VOGONS


Setting up 2 x Voodoo2 cards in SLI

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First post, by AlucarD86

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Recently I aquired a pair of 2 VooDoo2 Diamond Monster 8MB and wanted to hook them up in SLI but I seem to struggle to get them working properly because there seems to be a lot of drivers out there and I am not even sure if I am running them currently in SLI mode.
I do think I hooked them up properly by using the ribbon and passthrough cables.
My main AGP card is an Nvidia FX5900, then I have both Diamond Monster Voodoo 2 cards after that and a Matrox M3D all in PCI slots.
Now the Matrox M3D works beautifully by just installing the drivers and ticking the box for it but the VooDoo2 dont seem to work as I get only black screens in games like Unreal Gold, Incoming or Expendable when I try to run them in Glide mode.
Honestly I am a little bit underwhelmed by the Voodoo 2, how was this card considered to be top of the line in 1998 ? 😒
Does someone has some general advice on how to set them up properly and what drivers work best ?
I installed the latest Diamond Monster II V2 drivers and the 3rd V2-1000 drivers and both show up in the config panel but the games just black screen on me. Another game I tested was Half-Life, even thou it said to use the GL-Mini driver it didnt work out with that either. I also want to mention that I had to installthe drivers for each card two times which is weird 😒

Here is a screenshot from both driver informations
My desktop resolution is 1024x768 32-Bit color

VooDoo2%20config_zps16ekefve.jpg

PC Setup: Mainboard ASUS CUBX | CPU Intel Pentium III-S Tualatin 1.4 GHz | Memory 780 MB SDRam | Soundcard Creative SB Audigy SB0160 | GPUs Nvidia FX5900 Ulta Matrox M3D PCI | HDD 2x40 GB WD/Seagate | OS Win98SE and WinXPSP1 in dual boot

Reply 1 of 36, by Gamecollector

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You must install same driver for both cards. So there will be an 1 tab only.
Correct SLI must display the "Detected!" message and 8 MB for framebuffer and texture sizes. Similar to upper-right on your screenshot.

Asus P4P800 SE/Pentium4 3.2E/2 Gb DDR400B,
Radeon HD3850 Agp (Sapphire), Catalyst 14.4 (XpProSp3).
Voodoo2 12 MB SLI, Win2k drivers 1.02.00 (XpProSp3).

Reply 2 of 36, by AlucarD86

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Thanks a lot for the advice, I will try. Win98SE is so weird with its driver install or maybe I am used to newer operating systems that I get annoyed by Win98 always wanting to restart.

PC Setup: Mainboard ASUS CUBX | CPU Intel Pentium III-S Tualatin 1.4 GHz | Memory 780 MB SDRam | Soundcard Creative SB Audigy SB0160 | GPUs Nvidia FX5900 Ulta Matrox M3D PCI | HDD 2x40 GB WD/Seagate | OS Win98SE and WinXPSP1 in dual boot

Reply 3 of 36, by AlucarD86

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well no luck here. I uninstalled the V2-1000 drivers and only left the Monster 3DII installed and I still get black screens in both Expendable and Incoming but I do hear the sound in the background. When I try to open up Unreal Gold it even freezes my PC and forces me to reboot. Could it be that the two SLI Voodoo 2 dont like the Matrox M3D or the Nvidia FX5900 ?? Or could it be that both driver installs messed up Win98SE somehow.

PC Setup: Mainboard ASUS CUBX | CPU Intel Pentium III-S Tualatin 1.4 GHz | Memory 780 MB SDRam | Soundcard Creative SB Audigy SB0160 | GPUs Nvidia FX5900 Ulta Matrox M3D PCI | HDD 2x40 GB WD/Seagate | OS Win98SE and WinXPSP1 in dual boot

Reply 4 of 36, by The Serpent Rider

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Try FastVoodoo drivers. But looks like one of your cards is just dead.

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Reply 5 of 36, by Gamecollector

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Pentium III-S 1.4 GHz is fast and can be affected by Voodoo2 fast CPU bug.
IIRC there are only 2 versions of Voodoo2 w9x drivers w/o this bug. 3.03.00b and 3.02.02.

Try the step-by-step approach. Install 1 card, install drivers, test. Then install the 2nd card and the SLI cable.
Use this for glide testing. Test00.exe as the example.

