Nvidia RIVA TNT2 128-bit 32MB AGP 4X" for $20, was aztek a good brand?

I don't usually buy anything from ebay unless it's very hard to find elsewhere. The problem of ebay is you're competing with too many people which results in higher prices. If you want to buy from ebay, be patient until something cheap comes up.

I spent like $5 on my Riva TNT2 pro. I bought graphics cards in a pack - I hand picked those I wanted. I tend to buy only the very cheap ones.

Beware, many TNT2 model 64 are being sold on ebay. Ask seller for picture showing model number/type for verification or compare it with picture you find on google.

AlexZ wrote on 2021-08-20, 21:12:

retrogamerguy1997 wrote on 2021-08-20, 20:49:

What are the prices for a TNT2 based card right now on ebay? I don't really see myself wanting to spend more than $50 ($60 absolute limit) on additional parts and I know how the retro scene can be. If I can get a card for $20-30, what kind of storage upgrade should I try to get with the remaining budget.

EDIT: Found a "Aztech Nvidia RIVA TNT2 128-bit 32MB AGP 4X" for $20, was aztek a good brand?

I don't usually buy anything from ebay unless it's very hard to find elsewhere.

I don't know how else to buy retro hardware. the only place I know is ebay.

EDIT: Tested the Rage 128 Pro, doesn't work at all. As for my PNY MX4000 PCI card and there was no specific model number but after searching through images, it appears to be a model that is a 64-bit card and has 64MB of DDR video memory.

The AMD socket A platform has a special place in my heart, as I rocked a custom built one throughout the first half of my 20s, and spent many a night gaming on it. I remember it well, and as a matter of fact I plan to more or less recreate the same system I had as closely as possible. I already have the same case (Thermaltake Xaser V) and I need to get a MSI K7T266 Pro2 motherboard and AMD 1.2 Ghz Tbird CPU. I had a SB Live! and I don't remember which video card, but I did have a Radeon 9800 Pro for awhile. It's a solid platform which will take you well into the XP era.

Like you I buy stuff on ebay often, because I'm very particular about what I want and it's borderline impossible to find such specific hardware locally. I won't buy the ridiculously priced stuff though.

Brawndo wrote on 2021-08-21, 05:16:

The AMD socket A platform has a special place in my heart, as I rocked a custom built one throughout the first half of my 20s, and spent many a night gaming on it. I remember it well, and as a matter of fact I plan to more or less recreate the same system I had as closely as possible. I already have the same case (Thermaltake Xaser V) and I need to get a MSI K7T266 Pro2 motherboard and AMD 1.2 Ghz Tbird CPU. I had a SB Live! and I don't remember which video card, but I did have a Radeon 9800 Pro for awhile. It's a solid platform which will take you well into the XP era.

Yeah I almost want to max out the system and buy the highest end CPU and RAM but that would be too much probably

Brawndo wrote on 2021-08-21, 05:16:

Like you I buy stuff on ebay often, because I'm very particular about what I want and it's borderline impossible to find such specific hardware locally. I won't buy the ridiculously priced stuff though.

Yeah I live in a small town surrounded by farm land, I doubt that there is anything sold locally even if I knew how to shop locally for retro parts. ebay is the only place I know where to get retro parts period. I'm still wondering if it would be worth buying a TNT2 card, or if my MX4000 PCI card is better and i should just stick with that.

Decided to remove the Viper v550 and install my geforce mx4000 and also got the Aopen YMF744 card in as well. Got the drivers installed and after doing the canyon.mid test things appear to be working just fine so far. Haven't tested any dos games, but the control panel that comes with the drivers shows an IRQ of 5 so that should be fine. Still trying to decide on what storage upgrade to make.

I installed Midtown Madness 2 which installed DirectX 7.0a. After that Windows 98SE wasn't shutting itself down properly. So after seeing the Windows is shutting down splash screen for a good couple minutes I held down the power button. Booted Windows back up and MM2 is glitching out like crazy. NFS3 has two mouse cursors now, one that is the normal windows cursor that won't go away or move. Even after reinstalling directX from the MM2 CD, same issues persist. And again Windows wouldn't shut itself down fully. Rebooting is fine, just not shutting down. I tries Installing DirecX 9.0c Dec 2006, same issues persist.

retrogamerguy1997 wrote on 2021-08-22, 17:21:

Decided to remove the Viper v550 and install my geforce mx4000 and also got the Aopen YMF744 card in as well. Got the drivers installed and after doing the canyon.mid test things appear to be working just fine so far. Haven't tested any dos games, but the control panel that comes with the drivers shows an IRQ of 5 so that should be fine. Still trying to decide on what storage upgrade to make.

