V4 is a standalone card, no way to hook it up via any sort of pass through cable. the mentioned cards should coexist without issues in one system, but you will either have to switch cables or monitor inputs for glide games.

if I remember correctly, V4 will work ok as a secondary card, but 3dfx tools won't work, but that shouldn't matter much as you should be using Vcontrol anyway.

I'd use only V4 in that system.

I wouldn't use it as the primary card. If possible, I'd get a monitor that has two inputs, or a VGA switch for when you want to use Glide. The V4 just isn't a very fast card.

Reputator wrote:

I wouldn't use it as the primary card. If possible, I'd get a monitor that has two inputs, or a VGA switch for when you want to use Glide. The V4 just isn't a very fast card.

It's no slouch either as it is as fast or even a bit faster (and with better options like 32bit/AA) as a voodoo3 3500 which is a popular card in retro systems.

meljor wrote:

It's no slouch either as it is as fast or even a bit faster (and with better options like 32bit/AA) as a voodoo3 3500 which is a popular card in retro systems.

It really trades blows with the 3500 from what I've seen. Looking at Phil's benchmarks, there are a number of games where it's actually slower.

Reputator wrote:

meljor wrote:

It's no slouch either as it is as fast or even a bit faster (and with better options like 32bit/AA) as a voodoo3 3500 which is a popular card in retro systems.

It really trades blows with the 3500 from what I've seen. Looking at Phil's benchmarks, there are a number of games where it's actually slower.

Depends on the game/driver but it's not the point. When v1, v2, v2 sli, v3 2000/3000/3500 all are popular cards for retro systems you can not say that the v4 is not a good choice as a standalone because ''it isn't very fast''.

For a 3dfx card it IS fast and runs every single glide game perfectly fine speedwise. I don't think you need much more for a good retro system.

meljor wrote:

Depends on the game/driver but it's not the point. When v1, v2, v2 sli, v3 2000/3000/3500 all are popular cards for retro systems you can not say that the v4 is not a good choice as a standalone because ''it isn't very fast''.

For a 3dfx card it IS fast and runs every single glide game perfectly fine speedwise. I don't think you need much more for a good retro system.

I'm not in disagreement that it's good for a 3dfx card. Many are content with that. But unless you're building a very specifically Glide-tailored system, for an all-around setup playing D3D & OGL games in 32-bit color and higher resolutions you should have another card with a bit more grunt.

Unless you have a Voodoo 5 that can just do friggin everything.

Otherwise the Radeon he has is MUCH better equipped for the things I'm talking about, and the V4 should only really kick in for that genuine Glide experience. How many Glide games support 32-bit color anyway (genuine question)? I know the Unreal games don't do true 32-bit color in Glide.

Reputator wrote:

Unless you have a Voodoo 5 that can just do friggin everything.

I am not sure whether you are serious.

Reputator wrote:

Otherwise the Radeon he has is MUCH better equipped for the things I'm talking about, and the V4 should only really kick in for that genuine Glide experience

Most, if not all 7200 had single data rate memory, they are not much faster than Voodoo4.

Reputator wrote:

How many Glide games support 32-bit color anyway (genuine question)? I know the Unreal games don't do true 32-bit color in Glide.

very few - off the bat, I only remember Turok2, and I'm not 100% sure even on that. but it's not a big deal, as you can force 32bit for glide via the control panel.

Putas wrote:

I am not sure whether you are serious.

Yes?

Putas wrote:

Most, if not all 7200 had single data rate memory, they are not much faster than Voodoo4.

Neither of those assertions are true. While DDR cards are certainly harder to find nowadays, they were the flagship cards of ATI's arsenal in their day, and there were two distinct versions of it. SDR was no where close to "most, if not all".

And you can't judge cards a generation apart based on memory type. The R100s introduced a number of technologies that made its use of bandwidth more efficient.

