VirtuaIceMan wrote on 2022-02-19, 14:04:
No idea if GordonFreeman is still around, but I've just set up my P4 32.Ghz EE with a Matrix M3D, but using an AGP Radeon 9600 instead of Voodoo 3.
Sorry, I haven't been on the forums for a while. I've found the PCX2 can be rather finicky when it comes to drivers and running certain games. For example, I've found that sometimes you need to restart the system after running a particular game (Tomb Raider is one I've found) before you can run another one. Something that might help with your issues: when I've had issues with games that seem to be related to drivers, sometimes installing different drivers can help. You can also try installing different drivers, and then reinstall whatever drivers you had before - doing this seemed to solved some issues I had with certain games. I'd recommend trying a bunch of different drivers until you find one that works for what you want to do. I forget exactly which version of the drivers I'm using, but in general the later versions seem to have better compatibility with games.
If none of that helps, another thing to consider is that your host video card (the Radeon 9600) might be the issue. I've only used the Voodoo 3 3000 (which seems to work perfectly) so I can't comment about the compatibility with other cards. However, since the Radeon 9600 is much newer than either the m3D or the Voodoo 3, maybe there's something different about its design that doesn't work well with the m3D. If you'd like to try a different card, I'd recommend something older - like late-90s or older.
One more thing to consider: this generally shouldn't be an issue if you're running PowerSGL games, but if you have the m3D installed in a system with another card that supports DirectX, you need to disable DirectX/Direct3D on the m3D - otherwise it seems to cause a conflict. This should only affect games that use DirectX, but it's something you should probably do anyway.
btw, if you want to see the system that came after this one, which I migrated many of the parts from this one to (including the Voodoo 3 and the m3D), then you should take a look at this thread: Sony Vaio P4 3.06GHz + Voodoo 3 3000 + Matrox m3D + SB Live!
That system functions pretty much the same as this one, although it has a slightly faster CPU and a much better case.