VOGONS


First post, by rgart

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Building a Pentium 3, 1ghz with Voodoo2 in SLI.

Motherboard is a GA-6VTXE which supports 4x AGP 2.0

Which Video Card is most preferable?

Something that wont cause any issue with the voodoo 2 in SLI.

Should I be using AGP or PCI?

Recommendations?

Reply 3 of 27, by luckybob

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the defacto video card for voodoo 1/2 tend to be matrox series cards. They excel at 2d performance and crisp sharp color.

It is a mistake to think you can solve any major problems just with potatoes.

Reply 4 of 27, by ratfink

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If it's mainly for glide, unless you have a particular reason for using v2 sli (like already having them, nostalgia, coolness factor etc) can you do what you need with a v3/4/5, maybe with a single v2 for games that need it (if there are any).

Reply 5 of 27, by badmojo

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rgart wrote:

a simple S3 AGP card ?

Why limit a 1ghz machine? Go with a nice Geforce2 Ultra, or even a Geforce3 I say! You'd still be period correct and it'd be a much more useful machine.

Reply 6 of 27, by subhuman@xgtx

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I really don't know what to say. The V5 5500 is a bit sluggish with its 667 Mtexels fillrate to move 4x RGSSAA but produces stunning Image quality with it. Voodoo2 SLI is slower, works with passthrough (unless you have two monitors), has Analog SLI(you can notice scanlines when framerate is high) but is compatible with all voodoo1 designed games if you use a batch file (early Glide.dll titles; statically linked games). If you want to play Windows glide games that work with all cards, then you should go with a Voodoo5 because it will let you play Glide titles with its gorgeous FSAA, still at respectable framerates. In the other case, if you want to play games like Mechwarrior2 3Dfx, go with V2 SLI

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Reply 7 of 27, by vetz

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Almost all Glide games work on the V2. See this thread for the DOS games:
Voodoo 2 DOS Glide compatibility matrix

Personally I would just install a Voodoo 3 or 5 card as it plays most games anyway (matrix is included in the thread above for Voodoo 3). The P3 is fast enough to play the Glide games that does not support Voodoo 2/3/5 in SVGA mode.

3D Accelerated Games List (Proprietary APIs - No 3DFX/Direct3D)
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Reply 8 of 27, by swaaye

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I vote Voodoo 3/4/5 too.

I don't like Voodoo2 because of its small texture memory size that causes occasional stuttering in more detailed games like Unreal. Voodoo1 is neat simply because it was first but it's also quite slow obviously. The passthrough of these cards is also a real downside because it hurts the 2D card's signal quality.

Reply 9 of 27, by subhuman@xgtx

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vetz wrote:

Almost all Glide games work on the V2. See this thread for the DOS games:
Voodoo 2 DOS Glide compatibility matrix

Personally I would just install a Voodoo 3 or 5 card as it plays most games anyway (matrix is included in the thread above for Voodoo 3). The P3 is fast enough to play the Glide games that does not support Voodoo 2/3/5 in SVGA mode.

Maybe he could pair up a Voodoo5 AGP for most games, while having a Voodoo1/2 just for those kind of games I mentioned; Is this possible?

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Reply 10 of 27, by leileilol

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Yes, it's totally possible to mix your Voodoo2 in with an AGP Voodoo card.
On Windows I installed the V2 drivers first then the V3's (vital glide dlls will be overwritten in WINDOWS/SYSTEM/). If I wanted to use the Voodoo2 with a game, then i'd copy the Voodoo2 drivers' glide dlls into the game I want to play it with. It would then initialize the Voodoo2 instead and display it as usual (and I know it's not the Voodoo3 running because it's slightly blurrier, has a larger dither matrix, and is noticably slower!)

DISCLAIMER: I only have experience with this working on the Voodoo3.

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Reply 12 of 27, by rgart

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Thanks for all the responses.

I dont like the idea of having to mess with drivers too much. Voodoo 3,4,5 is out of the question.

Badmofo: I was considering a Geforce 4 ti4200 128MB
Maybe a Geforce 2 or 3 is more period specific.

The board originally came with a TNT2 Vanta and Vortex 2 Sound Card when I purchased the system back in 2000-2001.

What Power supply should I be using? 230 Watt ATX will suffice? Or do I need something like 430 watt ATX

Reply 14 of 27, by elfuego

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rgart wrote:

Badmofo: I was considering a Geforce 4 ti4200 128MB
Maybe a Geforce 2 or 3 is more period specific.

If V5 is out of the question, then ti4200 is a good choice. GF 3 even better. But avoid GF2 - its a gamble to find a GF2 with good quality output. Virtually all GF3 are decently made and ti4200/4600/4800 should be also pretty good. You could also consider GF6800 AGP.

Also, the SLI configuration with 12mb V2's should not encounter stuttering as 8mb V2s. Mostly anything Glide-able you throw at them will work great. For everything else, use the main card.

Reply 15 of 27, by Jorpho

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rgart wrote:

The board originally came with a TNT2 Vanta and Vortex 2 Sound Card when I purchased the system back in 2000-2001.

Are you finding this somehow inadequate when you are not playing Glide games?

elfuego wrote:

If V5 is out of the question, then ti4200 is a good choice. GF 3 even better.

I know the GF4MX is crap, but I thought the TI was superior to most other things. Is the GF3 really better?

Reply 16 of 27, by JaNoZ

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I would prefer a gf4 ti.
Gf2 is too slow or you have to have a ultra lying around, it would be ok for a 500mhz system.
I dont like the gf3, any gf4 ti would be excellent performance wise.

Reply 17 of 27, by rgart

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Jorpho wrote:
Are you finding this somehow inadequate when you are not playing Glide games? […]
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rgart wrote:

The board originally came with a TNT2 Vanta and Vortex 2 Sound Card when I purchased the system back in 2000-2001.

Are you finding this somehow inadequate when you are not playing Glide games?

elfuego wrote:

If V5 is out of the question, then ti4200 is a good choice. GF 3 even better.

I know the GF4MX is crap, but I thought the TI was superior to most other things. Is the GF3 really better?

Yeah! I used that PC for a long while and I do remember having issues with the TNT2 VANTA's speed

Im thinking.. AGP Matrox G200 16MB or.. AGP Geforce 4 TI4200 64MB

Reply 18 of 27, by swaaye

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Dig up a Matrox G250 instead of G200 maybe. It's an OEM only version that was a die shrink. It doesn't even need a heatsink. The 3D on G2x0 is about the same speed as Voodoo1 though fyi and it has quirks. I think the hardware has some kind of subpixel accuracy bug for example (this bug causes textures to wobble sometimes).

Reply 19 of 27, by rgart

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I have not done much reading on the pentium 3 coppermine series.

whats with the elevated center on the cpu?

do I need a special heatsink/fan because a generic flat heatsink/fan will not sit flush and contact all of the CPU.