3D Now!

[Matata]

Is there a way to deactivate the usage of 3D Now!???

[Eagle]

I believe you can deactivate them in the Nvidia drivers.

[Reznor007]

I don't know of any way to disable 3d now on the CPU.

Disabling it in the nVidia driver just makes the driver itself not use it.

[Stezo2k]

why would you want to deactivate it?

[Matata]

Too see if I can fix a problem with eVoodoo.

[Matata]

Can you list me the stepsa to deactivate it in the drivers because I can´t find it.

[Eagle]

Can you list me the stepsa to deactivate it in the drivers because I can´t find it.


Well on the newer drivers you can only choose to do it on the OpenGL. Its listed as "Disable support for Enhanced CPU instruction sets". This will however disable more than just 3D Now, it will also disable any other instructions given to the video card by the CPU. For intel it disables MMX capabilities (with relation to the video, other MMX instructions will remain active)

[Matata]

Thanks, I´ll see what happens.

[Stezo2k]

Too see if I can fix a problem with eVoodoo.

i seriously doubt a CPU enhancement would effect compatibility with a emulator etc... else there would be options all over emulators/games =]

[Matata]

crap, I just can´t fix this problem, eVoodoo is slow as hell exept for vrsion 2.5

[Stezo2k]

crap, I just can´t fix this problem, eVoodoo is slow as hell exept for vrsion 2.5

why not use version 2.5 then?

to be honest, your TNT2 is letting your computer down the most when it comes to gaming performence

[Matata]

because 2.5 has a lot of GFX errors ( a lot of things are black and so on)

[Matata]

one of the glide and evoodoo testers told me that the problem was that glide 0.5 didin´t had good compatibility with evoodoo.

[Eagle]

Matata, Stezo is absolutely right. If you really want to improve your gaming experience, Gefore 4 MX cards are not expensive at all. Were talking $30 - $50 US. Believe me its a very good investment if your still using a TNT2.

[Matata]

The problem is I live in Argentina and the computer related stuff it´s pretty expensive here because the money in my country is devaluated but I´ll see if I can spend some money in it, are TNT 2 really that bad???

[NeTo]

Well, not that bad, geographically speaking. Here in South America cards like the GeForce2 MX are still very respected (i'll even consider buying another one soon lol). You should compare prices, and if you can get your hands on a geforce4 mx, it will be a very good buy, (again, geographically speaking :) ).

Here in Chile, at least, Asus cards with geforce4 mx, tv out and 64mb ram have very good prices. I don't if the situation is the same at the other side mountain range.

You could also try with older versions of evoodo and glide64. I think glide64 3.x is has very good compatibility with evoodoo, uhm but i'm not sure....

[Kaoss626]

Cut and pasted from across the web, a TNT2 is _really_ that slow compaired to some of the newer cards out there. It was really good, but it really is a bit slow most modern 3d applicaions.

official specs on the final revision of nVidia’s Riva TNT2 are listed below:

* 125MHz – 150+MHz 128-bit 2D/3D core
* 2nd Generation 128-bit TwiN Texel architecture
* 300 Megapixels per second
* 9 Million Triangles per second peak processing power
* Resolution support up to 2046 x 1536
* PCI/AGP Support – AGP 2X/4X Texturing Support
* 16/32-bit 3D Rendering Support
* 32-bit Z/stencil Buffer
* 300MHz Integrated RAMDAC
* 16/32MB SDRAM
* 2048 x 2048
* Texture Support Optional NTSC/PAL Video Out
* Optional Digital Flat Panel Output
* Direct3D/OpenGL API Support
* OpenGL ICD for Windows 9x, NT 3.5x, NT 4.0, and Windows 2000

Geforce2

* nVidia GeForce-2 MX
* 32MB 128-bit SDRAM
* Integrated 350MHz RAMDAC
* Resolution up to 2048x1536, True Color @ 60Hz
* 175MHz core,166MHz SDRAM clock
* 2 Dual-Texturing Pipelines
* 4 Texels per Clock HyperTexel-Architecture
* 350 MegaPixel, 700-MegaTexel Fill Rate
* 20M Triangles/sec Hardware Transform and Lighting
* 4X AGP with Fast Writes/AGP 2x/1x compatible
* Hardware Acceleration for Microsoft DirectX 7.x, DirectX 8, and OpenGL 1.2 ICD
* DirectX Texture Compression Support
* NTSC/PAL TV-Output with flicker filter
* Digital TwinView Display Architecture for Simultaneous Dual Display

