What is this pci MATROX POWER VR???

[girlpower4ever]

no external ports or connectors on the power vr pci card made by matrox.
i think its old technology but just checking if anybody knows about what its used for.

Is it like a physics processor such as an ati fire gl or nvidia quadro???


just let me know if anybody has a clue about it

 

[ViRGE]

It's an early PowerVR powered 3D accelerator for Matrox's 2D video cards. It doesn't have a connector because it's designed to act in concert with said 2D card, transferring data over the PCI bus. Think Voodoo 1, but without the external VGA passthrough.

 

[girlpower4ever]

any possibilities of performance improvement if i just stick the power vr in a computer with a 2d card non matrox and hopefully get 3d acceleration.
it may sound dumb but i have the card without no 2d matrox card.

this might go towards the freebies thread after i figure out what it does.
lol

 

[jkresh]

What computer do you have that doesn't have 3d acceleration and what are you using it for that would require 3d acceleration?

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: girlpower4ever
any possibilities of performance improvement if i just stick the power vr in a computer with a 2d card non matrox and hopefully get 3d acceleration.
it may sound dumb but i have the card without no 2d matrox card.

this might go towards the freebies thread after i figure out what it does.
lol

The card is practically an antique, there won't be any drivers for it, never mind its dismal performance even at its time of introduction(1997).

 

[Aluvus]

Originally posted by: girlpower4ever
Is it like a physics processor such as an ati fire gl or nvidia quadro???

Neither of those are physics processors.

 

[fr]

I had one of these in the mid 90's. Matrox m3D. It was selling for $20 when Voodoo was $200. It worked proportionally with as many games too. It was still an upgrade from my S3 ViRGE for the 2 games that I could play with it though.

 

[girlpower4ever]

thanks for letting me know what the matrox power vr is.
i'll list it up as a freebie on the freebie thread.
thanks guys.

 

[pukemon]

Oh wow I remember the Matrox m3D... I had one of those to go with my Matrox Millennium II PCI (with a whopping 4MB of WRAM, yeah WRAM) back around 1998-1999.

The only game that I remember that actually worked with the PowerVR was the original Unreal, and even so, not too well.

 

[ViRGE]

Originally posted by: fr
I had one of these in the mid 90's. Matrox m3D. It was selling for $20 when Voodoo was $200. It worked proportionally with as many games too. It was still an upgrade from my S3 ViRGE for the 2 games that I could play with it though.

Watch your tongue.

 

[Rubycon]

I remember playing Ultim@te Race Pro with that thing. It was teamed with a Matrox Millennium 4MB WRAM on a Dual Pentium Pro 200.

The card was called the m3D and required no external connection. It was missing 3D features of the Voodoo but it did not mess up the 2D at high resolution/refresh. (running 1600x1200 - 100Hz at the time on a 21" Nanayo CRT.) Holy cow that was 10 years ago! :Q