I don`t know but maybe the pci slot specs are different and incompatible?

meljor wrote:

I don`t know but maybe the pci slot specs are different and incompatible?

Well the AOpen board with the SIS chipset did do much better in SLI performance. So there is something going on with the Intel chipset that's for sure.

There is a 845 board on eBay AU with CPU and RAM, might go for that because it still bugs me a bit. Especially Quake 2 performance in SLI at 512 x 384 the P3 is just way stronger.

Very strange...

Yes I did check for any PCI settings in the BIOS but nothing unusual to be honest. That AOpen SIS board will need a recap as well.

Perhaps I should add my own little similar story into the mix that is hardware oddness.

I have this K6-3+ system with a Gigabyte GA-5AX (rev 4.1), which uses the Alladdin V chip. I've been using a Voodoo 3 3000 AGP with it and it performs nicely. However, my V2 SLI cards always produce artifacts and eventually cause the system to hang after a while. Faulty cards right? Nope, they work fine on other systems. Also, my Voodoo 3 3000 PCI underperforms. I can't for the life of me figure out what is causing it, but the difference is phenomenal. We're talking 57fps vs 32fps on Shogo at 1024x768 for example.
Perhaps this is a similar on your P4 setup?

Yea could be possible. At higher resolutions the P4 is fine. With fine I mean it's keeping up with the Pentium 3 because everything is graphics limited and performs on the same level. But at 512 x 384 and 640 x 480 the Tualatin, and also a fast BX440 system puts up scores the P4 struggles to achieve in certain games.

But yea, maybe there is a reason why they switched to AGP 🤣

Asus released an adapter for 478 boards that allowed the use of laptop chips of that era... The laptop chips were Pentium 3 derivatives... If someone could run the test with this setup, it would determine whether the P4 itself is the culprit, or if it has something to do with P4 chipsets.

That sounds interesting...

What about on later boards, Core 2 Duo and i5 supporting chips? I guess W98 might cause issues.

And of course, how does AMD compare? I have zero AMD gear past Super Socket 7.

mockingbird wrote:

Asus released an adapter for 478 boards that allowed the use of laptop chips of that era... The laptop chips were Pentium 3 derivatives... If someone could run the test with this setup, it would determine whether the P4 itself is the culprit, or if it has something to do with P4 chipsets.

You mean Pentium M? Only a few Asus boards can work with that adapter if that's what you mean. Would be a worthwhile test though, if one had the equipment. Here's more information about the whole thing:
http://www.anandtech.com/show/1650/2

Mau1wurf1977: Have you tried Windows 2000 to compare the P3/P4 systems?

Hmm no I never played around with W2000.

I know there's actual 3dfx drivers for W2k (I'm using them on my CuMine in fact), and there's also x3dfx drivers (like FastVoodoo) that I've yet to try out. Installation of the V2 in W2k with the 3dfx drivers is probably among the easiest video-card installs I've ever done. Might be worth a quick try-out just to see if performance improves or stays the same - would give you more information at least.

Hmm I'm a bit over this issue to be honest 😵

I will revisit the Tualatin again when the V3 cards arrive. And I got to come up with some disc imaging options. Losing too much time installing Windows 98 all the time 😊

The V3 won't run in the P4 anyway...

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

Hmm I'm a bit over this issue to be honest 😵

I don't blame you. 😊 I've sat down to do a few hardware comparisons/write-ups in the past and never make it as far as you do, so I applaud your patience/resolve to get as far as you have. 😀

Yea V2 seems to go well with Slot 1 and S370. Finding that everything Nvidia works really well on the P4. Haven't had a single issue.

Looking at my benchmarks, I'm also wondering if I have the right range of benchmarks.

Might start from scratch 🤣

It's about the journey...

obobskivich wrote:

I don't blame you. 😊 I've sat down to do a few hardware comparisons/write-ups in the past and never make it as far as you do, so I applaud your patience/resolve to get as far as you have. 😀

I think I will just publish (soon) what I currently have. And then maybe revisit the topic when the Voodoo 3 cards arrive. Otherwise it will never get done 🤣

Only the sli voodoos have problems keeping up on the p4 or the single one too?

GeorgeMan wrote:

Only the sli voodoos have problems keeping up on the p4 or the single one too?

Single card as well although not nearly as bad. SLI simply highlights any CPU weaknesses straight away.

Well, I have tested my Voodoo2 (single) with P4 3.2E (Prescott, E0 stepping). WinXpSp3, W2k 1.02.00 drivers.
GL Quake, Quake 2 and Unreal have same FPSs as PIII 1400 (obviously, the limiter is Voodoo2 itself).
GLQuake - 154/108/71 FPS.
Quake II - 126/91/60 FPS.
Unreal - 108/76/49 FPS.
Currently I don't have Win98 compatible videocard except Rage 128 Pro OEM. Maybe later I will test my Voodoo2 versus the P4/WinME setup...

I wasn't aware that they would work under Windows XP. Interesting.

Do you have a slower Pentium 4? Ideally an old Northwood A. 1.6, 1.8 or 2.0 GHz.

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

I wasn't aware that they would work under Windows XP. Interesting.

Xp can use Windows 2000 drivers. The only trouble with Voodoo2 W2k drivers is - the W2k graphical system was included in a system core. So you must start all Voodoo2 services (fxgpio, fxcpl and ntremap) as system services in Xp.

Do you have a slower Pentium 4? Ideally an old Northwood A. 1.6, 1.8 or 2.0 GHz.

IIRC I had a Celeron D somewhere... Later.
P.S. It's Celeron D 2.8 GHz. I doubt the results will be different...

Just a stupid idea:
Is it possible that the driver manages to set MTRRs for the 3dfx cards on P2/P3 CPUs but not on P4?
I don't know how much write speed would be reduced with a P4 without write combining.
Here is some information about how MTRRs should be set for 3dfx cards.
Perhaps you could check both on a P3 machine and a P4 machine if the MTRRs are set up?

On Intel processors, Windows 98SE sets them for you. You can tell when running DOS benchmarks from within Windows compared to MS-DOS mode 😀

To be honest I have just accepted that P4 and Voodoo doesn't go well. With V3 and later cards you also have the issue of AGP voltage. While my AOpen 815 board has a universal AGP and the manual does state AGP 1x, but on P4 boards this isn't the case any more.

So personally I will just pair PIII with Voodoo and P4 with GeForce. GeForce cards have been flawless and it has been such a joy to work with them on P4 systems.