Monster + Matrox = problems?

I've been considering buying a Diamond Monster 3d add-on card to my Matrox Millenium II 2d card, but have heard of people having problems with this combo. Neither Diamond nor Matrox will respond to my e-mails, so any help would be appreciated. Thanks Monki24 Monki24's Jeff Gordon Pit Stop www.geocities.com/motorcity/2281

I had nothing but problems getting the Mistique 220 to work with the Monster 3D. Matrox is no help at all I had the same problem. I dumped the Mistique for a Viper v330. The Viper and the Monster3D work great together, if you have the bucks, do the same!

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>I've been considering buying a Diamond Monster 3d add-on card to my Matrox >Millenium II 2d card, but have heard of people having problems with this >combo. Neither Diamond nor Matrox will respond to my e-mails, so any help >would be appreciated. >Thanks >Monki24

Don't know about the Diamond, but I have a Orchid R3D hooked up with a Mill II and have had no problems whatsoever.

I have a millenium with 4Mb.... it works fine with the Monster 3D.... On my system... Dell pp200 32m

same here. i have a matrox millenium 4mb and have heard about problems with the monster. so i got a orchid righteous, it works awesome together. never had a problem. Steve

get a orchid righteous instead of the monster. Steve

I thought the Matrox Millenium II was a 2D/3D card? Why would you need a seperate card?

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>I've been considering buying a Diamond Monster 3d add-on card to my Matrox >Millenium II 2d card, but have heard of people having problems with this >combo. Neither Diamond nor Matrox will respond to my e-mails, so any help >would be appreciated. >Thanks >Monki24 >Monki24's Jeff Gordon Pit Stop >www.geocities.com/motorcity/2281

matrox likes to call their cards 2d/3d cards for some unknown reason. i dont know about the millenium II but i have the millenium (original ) and it says on the box that has 3d support. but it does not, it says it has 3dfx support but all it has is Asymetrix 3df/x which is not 3d support. what it is for is to make 3d logos and titles in windows 95. big deal, not any good for games. their new card looks like it is for 3d graphics in windows for logos and design as well, not for *** i dont beleive. steve

I had the same problems. After attempting to try and get some support I finally brought it back.

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>I thought the Matrox Millenium II was a 2D/3D card? Why would you need a >seperate card? >>I've been considering buying a Diamond Monster 3d add-on card to my Matrox >>Millenium II 2d card, but have heard of people having problems with this >>combo. Neither Diamond nor Matrox will respond to my e-mails, so any help >>would be appreciated. >>Thanks >>Monki24 >>Monki24's Jeff Gordon Pit Stop >>www.geocities.com/motorcity/2281

Don't combine the Matrox with the Diamond Monster 3d! I have the Mystique 4MB and bought the Diamond 3d. I could not get the two to work together. I tried the suggestions I found on the internet (installing an older version of the Matrox drivers, changing the memory allocations, using another pci slot...). I could not get the two to work together, and I had to return the Diamond. I now have the Orchid 3d. I never had a problem since. So IMO, if you have a Matrox, go for the Orchid 3d. Mark.

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> I've been considering buying a Diamond Monster 3d add-on card to my Matrox > Millenium II 2d card, but have heard of people having problems with this > combo. Neither Diamond nor Matrox will respond to my e-mails, so any help > would be appreciated. > Thanks > Monki24 > Monki24's Jeff Gordon Pit Stop > www.geocities.com/motorcity/2281

i totally agree. since you have a matrox, go for the orchid righteous. its the same setup i have and it works awesome. never had a problem with either of them. Steve

I have Mystique and a Monster 3D...both work fine together on my system..a P133. I did, however, update my mystique drivers. >i totally agree. since you have a matrox, go for the orchid righteous. >its the same setup i have and it works awesome. >never had a problem with either of them. >Steve

Does anyone know for sure whether there is a problem with combining the Matrox Millenium (original) card with the Diamond Monster 3D card? I am thinking about adding the 3D F/X card (Monster) to my current card (Millenium 1), but of course would be very interested to know of any problems there may be with this combination. Thanks in advance. Rob.

There is no problem at all, its a myth. Have been using a Matrox Millenium 4meg with Diamond Monster for a year without a single problem. No Driver clashes No Problems period.

> There is no problem at all, its a myth. Have been using a Matrox Millenium > 4meg with Diamond Monster for a year without a single problem. No Driver > clashes No Problems period. The only problem I have had with a 4 MB Millennium (non-II) and Monster3D is a signal degradation when the signal goes through the Monster3D. (The image is not so sharp any longer.) But this is noticeable only if you are using 1600x1200 resolution and highish refresh rates... Lowering the refresh rate helps. Best would be to buy some cheap separate monitor for the 3d card. --tml

Yes, that is one thing i forgot about the Matrox Millenium drivers as well. Though it is a great card that works quite well, they seem to update there drivers quite frequently because of problems and also the most important fix I've noticed is with their BIOS drivers. Very important to update those as well. Steve

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> > There is no problem at all, its a myth. Have been using a Matrox Millenium > > 4meg with Diamond Monster for a year without a single problem. No Driver > > clashes No Problems period. > The only problem I have had with a 4 MB Millennium (non-II) and > Monster3D is a signal degradation when the signal goes through > the Monster3D. (The image is not so sharp any longer.) But this > is noticeable only if you are using 1600x1200 resolution and > highish refresh rates... Lowering the refresh rate helps. Best > would be to buy some cheap separate monitor for the 3d card. > --tml

