Sept 24 - 30, 1999
Archive

While standard and 3D audio is incredible, the speaker set really shines in Dolby Digital. Of course, you'll need a sound card that can output Dolby Digital audio, and a piece of software or movie that is setup to play for Dolby, but when everything is setup correctly, it's flat out jaw-dropping amazing. Any DVD movie is worth re-watching if you haven't experienced it the first time in Dolby Digital, it's like hearing the movie for the first time. It's very tough to describe how something sounds with words, but anyone who has experienced Dolby Digital versus standard audio knows the advantages it gives.

• ASUS V3800 Driver (Win9X - v2.25 Beta 5 - 1.92 MB)
  
  
  

The wireless mouse features the use of digital radio technology for the communication between the mouse and the compact receiver. Apparently, digital radio technology allows for better reliability for the communication between the mouse and the receiver. Digital radio communication is supposed to be less susceptible to interference from other sources of radio signals. The digital communication between the mouse & the receiver has a range of six feet. Logitech claims that objects between the mouse and the receiver do not affect the mouse performance.

...I compiled a new version of WickedGL recently and fixed some other bugs. You may want to give it a try. I have also tested it against the latest 3dfx's ICD v1.02.18 and the results are quite interesting, especially on q3demo2. Take a look at http://www.wicked3d.com/products/wickedgl/test.htm

You do not need to re-register if you previously installed WickedGL. Just download http://www.wicked3d.com/downloads/drivers/wickedgl/wgl_reg.exe and use it with your old key.

New in This Version
===================
* Black screenshot bug fixed.
* Washed out colors bug fixed. See section about brightness/gamma extensions for details.
* Jumping character disappearing in controls menu in Quake3 bug fixed.
* Fuzzy yellow text in start menu in Quake3 bug fixed.
* Added support for Velocity boards.
* Improved sky rendering in Quake3.
* Up to 5% more performance in Quake3 on boards with multitexturing compared to the previous version.

In Part 3, I showed you how to setup the BIOS, create a boot disk, how to format & partition the hard drive, how to install the CD-ROM driver, and how to install Win95/98. In the final part, I will finish up the rest of the hardware installations which includes the sound card, the modem, and any other drives. Also, I will show you some tweaking tips to get the most out of your powerhouse homebuilt!

• Read Part 1
• Read Part 2
• Read Part 3
• Read Part 4
  
  
  

As many of you noted (and 3dfx themselves admitted), the texture compression comparison images supplied by 3dfx for their FXT1 announcement weren't quite the top. We've made an addition to our FXT1 article to help remedy this and included a do-it-yourself section for making your own comparisons. Happy compressing.

Most people are under the impression that adding a huge CPU-cooler to their CPU is going to solve all of their heat problems. Well, that might hold true to some extend, but we must not forget that even the biggest CPU-cooler can only bring the CPU down to case temperature.

Thus, if a high case temperature is holding you back from running your system reliably, you might want to consider cooling your whole system, or the peripherals within the case.

A bigger problem was to overclock the core speed as the chip already runs quite hot and added extra speed to it would only make things hotter. Using PowerStrip, we actually found out that it indeed works to overclock the 3D Blaster GeForce 256. PowerStrip identifies the core clock to be at 120MHz and we could overclock it to 125MHz without any problems at all. With better cooling, it should be possible to overclock the core to 130MHz without any severe problems - resulting in a total fillrate of 520Mpix / 520Mtex. Yes, VERY impressive.

The theory behind RDRAM is that the only time faster memory transfer rates are necessary is when you are running an application that can’t fit entirely within a chip’s cache. In those applications, the theory holds true as we’ve proved in the benchmarks from the Photoshop and 3D Studio MAX scores in particular. When the Coppermine comes around with its 256KB of on-die L2 cache, it should be interesting to see how the matchup of the i820 and the Coppermine turns out, in terms of performance.

The result in a 440BX/SDRAM system is traditionally a 35 to 50% frame rate drop off as the platform handles its hard disk's business, likely resulting in your own online death complete with you firing off complaints about "internet lag" to your opponents so as not to be discounted in skill level perception.

With the i820/RDRAM solution and ATA-66 drivers in full sprint mode, the same disk activity is met with a slight frame rate performance hit, perhaps 10%, which isn't even enough to make a solid player's pulse rise in the heat of heavy combat.

The choice of whether to go for an VIA Apollo Pro 133Mhz ultimately depends on how badly you want 133Mhz and how much you want to spend. Overclockers trying to run their P3-450s at 4.5 x 133 = 600, who are suffering AGP failures will want to take a close look. However for those of you who can run your AGP card at 133Mhz just fine on BX can rest easy - BX may be old, but it rules the roost for now.

So when should you buy the Marvel G400? If you aren't low on disk space (or are willing to go out and buy another hard drive for your videos) and want to produce high quality home videos and, at the same time, you want to use that system for gaming and can find a use or two for the DualHead feature then the Marvel G400 starts to make sense.

.22 micron RIVA TNT2 clocked at 183 MHz, 32 MB  6ns SDRAM clocked at 183 MHz, fan & rear heat-sink

The new .22 micron TNT2 should overclock quite nicely, but considering its already running at 183, you shouldn't even need to overclock!!

With time and practice, you can definitely get professional results. The still shots above show just how good the image quality is when you don't need to worry about file size (dumping it back out to tape, or burning it on a CDR). The Marvel G400 is the only consumer grade and priced card that is capable of capturing full screen (704x480) full motion (30fps) video. The others can only maintain that framerate at MUCH lower resolutions. This is because Matrox includes a hardware video codec (compression/decompression) engine on the Marvel. The other manufacturers do theirs in software. 

Some of 3dfx Interactive's executives have stated publicly that our next generation product may be delayed until Q1 and may not ship in Q4 in time for Christmas. Because of a few minor setbacks (that have been corrected), the Q4 date is admittedly very aggressive. With a technology product like this, it is not uncommon for unforeseen circumstances to arise in the final stages of product development. As a result, we are steering the public to expect our next generation product in Q1, because we believe this is the most probable result. We are standing by our statements that our next generation product will be head and shoulders above competitor's products and will solidify the technology lead for 3dfx. Additionally, our internal roadmap will maintain that lead for 3dfx well into the future.

Brian Burke
PR Manager
3dfx

You can also check out a Questions & Answers article with 3dfx's CEO, Greg Ballard over at Silicon Investor.

• FullOn3D's GeForce 256 Inteview w/ Chris Donahue
• GameCenter's GeForce 256 Inteview w/ David Kirk: Part 2
  
  
  

In Part 2, I showed you how to install the video card, I showed you a checklist of things to check before the initial "test" bootup, and I showed you how to do the "test" bootup as well as what to expect. In Part 3, I will show you how to setup the BIOS, show you how to create a boot disk, show you how to partition & format the hard drive, show you how to install the CD-ROM driver, and how to install Win95/98.