Adding a 3dfx Voodoo card to an "all-in-one" motherboard?

I'm going to do some more research on this tomorrow. (when I'm on the T1 at work <g>), but want to ask here, too. I recently acquired a PC-Chips M748LMRT motherboard with the on-board SIS-620 video chip. I cannot get Win95 OSR2, DirectX 7.0, N3 and this motherboard to make nice together. N3 runs until I'm about 1/2 way down the pit lane and then suddenly I'm staring at just grass and the horizon for a split second and I'm crashed back to the desktop. I also have GPL 1.2 and added the OpenGL patch. It bombs with an exception error when I launch it with the OpenGL driver selected. I dug up an OpenGL->DirectX bridge dll, and it didn't crash, but the thread just went into thumb-twiddle mode until I ended the task. So, I NEED a 3dfx accelerator card! But, I cannot for the life of me tell if the on-board video can be disabled, or, if I got the piggyback accellerator, the on-board can be plumbed through the Voodoo board. I've got _one_ entire PCI slot to play with and I'd be thrilled with ANY 3dfx acceleration at this point. Anybody with anecdotal experience with this type of motherboard and an added Voodoo card, I'd be grateful if you could pass the info on to me. I'll try to track a reply on this NG, but, man, this place is BUSY! <g> A reply to both here and my email acct would be appreciated. I've got GPL dumbed down to "show trees" just to top 15 FPS with a 400e Celeron and 64megs of ram. (I'd turn off the trees, but I'd give up my brakepoint markers for Monza...) All in all it's a pretty unrealistic sim with all the graphic features turned off and damned near impossible to drive with them turned on. Help! Regards, Brett C. Cammack That's Racing! Motorsports Pompano Beach, FL

a voodoo2 as an add-on card has to work (because it is an add-on card ;-). for a voodoo3 as a replacement for your onboard graphics, you have to check your motherboard manual if you can disable the onboard via BIOS or jumpers. Lio

I have the same motherboard, and, after finding that the SiS video sucks, I bought a V2. It was amazing as it runs fine since the very first time, no problems at all. I am running Win98, DX 6.1 and using the latest reference drivers and N3 rocks. Don't try the V3 because I couldn't find a way to disable the on-board video and the V3 is a replacement video board where the V2 is an add-on (2D graphics = SiS, 3D = V2). Nice racing, Brian

I remember having an integrated motherboard a few years ago. There were dip switches on the back of the board which let me turn my graphics off. Alternatively you may want to look in the BIOS there bound to be an option in there somewhere. I would advise you to get a Voodoo3 or above as these boards are integrated 2D/3D so will speed up both your graphics while only taking up one slot. Alternatively buy a real motherboard!

On Thu, 20 Jan 2000 08:22:41 -0200, "Brian Sinclair"

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>I have the same motherboard, and, after finding that the SiS video sucks, I >bought a V2. It was amazing as it runs fine since the very first time, no >problems at all. >I am running Win98, DX 6.1 and using the latest reference drivers and N3 >rocks. Don't try the V3 because I couldn't find a way to disable the >on-board video and the V3 is a replacement video board where the V2 is an >add-on (2D graphics = SiS, 3D = V2).

Thanks for the input! I came to a similar conclusion after visiting the 3dfx website last night and reading up on their Voodoo2 1000 board. All I have to do now is find out who has them locally and how much they cost. Feeling somewhat hopeful with the morning light... <g> Regards, Brett C. Cammack That's Racing! Motorsports Pompano Beach, FL

Although I too have an onboard video "card," I was able to install a V3 easily, despite there being no way to disable the on-board chip via jumpers. Win98 allowed both the onboard and the V3 to be present as part of its "dual monitor" support. So I simply plug the monitor into the V3 socket and it works fine. Worht a try if you can find a place that will let you return the V3 if this doesn't work. Of course, it's Win98 that allows this--not Win95. SO this option may be of no value to you. DK

> On Thu, 20 Jan 2000 08:22:41 -0200, "Brian Sinclair" > >I have the same motherboard, and, after finding that the SiS video sucks, I

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> >bought a V2. It was amazing as it runs fine since the very first time, no > >problems at all. > >I am running Win98, DX 6.1 and using the latest reference drivers and N3 > >rocks. Don't try the V3 because I couldn't find a way to disable the > >on-board video and the V3 is a replacement video board where the V2 is an > >add-on (2D graphics = SiS, 3D = V2). > Thanks for the input! I came to a similar conclusion after visiting > the 3dfx website last night and reading up on their Voodoo2 1000 > board. All I have to do now is find out who has them locally and how > much they cost.

