VOGONS


First post, by svfn

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newb question. have some spare hardware lying around, and wondering if i could use these together.

would a faster CPU damage the card? what is the fastest CPU you can use it with besides PIII Tualatin and P4.

CPU: 1.6Ghz 533mhz intel atom 230
https://ark.intel.com/products/35635/Intel-At … GHz-533-MHz-FSB

motherboard only has a PCI slot, but with integrated graphics: https://ark.intel.com/products/42490/Intel-De … -Board-D945GCLF

SS7: K6-2/350 | FIC PA-2013 2.1 | 32MB PC-100 | 3dfx V3 2000 AGP | AWE64 CT4520 | Win98SE
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Reply 1 of 12, by BinaryDemon

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Well I'm curious what exactly you are planning because I see a lot of issues. I don't have any answers but here are my thoughts:

1) The atom 230 is not significantly faster than any of the 1.2ghz+ P3's and would actually lose to many of the highend P4's.
It might be a more interesting test with the newer generation of atom cpu's, but the atom 230 is based on older CPU designs (refreshed, clocked higher, and power optimized) married with a late P4 generation chipset.

2) What are you going to do for sound since you are using the only PCI slot for the Voodoo2? custom dosbox?, XP + vdmsound?, or is this just for benchmarking?

3) I highly doubt the i945 chipsets PCI implementation would damage the Voodoo 2, PCI spec hasn't changed since 2004, but I'd wait to hear from someone whose tested Voodoo2's in modern systems.

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Reply 2 of 12, by svfn

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thanks for the reply. yeah it's just a temporary setup to test/make use of the voodoo 2 card while i find a suitable slot 1 motherboard. for retro gaming, not benchmark.

it has Realtek audio and Windows XP support so i thought maybe it could work, just want to know if i am doing anything wrong to damage the card.

SS7: K6-2/350 | FIC PA-2013 2.1 | 32MB PC-100 | 3dfx V3 2000 AGP | AWE64 CT4520 | Win98SE
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Reply 3 of 12, by The Serpent Rider

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Latest mobo I've tried Voodoo 2 was based on P45 chipset. No problems.

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

Reply 4 of 12, by nforce4max

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You cant damage these cards with paring them with a cpu that is too fast but rather the performance caps out to where it is not worth running them with other hardware that is too fast to be worth it then the issue of 9x support ect on modern hardware.

On a far away planet reading your posts in the year 10,191.

Reply 5 of 12, by bjwil1991

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As long as you use the FastVooDoo2 4.6 drivers, you should be good to go. Did that with my Athlon 64 machine running Windows 98SE and it works without issues (learnt the hard way that the older drivers work with the systems that has the 66MHz FSB.

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Reply 6 of 12, by RaverX

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nforce4max wrote:

You cant damage these cards with paring them with a cpu that is too fast but rather the performance caps out to where it is not worth running them with other hardware that is too fast to be worth it then the issue of 9x support ect on modern hardware.

That's not true, there were quite a few discussions about that. Certain Voodoo2 cards will overheat in modern systems and might fail if they aren't properly cooled.
I had a "noname" V2 back in the days, it ran perfectly on a PII 350, but later I installed on an Athlon 900 and it would freeze in games after just a few minutes. Even with a fan mounted to blow air on the card it wasn't 100% stable, it became stable only after I downclocked it from 90 MHz to 85 MHz.

On the other hand I had Creative and Diamond V2s that ran without problems on the same system (Athlon 900).
I would recommend cooling the V2 (a fan that blows from the side of the card should do the job), no matter in what system you are using it (well, maybe something like PI 200 or bellow will be fine without any cooling).
If you are using it on a fast CPU (PIII 600 or above) watch the temperature, also I strongly recommend downlocking it a bit (85 MHz), the performance loss will be hardly noticeable, but the card will last a lot longer.

Reply 7 of 12, by bjwil1991

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Is there a way to downclock the VooDoo2 card? I have the STB Black Magic VooDoo2 card in my Athlon 64 system and the OEM drivers would cause the system to lock up or restart, until I got the FastVooDoo2 4.6 drivers from PhilsComputerLab's website (thank you, kind sir, for supplying drivers) and it works without issues. I need to put a fan or three with heatsinks on there to prevent the card from malfunctioning.

