Edit: I said something blatantly wrong here so I'm removing it.

A few questions: where did you source the NexGen PCI w/PF110 and how much did it set you back? If you need to sell it at some point, please contact me privately.

Doesn't the 6200 have higher driver overhead than the GeForce 2 or 4? So even if you got the 6200 working, it wouldn't really be pushed to the max. For older systems, I found a GF4 to be the lastest NVIDIA card to push anything extra out of the system. I also find that older motherboards do not even turn on with a lot of these "newer" cards. Even less driver overhead than a GeForce, would be a 3DFx Voodoo. If you really want to push the graphics to the max on this system, I suggest a Voodoo3 or Voodoo2.

In addition, even if you were to get the 6200 to show signs of life, it is highly probable that 1) the Windows drivers would not work properly, or 2) if the Windows drivers worked, then OpenGL and DirectX are likely not to work properly. I've run into 1) and 2) a lot when running way too modern graphics cards in older PCI systems.

Anyone know how much RAM an nx586 can cache with 256kb L2?

Anonymous Coward wrote:

Anyone know how much RAM an nx586 can cache with 256kb L2?

My guess is the standard direct-mapped amount: 32 MB w/L2 in WB mode, or 64 MB w/L2 in WT mode. thehinac, are you able to test this? CTCM7 will tell you. Try different RAM quantities and rerun CTCM7.

xjas wrote:

IIRC some of the newest Nvidia "PCI" cards actually need the AGP bus to be present to work. I think Phil's Computer Lab even covered this. But I don't remember the specifics...

Never heard that before. Thanks. Maybe 5200 is the highest you can go on a NexGen Pci motherboard.

feipoa wrote:

A few questions: where did you source the NexGen PCI w/PF110 and how much did it set you back? If you need to sell it at some point, please contact me privately.

Doesn't the 6200 have higher driver overhead than the GeForce 2 or 4? So even if you got the 6200 working, it wouldn't really be pushed to the max. For older systems, I found a GF4 to be the lastest NVIDIA card to push anything extra out of the system. I also find that older motherboards do not even turn on with a lot of these "newer" cards. Even less driver overhead than a GeForce, would be a 3DFx Voodoo. If you really want to push the graphics to the max on this system, I suggest a Voodoo3 or Voodoo2.

In addition, even if you were to get the 6200 to show signs of life, it is highly probable that 1) the Windows drivers would not work properly, or 2) if the Windows drivers worked, then OpenGL and DirectX are likely not to work properly. I've run into 1) and 2) a lot when running way too modern graphics cards in older PCI systems.

Got it from a hardware collector. He was selling his business, he had all kinds of hardware. Kind of a mini computer museum. There was a cpu case with all kinds of cpu's in it. He didn't know what it was worth. He said hold on a moment and went in the backroom. I assume to look on ebay. There was like once chip sold in the ebay history at the time and not others listed at the time. He sold it to me for 80 or 85 I think. Dude it took everything in me to keep a poker face. So yeah I got it.

Nah, I'll probably be buried with it.

I got a couple of voodoos. only tried one and it didn't post. old trident cards did. I never tried the others. I'm afraid I don't know much about the driver overhead. Think I need to google and research a bit more now. Thank you! Also didn't know about not being able to use modern graphics and not being able to get directx/opengl working. I'm kind of blindly working through all of this until the comments started coming in. So thanks.

feipoa wrote:

Anonymous Coward wrote:

Anyone know how much RAM an nx586 can cache with 256kb L2?

My guess is the standard direct-mapped amount: 32 MB w/L2 in WB mode, or 64 MB w/L2 in WT mode. thehinac, are you able to test this? CTCM7 will tell you. Try different RAM quantities and rerun CTCM7.

I'll poke at it. Sure. About to good to bed for the night. It's 6am now. to much gaming.

Exactly which Voodoo cards did you try and which cards do you have available to try?

Sounds like you got a decent deal on that NexGen system.

By the way I have new clock ic on order. since the battery is dead I read it causes a lot of problems, like bios, booting, stability. Something about the older boards relying heavily on the quartz and it didn't function correctly from just motherboard power. I remember old sun sparc stations wouldn't even run without a functional battery. So hope to get that sorted soon.

feipoa wrote:

Exactly which Voodoo cards did you try and which cards do you have available to try?

Sounds like you got a decent deal on that NexGen system.

Sorry looks like it's not the voodoo, or is it.....
combo cards of sorts. with a cable. 3 cards not all the same. all with 3dfx chips same length
Diamond 23150109-401 Monster 3D II 3DFX PCI 12MB

That looks like a Voodoo2 card to me. The Voodoo and Voodoo2 can only run 3D, no 2D. When using a Voodoo1/2, you need to use a secondary graphics card which does 2D. You then connect a VGA pass-through cable from the Voodoo2 to the 2D card. That's why there is the extra VGA port. Your monitor connectos to the 2D card through the Voodoo2's pass-through cable (which is just a short lengh VGA cable).

EDIT: many people like to combine a Matrox 2D card, e.g. G200, with the VOodoo2 because of Matrox's crystal clear display quality.

feipoa wrote:

That looks like a Voodoo2 card to me. The Voodoo and Voodoo2 can only run 3D, no 2D. When using a Voodoo1/2, you need to use a secondary graphics card which does 2D. You then connect a VGA pass-through cable from the Voodoo2 to the 2D card. That's why there is the extra VGA port. Your monitor connectos to the 2D card through the Voodoo2's pass-through cable (which is just a short lengh VGA cable).

Ahhhh. Well thanks for the info. I remember these cards. But I was a kid in highschool at the time they came out and poor as dirt. Couldn't afford such things. So never worked with them before.

EDITED: These cards were daisy chained with a ribbon when I found them. One had makeshift heat sinks attached.

feipoa PM'd you all the info you asked for.

So... I got everything working the best it can. However the inevitable is the problem. It needs full Capacitor replacements. 23-24 years old.
But the project is still coming along.
Bought smaller compact flash cards to play with. Just 256MB. I'll probably use little higher later.
So far the Nvidia FX5200 PCI is the best card I can get to post in it.

Basically just working on this in my spare time.

Nice to year that you are making progress. After getting to a certain point in life, one realises that there is no such thing as spare time; there is only how much time you are able to make.

Yeah. So true.
But I have two of these motherboards. So I'm taking the other to work tomorrow. Have a feeling www.mouser.com is going to be burning my credit card again. oh well. Also foresee solder iron burns in my future. heh
Also this spare board has a broken 72pin simm connector. Going to replace it to. Wonder if replacing all of them with gold connectors would make any difference? Hmm probably not enough to matter....?

Consistency looks better to me, but the more you replace, the greater is the risk of damage.

Agreed. One broken, if replacement fails one still broken. 🤣 a beer will fix my pride after that.

IIRC some of the newest Nvidia "PCI" cards actually need the AGP bus to be present to work.

They work fine in systems without any hint of AGP (Core 2 Duo for example). Most likely more modern PCI cards are too power hungry for all those old motherboards, produced at the dawn of PCI standard.