User claims GPU doesn't do 2D

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L00ker

Senior member
Jun 27, 2006
201
0
0
Am I completely wrong?

I have been under the impression (for quite some time) that GPU's handle ALL graphics (i.e. both 2d and 3d)

Please correct me if I am wrong!
 
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CP5670

Diamond Member
Jun 24, 2004
5,660
762
126
Some early cards (mainly the Voodoo 1 and 2) were 3D-only and were designed to work alongside another card for 2D, but nothing from the last six or seven years is like that.
 
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redlinez33

Senior member
Nov 11, 2007
278
0
0
I had a voodoo rush and it has 2D, I knew nothing about any of that stuff back then. $300 for that card, found out that the 3d on it sucked compared to the normal voodoo 1
 
tigersty1e

tigersty1e

Golden Member
Dec 13, 2004
1,963
0
76
Depends how he explained it and in what context.

When cards go into 2d mode the clocks and volts decrease. If someone's been messing with a card, so many things are possible..... not enough volts to handle the clocks.... the clocks don't downclock properly....the card actually overclocks... etc.
 
Modelworks

Modelworks

Lifer
Feb 22, 2007
16,240
7
76
The voodoo cards couldn't do 2d.
When you played games that used the voodoo cards they would switch over the monitor cable from the pass through, so your 2d card wasn't being used at all.

I remember we had to do several tricks to do 2d on the voodoo.
One was to draw a plane and texture map the 2d image onto the plane, using alpha maps for transparency. Even simple things like the score display were done this way.

You could sometimes catch a glitch while playing where the plane the score readout was textured on would be visible for a second.
 
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bozack

Diamond Member
Jan 14, 2000
7,913
12
81
Originally posted by: adairusmc
Originally posted by: chucky2
Riva TNT2 and 2 Voodoo2's in SLI...the memories...
Click to expand...

Fixed for me.
Click to expand...

No Sli for me but same setup, actually mine was an STB Black magic II Voodoo card and the Riva TNT2....
 
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Peter

Elite Member
Oct 15, 1999
9,640
1
0
2D acceleration was the first thing GPUs ever did in a PC - and that dates back to the days of ISA cards and Windows 3.1.

All of them still do it.

The Voodoo chips were an exception, they couldn't do 2D at all, not even w/o acceleration.
 
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L00ker

Senior member
Jun 27, 2006
201
0
0
This pretty much confirms what I thought, I was under the impression that 2d was handled by the video card (under most circumstances which is to say I can't think of any where this wouldn't be the case) in modern systems. Sure I remember when the first generation or 2 of cards for 3d were a 2d card (i.e. like the venerable Matrox Millenium) handled everything except 3d functions which were passed off (via VLB or PCI) to a 3d _only_ card but both are rolled into 1 now. I just have a bad tendancy to second guess myself when I shouldn't and be open to the bossibility that my fundamental understanding was flawed. But thanks to all who replied which confirmed that the guy who was posting that 2d was handled by the CPU was plain wrong...
 
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Creig

Diamond Member
Oct 9, 1999
5,170
13
81
Ironically, we may be seeing the "3D only" video card making a comeback in the future. 2D would be handled by a motherboard IGP. This would reduce overall system power consumption dramatically as right now the video card can only shut down portions of itself during 2D usage. The remainder of the card still sits there sucking juice. By going to a 3D only video card, it could be completely deactivated until 3D functions are called.
 
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