Geforce 4 MX

Specifications of the MX480
• MX440-8X (NV18) chipset
• AGP 8x
• Memory interface 64MB DDR
• Memory bus 128bit
• GPU clock speed 275 MHz
• Memory clock speed 512 MHz
• Memory Bandwidth 8.2 GB/sec
• Fill Rate (texel/sec) 1.1 billion

concentrate mainly on the 300 million texture pixles per second for the tnt2, 700 million for the geforce 2 and 1.1 billion for the geforce 4 MX. Figgure in also the fact that the triangles per second ramp up significantly as well and its easy to see that if you are rendering an image with lots of polygons, things slow down a lot compaired to modern hardware. For N64 emulation I really would be hard pressed to run a GPU slower than a Geforce 2 unless I was willing to live with stutteringly slow frame rates from time to time.

also what things don't say is that the geforce 4 is a 5th generation of the basic archetecture of the tnt while the tnt2 is second generation. if it runs on the tnt or tnt2 it will run way faster on the later cards

[Knuckles]

well, I had a TNT2 ( but a shitty Model64 one) emulators were running ok but evoodoo was slow as hell. Now, I got a GF4MX and everything's better and faster (MX are really better than I expected).And if you want a new card for low prices, you still can look on ebay

[Matata]

The one I have is a Model64 snif :( Seems like I need a new one. I´ll look at mercadolibre.com (Argentina´s eBay) and see if I can find one.

[Eagle]

Let us know how that goes. The reason we mentioned this is in your hardware list, you have a nice processor, plenty of memory and a good hard drive, but your TNT2 is holding you back.

[Matata]

Yep I always wanted to get a new one but it wasn´t necessary so I didin´t get one, plus I´m looking for a card with TV out to watch DivX in the TV.

[Matata]

Aww men I can´t decide if buy the card or not, are you guys completly sure this will fix my speed problem????

[Eagle]

I cant guaruntee it will fix your specific speed problem, but it is likely that it will. Furthermore it will overall improve your system with regards to gaming.

[Matata]

Well seems that the Video Card is gonna have to wait a little because I´m going to buy a Digital Camera first.

[sytaylor]

TNT2's were good 4 years ago, but now they're showing their age

[Matata]

Yeah but I think that insted of buying a new Video Card I´ll save more money and buy a whole new computer and make it myself (so I can save a few bucks).

[Matata]

I was thinking: Can I tweak my TNT2 with RivaTurner to make it better and see if my slowdown problem solves? I´m not sure about this because all the tutorial on the internet are for GeForce or better card (to make the card a Quadro 2 or better).
Is it dangerous to do this? Or my card is too old to tweak it?

[jollyrancher]

There's a program called TNTCLK http://thetechzone.com/downloads/tntclk12.zip that will overclock it.

[Matata]

what´s overcloking?

[RJARRRPCGP]

what´s overcloking?

Overclocking is setting the clock frequency above the factory default setting to get a speed increase.

[Matata]

But isn´t that goingi to broke it? Or overheat it?

[Matata]

Well, I made up my mind: I´m going to buy a GeForce but I´m not sure if I should buy a GeForce 2 or 4. Is there really a big difference?

[sytaylor]

Yes, the Geforce 4 is much faster and fully supports direct x 8 in hardware. (unless you get the geforce 4mx).. see if you can pick up a geforce ti4200, which is for me the entry level card right now

[Matata]

Ok I´ll see if I can get one. Thanks.

[Matata]

Well, it´s decided: I´m going to buy a XFX GeForce 4 MX 440 64MB DDR AGP8X w/TV-Out.
But I don´t know if it´s going to work with my motherboard. How can I know????

I have an AMD Duron 750 Mhz PCChips Systemboard M810 Series V3.0a

[Eagle]

Overclocking is setting the clock frequency above the factory default setting to get a speed increase.

Yes, Some TNT2 Cards were purely designed for overclocking (i.e. Diamond Multimedia's TNT2) , but if you set it to high you can crash your computer and maybe even damage your hardware so be carefull

[jollyrancher]

Well, it´s decided: I´m going to buy a XFX GeForce 4 MX 440 64MB DDR AGP8X w/TV-Out.

Mmmmm... I usually stay out of these video card debates, but I don't think you'll find many people in this forum who would reccomend that card for the value or performance. If you're going with a Geforce and you want something cheap (around $50-70), get the Ti4200. If you don't want to pay that much, get a Geforce3 (either model)... it's better than the Geforce4 MX and probably cheaper too.

