3DFX Voodoo5 5500 works on PCI-Express !!

[Nightbird]

@ m14radu
What's your mobo ?

[jix-reggio]

Hello.
I wanted to stop the topic for the following reasons:
The topic has served its purpose.
All those interested in this topic may find the information
you need to install a Voodoo5 5500 PCI (PC version) on
a port Pci-express by activating the PCI 66 Mhz mode
on the Voodoo5. The Voodoo4 Pci (PC version) works well too.

Depending on the motherboard and CPU used,
the performance increase of 10% to 50%!
Apart from the aesthetic and the choice of PCI-E bridge 66mhz,
the cards are the same, except that of Voodoo56K,
I know one on Sandy Bridge and mine on Opteron.

So obviously I do not race at 3dmark score with a Core i7
because I keep my setup Asrock + Opteron which allows me
to test Voodoos on PCI-E 16x, PCI-E 1X, Agp 2x, 4x, 8x,
PCI 32 bits slots with a BIOS that allows me finetuning
for FSB, PCI-E frequency, PCI, AGP, voltage, Ram, etc ...

The second reason to stop is the lack of interest
and lack of participation in technical discussions
on the Voodoo5. I am not an expert, but it interested me to understand how to get the best from Voodoo5.

I gave detailed evidence of improved treatment of geometry and increasing global performance.
I know there are real experts of 3dfx, as Sfft, Koolsmoky,
Komponent, Donovan G, Obiwan and others who have made a lot,
but they must be gone.

Third reason, I do not have much time for 3dfx testing.

As our friend Voodoo56K finally provided us complete results
that are interesting, I've changed my mind.
I will come back soon as I have time.

I just make a note in my 'final user' rather than 'power user' language.

The architecture of the V5500,
2 Vsa-100 on a 128 bit bus @ 166 MHz, if I'm not mistaken,
is a very good architecture.
The V5500 PCI / PCI-E greatly benefits of 66mhz mode
for geometry processing and scales well with processor power.
It is limited by its low theoretical and actual fillrate.
To improve it, there's o / c. Maybe the drivers?

[m14radu]

Jix-reggio: thank you very much for your big contribution !

I believe that this thread must go on.

This thread must be open for everybody who is willing to install a 3dfx card in this way, to post questions and problems.

Btw. Please post some picture with your card, the way you build the cooler and some more details.

[jix-reggio]

Pexturbo Back

Pexturbo Molex connector

[jix-reggio]

Some others pictures.
Molex connector

Pci-E on Pci/Pci-X bridge


Some cool music by french artists.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uq0Jq0NsewY

[Glide]

Nice work, jix-reggio .

As m14radu wrote, this one is a great contribution. Your "non-reference" Voodoo5 card is a small victory for all those love the 3dfx hardware and rejoice when it 's up and running on post-3dfx platforms.

Bye bye

[m14radu]

Jix-reggio: please show us more details and fotos about the construction.
the case looks awensome.

great work mate !

[jix-reggio]

Thank you very much for supporting.
Thank you Glide, you're a cool webmaster.

I have not my hardware with me at this moment.
These are better pictures

Face

Dos angle

Profil

Dos

Molex


Pencil drawing explaining how it is built.

Version 2 axial fan.

[jix-reggio]

I just saw that some falconfly's power users had connected their V5500 Agp on Pci or Pci-express mobos via Osckhar AGP 5 adapter (66mhz).
It is very interesting.
I would like to get more info about these V5500 Agp bridged performances. For example 3dmark2001 results to compare Pci and Agp.

------

Edit : Thanks for M14radu, Oschkar and other participants of this topic who helps me.
M14radu, for the unstable pericom adapter, if pin 49 masked, unmask it because it works well without(you use the same adapter than me, if I am not mistaken), then I suggest you to try in order and in the Motherboard bios:
1 / releasing slightly of the Ram in the  integrated cpu controller  (because the lock is very similar to a freeze of ram)
2 / falling clock PCI-E to 95 mhz (but I think your bios will not allow it) so try to set 101 (or 102) mhz.
3 / try with a latency of 64 clocks for Pci bus-mastering.

Question: Does the HDD work a lot at the time of locking in the test Car chase? If this is the case, you should improve disk access.

As an explanation for the 66 mhz instability, I suggest it can may be due to the fast 'back-to-back' Pci transactions used by the V5500 pci to improve the bandwidth, like the Agp V5500 uses the SBA.

[jix-reggio]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ls9Zm_2BJpA


Dieser deutches freund ist ein sockel A meister,
aber der benchmark ist unter Windows 98 getan.

Great bench !
This german friend is a socket A master, but the bench
is performed on Windows 98.

[m14radu]

yes, falling clock PCI-E under 100Mhz was also suggested by Osckhar.
Unfortunately the bios didn"t allow me to go under 100Mhz. I will try to go up to 101, 102 Mhz, to see what is happent.

thanks for the info, i will try the adapter asap

The construction of your voodoo5 is very "original". I like it a lot

Keep up the good work !

[jix-reggio]

Hello,

  a new Voodoo Pexturbo version
with some improvments, will call me maybe
by this month.

Birdy, on a french TV, singing on joy
performing 'Call me maybe'
http://www.mytaratata.com/Pages/VIDEO_page_video.aspx?sig=33a6c5bd10ds
and pain, performing 'The A-Team'
http://www.mytaratata.com/Pages/VIDEO_page_video.aspx?sig=60e03e0b9fbs

[osckhar]

Very good work there jix-reggio!

Waiting news for your new version.

I will post some test using my adapter 66MHz.

ps. For the locks using the riser. I recommend disable all the CPU features.

Regards,
Oscar.

[jix-reggio]

Hello Oschkar,

Yes, your PCI on AGP adapter is very interesting.

I had seen some pictures, waiting for more

and some benches to have an idea of the performances.



Voodoo5 5500 PexTurbo fan :



Edit Hi Oschkar, do you get some pictures and benchs results with the Agp2pci 5 adapter ?

[jix-reggio]

Hello, despite many ideas, crysis, lack of money, lack of time
did'nt let me work on my 3dfx.
Something  is still  'in the pipeline' and will be released in December.

SFFT worked hard this year on drivers and tools,
I wonder if it would make sense to ask him
for an optimized version of Voodoo5 5500 Pci
taking advantage of the "pci-e bridged" Cpu <-> Gpu 66 mhz link ?