I got one at buy.com for $68.95 including shipping about 3 weeks ago. That's before the $30 rebate. <remove 7of9 for e-mail replies> -- Bill Jones e-mail addresses: (860) 701-1201 WWW: http://pages.cthome.net/billj

Look at http://shopping.altavista.com/merchants.sdc?si=OhIcI&n=0&p=12059669 Brian > On Thu, 20 Jan 2000 08:22:41 -0200, "Brian Sinclair" > >I have the same motherboard, and, after finding that the SiS video sucks, I

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> >bought a V2. It was amazing as it runs fine since the very first time, no > >problems at all. > >I am running Win98, DX 6.1 and using the latest reference drivers and N3 > >rocks. Don't try the V3 because I couldn't find a way to disable the > >on-board video and the V3 is a replacement video board where the V2 is an > >add-on (2D graphics = SiS, 3D = V2). > Thanks for the input! I came to a similar conclusion after visiting > the 3dfx website last night and reading up on their Voodoo2 1000 > board. All I have to do now is find out who has them locally and how > much they cost. > Feeling somewhat hopeful with the morning light... <g> > Regards, > Brett C. Cammack > That's Racing! Motorsports > Pompano Beach, FL

>Thanks for the input! I came to a similar conclusion after visiting >the 3dfx website last night and reading up on their Voodoo2 1000 >board. All I have to do now is find out who has them locally and how >much they cost. Woohoo! CompUSA had 'em in stock and _on sale_ for 79.95. Okay, I read that some of you got better deals, but I got instant gratification!!! <g> (and I still have to mail in the $30.00 rebate, so 50 bucks ain't bad for solving a big problem) Popped that puppy in with no hassles, followed the directions in the little book and WE BE ROCKIN', MOMMA!!! About 30 FPS in GPL with everything turned on except the Arms and the mirror stuff. (cars only). Everything looks fantastic and the realism is awesome. Heck, knocked three seconds off my best lap at Monza in the F1 Lotus without trying. Actually seemed slower than before! Nice to have all the visual cues and be keeping up with what is happening instead of being a tick behind. Thanks to all for your advice! Now, to justify that 17" monitor to the wife before she gets her new living room sofa... <g> Regards, Brett C. Cammack That's Racing! Motorsports Pompano Beach, FL

Hi Brett, I have a P2/333 V2 12mb and get 36fps about 99% of the time by setting my mirrors to refresh every 3 frames and turning other non-essential grahics off. If you want the 3 files for doing this email me (from one of the links in the signature): 1. glide2x.dll - Interfaces with GPL to fix Banshee problem, but gives Voodoo cards a mirror refresh fix. 2. glide.ini - Allows you to control the mirror settings 3. glide2z.dll - Put in your windows directory so you can run the 2.43 version of glide for GPL only. The glide2x.dll was edited to look for a different file, namely, glide2z.dll. Jason.

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> Popped that puppy in with no hassles, followed the directions in the > little book and WE BE ROCKIN', MOMMA!!! About 30 FPS in GPL with > everything turned on except the Arms and the mirror stuff. (cars > only). > Regards, > Brett C. Cammack > That's Racing! Motorsports > Pompano Beach, FL

-- Jason Monds http://members.home.net/gpl.mondsj/gpl - For my combined gas/brake setups http://members.home.net/stuff.mondsj/n3prc - Nascar3 Pro Racing Club (Please remove 'no extra spork' when replying)