tomcattech wrote on 2021-06-07, 05:29:

I'm looking at these geforce 4 ti 4200 cards. There are 64 and 128 mb versions. Is there a limitation in my motherboard or OS (windows 98 se) that would cause me to select the 64 over the 128 mb version?

None that I am aware of . Be aware that 128MB cards may be equipped with slower RAM than 64MB ones and that 128MB may actually be useful in some scenarios, but in your case, running on a 1000MHz, differences due to these points are not likely to matter . See https://www.anandtech.com/show/934 if curious, but remember that the testbed used is an AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) which is both faster per clock (higher IPC) and running at 1.73GHz versus you 1000MHz CPU, so differences will be much less apparent.

darry wrote on 2021-06-07, 05:44:

tomcattech wrote on 2021-06-07, 05:29:

I'm looking at these geforce 4 ti 4200 cards. There are 64 and 128 mb versions. Is there a limitation in my motherboard or OS (windows 98 se) that would cause me to select the 64 over the 128 mb version?

None that I am aware of . Be aware that 128MB cards may be equipped with slower RAM than 64MB ones and that 128MB may actually be useful in some scenarios, but in your case, running on a 1000MHz, differences due to these points are not likely to matter . See https://www.anandtech.com/show/934 if curious, but remember that the testbed used is an AMD Athlon XP 2100+ (1.73GHz) which is both faster per clock (higher IPC) and running at 1.73GHz versus you 1000MHz CPU, so differences will be much less apparent.

I'm 1.4 Tualatin now, but the point is the same I guess.

Anyway I lucked out on an ebay and won the following:

Jaton 3DForce4 GeForce4 Ti 4200 128 MB

I'll post when it gets here.

OK so update....

I've finally had some time to mess around with the GeForce4 card and do the driver dance.

Overall, it's a win with some caveats.

On the plus side I'm seeing about a 25% performance increase over the GeForce2 Pro 64 while using the 45.23 reference drivers.

The 45.23 seems to be the sweet spot between performance and nearly 100% stability for my games.

As you start using later driver sets, you DO generally see a further performance increase, but the games started doing some flunky things the higher the driver set went.

You can tell that the card is capable of more than my 4x AGP system can handle.

Basically, I'm sure I could increase the 3DMark scores with the 81.98 driver set, but if I can't use them consistently what is the point?

I also think the 64MB card with the faster RAM may bump a few FPS, but I doubt it would be noticeable.

I'm going to continue to keep an eye out for a reasonably priced GeForce2 Ultra or GeForce3 Ti 500 just to compare the hardware\driver\compatibility dance, but for now I think I'm close to the sweet spot for not shelling out a whole bunch of cash.

If anyone is just starting out on this path, drop me a line and I'd be happy to go over what I've learned so far.

Thanks to everyone for their help!