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Reply 8 of 12, by The Serpent Rider

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Is there a way to downclock the VooDoo2 card?

Voodoo 2 Tweaker, Powerstrip or registry tweaks with your bare hands (like a cool hacker kiddo).

Even with a fan mounted to blow air on the card it wasn't 100% stable, it became stable only after I downclocked it from 90 MHz to 85 MHz.

That is a clear indication that your card dying/malfunctioning and overall power of the system has nothing to do with it.

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

Reply 9 of 12, by RaverX

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The Serpent Rider wrote:

Even with a fan mounted to blow air on the card it wasn't 100% stable, it became stable only after I downclocked it from 90 MHz to 85 MHz.

That is a clear indication that your card dying/malfunctioning and overall power of the system has nothing to do with it.

That's possible, but how do you explain that the same card was perfectly stable on PII 350? Trust me, I played *a lot* with that card, it was my first V2 card. It was installed first on a low socket 7 system (Cyrix 233), it ran flawlessly and very cool (the chips were barely warmer than the ambient temperature).

After a few years I replaced the system with Athlon 900, I kept the Voodoo2, but, to my surprise, it would freeze. I had a PII 350 computer (I bought it very cheaply from the place were I worked), so I decided to test it there. It worked without any problems, it was warm, but i could keep my finger on any chip, I'd say it was around 45C. On Athlon 900 my finger got burns after just 1-2 seconds, I think it was above 70C. And, of course, it crashed.

I did swap the card between systems and played games for hours...

Like I said and like you pointed out, it might have been a broken card, but I think it's weird that it only failed on Athlon. Other people had similar experiences, so... I don't know, faulty cards or not, it's better to be safe than sorry.

Reply 10 of 12, by swaaye

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Faster CPU means higher utilization of the GPU. PII 350 is a bottleneck for a Voodoo2. Higher utilization will result in more heat to some degree. But the thing is your finger and your Voodoo2 chips probably have different definitions of hot. 😀

However, Voodoo 1 and 2 definitely have compatibility problems with Athlon. There is a special set of drivers for Voodoo 2 that improves Athlon compatibility. I've not been able to get a Voodoo1 to work at all.

Reply 11 of 12, by nforce4max

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RaverX wrote:
That's not true, there were quite a few discussions about that. Certain Voodoo2 cards will overheat in modern systems and might […]
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nforce4max wrote:

You cant damage these cards with paring them with a cpu that is too fast but rather the performance caps out to where it is not worth running them with other hardware that is too fast to be worth it then the issue of 9x support ect on modern hardware.

That's not true, there were quite a few discussions about that. Certain Voodoo2 cards will overheat in modern systems and might fail if they aren't properly cooled.
I had a "noname" V2 back in the days, it ran perfectly on a PII 350, but later I installed on an Athlon 900 and it would freeze in games after just a few minutes. Even with a fan mounted to blow air on the card it wasn't 100% stable, it became stable only after I downclocked it from 90 MHz to 85 MHz.

On the other hand I had Creative and Diamond V2s that ran without problems on the same system (Athlon 900).
I would recommend cooling the V2 (a fan that blows from the side of the card should do the job), no matter in what system you are using it (well, maybe something like PI 200 or bellow will be fine without any cooling).
If you are using it on a fast CPU (PIII 600 or above) watch the temperature, also I strongly recommend downlocking it a bit (85 MHz), the performance loss will be hardly noticeable, but the card will last a lot longer.

Actually no because this is an issue with careless users not checking their hardware for cooling issues. I really do not understand how people will just throw in hardware without care like it is legos and be blissful until something dies. I am tired of myths like this that fast procs kill Voodoo cards like really how does one think like that?

On a far away planet reading your posts in the year 10,191.

Reply 12 of 12, by matze79

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i used V2 SLI with Pentium M on Speedster FA4,
the V2 runs very hot 😁

Why not use V2 with a intel atom, i also did it with a VIA C3 in the past.

A long time i used a VIA C3 800 with V2 as main PC.

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