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What GPU for this retro rig?

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Silver_Pharaoh

Likes the big ones n00b Member
Joined
Sep 7, 2013
Hi Everyone! Hope you all had a wonderful Christmas! :santa:

So I've dragged out my old rig from when I first posted here, it's a K7S41GX with an AMD Duron 750, 512MB of DDR and a 40Gb rust spinner. Mr.Scott hooked me up long ago with a modded BIOS so I could kill it quicker :LOL:


Over the holidays I had time to visit my parents, and with that visit, raid my old PC parts I left behind there lol
So I scooped up these two GPU's:

HIS Radeon VE 64Mb PCI
PXL_20241228_191653260.jpg PXL_20241228_191650380.jpg

And this one: Geforce 4 MX440 (Dell version) AGP
PXL_20241229_230515549.jpg

I also have two more to choose from: ATI All In Wonder 9200 AGP
PXL_20241229_230527237.jpg

And not pictured is a ATI x1300 PRO AGP - I had to do the oven trick on it, so now the caps are bulging but the artifacting is gone, but I have been unable to install drivers in both Win98 and Windows Neptune.


I plan to run some older games like Diablo and Duke Nukem and anything else I can find/download but I'm not sure which GPU to pair with the Duron. I plan to beef up the cooling and OC it a bit, but I'm not sure if it'll be a bottleneck for any of these cards.

I was leaning towards the MX440 to be more period correct vs max performance in games. I'm not looking for butter smooth performance like I would newer hardware.

Are any of these GPU's good? Should I scour eBay for something else?
 
2000-2001 would be around GeForce 2/ATI 9700? The VE is right on the spot, but the MX440 would be the best option, and not sure if you want to use the x1300 for anything at this point?
 
2000-2001 would be around GeForce 2/ATI 9700? The VE is right on the spot, but the MX440 would be the best option, and not sure if you want to use the x1300 for anything at this point?
I'd love to use the x1300, but I haven't had any luck with drivers which is understandable since the x1300 was not supported in Win98. (I think it's pooched maybe as well)

Yeah I wasn't sure what was the "period correct" range for Win98 - I went down the rabbit hole last night reading all sorts of old posts to take a 2D card and pair with with the 3D card like a Voodoo 3. I still don't know how one "pairs" the two together - just slap both in the same system and that's it?

I'll check the MX440, I think that card was a working pull
 
take a 2D card and pair with with the 3D card like a Voodoo 3. I still don't know how one "pairs" the two together - just slap both in the same system and that's it?
There is a vga cable that comes with the Voodoo (II in my case). The cable plugs into the 2D card & goes to the input vga on the Voodoo, then the 3D's vga out goes to the monitor.

I agree that the Gf4 MX440 is your best choice.
 
There is a vga cable that comes with the Voodoo (II in my case). The cable plugs into the 2D card & goes to the input vga on the Voodoo, then the 3D's vga out goes to the monitor.

I agree that the Gf4 MX440 is your best choice.
Ahhh okay that makes more sense now. Thanks for explaining. I've got a dvi to vga adapter coming to make sure the card still works
I love seeing all the old stuff everyone has
I love the older hardware, fun to tinker with too!
 
Here's a pic of an S3 Virge 2D card, a Voodoo II 3D card, and the connection cable. Surprisingly, they all still work. :)View attachment 369615
Ahhh I get it now, that's pretty cool to see especially since that is "old tech"!

Edit: Also the MX440 seems to work so far! Got the modded Omega driver's install and all seems smooth so far!
 
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