Got any pics? 😜

Anyway, a bit on the late side but an MX4000 is a big upgrade from a Diamond Viper 550 (TNT1 16MB). I found the TNT1 even slow for my Pentium 2 350MHz especially when trying to ... 'play' a game using 32 bit graphics 😜

Tetrium wrote on 2021-08-31, 17:18:

Got any pics? 😜

Anyway, a bit on the late side but an MX4000 is a big upgrade from a Diamond Viper 550 (TNT1 16MB). I found the TNT1 even slow for my Pentium 2 350MHz especially when trying to ... 'play' a game using 32 bit graphics 😜

Yeah, I actually did post some pics elsewhere like a week or two ago. I'm still a bit pissed off though I can't play Midtown Madness 2 and that literally nobody has offered any help for that issue and issues with NFS3 I've mentioned here and well other places I've brought up the issues. And I also get a headache playing HL OpForce because the windows cursor keeps flashing in and out of existence. These issues have discouraged me from even turning on the system.

https://imgur.com/a/z6vtI4f

This post has lots of good info
Good value Win98 Graphic Card
but in short you can't really go wrong with a GeForce 2 MX400 or above.
TNT2 is fine if gaming at 800x600 but will struggle if you want to game at higher resolutions.

Don't play MM2 but the NFS3 cursor issue sounds familiar, have you tired different graphic card driver version? Are you using any unofficial patches?

chinny22 wrote on 2021-09-01, 09:21:

Don't play MM2 but the NFS3 cursor issue sounds familiar, have you tired different graphic card driver version? Are you using any unofficial patches?

Well the cursor issue in NFS3 didn't occur until after installing directx 7.0a and continued after DX 9.0c was installed. I haven't tried other driver versions and I'm only using the official patch made by EA.

You can try the final drivers that supported TNT
http://download.nvidia.com/Windows/71.84/71.8 … n9x_english.exe

I know most people like drivers closer to the games age and the thinking is valid but I haven't had much trouble with later drivers myself.

chinny22 wrote on 2021-09-01, 16:30:

You can try the final drivers that supported TNT
http://download.nvidia.com/Windows/71.84/71.8 … n9x_english.exe

I know most people like drivers closer to the games age and the thinking is valid but I haven't had much trouble with later drivers myself.

I'm using the MX4000 card in my pc, nvidia driver version 81.98.

That's the same driver I'm using with a Ti4600, I'm also using Dx9. Well I was until last post.
I accidently installed those TNT drivers on my rig and Windows DID NOT like that! simple reinstall of 81.98 isn't working.
maybe old drivers are conflicting and try a clean install? That's what I'll be doing now as well.

Did you install any chipset drivers? I know AMD side of things aren't as well supported as Intel out of the box.
My Slot A rig with a Banshee misbehaves in Windows GUI when typing it wont remove characters if renaming folder, typing in text documents, etc. Bit annoying but plays games fine so haven't spent much time troubleshooting.

chinny22 wrote on 2021-09-03, 10:46:

That's the same driver I'm using with a Ti4600, I'm also using Dx9. Well I was until last post. I accidently installed those TNT […]
Show full quote

That's the same driver I'm using with a Ti4600, I'm also using Dx9. Well I was until last post.
I accidently installed those TNT drivers on my rig and Windows DID NOT like that! simple reinstall of 81.98 isn't working.
maybe old drivers are conflicting and try a clean install? That's what I'll be doing now as well.

Did you install any chipset drivers? I know AMD side of things aren't as well supported as Intel out of the box.
My Slot A rig with a Banshee misbehaves in Windows GUI when typing it wont remove characters if renaming folder, typing in text documents, etc. Bit annoying but plays games fine so haven't spent much time troubleshooting.

I only installed the one version of the nvidia drivers. Outside of that I don't have any chipset drivers installed or where to find them.