If you want to get a V3 you might to get around to it soon as prices are slowly going up and the resellers are making the problem worse. V3 are great cards with very solid all round performance and they have great dos support on the side.

Wait... a Geforce2 in a PMMX? that's just wrong.

It is true that a V2 and even a V3 can outperform them on a slower CPU like that (since their drivers are a lot smaller and don't implement every new API, for starters 😀 ), but in a CPU bottleneck the GF2 really shines on any game demanding HW T&L...though those particular games would be too demanding on the PMMX anyway. Try benchmarking MDK2 and Q3 on that.

I'll spoil something though - the V3 will get bottlenecked hard also.

nforce4max wrote:

If you want to get a V3 you might to get around to it soon as prices are slowly going up and the resellers are making the problem worse. V3 are great cards with very solid all round performance and they have great dos support on the side.

Yeah! I've been quite little time into this hobby and I've already seen prices rapidly rising up. I'm searching for a V3 2000-3000 AGP card after watching Phil's V3 guide, luckily they are still common and very affordable in my country (Spain). I don't really need much performance, as it will be bottlenecked anyway!

leileilol wrote:

Wait... a Geforce2 in a PMMX? that's just wrong.

It is true that a V2 and even a V3 can outperform them on a slower CPU like that (since their drivers are a lot smaller and don't implement every new API, for starters 😀 ), but in a CPU bottleneck the GF2 really shines on any game demanding HW T&L...though those particular games would be too demanding on the PMMX anyway. Try benchmarking MDK2 and Q3 on that.

I'll spoil something though - the V3 will get bottlenecked hard also.

That's true! But that's what I already had at home, and they are reliable and fast for 0€ (but really overkill, I agree). I was quite happy with the machine's performance (sometimes slow, but it's a Pentium) till I bought the Voodoo2 and experienced an improvement even though tecnically it's a worse card. I wish I had one back then!

And also having a Geforce allowed me to use the DVI output for the monitor and release the VGA for the Voodoo (no passthrough cables, better quality), but as I said I ended up using the Voodoo more than the Geforce for gaming purposes 🤣 . That's the other reason I want to try a Voodoo3, better quality with just one card. Still have to try 😀

EDIT: That's the current setup My Pentium MMX machine (finished!)

Yes, your little machine is pretty cool, mmx_91.

My first PC was also a 166Mhz system. I can't remember if it was a MMX or a simple P166, but it was with Win95. First internet was with a "super-fast" 56k ELSA modem 😉
But after all the years, the whole hardware was lost.. even the old AT cases...

Now, also due to the very interesting video's from Phil 😀 , i have an AMD K6-2 system (170< MHz <500), only with an old original AMD aluminium cooler.
The first cooler you've used was also with copper, right? What was the reason, to take the low profile cooler? The first one should be also fine, or not?

melbar wrote:

Yes, your little machine is pretty cool, mmx_91. […]
Show full quote

Yes, your little machine is pretty cool, mmx_91.

My first PC was also a 166Mhz system. I can't remember if it was a MMX or a simple P166, but it was with Win95. First internet was with a "super-fast" 56k ELSA modem 😉
But after all the years, the whole hardware was lost.. even the old AT cases...

Now, also due to the very interesting video's from Phil 😀 , i have an AMD K6-2 system (170< MHz <500), only with an old original AMD aluminium cooler.
The first cooler you've used was also with copper, right? What was the reason, to take the low profile cooler? The first one should be also fine, or not?

Thank you!

It's a shame tthe amount of hardware that was (and still is) dropped and recycled, even I remember getting rid of my last Socket 7/370 boards around 2009-2010, and now I'm buying them again! I've always been into hardware 'testing', but after going to the university I got rid of many pieces (nothing really 'valuable', they're still in my closet 🤣). Wow! Having 56K that days, you were a lucky guy 😀

As for the cooler, I was using a pretty standard aluminium heatsink (I think from the K6 era, a bit taller than those that came with the Pentiums). The big copper heatsink shown after is the one from my Athlon XP I mentioned before, and was only used to test if the processor was capable of 300Mhz 🤣 (and it was! right now is at 250Mhz with 2.4v, when the stock is 2.8V).

The main reason for swapping it was that it was very close to the HDD, so I couldn't remove it with the cooler mounted. And also, I appreciated that it was ruining the mounting plastic clips on the motherboard (too tigh), so I reinstalled the original one till I found this small copper solution that was in need to be restored (also added a new silent fan, now it's perfect for my needs).

