3dfx Voodoo5 5000 AGPx4 32MB Rev.A0 3700 Obtained

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

About the AGP x4 I know it ain't possible of 5000 and 5500 AGP x4 cards. but is that because 3dfx SLI does not support the AGP x4 feature?

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

BTW thanx for making a great review on the forntpage, I don't know who did that but that was very kind of the one that did do that nice report

only one thing the system only has 1x 512MB not 1GB of ram though an addition of 1x 512MB extra is planned

The card is quite amazing those shots in XP were made in Single chip mode Single chip the card only uses 16MB and the game ran quite well @ 1280 x 1024 rather amazing, but the screenies were made @ 1024 x 768 16 that was much more fluid on the 5000 AGP in Single chip mode, Dual chip didn't work in XP only under 98SE.

[bloodworm]

No , it's the MOTHERBOARDS agp chipsets that will not support a dual video GPU setup.  there was never an AGP chipset that would ever allow this configuration.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

well the motherbord has nothing to do with it, can you then explain why I do have full Dual VSA-100 opperation under Win98SE and not under an NT OS? Somply the 5000 only supports only Native 3dfx WHQL drivers under 98SE for Dual Chip SLI opperation, nonsense about the motherboard theorie .

Only thing about the Motherboard theorie I can think of is the Motherboard compabillity for the card the EPoX EP-8K5A2 failed, I had Black screens in 98SE, 2KPro and XP Pro but the ASUS A7V333-R passed, for Win2K pro & XP Pro 2D was fine but 3D only worked in Single Chip but with 98SE on that board 3D functioned perfectly in Single as Dual chip mode, otherwise FSAA x4 @ 1024 x 768 x16 in Glide wouldn't be possible, you need Dual CHip SLi for that setting at that reso

I have worked more than 110 hours on this and believe me I know how the thing works

[bloodworm]

the AGP chipset running at 2X is still just using the PCI hardware of the slot/chipset on the motherboard.  when you kick it up to 4x, is when you start forcing the AGPness out of the slot.  the AGP slot is a ONE WAY buss, the "dual" or multiple nature of the V5 and V6 had no way of telling the AGP motherboard that it was ready for more data.  at 4x, you're sending data faster than just the leading AND falling edges....... the PCIE slots are another mater alltogether.  they are a two way comunications slot and well suited to multiple GPUs.

essentially, the AGP slot from 4x and up is in a mode that doesn't work with multiple GPUs in an SLI configuration.  too much going on to keep track of between the three processors.

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

since when did a Voodoo5 have 3 processors? lol

Ik now it isn't possible with AGP x4 Gary tought me that eons ago, even that the cards has an AGP x4 connector the card only runs at AGP x2 with 3.3 volt only , it's not even worth the effort to give AGP x4 with 1.5volt a shot, unless you would like to fry the card, these things are common with all AGP x4 Voodoo5 cards.

3dfx Voodoo4 4500 AGP is the only native AGP x4 card from 3dfx and ofcourse the Specter 1000 AGP but that Specter 1000 AGP s ofcourse a prototype but it does have native AGP x4.

the Voodoo5 5000 AGP x4, 5500 AGP x4 and 5500 AGP x4 + DVI all work on AGP x2 and 3,3volt only!

[edmundoab]

great review my bro..
Can't believe i let this card slip me off twice.

but it was great time seeking for it.
At the end of the day, it was all well worth it!

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

Yeah thanx Ed my friend

Yeah it was also well woth gett'n this baby to do what I wanted it to do adn I was happy to show what it could do to the great 3dfx forums also.

The Voodoo5 5000 AGP is indeed amazing just having 2x 16MB per VSA and still running games like Tactical ops & Unreal Tournament @ 1024 x768 x16 in Glide  with FSAA x4 at max settings  and getting avr speeds of 37 frames per sec! that really amazed me to be very honest for a 32 meg Voodoo5 hehe ![)]

[Obi-Wan Kenobi]

Hmm something just came to mind which is the following:

As we all know I succeeded to get SLI working on the 5000 AGP under 98SE right : https://www.3dfxzone.it/news/reader.php?objid=2417  

Though when running under a NT based Operating System, it ran in single chip only, so wouldn't it be possible to examine the 98SE Drivers on how they do work with SLI as where the NT ones don't?

As hereby implementing a path from the 98SE drivers just to get SLI working under NT based Operating Systems as well? Since a 5500 & a 6000 do work in SLI under NT Operating Systems I was just thinking if they do work, so why shouldn't a 5000 right ?

Since these have basically the same type of design as architecture it's just something that stumbled my mind after a few brainstorms I had the past weekend.