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[wurzel]

Hi all,

I just managed to get a Voodoo 5500 off Ebay

If I just swapped that for the Voodoo 3 3000 I already have, would it work straightaway or do I need to re-install P96?

I'm guessing I can alter the mem setting to 63, as it has 64mb ram onboard?

Thanks for any help.

[zipper]

Probably you have to tinker with the Gfx address if using Warp3D.

[redrumloa]

I wouldn't do it.

[CLS2086]

Only 1 CPU will be used !
1 CPU can manage 32 Mb, but Mediator1200 can't do much than 8mb...

[Akiko]

@CLS2086

CPU can manage 32 Mb, but Mediator1200 can't do much than 8mb...

What about Mediator 4000?

[quenthal]

In many ways Voodoo 3 is better in Amiga use than Voodoo 5. Main advantages Voodoo4/5 give are more memory and few screenmodes not available for Voodoo3. Second one is nice with few demos, but that's all.

[Kin-Hell]

Be sure to Set the Mediator to a 512Mb window space.

[AMC258]

How?

I have had a Voodoo 5500 since I bought my Meditator, well over 5 years ago (don't remember exactly when). I know there is a WINSIZE jumper, but way back when I was told (by Elbox IIRC) that the jumper is nonfunctional on the Meditator I have. Also, I have not noticed any difference in operation with the jumper on or off.

[Rob]

@CLS2086

1 CPU can manage 32 Mb, but Mediator1200 can't do much than 8mb...

The Mediator can access the full 4GB of PCI memory space, but to a limitation of the A1200 the Mediator 1200 has to access PCI memory space through an 8MB window.

So on the Mediator 1200 your graphics card's memory is divided into pages of 8MB.

According to the information on Elbox's website, there is no such limitation with the A3000/A4000 versions.

[AMC258]

Well, either there's a 256M/512M window, or not. I'd tend to believe there is, but Elbox says

Mediator PCI 3000D allows access to the entire 4GB of the PCI memory space.

I've always wondered this: If you are not using OS4 and you are using the video card DMA hack, do you get more DMAable RAM if you have an extra unused video card installed?

[redrumloa]

I forget where the benchmarks were, but the performance gains with models above Voodoo 3 3000 were not worth it and even slower in many instances.

Just remember, the driver is a Voodoo 3 3000 driver.

[zipper]

I've compared 3000 and 4500; in 2D 3000 is faster in many functions as the driver doesn't support hw acceleration for 4500 as well as for 3000 - speaking speed on Prometheus. In 3D, bigger screenmodes 4500 may have 0.5 - 1 fps more speed.

[SuperTurbo]

whatever you do, don't switch to voodoo5500. I used to have one and its performance was severly slower and buggier than the voodoo3000. The voodoo5500 also liked to freeze the computer on bootup, so I guess the drivers are not as compatible with the voodoo5500 as elbox claims that they are. Good thing I switched to a voodooo3000 now.

[matthey]

Set the jumpers on the Mediator as the manual sais and try it. I have a Voodoo4 (same chip as Voodoo5) in a Mediator 3000T/4000T and it works just as well as my Voodoo3 did. The only bug I can think of is the black background bug on 8 bit and less screens and it affects both the Voodoo3 and Voodoo4. The performance is nearly identical between the cards in 2D.

Voodoo4 and Voodoo5 on the Amiga...

+ More graphics memory
+ More display formats
+ A little better display quality
- Higher electrical usage
- Larger card sizes
- Features and optimizations are sub par for Amiga
- May cause problems in some (older) 1200 Mediators

Voodoo3...

+ Cheap
+ Most cards are very overclockable
+ Highly optimized for the Amiga

[wurzel]

Well, thanks for the input, but I didn't think it would be so negative. So, on the whole, I'm better to leave the 3000 in and not change over?

Who'd 've thought that - not me!