I need a new video card

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mbmulkey
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I need a new video card

Post by mbmulkey »

my son recently became interested in the old epox mvp3c2 K6-2 system I had lying around so I decided to beef it up. I added a k6-III+ @ 600 and now want to replace the voodoo3 3000 with something with more punch. I tried a leadtek gf2mx200 but it caused the post to go into a loop. the mobo bios is current and the gf2 drivers i downloaded from the leadtek site. i put the card in a epox 8kta3 system so i don't suspect the card. <br><br>I still need a new video card and i would like it to be a gf2. Does anyone have one on an eopx mvp3 system? In searching for answers, i came across a post suggesting the two are not compatable. Any comments on that. How about a radeon.<br><br>Thanks<br><br>epox mvp3c2<br>k6-III+@600<br>voodoo3 3000<br>ibm 20g gpx<br>generic cdrom<br>zip 100<br> <p></p><i></i>
georgep1
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Re: I need a new video card

Post by georgep1 »

I'm sure there are hundreds, more likely thousands, of GF2 MX's on MVP3 mobos. They appear to be the least likely of the GF's to cause problems with SS7 motherboards.<br><br>That being said, older SS7 mobos, even good ones, can be finicky with AGP 2.0 specced video cards. Did you try to clear the CMOS? Sometimes BIOS settings that work with one combination of hardware, won't work with another. Also, just for information, what is the power supply you are using? <p></p><i></i>
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mbmulkey
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Re: I need a new video card

Post by mbmulkey »

no, i didn't clear the cmos. i'm not sure just how to do that or even what it is. i had just flashed the bios with the latest version so that i could use the k6-III+. as for the power supply, it's a generic off the shelf el cheepo this'l get you by unit purchased when the original went bad. I gather that's not good. <p></p><i></i>
georgep1
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Re: I need a new video card

Post by georgep1 »

The manual for the C2 should show a jumper position for "normal" or regular operation, and one for clearing the CMOS (BIOS). While the system is unplugged, usually you just have to change the jumper position to the clear position for a half minute or so, then put it back on the normal position and boot up. At that point, you'll want to get into the BIOS as it's booting up by hitting the del key at the post screen. You'll need to Load Setup Defaults, and reset the correct date/time at that point. Then Save and Exit Setup and you have relatively clean BIOS settings. Descriptions of the BIOS settings should be in the mobo manual. Also, better description of some of the BIOS settings can be found at:<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.lostcircuits.com/advice/bios ... <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>and<br><br><!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.rojakpot.com/Speed_Demonz/BI ... <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--><br><br>As for the power supply, I'm not implying it is bad. I just wondered what the wattage was 200W, 235W, 250W, 300W, etc. It's possible if it is a weak power supply, the addition of a GF2 MX may be too much for it. But that seems unlikely since the MX draws very little power. <p></p><i></i>
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jsc1973
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Re: I need a new video card

Post by jsc1973 »

I can't figure that one out; I've never heard of an MX that wouldn't work on a Super-7 board.<br><br>But I can tell you right now that an MX200 isn't going to give you any more real-world video performance than a V3 unless you overclock the MX200 to well over 200 MHz. The 200 is pretty badly bottlenecked and barely beats a TNT2 at stock speed. <p></p><i></i>
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mbmulkey
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Re: I need a new video card

Post by mbmulkey »

Well the card is happily sitting in my wifes computer replacing a voodoo 3 2000. The 3dmark 2000 score increased 25 percent. Not much but better than what it was, and the machine only gets used for games when my daughter comes home from college.<br><br>But back to my sons computer, and thank you all for your input. I did leave out one critical piece of information(sorry). The computer did boot before I loaded the leadtek drivers when it came up in vga mode. It was only after i rebooted after the drivers were loaded that the post went into a loop. I used the same drivers on my wifes machine, which came from Leadteks website.(I couldn't get the drivers that came with the card to install at all...something about the card not being a leadtek card or wrong gpu)<br><br>About the gf2mx200. I didn't want more card than the k6-III+ could use. So where is the magic break??? And how about the radeon card?<br><br>Thanks again<br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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Re: I need a new video card

Post by Super_Relay »

a k63+ can use all the way up to a geforce 3 (georgep got a 3dmark 2k1 score of 2800 with a k63+ and a gf3) an mx400 will offer good performance or a gf2 gts. radeon cards are not quite as fast but have better image quality than a geforce card, many people have used them with a socket 7 system.<br><br>also if you get lockups in direct3d mode you might try forceing the card to use agp1x if it is at agp2x, this will likely stop any instablility <p>K63+@575<br>192Mb Ram<br>GeForce 2 MX @ 200/200<br>32x8x4 CDRW<br>Custom Modded Chrome Orb<br><embed src=http://lordzebu.homestead.com/files/bondsig.swf quality=high WIDTH=300 HEIGHT=100 ></p><i></i>
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jonwest 01
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Re: I need a new video card

Post by jonwest 01 »

About the Radeons, I have a Radeon 32 DDR running on an MVP3 based MB and it been pretty good. There was some trouble with the ATI drivers conflicting with the VIA GART drivers but once you get past this the card works OK. Unfornately it doesn't seem like ATI drivers enable AGP texturing under Win9x though for SS7 MBs so you lose one of the biggest features of having an AGP card if you gfo with the Radeon at this point. All us Radeon people are hoping that ATI will fix this though..... <p></p><i></i>
allans2k
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Consider a Radeon LE

Post by allans2k »

