ATI Rage IIC AGP for DOS

[Larry Roberts]

I have an old Pentium 233Mhz MMX system that the mainboard's
AGP voltage regulator was found to be faulty, and only certain AGP
cards could be used in it. Don't think even old 3DFX Voodoo 3 cards
worked with it. I however came across an old ATI Rage IIC 8MB AGP that
has been found to work with this mainboard.
I'm gona be making a DOS box for playing old games on, but I
was wondering if anyone who may have used this card in DOS remember if
it had any problems? Should this card's 2D be fast enough, or should I
get a better PCI card as any newer AGP would likely burn out due to
the AGP voltage regulator.

 

[kevin weaver]

I have a Voodoo 2 card I'll sell you cheap.

 

[Larry Roberts]

I have a Voodoo 2 card I'll sell you cheap.

Sorry. I can count on one hand the DOS only games that
supported Glide. The Voodoo 2 would have no effect on a DOS system. As
this is a DOS 6.22 gaming box I'm building for old EGA/VGA/SVGA games,
no 3D is needed. I was just inquiring as to whether the Rage IIC AGP
would be a good choice, or should I just get a newer PCI card, such as
a Matrox variant.

 

[First of One]

I had a Rage Pro 8MB AGP and two Rage II 2MB PCI cards at different times in
a secondary PC. 2D performance in DOS was fast enough. Quake1 v1.06,
MechWarrior2 and Doom1 ran without issue. Ultimate resolution and color
depth were limited by the amount of video memory in the case of the 2MB
cards. With 8MB they were not a problem.

P.S. You can get PCI cards up to a Radeon 9600 or Geforce FX5700, though
they are obviously overkill for DOS games.

 

[farmuse]

Sorry. I can count on one hand the DOS only games that
supported Glide. The Voodoo 2 would have no effect on a DOS system. As
this is a DOS 6.22 gaming box I'm building for old EGA/VGA/SVGA games,
no 3D is needed. I was just inquiring as to whether the Rage IIC AGP
would be a good choice, or should I just get a newer PCI card, such as
a Matrox variant.

tell you one thing it is really hard to beat a Matrox card for good
2D clarity, color etc

 

[First of One]

True, though all 3dfx-branded cards (Voodoo3/4/5) also have excellent 2D
clarity, same with most ATi-branded cards. Any time the chip producer is
also the card builder, component quality control tends to be better.

 

[stratus46]

I have an old Pentium 233Mhz MMX system that the mainboard's
AGP voltage regulator was found to be faulty, and only certain AGP
cards could be used in it. Don't think even old 3DFX Voodoo 3 cards
worked with it. I however came across an old ATI Rage IIC 8MB AGP that
has been found to work with this mainboard.
I'm gona be making a DOS box for playing old games on, but I
was wondering if anyone who may have used this card in DOS remember if
it had any problems? Should this card's 2D be fast enough, or should I
get a better PCI card as any newer AGP would likely burn out due to
the AGP voltage regulator.

Larry, on a 233MHz machine , how would you KNOW if the graphics is
slow? You do know that early AGP machines were barely faster than PCI
AND the logic level voltages are higher than the 4x and 8x cards.
Perhaps that's how thing got damaged.

Just for grins, this Athlon 3200XP machine for this is dual boot into
Win XP Pro or Dos 6.22. I have an old CAD package I still use and it
runs best on DOS. I have an Athlon 1200 at work, also multi boot for
the same CAD system for doing PC board work. The 1200 is just barely
slower the the 3200 -- forget the 'actual' speed of 2200 Mhz. The
difference is more like 10%. Under Windows however, the difference is
much greater. Anyway, have fun with your 'memory lane' machine.
GG