What system do you run your Voodoo 1 with?

[pierrickuk]

Hi,

following my unsuccessful attempts are getting my Voodoo 1's to run on my P3 1440 S, I would like to know the details of some working configs.

Could you please leave them here.

Useful info would be:

CPU: Multiplier, FSB
Motherboard: Brand, Model, Revision, BIOS, Socket (Slocket if used)
RAM: Frequency and Timings
OS: DOS, Windows
3dfx drivers: as detailed as possible


Thank you for your input. This could be useful to many.

[Nightbird]

Hi,
It was a Pentium 233 MMX (fsb 66)

[pierrickuk]

Anybody with a faster CPU managed to get a voodoo1 running in dos and windows?
Slot1 cpu?
Celeron at 66fsb?

What about AMDs like duron & athlon?

[pierrickuk]

Hi there,

Ok, I got my hands on some spare old motherboards and I also found some spare time, and here is my conclusion: get a Diamond Monster 3D (Voodoo1).

More info:
I had the opportunity to try different combinations out of the following hardware:

2 A-Trend helios 3d
    http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/v/3dfx_collectors/3dfx+Collection+by+Xion/Voodoo+Graphics/A-Trend+Helios+3D+Voodoo
     http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/v/3dfx_collectors3dfx+Collection+by+Xion/Voodoo+Graphics/A-Trend+Helios+3D+Voodoo_001/
1 Diamond Monster 3d
1 Matrox Mystique 4meg
1 geforce2 mx-400 64meg
1 voodoo2 12 meg SLI
1 voodoo5 5500pci
1 voodoo5 5500agp

along with the following motherboards/CPU/Memory

ASUS - P4B-E - rev 1.03 / P4 1800@2400 / 512 SDRAM @ 133
Epox - EP-3VCM / Celeron 666@750 / 1024 SDRAM @ 114
Soltek 75drv5 / Athlon XP 1700+(should be 2400+ or similar, not stable at 166 fsb so 133) / 512 DDRAM @ 166

After many attempts, none of the 2 helios 3d worked with any of the dos drivers I found, and I was thorough.

The Diamond Monster 3D however, works like a charm in any of the motherboards listed here.
To play it safe, I've put it on the Epox, along with the geforce2, and with a dedicated CRT. It works great in DOS (Screamer 2 and Screamer Rally, SWIV 3D), in windows 98se + unofficial Service Pack (Turok, NFS2SE, Half life (only tried a couple of minutes), Dethkarz). I cannot put my V5 AGP in there (unless I removed the network card,  as the onboard sound is broken so I put a SB PCI, and the Monster 3D (small motherboard)), so the geforce is not really used (and it's crap anyway). So there you go, one nice config(#1):

Epox - EP-3VCM / Celeron 666@750 / 1024 SDRAM @ 11 / geforce (pas trop) + Monster 3D (Voodoo 1): so far, excellent for DOS and Windows 98SE.

With the leftovers (only 2 boxes and PSUs), I went for the fastest combination. The Athlon XP / Soltek / DDR left the P4@2400 800 points behind in 3dmarks 2001SE. In Supreme Snowboarding, the Athlon XP is about 10 fps faster @ 1280x1024 than the P4 (~60fps). The V2-SLI also runs fine but is actually not so useful, as it's a bitch to get running properly in DOS (even more with the V5 around).

Another config (#2):
Soltek 75drv5 / Athlon XP 1700+ / 512 DDRAM @ 166 + V5 5500 AGP and V2 12 meg SLI


With the P4, the motherboard's AGP is 1.5v, so I used the V5 PCI.
It performed well and was stable. I don't remember putting the Monster 3D along with it or with another graphic card. For another time.

If I hadn't been limited by the boxes, both in number and in size (one is micro ATX and goes with the epox), I would have kept both the Pentium 4 and the Athlon XP, with v5pci + v1 for the pentium, and the current v5agp+v2SLI for the Athlon.

And if I had to take only one, I would probably try a v5AGP + V2 SLI and a V3PCI+ V1 with 2 LCDs for the v3 and v5 and 2 CRTs for the v2sli or a 4 ports KVM. That's only 4 PCI and 1 AGP... Maybe in my next post, maybe not.

Anyway, if you want to buy a voodoo1, get a Diamond Monster3D.

Some numbers:

Config 1 (Cely + V1)

Dethkarz test config

test 1: metro city: 27 fps
test 2: the pole: 30


3dmark2001SE: default settings 1024x768, 32bit, d3d hrdware T&L: 1095 (for the geforce)



Quake 2

Code Select Expand


timedemo
MAP DEMO1.DM2

V1 (640x480): 21.5 fps
geforce (640x480): 59.fps


Config 2 (Athlon + v5 and v2 sli)

Dethkarz test config

test 1: Metro City Long
V2: 52 fps (1024x768@75 Hz)
V2: 114 fps (640x480@60 Hz)


test 2: the pole
V5: 74 fps (1024x768@75 Hz)
V2: 61 fps (1024x768@75 Hz)

[pierrickuk]

Got my hands on a Celeron 1000 (fsb = 100) and a Pentium 3 866 (fsb = 133).
The Diamond Monster 3d refused to display anything with either cpu at their default frequency.
It did work when running the Pentium 3 at 66 and 83 mhz though, so the Voodoo 1 really doesn't like fsb over 100, at least with Intel CPUs.
I will keep the Pentium 3 in that box, then it's just a matter of changing some jumpers from 66 to 133 mhz to get the voodoo1 running. On the plus side, the setup is very stable with the p3 866 and 2x256 mb of pc150 sdram when I set the fsb at 150.



I also got back an old K7VTA3 for my AMD cpus, will do more testing later.