Sugestions for VooDoo based projects

[BFG3dfx]

im glad to see people havent given up on these idea's, i have a question though, have any of you ever read about the 2 v3's alienware had running together, they had it working but decided it wanst worth the work since product cycles were every 6 months, ive sent emails to alienware but they dont wanna talk about it, i look for the link again and post it, they had to do a slight hardware mod but rest was software.BFG

[bloodworm]

Yes, I remember it!!!  I do believe it was supposed to be all in software too, I think one of the cards did 1/2 of the screen and the other card did the other half??  the V5 made this obsolete though......

[NitroX infinity]

http://www.falconfly-central.de/cgi-bin/yabb/YaBB.pl?board=general;action=display;num=1112466026

[BFG3dfx]

Ya, BFG3dfx is my gamming name for 5 years now but this is only forum i use it, mostly i go by VDX in the forums.

well bloodworm i havent located that link i wanted to show you on the alienware yet, it was a interview with a alienware hotdog, but he states that they had to do a inhouse hardware mod plus use the software to get the cards to work, the hardware mod sounded minor but what do i know. all the other article ive read about the A/W v3 project only talk about software.i tried to email A/W about the v3's to see if i could get any info and nothing, they pushed me onto there newer version which they dropped when Nvidia came out with there sli setup. now were in the v4/5 forum so the reason i bring this up is, id like to have a daul v3 setup but if you can do 2 v3's it seems it shuld be plenty possible to do the v5 pci's also, wish we had an alienware insider.

[bloodworm]

dudes, check it out!

http://www.g4tv.com/techtvvault/features/76/First_Look_Alienware_ALX_X2.html

http://www1.graphics.tomshardware.com/graphic/20040528/

http://www.gamespot.com/pc/news/news_6098040.html

http://techworthy.com/PCUpgrade/SeptOct2004/Alienware-Doubles-Graphics-Perfomance.htm

http://www.thechannelinsider.com/article2/0,1759,1618228,00.asp

http://www.hardwareaccelerated.com/content/interviews/alienware.php


http://www.targetpc.com/interviews/quantum3d/

and finally this is history as it was.....
http://www.firingsquad.com/print_article.asp?current_section=Hardware&fs_article_id=1503

[BFG3dfx]

wow you posting mad man lol, ok in my post i stated the v3's ALIENWARE had running together lol, let the post begin.

Quietly tucked away inside the massive Eidos booth were three Alienware Area 51 high-end machines. While they didn't get as much attention as the games they were running (ION Storm's much-hyped Daikatana seemed to be attracting a crowd), each of these machines was being powered by dual Voodoo3 2000s, made possible by Wicked3D's Parallel Graphics Configuration (PGC) technology.

Prior to the showing, naysayers were quick to list possible flaws that included visual artifacts, images that weren't synced properly, or even a dividing line cutting across the monitor. That wasn't the case here - in fact, all three machines were running flawlessly, and although there was no benchmarking utility on hand, using the ol eye-balling technique, the manufacturer's claim of a frame rate between 50 and 60fps wouldn't be too far from the truth. And while a single 143MHz-clocked Voodoo3 2000 doesn't stand a chance against the likes of a TNT2, a pair does - especially considering how easily each overclocks to 166MHz. In fact, Alienware (currently the exclusive proprietors of PGC-enhanced video cards) has claimed to attain frame rates above and beyond 70fps while running Quake II at a blinding 1600x1200 resolution.

[BFG3dfx]

another,



Alienware Delivers the World's First Wicked3D PGC-Enabled Gaming System
On May 7, 1999, Wicked3D, a division of Megabyte, Inc., announced that Alienware was going to be the first company to license its Parallel Graphics Configuration (PGC) Technology. This allowed two 3dfx Interactive Voodoo3 2000 PCI cards to be combined in one system and delivered 55 frames per second without overclocking.


so anyways the reason i brought up the v3's BloodWorm was because they didnt use a speacial mobo unlike thses pci-e boards now. also i thought maybe someone had some insight since they were 3dfx cards and they asked 3dfx to help out at first.

somewhere was the article on them doing the hardwasre mod to the cards, ill look for that one.

[BFG3dfx]

the 2 mods i see most important for the v5 is....1) more and or faster ram.....2) 2 pci cards, from my tests 1 pci card by itself loses ground as fsb and cpu speed goes up, maybe 2 would take care of that, it would sure look cool.

here's my modded v5agp waiting for some new ram(please)
http://img286.echo.cx/my.php?image=bfg0573vd.jpg

[Italia 1]

one thing about 2 v5 5500 pci in sli: IS possible !!!!

[BFG3dfx]

well if you know whaqt you are doing and have the right driver i bet it is, but im not that is ever gonna happen. i think we may be better off just trying to do the ram and even that sounds hard. Hank seems to be the only guy with experience with this hardware and im sure hes got a life outside of this.

[NitroX infinity]

Originally posted by Italia 1

one thing about 2 v5 5500 pci in sli: IS possible !!!!

How? You need a bridge chip like on the V5 6000 for 4 VSA-100 chips or more to work together. A V5 5500 doesn't have a bridge chip.

[ps47]

I dont think you would need a bridge chip.the guys from metabyte had two voodoo3 PCI cards in SLI up and running,the cards needed a small hardware mod and special driver but nothing like adding chips.but I dont think someone is able to create such a driver for voodoo5 PCI today..

[bloodworm]

BFG3dfx,
look inside the very LAST url under the "now comes AGP heading, and click on the link there.  the system was called the "stepsister" technology and was coming from METABYTE.  I believe this was the system that alienware was showing off at the E3 expo back in '99.  I remeber a magazine advert from alienware back then touting two 3500's running at 200Mhz each with this system, but then the V5 came out and that was that......

[BFG3dfx]

Yes Bloodworm, you are right, im just saying what is of intrest is not why they stopped but how they did it(cards together). as far as i read the guy who had the skills went over to alienware when alienware bought them out and from what i read they said they did a small mod to cards inhouse, it shows it can be done, id love to get my hands on those v3's, and the program of course.

p.sp can any one get this link to work?http://img286.echo.cx/my.php?image=bfg0573vd.jpg if so rest of story here(and if not i give up on linking these photo's[!] http://www.3dfxzone.it/enboard/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1874

[NitroX infinity]

ps47; you're comparing apples to pears.

The Voodoo 5 5500 boards already have two chips running in SLI.
A Voodoo 3 board only has one chip.