S3 ViRGE SLI setup

[VirtualLarry]

Ok, so I have several PCI S3 Virge cards, and they all have these 26-pin connectors near the top... those must be for that "SLI" thing, right?

I'm trying to at least match the performance of a V3 3000 16MB PCI... I figure all four of these SLI'ed together should offer comparable performance, right?

How do I wire these up? Ideas?

I think I can mod an IDE ribbon cable, and add one more connector to the cable, to make a four-connector 26-pin bus between them, if I ignore the extra wires.

Just think, when I get this working... I'm saving so much money by using four x 4MB PCI S3 cards, over buying one single 16MB Voodoo card. SLI rocks!!!











:evil:

 

[jamesbond007]

Originally posted by: VirtualLarry
Ok, so I have several PCI S3 Virge cards, and they all have these 26-pin connectors near the top... those must be for that "SLI" thing, right?

I'm trying to at least match the performance of a V3 3000 16MB PCI... I figure all four of these SLI'ed together should offer comparable performance, right?

How do I wire these up? Ideas?

I think I can mod an IDE ribbon cable, and add one more connector to the cable, to make a four-connector 26-pin bus between them, if I ignore the extra wires.

Just think, when I get this working... I'm saving so much money by using four x 4MB PCI S3 cards, over buying one single 16MB Voodoo card. SLI rocks!!!











:evil:

Bwahahaha! good luck on that one! I have not heard of doing more than 2 cards at once...if you can split the signal somehow...er, won't you need some kind of special driver?

I'm assuming you're joking, but a damn good one at least.

 

[Goi]

I almost thought you were serious until I saw that devil icon thingy

 

[Budman]

:laugh:

 

[Avalon]

Someone is getting tired of all the SLI posts and threads around here

 

[Peter]

These are "feature connectors", in former times used to get an (ISA) TV card's output onto the graphics card. Nowadays this is done through the PCI bus and "overlay" technology.

Want an ISA framegrabber card to go with that?

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: Avalon
Someone is getting tired of all the SLI posts and threads around here

Unfortunately, or fortunately if you're nV, it's the only new thing to talk about.

ATI: released same feature set three years in a row. Only thing of note is when they doubled the pipelines a year ago, and all the product cancellations since then.

Matrox: Nothing new since Parehelia 4-5 years ago

XGI: nothing new since Volari over a year ago

S3: very low end Delta Chrome offerings, again a year old (?)

Intel: when have we ever discussed on-board?

That pretty much leaves SLI as the only thing worth talking about, there's nothing else that offers a significant performance increase or different way of rendering, unless I've missed something in my little synopsis above?

 

[Avalon]

Originally posted by: Rollo
XGI: nothing new since Volari over a year ago

Their new chipset is set for release Q2 of this year

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Peter
These are "feature connectors", in former times used to get an (ISA) TV card's output onto the graphics card. Nowadays this is done through the PCI bus and "overlay" technology.
Want an ISA framegrabber card to go with that?

Peter, I know. It was a joke. You are correct though. (Of course.)

After I posted that (as a joke), I did get to thinking though... what if that really would be possible, using one of the cards to render to a surface that is format-compatible with what the other card uses for an overlay surface format, and have the "master" card set up to display the overlay over half of the screen or so. Viola! That would be truely frightening if someone (or I, however unlikely) actually got something like that to work. That would be a worthy hack indeed. I don't think that you can connect more than two cards point-to-point over the Vesa VPE connector though. (That should have been the clue right there, in case anyone didn't get the joke.) It might be possible to do it over the PCI bus too, but in terms of bandwidth, I'm not sure how much of a win that would be. It might not take up any more PCI bandwidth than a normal PCI capture to PCI display card solution would be, but writing the overlay surface to the framebuffer on the card, would likely take up a large chunk of video-memory bandwidth away from the GPU. (Well, if you can even call a ViRGE's processor that.) I think the primary problem with the VPE connector is that most display cards are only set up to recieve overlay data over it, and not send it. I'd have to look at some chip docs to be sure. (Don't think I have the Virge docs, S3 was kind enough to send me a complete programming manual for their '868/'968 chipset though, back when I worked at a game company. S3 was a great company.)

PS. Already have some of those ISA capture cards too, so I don't really need any more of them. (Anyone need a PBTV500 ISA, sans IR remote? Still brand-new? )

Edit: Rollo, was the Parhelia really 4-5 years ago? Wow, not much has come out from Matrox since their debut of "Headcasting" has it? I think that their designers must have never returned from their last "trip", after dropping acid and watching too many Max Headroom re-runs. ("Headcasting"! Yeah, that will sell! - hey man, pass the munchies...)

