Re: Any suggestions for a "It just works" Voodoo 3 build?

Posted on 2022-04-12, 09:39

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Socket 370 is convenient but kind of boring too in its own way. For my own "just works" Voodoo 3 build I went with a KM266 Socket A motherboard and AthlonXP 2600+. Voodoo 3 unchained. :rofl: I have Socket A system and I occasionally plug my Voodoo3 there in order to maximize performance in late …

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Re: Favorite 4:3 games from the XP-era?

Posted on 2022-04-11, 16:44

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Software

in Marvin \ Software

Given the transition from 4:3 to widescreen happened in the early-mid 2000's, I'm curious what everyone's favorite games from the XP-era that are specifically designed for 4:3 aspect ratio? I think you've got that slightly wrong. It was rare for games to natively support widescreen resolutions …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2022-04-11, 07:10

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

appiah4 wrote on 2022-04-11, 07:01: I honestly can't understand how disc rot happens, I should research into that somehow. Not sure about laserdiscs, but prolonged exposure to sunlight and heat can most certainly cause CDs and DVDs to become unreadable. I've personally had several game discs go bad …

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Re: What is a 3D accelerator?

Posted on 2022-04-11, 06:41

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I understand that, but how much practical difference is it going to make, with how many actual applications? Could it hurt to try before going on a wild goose chase of some arcane contemporary card? Recently @bloodem did a comparison between a GeForce2 MX using 7.76 drivers and a GeForce4 MX440 …

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Re: Competition! Win a 3DFX Voodoo3 Graphics Card. ----#Quake3toTheMax----

Posted on 2022-04-10, 15:25

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Necrodude wrote on 2022-04-10, 15:22: "TurboGL" feature??? You just got my attention? Tell me about. 😀 The fine folks at Anandtech explain it far better than I ever could in this article.

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Re: Competition! Win a 3DFX Voodoo3 Graphics Card. ----#Quake3toTheMax----

Posted on 2022-04-10, 14:33

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I'm guessing what card you're talking about, but... no, I don't see how it could ever surpass a GeForce 256 DDR in Quake 3, even with the best possible tweaks (since you can always apply the same tweaks with a GeForce 256 :-D ). Likewise, I doubt that any card can surpass a GeForce SDR (not to …

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2022-04-10, 08:16

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

Shreddoc wrote on 2022-04-10, 08:02: Had one of those nightmare/comedic repair days, inside a far-far-too-cramped, awkward arcade machine of my own making. Heh, I had my share of those days too. Always reminds me of this clip with Hal trying to replace a lightbulb.

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Re: What retro activity did you get up to today?

Posted on 2022-04-09, 05:46

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

At least all my other boards have the latest BIOS now. I try to flash the latest version on all of my motherboards as well. But recently, I have learned that this is not always the best course of action, at least for socket 754 retro builds. Basically, using anything but the oldest BIOS halves GPU …

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Re: What is a 3D accelerator?

Posted on 2022-04-08, 17:21

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

Nvidia might have called the Geforce 256 a GPU, but the definition of GPU that always seemed more appropriate to me is a graphics chip with programmable shaders. That puts the "processor" in "Graphics Processing Unit" as opposed to a fixed-function renderer. If that's a GPU, then the Geforce 3 ( …

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Re: Bought these (retro) hardware today

Posted on 2022-04-08, 07:34

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

I also install PATCHMEM and will sometimes add 512MB or more memory, but it's hard to find a good use case where more than 256MB actually makes a difference. If, for some weird reason, you want to play games from 2002 and later on Win98, having 512 MB will help a bit. Morrowind and Neverwinter …

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Re: Abit KT7A (KT133A/VIA686B), Athlon XP Mobile 2500+

Posted on 2022-04-07, 22:21

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Wait a moment, you're saying SETMUL will also work on non-Mobile Athlons (after the appropriate PCI register change with PCISET)? I'll have to test that. Just for disabling the L1 cache, not for changing the multiplier from the command line. I use the SoftMenu section of the BIOS for changing the …

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Re: Abit KT7A (KT133A/VIA686B), Athlon XP Mobile 2500+

Posted on 2022-04-07, 21:56

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Either way, I must humbly tell you that this is not a good idea... I have a DOS system, it's a 486 with a CF Card with FAT16, and that's strictly for compatibility. Perhaps consider building something older for pure dos. "All-in-one" systems never work, no matter how much planning goes into it. I …

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Re: Abit KT7A (KT133A/VIA686B), Athlon XP Mobile 2500+

Posted on 2022-04-07, 16:28

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Are you interested in borrowing my copy for testing purposes? After you're done, you must erase it from your hard drive. No, it's too much of a hassle with bypassing copy protection via Daemon Tools, plus installing an unofficial DX9 version and/or that craptastic Unofficial Service Pack for Win98. …

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Re: Abit KT7A (KT133A/VIA686B), Athlon XP Mobile 2500+

Posted on 2022-04-07, 14:47

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

...but when you say "running just fine", can you please confirm stability with Flatout2? You'll need the original ISO, not the GOG repack. I don't own Flatout 2, so I can't test it. For the record, I played several GPU intensive games on that system (link in signature) including the original …

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Re: What is a 3D accelerator?

Posted on 2022-04-07, 08:42

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

do they? For Virge break even was around 120-133MHz, at that point playing 320x200 software rendering was faster than "accelerated" mode on Virge. On my Pentium MMX 166 system, the S3 Virge DX was roughly 15% faster than software rendering in the original Tomb Raider running at 640x480 under DOS 6. …

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Re: is it worth getting a 1600x1200@160Hz 19" CRT?

Posted on 2022-04-07, 06:38

by

by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

in Marvin \ General Old Hardware

While using high refresh rates (120 Hz and such) on CRT monitors is generally preferred due to reduced flicker, this can unfortunately cause issues with some poorly coded games. For example, Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic has some problems when the refresh rate is higher than 60 Hz. Many …

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Re: Abit KT7A (KT133A/VIA686B), Athlon XP Mobile 2500+

Posted on 2022-04-07, 05:29

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ System Specs

in Marvin \ System Specs

Next issue is that the KT7A has some compatibility issues with GeForce3 and GeForce4 cards... Looks like that was fixed with Geforce FX and later series. I currently have a KT7A revision 1.0 running just fine with a GeForce4 Ti4200. Back in he day, I used a GeForce3 Ti200 on that motherboard for …

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Re: Table Fog & 8-bit Paletted Textures

Posted on 2022-04-06, 15:28

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

You will forgive me for saying this, but the benefits of older generation cards then in my approximation are greatly overstated (considering today's rarity and pricing)... I fully agree, and have said so several times in this and other threads. While conducting my tests, I had to actively search …

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Re: Table Fog & 8-bit Paletted Textures

Posted on 2022-04-06, 07:26

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

16-bit dithering got dropped after Geforce8xxx (and RadeonHD as well) as DX10 hardware signified a huge refresh on pipelines and a lot of older fixed function stuff put through shaders instead. Heh, I was just adding that to my post but you beat me to it. The color banding is quite noticeable on …

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Re: Table Fog & 8-bit Paletted Textures

Posted on 2022-04-06, 07:20

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by Joseph_Joestar

in Marvin \ Video

in Marvin \ Video

I was unaware that the table fog capable cards could work properly with table fog and the newer drivers, but apparently, they can. GeForce 2 Ultra with Forceware 66.94: While Nvidia did drop paletted textures with the GeForce6 series, they kept table fog around for a long time. Thief2_Fog_9600GT. …

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