Random 1 - 3dfx Voodoo2 SLI with Windows7 - Part 1

[RetroGamerr1991]

Does the Voodoo 2 run flash videos?

[Folstream]

Can I install a 3dfx Voodoo 2 (Diamond Monster 3D II) 12MB card without using SLI in Windows 7 (64-bit)? If so where can I find working drivers for it?

[NexXxus86]

I doubt it would work on Win7 X64

[myusernamedamnit]

Don't get missleaded by the guy in the video. Aero etc is being rendered by his GeForce FX5200 (Yes, Aero is supported on this card, but it suffers from performance issues with Aero). Voodoo 2 doesn't support DirectX 9 (Which is an requirement for Aero, and it's effects).

[ThundagaFTW]

... Fez? Is that you?!

[OpticalHaze]

does also work just 1 Card? but you have to install them as SLI anyways? I can't get to run 1 Diamond Monster 3D II... what do I have to install further? Glide Drivers? I have in my device manager

3Dfx Voodoo 2 SLI (secondary mismatched)

3Dfx Voodoo 2 SLI (secondary)

is this correct?

[Wesker346]

Мне бы такой антиквариат как Вуду 2...

[OpticalHaze]

hi there, is it possible to install 3dfx card in Windows 7 pcs nowadays?

Id like to re-install my old PCI Diamond Monster II 3d on my actual PC but I don't know if it's possible to obtain drivers for Windows 7 and get the thing going?

greetings

[WomblingFreely]

@2005buickallure - err no, despite the fact that the voodoo 2 isnt even engaging in this video, Aero has the following requirements

A DirectX 9 compatible graphics processor with a Windows Display Driver Model (WDDM) driver, Pixel shader 2.0 in hardware, and a minimum of 128 MB of Video RAM

The Voodoo 2 is barely DX8 capable, does not have a WDDM driver, doesn't even have a pixel shader and certainly does not have 128MB of RAM, Voodoo IIs only came with either 8MB or 12MB.

[ajking2011]

who saw wow on the desktop?

[xBruce88x]

man i wish i had 2 free pci slots on my motherboard... (one it blocked by my 9600gt). I guess one voodoo2 is better than none!

[ColinAndrewLaws]

Dude everyone hes a lier, he says he has 2.8 ghz when in the start up his bios clearly states Pentium 4 2.0 Ghz. Get a good computer god!

[xBruce88x]

@ColinAndrewLaws its good enough for voodoo II

[panties82]

@ColinAndrewLaws

no, its 2.80Ghz! I am no liar! Honest! The video is not that clear, showing 0, instead of 8! lolx! :)

[owocowy89]

@panties82

Probably True:)

[gamewizard]

@ColinAndrewLaws

There's an artifact in the video. It looks like 2.80ghz to me but the bar across the middle of the 8 is distorted. Look close, they are clearly two different numbers. If it was two zeros, they would look exactly alike which they don't. The first number after the decimal point is taller and thinner than the last one which would be consistent with the difference between an 8 and a 0.

[PsiloCybinDreamX]

@gamewizard the best game in my opinion I got my voodoo4 to run ( i would have used the voodoo 5 but it doesnt have the universal AGP bus) was probably elders scrolls morrowind. actually surprisingly the voodoo5 gets maybe about 15% more fps in games, but doubles the voodoo4's texture fill rate. They really kinda screwed up the voodoo5's SLI scalability

[ColinAndrewLaws]

@gamewizard I see yes... You've proved me wrong but you still have a Pentium 4 XD

[gamewizard]

@ColinAndrewLaws

I don't have a Pentium 4. What are you talking about?

[djdano1993]

Can you run Need For Speed 2 or 3 on Windows 7 with 3DFX accelerated mode? :)

[cobrastomas]

can u play games?

[ComandnConquerFreak]

HOLEY CRAP!!! IT CAN RUN AERO?!?!

[modrocuc]

haha This is epic!

[nictherocker]

voodoo cards dont even have fans on them right cause I saw a picture of a card and there was nothing on it just chips and ram, DAMN those things must run hot as hell

[vfgud]

LOL AERO WORKS

[4B5PR1T20R]

@vfgud haha.. nice :D

[gamewizard]

@vfgud

Not with the Voodoos. AERO requires a DX 9 card. Voodoo 2 isn't that recent. The Voodoo 2's were 3d accelerators ONLY. They didn't display the GUI. You need another card for that.

[WackoX1337]

@vfgud

Because it uses the first videocard, not the Voodoo..

[jamesjan]

@vfgud of course Aero works, he have a Geforce FX primary card.

[WomblingFreely]

To Akira1422 - This video doesnt show anything running on the Voodoo 2s, they were always installed alongside another video card for 2D purposes and could not display 2D things like windows themselves. The Win7 desktop you see is running on the normal video card in this PC, when he starts up a game the Voodoo 2s cut the video signal from the main graphics card and take over the 3D. Win7 is not using the Voodoos to display anything other than the 3DFX games, nothing to do with Aero.

[panties82]

He is RIGHT!!! =)

[2005buickallure]

@WomblingFreely You are right. But Areo utilizes direct 3D, meaning the Voodoos would be rendering the desktop.

[2005buickallure]

@WomblingFreely Dude, Areo is Direct3D. Meaning the Voodoo2 would be rendering it.

[dexter2433]

@2005buickallure the voodoo2 will never run with your desktop and that is even when the os is doing Aero and a $25 video card will run anything windows can throw at it with out any problem and a freaking gforce 3 any of them will crush 2 voodoo 2's in sli

running aero is not any show of power hell my kids Acer1 is running Win7 ult with out any problem

[MGazT]

@dexter2433

erm.. i think you are a little confused. the voodoo 2 is not running aero at all, or the desktop... & you are missing the point.

voodoo 2 card/s only work when playing compatible 3d games. and the one thing that a 3dfx card can run that a geforce 3 card can not, is the native 3dfx GLIDE api. if you are using these cards today it is nothing to do with 'POWER' ... its all about still being able to play all your favourite old games as they were meant to be played.