EDIT: It's done! I've just bought a Voodoo3 3000 AGP, let's see how it suits this machine 😀

Yes, with the big cooler, you are really close to the hard disk. This comes only due the, let me say, unhappy top right position on the AT board. I have also one socket7 AT board left, there should be not problems like this.

My aluminium cooler (originally also from a AthlonXP) has also a tight fit, but it has only one mounting holes at each side, instead of 3 which is also normal for socket 370/462 out there, it works...

The only point is the original 60mm x 9mm fan. It is really loud. Actually now it is connected to a Zalman fan control (5V to 11V). But even with 5v it's not silent, so i've bought also like you a further fan.
The only point is, it's bigger and i have to see how i can mount it in a good way.

Never ever put an Nvidia card in the same PC as a 3dfx card. Nvidia was the death of 3dfx...
😉

Dominus wrote:

Never ever put an Nvidia card in the same PC as a 3dfx card. Nvidia was the death of 3dfx...
😉

Where they? 😜
I love both companies and have "lot's" of 3Dfx cards, but 3Dfx was going downhill all by itself. I only wish Nvidia would make some card with a strong reference to the 3DFx brand. I know that we have SLI but that isn't enough!
Comon Nvidia, give us some G-3Dfx Rampage 6000 with native glide support 😁

Yes, 3dfx had problems of their own and would have died anyway. But Nvidia killed 3dfx.

True..... True.... nVidia busted into the office and violently hacked 3DfX with an axe.... 🤣 🤣
(just kidding, dark humour)

Naaaa.
I think other brands just made products that made consumers choose that instead of 3DfX.
In reality. It was the consumers that killed off 3DfX. Though 3DfX were in kind of the same situation as Commodore.
Promised projects were not realised in time and so on. Bad company economy.
I only know of one company that have survived these kind of situation's. Namely Apple.
3DfX, Eagle, Commodore and others have all had a somewhat kind of same end of life.

was there even anything valuable in technology they got from that takeover?

What I meant was, yes 3dfx was going to die, Nvidia was just the one who got to turn off the light (so Nvidia killed 3dfx 😀)

Sorry for derailing the thread. I'm gonna shut up about it now 😀

Dominus wrote:

Sorry for derailing the thread. I'm gonna shut up about it now 😀

Please carry on, don't worry we are here to discuss 😀

I was very young then to remember 3Dfx downfall, but it's curious for me how the 'standard' in early 3D graphics became nothing in a couple of years.

I have a long train trip tomorrow (10h 🤣 ) and I've just downloaded a long interview with 3Dfx founders from Youtube to distract myself a little bit.

I'll tell you how the V3 performs here as soon as I receive it 😀

If that's the same interview i saw a couple of months ago, than that's quite entertaining and somewhat history rich, so enjoy it.
They were the pioneers in 3D graphics for the consumer alright, and when i got around Unreal and Unreal Tournament came out and my jaw dropped when i first played them on a 3DFX video card. So enjoy also your Voodoo 3 video card 😁
Although Unreal is quite harsh on any Pentium MMX despite it's clock. Even on AMD k6-2 the performance isn't great.

mrau wrote:

was there even anything valuable in technology they got from that takeover?

Rumours will know that some went in to later Geforce chip's. I dunno.

On topic.

Have a hard time deciding if V2 is good or bad for you'r setup. It seems like a bit of too highend card for a Pentium1.
Personally, I keep V2 for something like K6-II-500, K6-III-400 or faster. Like a P3 system from around 500 and up.
As an example, I have my V1 installed in my P1-166 system. It is paired with an S3-Virge (325).

brostenen wrote:

mrau wrote:

was there even anything valuable in technology they got from that takeover?

Rumours will know that some went in to later Geforce chip's. I dunno.

Some of their human resources allegedly worked on the FX at least.

I think You are just finding out that Glide based games were superior performance wise over directx for that period of time.
Your cpu is too slow for most dx games of that era to be smooth. Glide had a way of making 25ps appear smooth, something that dx couldn't do, I remember
reading an article about this at some point.
This could have been what Nvidia were interested in, why else would You pay Millions for something unless there was some commercial
advantage to be had down the track.
I remember playing Dirt Track Racing-Sprint cars, it was smooth in Glide but choppy in directx, I think with a Voodoo3 that was.

mrau wrote:

was there even anything valuable in technology they got from that takeover?

I believe there was some useful tech that lived on in later generations of Geforce cards but that likely went away after Geforce 8. Some of the people from 3DFX did work on the FX, GF6, and GF7 era bringing useful things like SLI.