Voodoo2 SLI help

[rei]

Help!
I have a Matrox Marvel G200TV and two Diamond Monster 3D II 12 MB cards in SLI.

After days of problems and playing around with card, slot order etc., I finally got it to work in SLI mode, with the latest Diamond drivers, since the the latest 3dfx reference drivers didn't have a checkbox place to select 'don't sync buffer to monitor refresh'. Even though my monitor is capable of 60-75-85Hz at 1024x768 and below, I got black screens if I tried running Quake II or a Glide game at any resolution above 640x480.

I've been able to get 80-130 fps in Quake II at 640x480 and 800x600 (indicating SLI performance is now working) but 1024x768 still eludes me.

Sometimes it works, but only for a minute or two or a few seconds, and then the screen hangs. And sometimes, playing around with drivers, and MiniGLs, it seems that in Quake II, (v3.20) sometimes only one card seems to be firing up as the screen is interlaced (only every other line is drawn) at 800x600 and 1024x768 in some instances.

I say the 'screen hangs' because it seems to be still running--sometimes a CTL-F9 can get me out of it back into Windows where I then have to forcefully close the game through task manager.

My ultimate goal is to get this thing working so I can play FreeSpace2 at 1024x768.

addendum:

since the reference drivers don't have a checkbox for 'don't sync to
monitor' i'm going to try them next, on a clean reinstall with powerstrip
and use that program's 3dfx control applet capabilities.

also, the monster 3d IIs run at 92 or 93 mhz by default, but after a 1024x768 'crash', i find that the slider is at 95 mhz. odd.

[cancer]

A couple questions rei, what are your system specs, are you o/cing anything and have you been to any 3dfx forums to ask this question?Cheers.

------------------
Aopen HX08 full tower case, Asus P3V4X bios 1.04beta, P!!! FC-PGA 550e @759, 256M PC133 Crucial 7E SDRAM, Matrox G400MAX bios 1.4 PDesk 5.52.015, Seagate 28.5G Ultra ATA66 7200rpm HD, Pioneer 103s DVD 6X/32X drive, SB AWE64 Gold ISA sound card, SMC pci ethernet adaptor, Castlewood Orb 2.2G media drive, Nortel 100 cable modem, Mitsubishi 1995 19in monitor, occasionally use dualhead for dvd on a Sony 80cm Wega TV, MS natural keyboard, MS Intellimouse Explorer,
Win98SE 4.10.2222A, DX7a.

[rei]

3dfx forums, no help, they're uh, morons

murc is full of nice knowledgeable folks.

celeron 366, 66 mhz fsb, no o/c.

17" adi 5p monitor, marvelg200tv 16sdram, 2xmonster3d2s 12 mb, abit bm6, 192mb pc100 sdram. promise ultra66 controller.

pulled out my 1 isa nic, 1 pci nic, aureal vortex2 superquad sq2500 in order to troubleshoot.

[Maggi]

Hei rei,

maybe the fact that you're running a Marvel makes it a little harder, but there have been many discussions about 3dfx & Matrox combos in here.

I'll check the search option that this forum offers ...

Cheers,
Maggi

[rei]

yep, i'm pretty thorough, plumbed the forums last night for wisdom

[Maggi]

... # 1...

[Maggi]

... # 2...

...

btw, make sure to set the VGA Boot Sequence to AGP/PCI in order to determine your G200 to be the primary display adapter.

CHeers,
Maggi

[rei]

thanks maggi. i did things by the book and i know what i -should- be getting. but i'm not.

pristine perfect reinstalls. using driveimage image files. every possible combination. ripped out network, sound cards, as well. oh well...i'll tackle it some more before i decide to give up.

[rei]

thanks, i figured that out just yesterday and got sli working now all i have left is that danged 1024 problem. (ie, it works for a few seconds, then screen freezes, or i get black screen, that i can usually CTL-F9 out of etc)

thanks for the stab (at helping)

[This message has been edited by rei (edited 09 May 2000).]

[Maggi]

hmmm ... weird

did you already update all BIOSes & drivers ?
(MoBo, G200, Voodoo, BX chipset)

latest drivers for Voodoo 2 v2-w9x-dx7-3.02.02

latest drivers for G200PD 5.52

You could also give those WickedGL drivers a shot.

I heard that those were pretty compatible in general and would also give some extra options.

WickedGL features:
[*]Up to 2 times performance improvement in Quake3! [*]Improved visual quality [*]Extra acceleration for high resolution high quality modes in Quake3

Sounds cool, eh ?



Have fun !
Maggi

PS: I noticed your answer while typing this reply and gathering the links, so feel welcomed to ask again for assistance in case you need help ...

[rei]

using 5.41 for marvelg200 (since they don't recommend using 5.5x) and all the bioses are updated (hmm another abit bios just came out yesterday though)

so i'll give it one last shot with gusto.

[SCompRacer]

If I remember right, to get those killer frame rates at 1024x768, your monitor would have to support 120Hz refresh rates and you have to set that in the Monster control panel. Otherwise the screen goes black and no joy.

My monitor was rated for it but would not do it. I ended up getting a different monitor to get it to work.
-------------------------------------------
SCompRacer, one who left a Diamond Fire GL 1000 Pro and dual 12MB Monster II's in SLI for a G400 a long time ago...