[Akira1422]

Help me understand this. Aero takes DirectX 9 doesn't it? Does the Voodoo2 even DO DX9?

[Kenjineering]

$165 AUD.

That is a pretty good price

[Drachoo1]

voodoo 2 supports the SLI!

[richardbirch2007]

3DFX cards use a completely different method of SLI as they are very old.

[BeastOfSoda]

still based on the same basic concept though: 3dfx was bought out by nvidia, who started implementing SLI technology years later. that's where it came from.

[richardbirch2007]

yes it is but he was talking about the actual mobo needing sli support

[ecchibanzaii]

@llelly16 Hahahaha

You didn't know SLI was first made on Voodoo 2?

Kids...

3DFX SLI = Scan-line Interleave

Nvidia SLI = Scalable Link Interface

Nvidia simply bought the SLI rights from 3DFX when they bought 3DFX.

I still have my 2 Creative Voodoo 2 12MB:D

[Dant2142]

@ecchibanzaii The 3DFX SLI works completely differently from Nvidia SLI or Crossfire.

Scan Line Interleave is basically a bidirectional VGA signal, one card does half the vertical lines and the other the other half in an interleave style.

Scalable Link Interface and CF are more or less PCI-E 1x buses that link 2 or more cards together, how it does the distribution of processing is determined by the drivers and/or software being used.

Either way Scan Line Interleave was more efficient.

[GGigabiteM]

@Dant2142 Scan Line Interleave is anything but efficient. The only thing SLI did was double the fill rate, the geometry throughput was the same because both cards had to render the same scene. This is why the framerate was basically the same from 800x600 on one card to 1024x768 with two cards.

Scalable Link Interface/ Crossfire is vastly more efficient because each card only processes what it needs to complete the work it was given, not the entire scene.

[PsiloCybinDreamX]

@GGigabiteM unfortunately your correct, when i tested my voodoo4 vs my voodoo5 the fill rate and multi fill rate or whatever its called was almost doubled but the fps for the benchmark was like maybe 1 or 2 fps better on the voodoo5. i was expecting double but when I even tested different 3d bechmarks i was sadly dissapointed

[PsiloCybinDreamX]

@GGigabiteM thats a flaw they should have fixed cause the voodoo5 is a sli based board, as in my rage fury maxx with 2 rage 128 gpu's on board with 64 megs stomps the voodoo5 in every aspect

[GGigabiteM]

@PsiloCybinDreamX The Fury MAXX could compete with a Voodoo3 3500, but not a Voodoo5. The AFR setup on the MAXX had its own problems like 3dfx SLi. Both GPUs rendered one entire frame after another, causing problems if one GPU would hang on rendering, causing the other GPU having to wait long periods of time, and severely cripple the overall frame rate.

Another issue was the way both GPUs were placed on the bus wasn't supported by Windows NT, so you're limited to Windows 9x/ME operation only.

[PsiloCybinDreamX]

@GGigabiteM my rage fury maxx is faster than my voodoo5 5500 in every test on 3dmark 2001. trust me i own both of these cards

[spavatch]

@PsiloCybinDreamX - I find it hard to believe. You've inspired me to check that myself. I own a V5 and my friend has a Rage 128 Maxx so I'll try to arrange a test.

[PsiloCybinDreamX]

@spavatch sounds good

[gamewizard]

@PsiloCybinDreamX

I don't see how either of them completes the 3DMark 2001 tests since there are hardware T&L tests in there and neither card has hardware T&L, also 3DMark 2001 is a DX7 benchmark and both of the cards are from the DX6 era.

[PsiloCybinDreamX]

@gamewizard its because if your video card doesnt support Hard ware TnL it will run it in software mode and the transform and lighting has to be calculated by your processor or the gpu in software mode. which destroys FPS. and about the direct x 6 thing with new drivers they support directx 9. even the voodoo2 being the older one out of them supports directx 9 with the latest drivers

[gamewizard]

@PsiloCybinDreamX

How can they possibly work DX9? They don't support the pixel and vertex shaders required of DX9. DX is a hardware specification. If a card doesn't have the hardware, it can't run the games that require that hardware.

[PsiloCybinDreamX]

@gamewizard i never said they can run all the 3dmark tests but it will run the demo all the way thru just fine, but it will support most of the directx9 games. Directx is just an API theirs other stuff like openGL and 3dfx's glide that have nothing to even do with directX. Ive even seen a SLI'd pair of voodoo 2's run f.e.a.r. on modded drivers. I cant explain how this works cause you dont understand emulation but look

youtube com/watch?v=X0NsY7sBoWQ

[PsiloCybinDreamX]

@gamewizard another insane piece of 3dfx hardware is the quantum3d allchemy 8464.the voodoo5 5500 has 2 gpu's chips on it which was insane at the time.But the AAlchemy system has 32 gpu's all running parallel. Id buy one if I had the money. if that supported pixel shaders and tnl that would be one sweet computer

[PsiloCybinDreamX]

@gamewizard i mean its obviously not going to run any good games in directx 9 but it does support it. I couldnt even get my voodoo5 to run the first halo using 3d analyzer.I did manage to get the 3d fury maxx to run it using 3d analyzer but it doesnt support alot of the hardware used to design the game on modern gpu's so it actually looks pretty wierd. and had weird error in the game since it doesnt support certain texture formats.