Ideal graphics card for a retro PC?

[Airwaves]

I've decided to buy myself a retro gaming PC on eBay mainly for my old Windows 9X games of which I have many but my question is what graphics card would I need to go for.

Is going for a new low end card my best option or would games from that period have problems understanding the architecture of new cards and current DirectX configurations?

If a card from the time period of the machine is recommended, what card would be best in that case also.

 

[Feronix]

Well, a high-end GPU from then will cost you a tenner max and should run all the games nicely. A low-end GPU from now would probably too, but it's going to cost you £30ish and will barely be better than an on-board GPU these days.

What are the rest of the specs like?

 

[Wraith]

If your gonna go full Retro with a Win 95 - 98 system, then it has to be a retro card. A Voodoo II or Rage Pro could even SLI those bad boys for ultra retro with full Soundblaster Awe 64 goodness thrown in for good measure.

 

[Airwaves]

Thanks for the replies!

From the eBay listing these specs are the only one's given: -

Intel Pentium 4 3.20GHz
2GB RAM
80GB HDD
DVD Rewriter Drive

It don't have details of what model the motherboard is but I suppose it doesn't matter. It has 2 x PCI and 1 x PCIE X16

This kind of stuff excites me for some reason. A Voodoo II would be good although If I wanted to dual-boot the system in the future with Windows XP also, would games from that period need a card with a bit more horsepower?

 

[Feronix]

I picked up a 512mb 8800 GTS for a tenner the other week for my Woodbox build. Has a PCI-E 16x interface and should run most games from the early Windows XP era (GTA Vice City/ San Andreas/ Call of Duty 2/ etc).

 

[Airwaves]

I picked up a 512mb 8800 GTS for a tenner the other week for my Woodbox build. Has a PCI-E 16x interface and should run most games from the early Windows XP era (GTA Vice City/ San Andreas/ Call of Duty 2/ etc).

Would that card also work happily with Windows 98 and games from that era? I've bought the PC, just need to get the card now and that's it!

 

[Feronix]

Not sure tbh, iirc the card was released in December 2006. Maybe you should have a look at high-end cards that were released at around the same time or maybe a few years later than the Pentium 4 that you have

 

[JLR]

If your gonna go full Retro with a Win 95 - 98 system, then it has to be a retro card. A Voodoo II or Rage Pro could even SLI those bad boys for ultra retro with full Soundblaster Awe 64 goodness thrown in for good measure.

Voodoo gfx cards, now that takes me back

 

[Wraith]

Voodoo gfx cards, now that takes me back

Me too, my first store bought system came with one, then I threw another in for SLI and only Half Life and AvP utilised it. Wish I still had my old system now, would love to fire her up and see how things once were.

 

[Airwaves]

I'm thinking perhaps a GeForce 6600GT 128MB? I like the sound of a Voodoo but I've been looking around various sites and they are pretty hard to come by at a decent price and in PCI.

 

[Wraith]

GeForce FX5200 ?? They were a good quality card.

 

[Airwaves]

GeForce FX5200 ?? They were a good quality card.

I found one of these online for £14 and went for it!

Thanks for all the help.

 

[Airwaves]

Well saying I have hit a few stumbling blocks would be an understatement. The PC is fine although it was shipped with Windows XP which I removed as soon as I opened it in preparation for a fresh install of Windows 98. The problems started from there considering I don't know and don't think there are any available/compatible drivers for the motherboard in question under 98.

Not only that but the graphics card I bought is low profile which the case doesn't support, and in addition to that the system has 2GB of RAM and Windows 98 refuses to install saying there is insufficient memory as I've discovered since then that the maximum you can use initially with 98 is 512MB. The motherboard also has no option to reduce the amount of memory it uses or sees at any given time.

Anyway the solution - I'm going to buy a 512MB module from eBay which comes to about £2 which is a bargain, another graphics card (the same model but not low profile) and finally a cheap PCI sound card as the board doesnt have an ISA slot. That way I can get round needing any on-board chipset drivers for the board itself.

I shall report back!

 

[AlienALX]

FX 5200 was utter ass. The only decent card in that range was the 5900, 5900 Ultra and 5950 Ultra. They were outclassed by the Radeon 9800 Pro.

 

[demonking]

good shout on the FX5200 i was trying to think of the most basic pci-e card you could get.
Shame you didn't get an AGP board I have a couple of geforce 2's lying around the house some where lol

i'm not sure if that whole setup might be a bit modern for Win 98. you may need need SDRAM and AGP x8 slot as not sure if 98 ever had drivers for PCI-e and DDR chipsets