Old School Voodoo 3 as third output?

[CTrainBEB]

Would an old Voodoo 3 PCI card work well as a driver for a second monitor? I'm not really sure how much performance matters on second cards and such.

I mean the box says it can run "The most games, the newest games, the hottest games" can i trust it?!

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Voodoo 3 is like 6 years old, so for games 6 years old it can run those just fine. Now I haven't had much fun getting the Voodoo3 to run games in Windows XP, although I have few old games that I'd actually expect the V3 to have a chance at running. But for driving a second monitor it should be able to do that just fine, however I think its rare for today's video cards not to have support for 2 monitors. Are you sure you'd even need an extra video card?

 

[CTrainBEB]

well, i actually have a 9600XT with a dvi and vga output. I am using both already, this is for my third monitor. I figured i would keep it a bit simpler by leaving that out. Well, i guess i'll install it. Now to find a cheap monitor...

 

[BlueWeasel]

I'd think it would work fine for use as a third output.

 

[Goi]

You're not gonna be gaming on your 2nd monitor anyway, and the V3 has extremely fast 2D acceleration for its time, as well as great overall signal quality.

 

[fstime]

Vodoo 3, what a card.

 

[bersl2]

I have one. The output tends to be a little dark, but maybe that was the monitor I used with it.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Anyone have any ideas on how to set this up?

Here's what my dad has (and I'll be talking him through it over the phone):

DFI Ultra-D NF4
1 6600GT with 2 analog CRTs connected and currently running a 2-monitor setup
1 3dfx voodoo 3 in the PCI slot connected to an analog monitor

He can't figure out how to get the third one working.

I told him to d/l Ultramon and he did. But I know absolutely nothing about setting up 3 monitors, so I can't exactly help him.

Anyone have any ideas?

 

[deadseasquirrel]

hijack bump

 

[VirtualLarry]

Do the ancient V3 drivers even properly support multimon? I tried to get a V3 AGP working alongside a Radeon 7500 PCI in an XP SP1 machine, couldn't do it. (I've set up other sucessful multimon rigs before too.) So I don't really know. I tried some 3rd-party V3 drivers too, but in the end, I ended up with instabilities unless I removed one of the cards or disabled it entirely in Device Manager.

 

[mwmorph]

Originally posted by: deadseasquirrel
Anyone have any ideas on how to set this up?

Here's what my dad has (and I'll be talking him through it over the phone):

DFI Ultra-D NF4
1 6600GT with 2 analog CRTs connected and currently running a 2-monitor setup
1 3dfx voodoo 3 in the PCI slot connected to an analog monitor

He can't figure out how to get the third one working.

I told him to d/l Ultramon and he did. But I know absolutely nothing about setting up 3 monitors, so I can't exactly help him.

Anyone have any ideas?

you have enough deskspace for 3 CRTs?

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Originally posted by: mwmorph
you have enough deskspace for 3 CRTs?

it's my old man. and, yes, he does. his plan is to get 4 LCDs eventually and toss out the CRTs. i have no interest at all in a multi-monitor setup. i've got my single 2070SB and thats good enough for me. (plus with SLI, a multi-mon setup is just about useless).

 

[slash196]

Originally posted by: deadseasquirrel


Here's what my dad has (and I'll be talking him through it over the phone):

Good luck to you. First-time build is hard enough in person.

 

[Goi]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Do the ancient V3 drivers even properly support multimon? I tried to get a V3 AGP working alongside a Radeon 7500 PCI in an XP SP1 machine, couldn't do it. (I've set up other sucessful multimon rigs before too.) So I don't really know. I tried some 3rd-party V3 drivers too, but in the end, I ended up with instabilities unless I removed one of the cards or disabled it entirely in Device Manager.

I was running a dual monitor setup when I had the Voodoo3, with an S3 Savage3D or Savage4 PCI card running another monitor. This was under Win98 at the time I believe, but I don't see why it wouldn't be supported in Win XP.

 

[deadseasquirrel]

Originally posted by: slash196

Originally posted by: deadseasquirrel
Here's what my dad has (and I'll be talking him through it over the phone):

Good luck to you. First-time build is hard enough in person.

Naw, I set up his whole rig during the superbowl weeks ago. Just trying to talk him thru setting up 3 monitors over the phone. I didn't think it would be difficult since we already had 2 going on the 6600GT. I had him install the Voodoo in a PCI slot and boot up. He said that XP detected the Voodoo and installed drivers automatically. But that no picture came up on the 3rd CRT.

Originally posted by: Goi
I was running a dual monitor setup when I had the Voodoo3, with an S3 Savage3D or Savage4 PCI card running another monitor. This was under Win98 at the time I believe, but I don't see why it wouldn't be supported in Win XP.

So, what is he doing wrong? Since I can't *see* it, all I have to go by is what he tells me.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Goi
I was running a dual monitor setup when I had the Voodoo3, with an S3 Savage3D or Savage4 PCI card running another monitor. This was under Win98 at the time I believe, but I don't see why it wouldn't be supported in Win XP.

But was the V3 the primary, or secondary display?

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: deadseasquirrel
I had him install the Voodoo in a PCI slot and boot up. He said that XP detected the Voodoo and installed drivers automatically. But that no picture came up on the 3rd CRT.

By default, after Windows' installs the drivers, it doesn't automatically enable it. You have to right-click on the desktop, select "Properties" (to get to Display Properties), and then there should be a number of display shown in the GUI, and a drop-down listbox listing the monitor-card combinations. You need to select the V3, and then check "Allow Windows to use this display" or something like that. Once you do, the screen will flash a few times, and your desktop should be extended onto that display. That is, if you don't have any driver problems.

 

[Goi]

It was the primary. The PCI card was the secondary. You could potentially set it the other way round by going to the BIOS and setting your video display init first to PCI instead of AGP. IIRC, I tried that before too, and it worked, so that isn't an issue, at least not under Win98.