An easier solution would be to buy an Orchid Righteous 3dfx card :) Steve

I would not call this a problem, as not many people would want to run at 1600 x 1200, I notice no degradation at 1024 x 768 at all, and I am fairly picky as I do a lot of Photo work. As for the Orchid some of us like to run at a clock rate of 57, shame the orchid can't do as well. ;-)

well too bad. I'm also seriously considering a 3D add-on to my good ol' Millenium, and almost bought Monster 3D since pcmag rated it higher. another option is Matrox's own m3D, the same sort of thing, but based on another 3D chip (not Voodoo). So if you go buy m3D, there shouldn't be any problem with your Millenium II :-) It will accelerate all D3D based games, but Monster 3D will also accelerate all voodoo-specific games. This could be a big deal since 3Dfx has such a long title list at their site. Another thing I haven't figured out is what's the difference between Monster 3D and 3Dfx's own Voodoo Graphics? VG's discription is very similiar to that of Monster 3D (a 3D add-on to a 2D card, and won't work without the 2D card, etc). Is the monster just a stripped down version of VG? Like you, I sent questions to Diamond and Matrox. but according to you experience I should not be expecting much. Monster 3D/m3D/Voodoo Graphics users please advice! Thanks, Hansong

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> I've been considering buying a Diamond Monster 3d add-on card to my Matrox > Millenium II 2d card, but have heard of people having problems with this > combo. Neither Diamond nor Matrox will respond to my e-mails, so any help > would be appreciated. > Thanks > Monki24 > Monki24's Jeff Gordon Pit Stop > www.geocities.com/motorcity/2281

There is a reason: Matrox did take the first step to 3D buy incorporating Gouraud shading, double buffering and Z buffering in their chip, which was quite a big deal when Millenium first came out. What it lacks is texture mapping (essential for games). Mystique is supposed to be a game-oriented (instead of CAD-oriented) Millenium, but fell short of today's standards (point-sampled textures etc). I have a Millenium but never got the chance to utilize its 3D except through the Asymetric(?) 3d F/X software, where its performance is pretty impressive. Anyway, normal users can think of Millenium/Millenium II as pure 2D. Actually, the matrox web site has *significantly* changed tones since I bought the Millenium. Then they boast of 3D (I cannot find that page any more, or it will make interesting comparison), now they say "top-notch 2D" (for M2) Hansong

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> matrox likes to call their cards 2d/3d cards for some unknown reason. i > dont know about the millenium II but i have the millenium (original ) > and it says on the box that has 3d support. but it does not, it says it > has 3dfx support but all it has is Asymetrix 3df/x which is not 3d > support. what it is for is to make 3d logos and titles in windows 95. > big deal, not any good for games. > their new card looks like it is for 3d graphics in windows for logos and > design as well, not for *** i dont beleive. > steve

: Another thing I haven't figured out is what's the difference : between Monster 3D and 3Dfx's own Voodoo Graphics? VG's discription : is very similiar to that of Monster 3D (a 3D add-on to a 2D : card, and won't work without the 2D card, etc). Is the monster : just a stripped down version of VG? You misunderstand something. Diamond Monster 3D add-on is a card which uses the Voodoo Graphics chipset from 3Dfx. 3Dfx itself don't produce any card. It makes chips only. There are many cards in the market which uses Voodoo Graphics chipset. Bernard Shum

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> Does anyone know for sure whether there is a problem with combining > the Matrox Millenium (original) card with the Diamond Monster 3D card? > I am thinking about adding the 3D F/X card (Monster) to my current > card (Millenium 1), but of course would be very interested to know of > any problems there may be with this combination. > Thanks in advance. > Rob.

I have a Matrox Millennium and Monster 3D, but I would recommend getting a Canopus Pure 3D as it comes with 2 ADDITIONAL megs of texture memory, which will help games with lots of textures run smoothly. Monster 3D, Righteous 3D and most 3Dfx Voodoo card comes with 2M framebuffer and 2M texture. Pure 3D comes with 2M framebuffer and 4MB texture memory.

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> well too bad. I'm also seriously considering a 3D add-on to my > good ol' Millenium, and almost bought Monster 3D since pcmag > rated it higher. another option is Matrox's own m3D, the same > sort of thing, but based on another 3D chip (not Voodoo). So if > you go buy m3D, there shouldn't be any problem with your Millenium > II :-) It will accelerate all D3D based games, but Monster 3D > will also accelerate all voodoo-specific games. This could be > a big deal since 3Dfx has such a long title list at their site. > Another thing I haven't figured out is what's the difference > between Monster 3D and 3Dfx's own Voodoo Graphics? VG's discription > is very similiar to that of Monster 3D (a 3D add-on to a 2D > card, and won't work without the 2D card, etc). Is the monster > just a stripped down version of VG? > Like you, I sent questions to Diamond and Matrox. but according to > you experience I should not be expecting much. > Monster 3D/m3D/Voodoo Graphics users please advice! > Thanks, > Hansong

3Dfx makes the Voodoo Graphics chipset, Diamond and Orchid make the cards. If you're looking to get a 3D accelerator than I would highly recommend a 3Dfx Voodoo-based accelerator, specifically Canopus 3D. It comes with 2MB of texture memory MORE than my Monster 3D, which I can tell helps when you're playing games with lots of textures like multiplayer Quake and Quake2.