I'm looking to replace the GF4 4200 on my Win98 machine. What's the latest Nvidia card that supports AGP 2x 3.3V? An FX5200 worked, but I'm not sure if 5600 and such would do.

I'm looking to replace the GF4 4200 on my Win98 machine. What's the latest Nvidia card that supports AGP 2x 3.3V? An FX5200 worked, but I'm not sure if 5600 and such would do.

Every Nvidia AGP 3.0 grapics card should be completely compatible with 2X, 4X, and 8X.

Technical Brief: AGP 8X: See on page 5 Compatibility

http://www.nvidia.co.uk/object/LO_20020923_5956.html

And I think the last series to have reasonably easy-to-find AGP cards is GeForce 6x00... both 6800 and 6600 are findable on eBay, but the 6600 probably provide the best cost/benefit ratio overall. Of course, these are just my 2¢.

Thanks. That Nvidia document is from 2002, I'm not sure if it applies to newer cards? It also defines in one place backward compatibility as "AGP 2.0", which is 1.5V (but then, it also mixes in AGP x2 which is 1.0).

I think I should just go based on the AGP slot voltage key and hope it's enough indication.

Based on the above, so far it seems only the 5700 makes sense. Even though it's slower in some cases than the 4200, it's not such a big difference, and it's faster with AA.

Aren't drivers for 6xxx a problem in Win98?

Edited December 29, 201312 yr by shae

Sure. You can trust the AGP slot voltage key, all right.

And no, the 6xxx are not a problem. The 8xxx, on the other hand, remain beyond reach.

See my index thread, which is among the stickified ones.

Nothing priced low enough for me on eBay right now.

Maybe I should look into replacing the 4200's fan or heatsink+fan and that's is. Well, assuming that's the problem.

I have a MSI GeForce4 Ti4200 AGP8x in my 98SE machine. The fan indeed broke and I had to replace it. However, it has major problems with generic nVidia drivers: AGP texture gets disabled. It only works with proprietary MSI drivers which are very, very old. And even using those drivers there are problems with 32bit icons not being transparent under Revolutions Pack in certain apps.

I also have a 5700/128MB RAM on an XP system and it performs rather poorly. I'd go for a 6600/6800 card anytime, but got no money for it nor the ability to reach eBay.

As dencorso said, card's slot key(s) should be the best indication. But please be aware certain motherboards may have poorly designed AGP slots with no key so make sure you don't mix up card's key(s) or you could fry it right away.

As dencorso said, card's slot key(s) should be the best indication. But please be aware certain motherboards may have poorly designed AGP slots with no key so make sure you don't mix up card's key(s) or you could fry it right away.

For general reference, here is a diagram of AGP cards and slots: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/AGP_slot#Compatibility

The article addresses some "gotcha's".

- Doug B.

My AGP graphics card models have the following notches:

Leadtek WinFast A350XT TDH (NV Geforce 5900XT) with 3,3V and 1,5V key and a

Leadtek WinFast A6600GT TDH (NV Geforce 6600GT) with the 1,5V key only.