Pentium 100 MHZ - 128 MB RAM - What Video Card?

OK,

What Video Card would you all suggest for a Pentium 100 machine with anywhere from 32 - 128 MB RAM (based on need) that would give great gameplay for games of that generation?

are you planning on playing DOS games? windows games?

for all around compatability I'd say a S3 Virge or a Virge/GX if you want to go a little fancier paired with a voodoo 1 or 2. the Virge is boring but its great for all the 2d DOS gaming and it can do accelerated 3d for your windows and then paired with a voodoo that covers your glide games. I think that pairing would give you the best all around compatibility, especially if your going to play alot of DOS stuff.

S3 Virge!

Nah, there's a lot, I put a GeForce 5 in one, but that was a waste. I'd go for a nVidia TNT PCI or ATi Rage PCI, that probably won't fail you for anything that machine would run, the TNT is beter for compatibility I believe. If you can't find one, GeForce 2 PCI will do. These are much later than the machine, but they'll run just fine.

Alternatively, get an S3 Trio and put a 3DFX in another slot if you're into that stuff. It depends on your OS and games really.

As an afterthought, is your chipset capable of using that much RAM properly? I've heard about exceeding 64MB causing performance drops in some boards before.

I have a PII 233 that is gonna get the Voodoo 1 and ET4000 card in it for 3D games...

For the P100 - I didnt know it could even handle the Voodoo1 card...but I have an ATI RAGE and a S3 Virge I can use...

I wast aware a P100 could even run the Voodoo1 and do 3D...

As for the RAM....according to documentation, the chipset can handle it...I will find out!

Smack2k said:

I have a PII 233 that is gonna get the Voodoo 1 and ET4000 card in it for 3D games...

For the P100 - I didnt know it could even handle the Voodoo1 card...but I have an ATI RAGE and a S3 Virge I can use...

I wast aware a P100 could even run the Voodoo1 and do 3D...

As for the RAM....according to documentation, the chipset can handle it...I will find out!

Click to expand...

I would flip that and put the et4000 in the p100 and the ati or virge in the pII 233. the et4000 only does 2d. it does it well but its really best used for DOS. even paired with a v1 your only going to be able to play glide 3d games where you would have a little more flexability with a virge/rage in a pII setup.

A V1 would run fine in a p100. carmageddon and some other DOS voodoo games only need a p90 to work.

I don't know exactlly what kind of setup your going for or the kind of games but if it was me having the two setups you do I would do the P100 with the ET4000 and DOS/win 3.1 for all the good 2d dos gaming and then in the pII 233 I would stick the Virge and the voodoo 1 and run windows 98.

Thanks for the advice...that is exactly what I was looking for..

In terms of games, I really enjoy the old adventure games, but as I read about others that intrigue me, I will get into those as well..

Still getting all my setups in order, as I will eventually have a room up and running with a bunch of machine setups, but we need to buy a shed first to clear out the space....just trying to get my setups as close to perfect as possible in the meantime.

Thanks

theres no one perfect setup but I think between those two you have your going to be able to play the bulk of DOS games at least from the late 80's up. and most mid 90's windows games.

you can still make a Geforce 2 or 3 work on a Pentium 1 board, as long as it's PCI and Windows 9X drivers?

Because frankly, 3DFX cards' prices are out of range now for what they are, i can't find a good price anywhere for one, so i might just grab a cheap-priced Geforce 2 or 3 PCI card somewhere and use Windows 98 drivers if it work just fine. Even if it might be overkill, i won't put 50$+ on a Voodoo 1 4mb/8mb card.

But yeah...i do have 2 cards here that would seem to work fine for DOS games, like a Cirrus Logic CL-GD5446 2D-only card, and this 3rd-party card using Tseng ET4000/W32P chip. I might use 1 of them on the Pentium 100Mhz i built here, but heh, i still need to find a case, power supply and a PS/2 connectors card for it. The Pentium 200Mhz MMX i have here will most probably be for 3D games, as i was able to push the RAM up to almost 100mb (i think i got 2 x 32mb and 2 x 16mb EDO RAM on it).

For the early PCI Pentiums I stick with late model S3 chips, Matrox Millenium I/II and Mystique , anything Tseng Et6000 based (hard to find these days) and the PCI Riva 128 cards. Basically anything that works well in DOS and early Windows games (not 3d). If you are not going to be gaming there are some great early CAD cards that would be fun to play with in NT4 available.

When you get into P2's and K6-2's with AGP then you start getting into the 3D era with TNT2/Geforce, 3dfx, ATI, etc. The only GeForce 2/3 cards that were PCI (that I recall) were MX series.

The et4000 is debatable the best card out there for 2d DOS. I can sympathize on the voodoo but patience can usually get you what you want. I've found 2 voodoo 1 cards on eBay in the last few months for about $20 - $25

If you are going to snag a Voodoo 1 get the Orchid Righteous 3d and enjoy the clicking sound of mechanical relays when you go into 3D mode (doesn't affect the video quality like the SS relays used in the other Voodoo 2/3 cards).