Best combination of VGA and accelerators for an old rig \ VOGONS

Best combination of VGA and accelerators for an old rig

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First post, by Oliiiiv

Posted on 2020-06-07, 01:13

Oliiiiv Offline

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Hey Guys !
I’m following your website for about 5 or 6 years.
Since I started using a PC, I feel a bit nostalgic for the 1997/2000 era of PC Gaming.
I already have a Pentium II 300 machine which runs fine with windows 95. But I would like to try something else, something more Powerful.
I made a PC based on amd Athlon XP 2400 , 1 gig of RAM, a soundblaster 128 audio card and I installed Windows 98Se. And what about the graphics ?
My goal is to run Direct3D Games, Glide based Games and also PowerVr titles.
I own a PCX1 card, a Voodoo2 8MB from Powercolor But I have experienced a lot of troubles/ crashes with the Voodoo2. 3Dfx Control panel cant display properly and causes various bluscreens.And games like Unreal Tournament or Half Life can’t use the 3DFX card.
What is for you the Best and most stable combination of VGA and graphic accelerators under windows 98 Se for an Athlon XP ?
I own these Models :
Matrox G450, Voodoo Banshee (PCI), Matrox Mystique (PCI2 Mo), S3 Virge (PCI), Radeon VE , Rage 128 Pro from Manli, GeForce Fx5700 and Geforce Fx5900.

I also own these models, Unfortunately VooDoo3 3000 , TNT, ATI Rage Pro and Permedia can’t work because of AGPx4/8 slot.

Thank you very much for your advices !

Reply 1 of 5, by The Serpent Rider

Posted on 2020-06-07, 01:27

The Serpent Rider Offline

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Didn't had problems with Athlon XP/Athlon64 and Voodoo 2, but I used FastVoodoo drivers. VGA card doesn't matter.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 2 of 5, by imi

Posted on 2020-06-07, 01:49

imi Offline

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what do you mean by "can't use 3Dfx card"?
Half-life works through miniGL and UT supports glide.

Reply 3 of 5, by Oliiiiv

Posted on 2020-06-08, 15:46

Oliiiiv Offline

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The Serpent Rider wrote on 2020-06-07, 01:27:

Didn't had problems with Athlon XP/Athlon64 and Voodoo 2, but I used FastVoodoo drivers. VGA card doesn't matter.

I have the same issues with these unofficial drivers. I tried various drivers from various eras (between 1998 and 2000) each time it crashes

« what do you mean by "can't use 3Dfx card"?
Half-life works through miniGL and UT supports glide. »

Problem is when I try to use Glide the game crash, when I try to access the control display panel I have an error and 3DFX tab doesn’t appear. That’s the first time something like that happens with a Voodoo2. What should I do ? Driver Cleaner and Dx Buster ?

Reply 4 of 5, by leileilol

Posted on 2020-06-09, 14:23

leileilol Offline

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If you're using one of the later Voodoo2 drivers from around November 1999 and after, you'll need DirectX 7 installed. Hopefully UT has done that during installation...

Failing that, try another PCI slot for the V2.

Since you're planning to use PowerVR, I wouldn't recommend using an nVidia card as their drivers aggressively take the Direct3D HAL making it unstable whenever the PowerVR wants to use it. For that, i'd try that Radeon VE.

long live PCem

Reply 5 of 5, by Oliiiiv

Posted on 2020-06-12, 10:15

Oliiiiv Offline

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leileilol wrote on 2020-06-09, 14:23:

If you're using one of the later Voodoo2 drivers from around November 1999 and after, you'll need DirectX 7 installed. Hopefully UT has done that during installation...

Failing that, try another PCI slot for the V2.

Since you're planning to use PowerVR, I wouldn't recommend using an nVidia card as their drivers aggressively take the Direct3D HAL making it unstable whenever the PowerVR wants to use it. For that, i'd try that Radeon VE.

Hey Leileilol Thank you so much for your reply !
Not a chance to install an Nvidia I know it’s difficult or Impossible to launch direct3D titles. Instead I tried to install Radeon VE but it asks for dx8 to be installed. As a result I tried to focus on Matrox G450, but today I just managed to buy a Kyro 4000 Xt. I will give a try with this one.
I switch the slot of the Voodoo2 but chispsets were really really hot. Like the one of the PCX1. Shall I find a way to reduce PCI bus speed ? I experienced various crashes with the Voodoo2 and Voodoo1 (orchid 3Dfx). And this last one made really Really strange noises.

Édit from the 06/16
Finally I gave up with the idea to use PCX1 at the same time with Kyro 4000Xt. I had to Uninstall Nvidia Nforce2 agp Gart because It caused graphical glitches on the desktop icônes. And I had to install Dx8 : meh ! I will try to focus on Voodoo2 instead.

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