 

[nRollo]

VL:
I guess the Parhelia was only 2.75 years ago, I just remembered it being roughly equivalent to the GF3 Ti200.

I had forgotten it came out in the era of the Ti 4600.

Matrox is probably on track for their next big release in 2010!

 

[Schadenfroh]

lol

 

[jamesbond007]

I don't think it's really fair to bash Matrox, considering the 3D market is not where their product lineup seem to be geared towards. Instead, they concentrate on medical displays and many, many multi-monitor displays; not which graphics card has the most balls.

For what they produce, they're the best in the industry. Bar-none. Yes, they aren't the fastest to release display products, but it's not like hospitals and research facilities that make use of multi-monitor setups are upgrading displays every few months like the avid overclockers and gamers here.

Virtual Larry, yes, if you were to be able to accomplish such a feat using all 3+ cards, that would be amazing in its own right, even if the hardware used is very old.

 

[302efi]

Originally posted by: jamesbond007
I don't think it's really fair to bash Matrox, considering the 3D market is not where their product lineup seem to be geared towards. Instead, they concentrate on medical displays and many, many multi-monitor displays; not which graphics card has the most balls.

For what they produce, they're the best in the industry. Bar-none. Yes, they aren't the fastest to release display products, but it's not like hospitals and research facilities that make use of multi-monitor setups are upgrading displays every few months like the avid overclockers and gamers here.

Well said :thumbsup:

 

[nRollo]

Originally posted by: jamesbond007
I don't think it's really fair to bash Matrox, considering the 3D market is not where their product lineup seem to be geared towards. Instead, they concentrate on medical displays and many, many multi-monitor displays; not which graphics card has the most balls.

For what they produce, they're the best in the industry. Bar-none. Yes, they aren't the fastest to release display products, but it's not like hospitals and research facilities that make use of multi-monitor setups are upgrading displays every few months like the avid overclockers and gamers here.

Virtual Larry, yes, if you were to be able to accomplish such a feat using all 3+ cards, that would be amazing in its own right, even if the hardware used is very old.

Nobody is "bashing" Matrox, I'm just noting their "gaming" cards seem to come out once every 20 years.

I'm sure they'll withstand my ruthless attack on AT.

 

[aka1nas]

If I remember correctly, the S3 Virge doesn't support ANY 3d APIs(no Dx, OpenGl or even Glide). So unless you got a game specifically coded for the card, it ain't going to be doing any 3d no matter how many of them you link together. God how I hated that card.

 

[VirtualLarry]

Originally posted by: Rollo
Nobody is "bashing" Matrox, I'm just noting their "gaming" cards seem to come out once every 20 years.

Well, I definately respect their "skillz" in developing multi-mon cards. They were one of the first, and still one of the best, in terms of high-res 2D quality. Can't knock them for that. They didn't really make much of a splash in the gaming arena though. I think BitBoys got more press buzz about their cards that weren't even made. At least Matrox is willing to see a product through to launch, even if one of the headliner features happens to be "headcasting". (Hmm. To a fly-lure fisherman, that term could have an entirely different and a bit more disturbing meaning. Rollo, ever go fly-fishing with a human head? I shudder to think of what kind of creature one might catch with that.)

Originally posted by: Rollo
I'm sure they'll withstand my ruthless attack on AT.

For some reason, just now, I'm getting a mental picture of Dessloch from Star Blazers here.

Rollo, is your skin blue? (Please say no.)

(Kind of interesting note, Dessloch was the hardcore "technology enthusiast" of the series though, you have to admit that, if you've seen all three seasons of the show. Eventually though, the technological "thermal solution" failed, and in the end, the world was destroyed. Kind of like Intel's CPUs and NV's GPUs, in a way.)

Originally posted by: aka1nas
If I remember correctly, the S3 Virge doesn't support ANY 3d APIs(no Dx, OpenGl or even Glide). So unless you got a game specifically coded for the card, it ain't going to be doing any 3d no matter how many of them you link together. God how I hated that card.

No, they support minimal (DX5?) 3D features. I was playing UT on a Virge/DX 4MB PCI card for a while. Surprisingly, it wasn't that bad. It was about equivalent in frame-rate to the software-renderer, but looked infinitely better, as it wasn't scan-line-interleave rendered, and was slightly filtered on the output. It sure surprised me, I thought Virge cards didn't have an "real" 3D power. Maybe that's what the "/DX" model fixed.

 

[WT]

Excellent post Larry !!! Lemme know how it works out for you ...

I have some parts that might come in handy here


:laugh: