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Need Help Finding a Good Graphics Card For The GX110


Bracamonte

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Its been a while since I last posted something in this forum. I have a Dell Optiplex GX110 WITH 510 MB, over 800mhz, runs Windows 95 OSR 2.5, and has an integrated Intel 810 chipset for display. After 5 years of use since salvaging this equipment, the default components such as sound and display, have taken their toll and it was time for some minor component upgrade.

The first step I took was replacing the Creative Sound Blaster AudioPCI 64V that came with the machine, with the Sound Blaster AWE64 Gold ISA card. This, of course, required me to buy a riser card that includes both ISA and PCI slots, since the original riser had only PCI's. The reason was that certain games and utilities that used  MIDI music sounded horrendous with the 64V. The AWE64 completely outclassed it.

However, I am having difficulty finding a good graphics card. The best ones tend to be the AGP cards. However, since the GX110 has an integrated chipset, it has NO support for AGP whatsoever. It is understandable since the GX110 was built as an office computer and not a gaming computer. There are some good PCI graphics card. One of them is the 3DFX Voodoo3 PCI cards, which provided superior 2D/3D graphics. However, neither Ebay nor Amazon have them listed. Only the AGP versions are listed. Any other options or does anyone know where else I can find Voodoo3 pci cards?

Edited by Bracamonte
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While I hold the good old Voodoo cards in high respect there's no reason to have to go back that far in order to find a working PCI graphics card. I know ATI made PCI versions of several of their 7xxx, 8xxx, and 9xxx series cards. I would probably look for a PCI version of the Radeon 8500, as I have used this particular card in several Win95 machines and I know the disc that came with the cards has working 95 drivers... I don't see any of those on eBay currently but there are some 7xxx and 9xxx series:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/152225129722

http://www.ebay.com/itm/182243441276

http://www.ebay.com/itm/381761732402

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Thanks. However, I have Commander Keen games and I heard that ATI cards messes up the scrolling of those games, as well as other EGA games. I would like a PCI card that balances both 2D games and 3D games. So far, the Voodoo3 meets that category. I would get the voodoo2, however, they only support full 3D.

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[SPAM] Funny, i had a similar kind of discussion just yet: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-3166883/pci-express-card-win98.html

I recommend a GeForce 6200 PCI with 256 MB (over a VooDoo 3). They are easy and comparably cheap to get on *bay, and have a mature driver for DX 9.0c and W95.

Your CPU migth be some kind of bottleneck for graphics performance, i think.

Edited by ragnargd
typos
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22 hours ago, Bracamonte said:

Thanks. However, I have Commander Keen games and I heard that ATI cards messes up the scrolling of those games, as well as other EGA games. I would like a PCI card that balances both 2D games and 3D games. So far, the Voodoo3 meets that category. I would get the voodoo2, however, they only support full 3D.

If I were you I would dig a little deeper into those reports and want to see some video and/or screenshot evidence that the ATI cards are really messing up EGA games. Also, just because one ATI card or series of cards may have had issues does not mean that all ATI cards have the same problem. I wouldn't rule them out just because someone had something bad to say about them, there are too many variables, not least of which can be user error.

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On 9/7/2016 at 9:03 AM, ragnargd said:

[SPAM] Funny, i had a similar kind of discussion just yet: http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/answers/id-3166883/pci-express-card-win98.html

I recommend a GeForce 6200 PCI with 256 MB (over a VooDoo 3). They are easy and comparably cheap to get on *bay, and have a mature driver for DX 9.0c and W95.

Your CPU migth be some kind of bottleneck for graphics performance, i think.

My GX110 is of the mini tower type. It has a wattage of 200 W and a voltage of 90 to 135 volts at 60Hz. Can the card handle that?

Edited by Bracamonte
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15 hours ago, Bracamonte said:

My GX110 is of the mini tower type. It has a wattage of 200 W and a voltage of 90 to 135 volts at 60Hz. Can the card handle that?

Sorry for the confusion. Your PC has enough power in terms of wattage.

I just wanted to say, that graphics card will be the "fastest" device in your system, and has a chance to be bogged down by the "inadequate" speed of other components (i.e. CPU, PCI-bus,...) in your computer.

It's like putting a race-horse before your waggon instead of a cow, and wondering, why it will not go with full speed - until you recognize your waggon has small wheels made of uneven wooden.

So it just MAY be, that your CPU (your Pentium III with 800 MHz, i guess) will not deliver enough data to the GPU (= graphics card)  to allow for it's full potential.

Another CPU (like, Pentium III with 1000 MHz) MIGHT allow for 10%-12% more pictures per second with the GeForce 6200.

It still is the best choice, though, as with any other card you will have slower games.

In other words: Your waggon will be faster with the racing horse than with the cow, so it still is recommended, but not as much as could be with a chariot instead of a waggon...

:-)

(I'm not a native speaker, so PLEASE forgive me if this sounds strange, or worse... :)

Edited by ragnargd
(doubts about my english language skills)
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So today, I got the PNY NVIDIA Geforce 6200. After installing the drivers and restarting the computer, the computer always restarts on bootup. The only way to solve this was to boot to safe mode and remove the drivers.

Also, if I install the latest drivers, I get the windows protection error message.

Edited by Bracamonte
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On 15.9.2016 at 9:15 PM, Bracamonte said:

So today, I got the PNY NVIDIA Geforce 6200. After installing the drivers and restarting the computer, the computer always restarts on bootup. The only way to solve this was to boot to safe mode and remove the drivers.

Also, if I install the latest drivers, I get the windows protection error message.

Which was the exact version of the driver you are using?

I recommed this driver:

http://www.nvidia.com/object/win9x_77.72.html

Your card has 256MB of memory, and not 512, does it?

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