Asus P4P800 SE/Pentium4 3.2E/2 Gb DDR400B,
Radeon HD3850 Agp (Sapphire), Catalyst 14.4 (XpProSp3).
Voodoo2 12 MB SLI, Win2k drivers 1.02.00 (XpProSp3).

Reply 6 of 36, by meljor

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make sure you have the pass-trough cable from fx5900 to the first voodoo2 (card closest to the fx5900). Also your monitor should be on this card. So the second v2 is connected with only the ribbon cable and nothing else is attached to it.

Try it without the Matrox m3d first. Maybe other pci slots will help, sometimes switching slots works as well (so card one becomes card 2 and vice versa).

I love it when people are '' underwelmed'' by a 20 year old card that they cannot get to work....

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asus p5a, k6-3+ @ 550mhz, voodoo2 12mb sli, gf2 gts, awe32
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asus tusl2-c, p3-S 1,4ghz, voodoo5 5500, live!
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Reply 7 of 36, by AlucarD86

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mhm its really weird, I cant seem to even boot up the PC with only one of the Voodoo2 inserted (I have removed the FX5900 and the Matrox M3D as well as the second voodoo2) and the monitor connected to its VGA. it just shows me a black screen. I have even tried different PCI slots and even with the other Voodoo2 it wont even show me a signal. Now I know the cards are okay because they do show up on the PCI slots when I boot up with the FX5900 but for the life of me I cant seem to even boot up the PC normally by using one or the other voodoo2. Could it be that the BX chipset of the Asus CUBX just doesnt like running the video signal from the PCI Voodoo2 ??? Otherwise I cant explain it.

PC Setup: Mainboard ASUS CUBX | CPU Intel Pentium III-S Tualatin 1.4 GHz | Memory 780 MB SDRam | Soundcard Creative SB Audigy SB0160 | GPUs Nvidia FX5900 Ulta Matrox M3D PCI | HDD 2x40 GB WD/Seagate | OS Win98SE and WinXPSP1 in dual boot

Reply 8 of 36, by The Serpent Rider

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You lack basic understanding of how Voodoo 2 works. It's not video card in a traditional sense and you can't use it for simple 2D.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 9 of 36, by gdjacobs

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Technically it's possible, but the design of the card doesn't lend itself to that purpose, and writing a Windows driver to do it would be quite involved.

All hail the Great Capacitor Brand Finder

Reply 11 of 36, by Jade Falcon

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The Serpent Rider wrote:

You lack basic understanding of how Voodoo 2 works. It's not video card in a traditional sense and you can't use it for simple 2D.

This, voodoo2 can't be use as a display card in the traditional since.
Get the fast voodoo2 drivers or kool smokeys drivers from 3dfxzone.it
Test etch card by its self. If by cards are find by themselves then it's probably the sli cable or driver problem.

Some times cards have different memory configs. Even if their both 8, 6 or 12mb cards witch can be problematic in sli.

Reply 12 of 36, by fitzpatr

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You must have both cards installed on the motherboard and in the device manager. It sounds like you uninstalled one of them. What Gamecollector was getting at is that the same driver must be used for both. I had a poor understanding when I first got mine.

So, a quick bit of background, first.

The Voodoo and Voodoo2 were 3D accelerators, and only 3D accelerators. Technical possibilities aside, they are only capable of producing 3d images, which means that you need another 2D capable card to complement the Voodoo for Windows, DOS, and other interfaces.

The Voodoo2 works by having both a VGA IN and VGA OUT. SLI is enabled internally using a 34 pin cable connecting the two cards.

In a normal 2 card solution, your 2d card, in this case an NVIDIA FX5900, will connect to the Voodoo2 by connecting the VGA OUT of the 2d card to the VGA IN of the Voodoo. Your monitor will then connect to the VGA OUT of the Voodoo. Your game will need to allow you to choose which video card, and sometimes which API (DirectX, GLIDE, OpenGL) you will use.

In an SLI situation, the only change is that a second Voodoo card will be inserted into another PCI slot and connected only internally to the first Voodoo. To allow for SLI, the third party drivers are much more lenient with card combinations, while the 3dfx/OEM Voodoo drivers generally require it to be the same manufacturer and memory configuration. FFXIhealer depicts what the setup usually looks like.

Last edited by fitzpatr on 2017-06-13, 03:42. Edited 1 time in total.

