Which OS to use with VooDoo3/4/5?

[mikeford]

About 6 months ago I read a few positive posts on using old Voodoo cards, and went a bit nuts with ebay fever and bought like half a dozen, mostly Voodoo3 3000, but at least one 5500, and maybe something in the 4 series too. The only system that was handy at the time was a newer P4 1.7 ghz running XP Pro, the 5500 worked, but not for long periods (driver I am almost sure, not heat which was fine) and rather than fuss too much I just swapped in a Voodoo3 3500 which is much more stable, but still crashes in WarCraft3 more or less randomly.

I tried to use the Merlin drivers, but just never got the install figured out. I want to have a couple retro gaming machines, so I will be running Dos, W95, or with the newer systems 98se and XP, oh and a couple Unix/Linux boxes, maybe NetBSD or FreeBSD or Debian etc. Which machines running what OS are these Voodoo cards going to be happiest in?

 

[sandorski]

Win 98 would be your best bet.

 

[sswingle]

I used a voodoo 3 3000 with windows xp for a while just fine.

 

[GullyFoyle]

I ran a Velocity 100 (Voodoo 3 w/8 MB SGRam) for several years on 98se with no problems.

 

[Schadenfroh]

Originally posted by: sandorski
Win 98 would be your best bet.

 

[Jeff7]

Originally posted by: sandorski
Win 98 would be your best bet.

Second Edition of course.

 

[Emultra]

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: sandorski
Win 98 would be your best bet.

Second Edition of course.

Exactly what is the difference between the two?

 

[z0mb1e]

I still run a Voodoo4 so I can tell you that a Voodoo4's and Voodoo5's will work fine with WinXP as long as you are willing to play with drivers. I use the Voodoolizer 1.05.02 drivers. I know another guy who uses a Voodoo3 but he doesn't game much so I'm not sure what he uses. You're Voodoo5's should be able to run anything upto and including Unreal Tourny 2003, I used to be able to get my Voodoo4 to run it well but I haven't had any luck lately (any advice guys?). Also, I've got some pretty good drivers that I'm not sure are still availible. They were from www.tdhq.com, which is gone. They were still in the beta stage but they run alot of stuff. Whatever I have trouble with Voodoolizer, I use these drivers. But then I haven't had any trouble with the Voodoolizer drivers in a while. Which OS, 98 is better for gaming period, but is so unstable. I'd just go with XP Pro if you got it. - z0mb1e out

 

[edmundoab]

I'd think for optimum performance, win98SE should be cool

 

[bunnyfubbles]

I've got a Voodoo 3 3000 running on Win2k for a few years. The rig isn't meant to game at all but it can handle some light action perfectly stable. I say light action because anything heavy would result in a slide show the Voodoo 3 is so slow, not to mention the rig it's on isn't a shining star itself; P2 300MHz @ 66MHz fsb and 352MB of ram @ 66MHz...you could say it is mostly an email/internet/Word/Excel/PowerPoint machine.

 

[Tokar]

Originally posted by: Emultra

Originally posted by: Jeff7

Originally posted by: sandorski
Win 98 would be your best bet.

Second Edition of course.

Exactly what is the difference between the two?

SE has some network enhancements.

 

[Matt84]

For a Voodoo 3 then Windows 98 SE with the latest official 3Dfx drivers are the best of the bunch. Still have a P3 733 with a 16Mb V3 3000 and its rock solid.
For Voodoo 4/5 Windows 98 SE is still best but 2000 is also a realistic option, XP even works as well.

 

[mikeford]

98se sounds like a good choice, and I happen to like it too.

98 to 98se as far as I am concerned is half bug fix and half new hardware support, like USB that reaally works.