I been thinking of trying to get one but it looks like prices for them are INSANE right now. I could pick one up for 80 bucks or so? Does anyone think it would be worth it?

Rhuwyn wrote:

I been thinking of trying to get one but it looks like prices for them are INSANE right now. I could pick one up for 80 bucks or so? Does anyone think it would be worth it?

To be honest, I don't think it is.
It's very interesting as a technology, but unless you want to actually develop software for it yourself, its usage is extremely limited.
There's only a handful of games that work on it properly.

Compared to a cheaper Voodoo2, it's crap for games. Tomb Raider and Mechwarrior 2 are nice though!
I have one in my main retro PC and hardly use it.

Mechwarrior 2 is maybe better on this card than any other. It's really specialized, though.

gdjacobs wrote:

Mechwarrior 2 is maybe better on this card than any other. It's really specialized, though.

Which happens to be one of my favorite games. I'd get a card specially for it if it was priced lower but I think I agree with everyone that 80 is way too much.

Scali wrote:

The PowerVR PCX2 (the chip used on the Matrox M3D) does support Direct3D though. So you should be able to run a variety of earli […]
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Rhuwyn wrote:

So you are correct when it comes to more modern systems. These days everything is either DirectX or OpenGL. But in the very early days of 3D acceleration every cards API was proprietary. Lots of games were available in the form optimized for particular cards. It was a form of marketing as far as I can tell. Sometimes you could buy a video card and it would come with a version of a game that was specifically designed to work with the card it was bundled with. Often you can find patches on the internet to turn a standard copy of a game into a 3DFX, or a PowerVR, or an S3D or whatever version of a game.

The PowerVR PCX2 (the chip used on the Matrox M3D) does support Direct3D though. So you should be able to run a variety of earlier D3D games (since it's such an early card, it isn't that fast and doesn't support that many features, so newer games aren't going to work).
You will have no problem running the first Direct3D benchmark Final Reality on it, for example (this is basically the first '3DMark' by FutureMark).
See this playlist of Direct3D software on PCX2 by leileilol: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OGv-YL-HlMw&l … 87622B165C5FD19

Final reality incredibly can use the Matrox Mystique 3D acceleration.. 😊

sorry for bumping this up but am shocked nobody mentioned Resident Evil (1997) https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n1g-8byJueY&t=25s

What CPU is required for a decent performance of a pcx2 and what main-gfx-card should be used.
I my P2-233 with G200a, Voodoo1 and PCX2 I did not get stable and good framerates with the pcx2,
so I put it out.

I would go for a higher CPU maybe a P3 coppermine 800 MHz and either an Nvidia 4 Ti or ATI Rage Pro should work well with the M3D in tandem at least for me it did work well with Resident Evil, once I switched to a Pentium 4 3 GHy however the M3D would become unstable.

thx! I think I will do another test with a P3-700.

the CPU is not that important as long as its underpowered because one thing the M3D hates are high voltages so a low voltage CPU will be fine like an underclocked P3, also I recommend you install some Apocalypse 3Dx sgl2 drivers as well as the card wont mind them. Also we need leileilol in here since he is an SGL2 PowerVR fanatic and expert 😁

hates high-voltages? can you please go into detail about this?
what are the dependencies to the main gfx-card as far as the m3d sends it's picture to the memory of the main gfx-card?
In my P2 at 233 with g200a the performance of the m3d was not so good.

I should install different drivers? not the original ones from matrox?

I would only get it if you are a collector or like having exclusive hardware compatibility for like 10 additional games.

Yes I will agree, only bother with the M3D if you are either a collector or like me just like a certain game like Resident Evil, otherwise I also recommend Tomb Raider and of course Mechwarrior 2 which can be both patched to be played in SGL2. What I was refering to is that the Apocalypse 3Dx is also a SGL2 graphics card and its drivers work with the Matrox M3D so you can try them out if you like. I would only suggest using the M3D on a mainboard with a BX i440BX chicpset like the Asus CUBX or P3B-F that one is a slot 1 mainboard and you can switch pentium 2-3 to your hearts content 😀

If you're looking for a period correct processor, take the Pentium Pro into consideration. Although the PCX2 cards scale well with higher clocked CPUs, a Pentium Pro 200 is still a great CPU for PCX2 cards. It plays the games of its time very well. The Pentium Pro's FPU speed is excellent, outshining every other CPU of its time.

A PentiumPro FSC system then 😀

FGB wrote:

If you're looking for a period correct processor, take the Pentium Pro into consideration. Although the PCX2 cards scale well with higher clocked CPUs, a Pentium Pro 200 is still a great CPU for PCX2 cards. It plays the games of its time very well. The Pentium Pro's FPU speed is excellent, outshining every other CPU of its time.

The downside is that PCX2 only has support for Win9x, which contains a lot of 16-bit code, which the Pentium Pro doesn't work well with (it only shines in NT really).
Not to mention that Pentium Pro was the Xeon of its day: high-end workstation/server systems only, not something a gamer would use.
I think a Pentium 233 MMX would be a better match, for period correctness and performance.

Thx Scali. A PII-333 at 233 is much better then a P1-233, but in terms of performance, the P2-233 with the PCX2 is bad, not stable frames, overall low framerates.

Something I have been dying to know for a while... that 6Mhz difference between PCX1 & PCX2... is it noticable?

[EDIT:] Oh dear, just read there is quite difference in the performance between say Apocalypse 3D and 3Dx. More than clock speeds? Is this the same for all PCX1 vs PCX2?

I can confirm that the the Matrox M3D works pretty well with the fastest Pentium 3 there is, the tualatin S which was modified to work with the Asus CUBX and works like a charm on the BX mainboard. I cant comment much on any apocalypse or the difference between SGL1 and 2 as the apocalypse is a VERY rare card and I never came across one. Here is my general advice !! Use a BX chipset motherboard, use a lower clocked Pentium 2 or 3 doesnt matter and use a good graphics card in tandem, personally I use the Nvidia 5900XT and it does work well with the M3D, I even use the DVI out on that card to record gameplay to my avermedia capturecard. All my resident evil videos were done on the setup from my signature. Cheers !