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Reply 13 of 36, by G1nX

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fitzpatr wrote:

The Voodoo and Voodoo2 were 3D accelerators, and only 3d accelerators. Technical possibilities aside, they are only capable of producing 3d images, which means that you need another 2d capable card to compliment the voodoo for windows, dos, and other interfaces.

gdjacobs wrote:

Technically it's possible, but the design of the card doesn't lend itself to that purpose, and writing a Windows driver to do it would be quite involved.

There's a misconception that a Voodoo2 card can't be used to display 2D images or that are no drivers for that which isn't true. With a beta version of win2k drivers it can be used along side a primary video card to extend the desktop onto a second monitor. More details in the driver notes: http://falconfly.de/info/readme-v2-win2k-10000b.txt

Jade Falcon wrote:

Some times cards have different memory configs. Even if their both 8, 6 or 12mb cards witch can be problematic in sli.

The 6Mb V2 cards are only prototypes which don't work with Windows drivers. They are called out in DOS only by the games which support glide. It has limited use and a max resolution of 640x480 reason why it didn't went into production.
As for the 8Mb and 12Mb V2's these can be combined in SLI to varying degree by using mismatched 3rd party drivers which can be found here: http://falconfly.de/voodoo2.htm

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Reply 14 of 36, by The Serpent Rider

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G1nX wrote:

More details in the driver notes: http://falconfly.de/info/readme-v2-win2k-10000b.txt

Next time try to read your own links:
"The Voodoo2 board will show up in the display applet's settings pane just
like a mainstream 2d/3d board. Unlike mainstream 2d/3d boards, Voodoo2 does
not have any VGA hardware, so it cannot be used as the only display adapter
in a system.
"

Essentially that's just unperfect driver hack to avoid problems with win2k.

Last edited by The Serpent Rider on 2017-06-12, 03:38. Edited 1 time in total.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.

Reply 15 of 36, by G1nX

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The Serpent Rider wrote:
Next time try to read your own links: "The Voodoo2 board will show up in the display applet's settings pane just like a mainstr […]
Show full quote
G1nX wrote:

More details in the driver notes: http://falconfly.de/info/readme-v2-win2k-10000b.txt

Next time try to read your own links:
"The Voodoo2 board will show up in the display applet's settings pane just
like a mainstream 2d/3d board. Unlike mainstream 2d/3d boards, Voodoo2 does
not have any VGA hardware, so it cannot be used as the only display adapter
in a system.
"

Re-read my post. I never said it can be used as the only display adapter in a system but that it can display 2D images alongside a primary video card.

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Reply 17 of 36, by Tetrium

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AlucarD. It doesn't matter if you basically do not know what you are doing or not, we've all been in that boat at one time.
I'd suggest you doing a little bit of trouble shooting first.

Personally I'd test both cards individually before trying them out in SLI (that's also because I tend to like to be thorough and catch errors at the front). If one of your cards is broken (which has been suggested by someone here already), you're never going to get SLI working properly.

I'd get the FX5900 and the SLI setup working before adding reinstalling the M3D. You may want to give the Voodoos some extra space between the FX5900 and the Voodoos, mostly to give the hotter FX card some extra room to keep cool and to give the top Voodoo 2 some extra space so it keeps cooler itself.

And the people here are correct, you cannot use a Voodoo 1 or Voodoo 2 as the sole display adapter, it will never work.

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Reply 18 of 36, by G1nX

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The Serpent Rider wrote:

It can't. Only 3D via API.

Spoken like someone who hasn't even tried those beta drivers.

Voodoo2 as 3D accelerator multimedia device
20170612_073421_005.jpg

Voodoo2 as 2D display card for desktop extension alongside a primary card
20170612_074839.jpg

I hope that clarifies things and if it doesn't try it for yourself.

Regards,
G1nX

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Reply 19 of 36, by The Serpent Rider

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G1nX wrote:

Voodoo2 as 2D display card

Once again, it can't render 2D in DOS/Windows, regardless of what your OS shows. This workaround was designed to fool Win 2k/XP OS, but fundamentally changes nothing. Even the link you've posted confirms this.
Can Voodoo 2 render picture standalone? Sure thing, since it has DAC, but only when using 3D capabilities.

Last edited by The Serpent Rider on 2018-07-11, 14:53. Edited 1 time in total.

I must be some kind of standard: the anonymous gangbanger of the 21st century.