So which software with good performance on a K6-2/K6-III requires more than 128 MB RAM ?
I think thats just a theoretical issue.

Scylla wrote:

As a matter of fact, I remember advice back in the day where Pentium III Tualatins where the thing, that K6-2/III owners should disable L3 (motherboard) cache in order to achieve better results.

People disable the motherboard cache because it sometimes restricts FSB clock. Boosting memory performance with more FSB clock is more effective than the L3 cache.

elianda wrote:

So which software with good performance on a K6-2/K6-III requires more than 128 MB RAM ?
I think thats just a theoretical issue.

Mainly for those who want to run 2k/XP, I suppose.

Having a lot of RAM is useful when operating with disabled swap file.

Wasn't there a cacheable RAM issue with PII CPUs as well?

d1stortion wrote:

Having a lot of RAM is useful when operating with disabled swap file.

Wasn't there a cacheable RAM issue with PII CPUs as well?

IIRC the Klamath PIIs could only cache up to 512MB of memory. Deschutes could handle up to 4GB.

I'm just about to fetch a Riva PCI card for cheap on eBay, I hope it doesn't get into a bidding war 😜

Scylla wrote:

I'm just about to fetch a Riva PCI card for cheap on eBay, I hope it doesn't get into a bidding war 😜

i would rather recommend a geforce2mx. while it may be a bit overkill for the k6-3, it has somewhat more plentiful 3d features than the riva128, and most games can make use of its T&L to reduce cpu load. its also a lot easier to find. a radeon256 may do aswell but its drivers are not as reliable as nvidia.

To me the S3 ViRGE with 4MB would be perfect because of DOS games, if you want more 3D power just add another Voodoo2 in SLI so you can play games troughout 2000 and maybe into some 2001 very confortably . T&L games would be better suited for a better CPU, above GHz barrier.

I've just won a Riva TNT PCI (Elsa Erazor II, an European classic if there's one!) for cheap, no bidding war and no sniper. What a shame I can't always say the same thing.

Of course I'd love to have a GeForce2/4 MX, but my only resource is eBay and these things go expensive as hell or they get the "PCI" part of the description wrong as this guy here:
http://www.ebay.es/itm/GEFORCE-MX-400-64MB-PC … 5#ht_500wt_1300

🤣

By the way, I've never understood how are you expected to attach 2 Voodoo2 cards in SLI. Have you got any clue?

With a SLI bridge, not that different from how it's done on modern cards.

noshutdown wrote:

i got to admit that mvp3 actually has less agp compatibility issues than ali5, at least in win2000.

I find this somehow hard to believe, as I used Chaintech 5AGM2 (MVP3) and it sucked at AGP performance. Totally. I also happily used Asus P5A with no issues whatsoever. But to be honest, I did only use Voodoo graphics in P5A (V3 and V5) so, it may even be true...

...but I still don't believe that anything can have worse AGP performance then mvp3. 😵 How I hated that Chaintech board. 🤣

d1stortion wrote:

Of course you didn't see them because you were only looking for regular P5A's. Here you have the super special awesome best of the best, last of its kind, rarest of the most rarest P5A... in Rev. 1.05!!!!!111 😁

Typical wiredforservice BS and pricing. I should check if my P5A-B is 1.05, I purchased it in May of 1999. I also have a ATX P5A as well, purchased late 1999-early 2000 if I recall. Neither have the onboard sound. I don't recall seeing any for sale at the computer shows at the time. I also generally avoided boards with on-board sound and video at the time to reduce the chance of conflicts with add-on cards.

Give me cheap and reliable Slot 1/Socket 370 hardware any day. 😀 Since I was way too young to know what exact hardware I played games on back in the day I'm free from stupid nostalgia at least in this case. That said, if I could choose another vintage computer besides mine it would be either a Pentium or 486, all authentic.

In relation to the SLI Voodoo2 configuration, I was referring that I don't know what to do with the Medusa cable or if I have to set up something special driver-wise.

I mean, should I connect externally the VGA port of one Voodoo2 to the another Voodoo2 and then to the main 2D card? Is there a manual somewhere for this? I'm currently browsing FalconFly for this, but I'm not finding anything.

Hardware wise just keep the external cables as they are, install the second Voodoo2 in the PCI slot, and connect the two with a SLI cable, that is it, you have now near Voodoo3 performance at 800x600.

V2 SLI stutters more than V3 due to lack of texture memory... this fact needs more recognition 😀

I'm seriously considering then discarding this motherboard, look for an AGP one and install a Voodoo4 4500 instead, or even its sibling the Voodoo3 3000 😁
Far less hassle, and I thought I'd have more performance with the Voodoo2 SLI setup.
I've just purchased an almost new (in its original packaging) LG Flatron 19" CRT display, which supports up to 1600x1200 resolution. Do Voodoo cards support this desktop resolution?

Yes. You could just use Google for such trivial questions as well.

As a matter of fact, I prefer to enjoy the forum. You can refrain from answering altogether if my questions do annoy you.

Oddly enough, with combinations of "3dfx voodoo maximum max resoluton" I did not obtain definite results, only discussions about the maximum resolutions allowed during gameplay based on the framebuffer available. However, using max refresh rate as a search term instead of resoluton, the answer finally came back, for example here:
http://jdc.iwarp.com/GRAPHICS.HTM

If I recall correctly, there was a method to determine the maximum desktop resolution of any card using its framebuffer size, resolution in pixels, framebuffer and taking it account the RAMDAC and was precisely that last bit I didn't know clearly.

If the card has >= 8MB RAM, it almost certainly will do 1600x1200. Whether it will be blurry or sharp is another matter. Not all cards were built to handle that resolution well.

Voodoo3 can run games at 1600x1200 and they typically have a fairly sharp signal I think.