Reputator wrote:

Putas wrote:

Most, if not all 7200 had single data rate memory, they are not much faster than Voodoo4.

Neither of those assertions are true. While DDR cards are certainly harder to find nowadays, they were the flagship cards of ATI's arsenal in their day, and there were two distinct versions of it. SDR was no where close to "most, if not all".

I only wonder whether you left out the 7200 name intentionally or because you are realizing your mistake.
Anyway, the OP may specify which memory his card is using.

Putas wrote:

I only wonder whether you left out the 7200 name intentionally or because you are realizing your mistake.
Anyway, the OP may specify which memory his card is using.

Please, could you explain in technical detail what the difference between the "Radeon" and the Radeon 7200 is? (It's a trick question.)

The original Radeon 7200 indeed is using SDR memory and is clocked rather low (155 MHz). It is kinda hard to find... at least I have never seen one outside of photos. Anyway the problem is in current drivers, all R100 based cards were renamed to Radeon 7200 series, which is quite a mess.

This table should make things clear (source http://pctuning.tyden.cz/hardware/graficke-ka … ogies_2?start=2)
Radeon VIVO...183MHz...64MB DDR
Radeon DDR...166-183MHz...32-64MB DDR
Radeon SDR...160MHz...32-64MB SDR
Radeon LE...148MHz ...32MB DDR
Radeon 7200...155MHz...64MB SDR

Anyway - according to my tests, even R100 Radeon SDR is faster than Voodoo4... in 32-bit mode it is quite significant lead (almost matching Voodoo5).

havli wrote:

The original Radeon 7200 indeed is using SDR memory and is clocked rather low (155 MHz). It is kinda hard to find... at least I […]
Show full quote

The original Radeon 7200 indeed is using SDR memory and is clocked rather low (155 MHz). It is kinda hard to find... at least I have never seen one outside of photos. Anyway the problem is in current drivers, all R100 based cards were renamed to Radeon 7200 series, which is quite a mess.

This table should make things clear (source http://pctuning.tyden.cz/hardware/graficke-ka … ogies_2?start=2)
Radeon VIVO...183MHz...64MB DDR
Radeon DDR...166-183MHz...32-64MB DDR
Radeon SDR...160MHz...32-64MB SDR
Radeon LE...148MHz ...32MB DDR
Radeon 7200...155MHz...64MB SDR

Anyway - according to my tests, even R100 Radeon SDR is faster than Voodoo4... in 32-bit mode it is quite significant lead (almost matching Voodoo5).

This was quite intentional. They were ALL retroactively renamed to the 7200 in 2001. The card you're referring to was an OEM card for system builders, and perhaps the first to be billed NEW as the 7200 in spec lists and documentation. I own one, in fact, and they're actually not that hard to find.

But technically it is correct to refer to them all as 7200, or Radeon, interchangeably.

havli wrote:

Anyway - according to my tests, even R100 Radeon SDR is faster than Voodoo4... in 32-bit mode it is quite significant lead (almost matching Voodoo5).

Oh yes, under these settings Voodoo4 is getting trounced, as she always did. I was wrong in that regard, somehow I forgot that.

If the OP already has the Voodoo4, then I suppose it's fine to use it, although it will probably bottleneck the system, depending on the games they wish to play. Voodoo4 is indeed trading punches with a Voodoo3 and higher clocked Athlon CPUs (1GHz+) are much more at home with something like the Voodoo5, GeForce2 etc.

Personally, I love high resolutions, MSAA and even better SSAA Anti-Aliasing and a sustained 60fps minimum (I play on a CRT 😀 ), so I always tend to use insanely powerful GPUs on far slower CPUs (GeForce 5900 Ultra on Tualatin 1.4). I don't think a lot of people have these requirements however, I've seen people enjoy playing at 640x480 or 800x600 with ~30fps and be overly happy with it, so your mileage may vary.
If the first case sounds like something you'd like, you'd best forget all about the Voodoo4 on that system 😜.