[This message has been edited by SCompRacer (edited 09 May 2000).]

[rei]

eh? 1024x768 would be able to manage 40-60 fps, all i want is to be able to achieve that resolution (freespace2). i know framerate won't be 100+.

my monitor supports 60-75-85, so i should be able to get at tops 60 fps at least, which would leave me happy anyways.

unfortunately all i get is a black screen, or like i said, a few seconds of playing or, a few seconds of what seems like not-completely-SLI, interlaced display before the screen locks up.

setting the glide/direct3d/both refresh sliders doesn't seem to help. (60-75-85)

[Maggi]

Quake3 Arena timedemo.
Tested on PIII-500 with 2 Wicked3D Voodoo2 boards in SLI configuration.

Drivers:[*]3dfx driver for Voodoo2 version 3.03.00, released on 12/3/99[*]WickedGL drivers, released on 12/16/99[*]Regular version of WickedGL[*]WickedGL with high resolution modes optimization

Timedemo results:
<font size=2><table border>
<tr><td width=10% align=center>Resolution </td><td width=10% align=center>Quality
settings</td><td width=10% align=center>3dfx</td><td width=10% align=center>WickedGL
(1)</td><td width=10% align=center>WickedGL
(2)</td>
<td width=10% align=center>Improvement</td>
</tr><tr>
<td colspan=6 align=center>demo001 </td>
</tr><tr>
<td rowspan=2 align=right> 640x480 </td><td align=center> default </td><td align=right> 47.6 </td><td align=right> * 51.8 </td><td align=right> 50.0 </td><td align=right> +9%</td>
</tr><tr>
<td align=center> maximum </td><td align=right> 28.0 </td><td align=right> * 50.9 </td><td align=right> 49.1 </td><td align=right> +82%</td>
</tr><tr>
<td rowspan=2 align=right> 800x600 </td><td align=center> default </td><td align=right> 42.4 </td><td align=right> * 49.5 </td><td align=right> 48.7 </td><td align=right> +17%</td>
</tr><tr>
<td align=center> maximum </td><td align=right> 26.3 </td><td align=right> * 48.3 </td><td align=right> 47.8 </td><td align=right> +84%</td>
</tr><tr>
<td rowspan=2 align=right> 960x720 </td><td align=center> default </td><td align=right> 34.2 </td><td align=right> 43.1 </td><td align=right> * 44.4 </td><td align=right> +30%</td>
</tr><tr>
<td align=center> maximum </td><td align=right> 23.4 </td><td align=right> 41.8 </td><td align=right> * 43.3 </td><td align=right> +85%</td>
</tr><tr>
<td rowspan=2 align=right> 1024x768 </td><td align=center> default </td><td align=right> 30.6 </td><td align=right> 39.6 </td><td align=right> * 41.4 </td><td align=right> +35%</td>
</tr><tr>
<td align=center> maximum </td><td align=right> 22.0 </td><td align=right> 38.4 </td><td align=right> * 40.3 </td><td align=right> +83%</td>
</tr><tr>
<td colspan=6 align=center> demo002 </td>
</tr><tr>
<td rowspan=2 align=right> 640x480 </td><td align=center> default </td><td align=right> 46.1 </td><td align=right> * 48.0 </td><td align=right> 46.2 </td><td align=right> +4%</td>
</tr><tr>
<td align=center> maximum </td><td align=right> 16.5 </td><td align=right> * 45.0 </td><td align=right> 43.3 </td><td align=right> +173%</td>
</tr><tr>
<td rowspan=2 align=right> 800x600 </td><td align=center> default </td><td align=right> 42.6 </td><td align=right> * 47.3 </td><td align=right> 45.8 </td><td align=right> +11%</td>
</tr><tr>
<td align=center> maximum </td><td align=right> 16.1 </td><td align=right> * 44.1 </td><td align=right> 42.8 </td><td align=right> +174%</td>
</tr><tr>
<td rowspan=2 align=right> 960x720 </td><td align=center> default </td><td align=right> 33.1 </td><td align=right> 43.2 </td><td align=right> * 43.2 </td><td align=right> +31%</td>
</tr><tr>
<td align=center> maximum </td><td align=right> 15.1 </td><td align=right> 39.6 </td><td align=right> * 39.7 </td><td align=right> +163%</td>
</tr><tr>
<td rowspan=2 align=right> 1024x768 </td><td align=center> default </td><td align=right> 31.3 </td><td align=right> 40.1 </td><td align=right> * 40.8 </td><td align=right> +30%</td>
</tr><tr>
<td align=center> maximum </td><td align=right> 14.7 </td><td align=right> 36.8 </td><td align=right> * 37.4 </td><td align=right> +154%</td>
</tr>
</table>


Default quality settings:[*]Default for fresh installation of Quake3 retail version

Maximum quality settings are the same plus:[*]Texture details -> maximum(rightmost slider position)

* - best performance

...

How's that ?



PS: darn, I have no clue about HTML ...

[This message has been edited by Maggi@Home (edited 09 May 2000).]

[rei]

uh...how is that supposed to help me? ^^;