Amptron mobo with Voodoo PCI card is it possible?

[Ilya_S_K]

Hi,
I have Amptron3748LMT mobo, it has build in AGP video card with 3d accelerator. Unfortunately it doesn't support OpenGL. Do u think that if I will buy a Voodoo2 1000 PCI video card it will be compatable with what i have? Basically here is the deal, I looked at mobo's manual and it doesn't say anything about being able to disable the existing build in video card. I was thinking if I install Voodoo card in my PCI slot it should work. But I not sure about that. It might cause some conflicts. What do u think?
Thanks, Iliia.
PS is there any way to make my system support OpenGL?

[Peter M]

Hi!

The latest drivers from SiS do support OpenGL. You'll find that they're somewhat slow though.

Adding a Voodoo works just fine with the SiS 620 chipset. The Voodoo2 is just a 3D add-on, you'll need the onboard VGA for 2D display.

Should you decide to put a 2D/3D combo card into the PCI slot: The onboard VGA doesn't disable. You pick from BIOS whether the onboard or the add-on VGA becomes the primary display; the other one then becomes secondary and can be used in W98 for dual-monitor configurations.

Regards, Peter

[Ilya_S_K]

could you tell me where can I download sis620 drivers from?
Thanks for your feedback.

[This message has been edited by Ilya_S_K (edited 11-18-1999).]

[scotter]

you can always get a secound cheap moniter and run dual moniters lol
the pci will become the main by defalt in win 98 so that will be the one all your games etc etc run in [img]/forum/smile.gif[/img]

[Ilya_S_K]

Well, what do you think is the best PCI card on the market right now. Any sites that have reviews on those type of cards would be appreciated.
Thanks, Ilya.

[Peter M]

Hi guys.

A quick primer on where to get driver files for PC-Chips boards ...
www.sis.com.tw. "620 VGA" driver, "620 IDE" driver for "Xcel 2000". "530" is SiS 530, TXpro-II is SiS 5597/97 VGA and 5513 IDE.
www.cmedia.com.tw. 8738 PCI/8338 PCI sound driver for 8738PCI and 8338PCI chips respectively, and 8330 for "1869+" chip.
www.davicom.com.tw. "9102 PCI 10/100TX" driver for the "PCnet 2019" chip. Some boards have "SiS 900" LAN chips, driver at www.sis.com.tw.
www.pcchips.com.tw. BIOS files. Use the flasher utility from your board support CD-ROM, or AMIFL815.EXE from that site.

Regards, Peter

[Ilya_S_K]

Hey,
I went to www.sis.com and that's what I found out. drivers for Sis530 do support OpenGL, but drivers for sis620 don't. Well, I am thinking sis530 is older then sis620, what would happen if I will install drivers for sis530 on my sis620 platform? May be I should wait a lillte bid for a new driver for sis620 chipset?

[This message has been edited by Ilya_S_K (edited 11-18-1999).]

[Ilya_S_K]

found a card, here is some specs:
3Dfx Voodoo2 1000, PCI 3D Add-on card, 12MB EDO DRAM, 3Dfx Interactive Glide, Microsoft Direct3D, OpenGL, QuickDraw, 3D Rave, Note: 2 of these may be used together in SLI mode

Do you think that'll work?

[Peter M]

Hi again,

530 isn't older than 620 - they are siblings, the 530 having a super-7 CPU interface, where the 620 has P6 bus.

The graphics drivers are on the same release level, and last time I downloaded (was release 1.05, not the current 1.06), OpenGL support was in the 620 drivers as well. You could still try and steal the OpenGL DLL from the 530 drivers if it isn't in the 620.

But the graphics unit identifies differently on the PCI bus, so the drivers aren't interchangeable. Neither are the AGP drivers embedded into the graphics driver distribution.

Regards, Peter

[thunderdan]

The voodoo2 is probably a decent solution for you if you do not need the fastest Or hi-res 3d solution. The v2 only does 2d and your sis will handle the 2d.

I don't think you can do sli with that motherboard, only 1 pci slot right? Maybe you should see if you can find an obsidian board - It's like having 2 voodoo2 cards on one.

[Ilya_S_K]

no, i am a gamer, so i need a good 3d card with a good 3d accelerator. I looked at the prices, there are 2 cards taht i am looking at right now. VoodooIII 2000 and voodooIII 3000. there is 40$ difference between them. do you think it is worth xtra $40. What I mean by that is if I will only gain 2-3% increase in performance by purchasing VoodooIII3000, I don't think it's worth the money. But if we are talking about 8-15% increase I would spend xtra cash for that.
thanks for your feedback.

btw I think my mobo overhits. Here is the deal. When I leave my pc running for about 5-6 hr and then get back to it. It starts crashing on me, one program after another, then explore. So i am ending up restarting that sucker, and same story all over. Well, if I let it to cool off for a while its working just fine. I have C366 @ 550 with peltier installed and a huge heatsink and a fan. Temp of CPU is alright, but what else could it be. I think either my mobo or RAM. It gives me all kinds of memory errors. I even had himem error on a safe mode reboot (which is a ram proble for sure). If you have any knowledge that could help me to determine what is going on, please reply.

thanks ...

[RobRich]

I haven't dealt with a sis chipset in quite awhile, but you should have an option to chaneg ram timings in your cmos setup. Slow it down to 10ns and set you CAS latency to 3. This should resolve most mem probs. It sound like you have enough cooling, so heat really shouldn't be an issue. But just incase, drop by the tweaking section here at sysopt and download rain. If it solves your crash prob, then you do have some heating issues.

As for the video, get the v3 2000. With just the addition of a small fan most will overclock extremely well. I've seen the 2000 series over 180mhz, which places it near the 3500 speed level. The only difference between it and the 3000/3500 is the RAMDAC. The 3000/3500 uses a 350mhz version, while the 2000 runs at 300mhz. The difference is really only noticable at high resolutions (>1024x768).

[pickel]

First, I assume you have Win98 1st or 2nd.
And you have computer to " go to sleep" when you go away from it. Here's the trick.....
When you wake it up , go to Shut down, choose
Restart, hold down the "Shift" key while
clicking on the OK button. Will just restart windows for a new session without full restart. Takes the bugs out ( at least, some of them) Give it a try can't hurt anything , might even help! [img]/forum/smile.gif[/img] good luck

the pickel

Learned this little trick from LEO and KATE
on the SCREENSAVERS ZDTV [img]/forum/biggrin.gif[/img]

[This message has been edited by pickel (edited 11-26-1999).]