I'd at least think about a Radeon LE. They are cheap and are not as likely to cause problems like an NVIDIA card. At $71 plus $6 s&h from <!--EZCODE LINK START--><a href="http://www.newegg.com">www.newegg.com</a><!--EZCODE LINK END-->, it's harder to think of a better price to performance ratio out there? <p></p><i></i>
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mbmulkey
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Re: I need a new video card

Post by mbmulkey »

First of all let me thank all who took took the time to respond to my problem...I have a resolution.<br><br>After hearing not only what this group had to offer, but also an EPOX group as well, I decided to pull the gf2mx card out of the other computer and try my luck again. This time, I did two things differently. <br><br>I reloaded the VIA 4 in 1 drives WITHOUT selecting the TURBO mode, and <br><br>after I loaded the gf2 drivers, and rebooted the computer, as the computer went into its post, I pressed the DEL key to enter the setup, set the bios to its default configuration, saved the changes and allowed it to post again. <br><br>This time I was able to boot up.<br><br>Celebration time??? No not exactly. The mx200 is a dog! I ran 3dmark 2000 and posted a score of a little over 1100. With the voodoo3 3000, I was over 1600.<br><br>Interestingly enough, the other computer, with an epox 8kta3 kt133a motherboard fsb at 133, and a duron 700, posted lower scores with the voodoo card than it did with the gf2mx card. Just the opposite!<br><br>Not only that, the image quality of the voodo seemed alot better. (subjective observation not intended to solicit a debate)<br><br>So after all that, the voodoo card is back in its trusty ep_mvp3c2 board with the k6-III+ and the gf2 is back with the duron.<br><br>Thanks again to all who participated<br><br>Michael <p></p><i></i>
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jsc1973
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Re: I need a new video card

Post by jsc1973 »

You should get much better 3DMark 2K scores than that on an MX200. I was getting 2200-plus easily on mine, and close to 2000 on a Voodoo 3 when I had one of those (over 2000 when running the V3 at 200 MHz).<br><br>It's the same chipset and my K6-III is only going 550, so I don't get it.<br><br>Here's my scores:<br><br>With Voodoo 3 3000 166/166: 1850<br>With Voodoo 3 3000 202/202: 2088<br>With Voodoo 5 179/179: 2230<br>With MX200 166/166: 2019<br>With MX200 200/220: 2289<br>With Evil Kyro 120/120: 1979<br><br>As far as image quality goes, the Kyro and the Voodoo 5 were the best, as might be expected. Nvidia may make the fastest gaming cards, but their 2D images stink. <p></p><i></i>
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georgep1
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Re: I need a new video card

Post by georgep1 »

mbmulkey,<br><br>Since your instability problems are solved, now it's time to solve the performance problem (to the extent that you can with an MX 200).<br><br>Me thinks you fell into the bad detonator driver trap. All detonators between 6.27 and 7.56 SUCKED in D3D on MVP3 motherboards. Try nvidia leaked driver 7.97 from www.3dchipset.com (or some other detonator database site). It should double your performance, or more. We sometimes forget that newcomers to the nvidia card scene may not know about this problem, and that many cards shipped with drivers in that bad range.<br><br>Since you stated that AGP 1X solved the instability problem, I am assuming it is an AGP card. If by some unbelievable chance you're talking about a PCI card, use the 12.xx drivers for good performance. Anything under 10.xx sucks in hardware T&L games/benchmarks. <p></p><i>Edited by: <A HREF=http://pub70.ezboard.com/ugeorgep1.show ... eorgep1</A> at: 8/17/01 6:42:15 pm<br></i>
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mbmulkey
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Re: I need a new video card

Post by mbmulkey »

Ok, I'm at it again.<br>gf2mx is back in the mvp3c2 machine.<br><br>I downloaded the beta drivers from 3dchipset and tried running 3dmark 2000. By the way, I run the benchmark at 640x480x16. I get past the helicopter test just fine. However when I go into the adventure game, the screen breaks up badly. I can't even tell what's going on. I had the performance set to best picture and all setting at default. Next I tried the non-beta drivers. I selected nvidia as the the manufacturer since leadtek isn't on the list given. Again I get the same results and again I set the performance to best picture, and all other settings at default.<br><br><br>Thoughts anyone?<br><br><br> <p></p><i></i>
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jsc1973
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Re: I need a new video card

Post by jsc1973 »

It's always been my opinion that the best use of a video card on an SS7 motherboard is to buy one with 64 megs of RAM onboard and just disable AGP texturing anyway. When I had a Voodoo 5, it of course did just fine without it, and the Kyro automatically shuts down AGP texturing in hardware when it detects 64 megs.<br><br>This is just one of the myths that Nvidia managed to spread into the world when they were going up against 3dfx, which never supported AGP texturing in any of its products. <p></p><i></i>
FIC VA-503+, Rev. 1.2, AMD K6-III+ 450@550MHz, 80GB Seagate ATA-100, 3dfx Voodoo3 3500 TV, TB Montego II Quadzilla, Win98se, 384MB PC100

Compaq Presario 1273, AMD K6-III+ 450@400MHz 1.8v, 40GB Samsung 5400RPM, extremely hacked Win98SE, 288 (yes, 288!) MB RAM
(Also an AMD FX-8350, which does the heavy lifting these days...)
allans2k
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So, what was the final resolution, mbmulkey?

Post by allans2k »

So, where did you finally end up with this issue? Let us know. <p></p><i></i>
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