Monster 3d, have some questions **revised**

[jonjonsanfru]

first of all, if anyone wants this thing, i'm lookin for a banshee, email ME(jvinder@home.com). i'm putting this monster 3d into a k6-2 system that will really only see the internet, winamp, and possibly some CS. where can i find the best drivers for this card. will it work well with this setup:

k6-2 400
EFA MVP3 mobo
128mg PC100 ram
13 gig WD 5400rpm HD
16-bit sound card
20x cd-rom

what kind of performance 3d-wise should i expect(ie. halflife), will wickedgl offer anything, and what is highest resolution it'll go? i paid $15 bucks for this thing, should i just scrap this thing and go get a better card? if so, what would be a better card for that setup.

any help would be greatly appreciated. thx in advance guys.

 

[cmaMath13]

Dude, I can barely understand what you are saying!

If you are asking about the Monster3D, then it is the original voodoo chipset (Which started this whole 3D acceration biz). However, the voodoo chipset really is NO good anymore. The Monster 3DII had the voodoo2 chipset, it will still work, but is really way past its prime, too. With your setup, I would go with a Voodoo2 card, if possible and any good 2D card.

 

[IronChefMexicoCity]

...reality, and Monster 2 experiences with CounterStrike:

on a machine that I'm using right now because my main machine has Mobo trouble (RMAing it), I've got a Matrox G200 and a Diamond Monster2 Voodoo2 in there.

Keeping in mind that I'm not making any claims that I know a lot (I don't know that much) about these things, You can rest assured that I tried the following with the latest version of DirectX (where applicable), and the latest service packs, drivers, bug fixes for the OS, the game, and the video cards.

The machine is a PPro 233. That's about all I know as it's a loaner and the owner doesn't want me to open it up.

With CounterStrike, I have noticed the following:
* Under Windows 2000 it's not really playable at all due to the speed.
* Under NT4 we're getting there, but the Monster won't function with Direct3D, and I can't get it to run in OpenGL either for some reason (on all OSs). Software rendering with the G200 is almost playable, but skips a bit too often.
* Under 98 (which I don't like particularly), the game is very playable in software rendering at 640x480 through the G200. Under the Monster2 in D3D, the game is much better looking, and faster for 3-5 minutes. then, the game starts to get unbearably choppy and stays that way (verified on several occasions for over 10 minutes). I won't get into reasons why, but this seemed to be the case for all OSs.

Basically, voodoo2 or less is not good for CS, nor is the Matrox G200. though your machine at 400 MHz is a bit faster. TNT2 is fine for CS (I have one, but it's AGP).

For 2D, the Matrox cards are nice. You should be able to get a Millienium 2 for cheap, or a G200 or 400 for relatively cheap. Their 3D is lacking, but their 2D is very good.

 

[IronChefMexicoCity]

oh, and I'm only going to touch lightly on the comment in the first reply of "the original voodoo chipset (Which started this whole 3D acceration biz)." because the way it's used might lead you to believe that that means something about the quality.

Let's not forget about the Diamond Edge 3D (using an nVidia chipset), or the innovative and sadly not more developed Matrox M3D, the 3D card that didn't use passthrough, just the PCI bus with no external connections (powered by the PowerVR chipset). The M3D was a very cool idea.

 

[oldfart]

Dont forget the Rendition Verite V1000!!

 

[BadBrain]

Up until about a month ago when I bought a new comp I had the Monster3D card.

As mentioned its based on the 3dfx voodoo chipset.

One thing you should know is that it is not a video card, its a 3d accelerator. It needs to be connected to a video card to work. I had an ATI X-pression video card to go with the monster3d.

Maximum resolution is 640x480.

When I installed the monster3d in my comp 3.5 years ago it floored me. By todays standards its pretty lacklustre. But I played half-life, Quake2, unreal, system shock2, etc with the card and they looked good.

 

[Dark4ng3l]

My voodoo3 is considered extremely slow by today's standards. I dont think most people would even consider using a voodoo1.