[Matata]

Ti4200 are damn expensive and I can´t find any GeForce 3.

[Eagle]

Well, it´s decided: I´m going to buy a XFX GeForce 4 MX 440 64MB DDR AGP8X w/TV-Out.
But I don´t know if it´s going to work with my motherboard. How can I know????

I have an AMD Duron 750 Mhz PCChips Systemboard M810 Series V3.0a


Carefull there, while I have no experience with them, I have heard AGP 8X cards are not backwards compatible (meaning they will only work in an AGP 8X slot). If your motherboard as a 4X AGP slot you will definately want to get the 4X version. Granted I could be completely wrong and I'm just repeating idle rumor as well.

[Eagle]

Then again the specs say it will run on AGP 2.0 slots but mentions nothing about AGP 1.0. Sooo if your AGP slot supports 2X/4X/8X AGP then I guess your safe.

http://www.xfxgraphics.com/product_view.php?sku=PVT18KQT

[vleespet]

I'm not sure about this, but try selecting device #2 in the Glide64 config. Sometimes d3d-programs see 3dnow as a d3d device.

[Matata]

My motherboard is 4X AGP slot but the guy who sells the card says it works on AGP 8X, 4x and 2X, is that possible or he´s wrong?
Is it a good card?

[Kaoss626]

Matata.... just fine

the difference is AGP cards originally ran on 5 volt power. AGP 2 standard is 3 volt power. If you'r board supports AGPx2 and x4 you can more than adequately rest asured that it _will_ work.

as for AGPx8 it is fully reverse compatable except for a 5 volt agp slot. _No_ 3 volt AGP card will be compatable with a 5 volt slot. You can put a AGPx8 card in a 3 volt AGPx2 slot just fine it just won't utilize the extra bandwith of AGPx8. You can also put a AGPx2 card in a AGPx8 slot (provided they are both 3 volt). Again it's limited by the slower of the two.

[Matata]

Ok, thanks for clearing that out but I found a GeForce FX5200 128MB DDR TV really really REALLY cheap ($100). This one should work too shouldn´t it???

[Matata]

oh and by the way $100 = U$S 33

[Kaoss626]

thats even better than a Geforce4MX

[Matata]

But it´s compatible with my motherboard isn´t it??

[Kaoss626]

cut and pasted straight from the motherboard manual

Key Features
The key features of this mainboard include:

Socket-462 Processor Support
¨ Supports AMD Athlon/Duron processors
¨ Supports 200 MHz Front-Side Bus

Processors are automatically configured using firmware and a synchronous Host/DRAM Clock Scheme.

Memory Support
¨ Two DIMM slots for 168-pin SDRAM memory modules
¨ Support for 100/133 MHz memory bus
¨ Maximum installed memory is 2 x 512MB = 1GB

Expansion Slots
¨ One AMR slot for a special audio/modem riser card
¨ One optional AGP4X slot for AGP 2.0-compliant interface
¨ Two 32-bit PCI slots for PCI 2.2-compliant bus interface.

Onboard IDE channels
¨ Primary and Secondary PCI IDE channels
¨ Support for PIO (programmable input/output) modes
¨ Support for Multiword DMA modes
¨ Support for Bus Mastering and Ultra DMA 33/66/100 modes

Power Supply and Power Management
¨ ATX power supply connector
¨ ACPI and previous PMU support, suspend switch, keyboard power on/off
¨ Supports Wake on Modem, Wake on LAN and Wake on Alarm

!One optional AGP4X slot for AGP 2.0-compliant interface!

I'm certain any geforce2 or later (ie geforce4 or geforceFX) will work

to the best of my knowledge, anything AGPx2 is inherently AGP v2.0 and this board being AGPx4 apears to be no exception

[Matata]

Great, so it´s decided I´ll get this card. Thanks all of you for your big help. I´ll tell how are the things going when I get it.

[Eagle]

Great, so it´s decided I´ll get this card. Thanks all of you for your big help. I´ll tell how are the things going when I get it.


Yeah thats not a bad price either, its about $50 US here.

[Matata]

I can´t belive this. The guy that was going to sell me the card cancelled, crap! I´m never going to get another one at such a good price!

[Eagle]

I can´t belive this. The guy that was going to sell me the card cancelled, crap! I´m never going to get another one at such a good price!


They arent that expensive really. Like I said, 50-60 US doallars.

[Matata]

nope here in Argentina they are 90 US Dollars.

[RJARRRPCGP]

3D Now!, like SSE is an internal component of Athlon processors, thus any Athlon processor based system includes 3D Now!.