Can you use a V3 PCI and another AGP card together?

[Marker]

I have an ATI Rage Fury Pro which I'm sure everybody knows, is not a very fast card for 3D gaming. It is a great card for video enthusiasts as it has a video-in port where I connect my VCR. Because of this, I am unwilling to part with it to upgrade to a faster 3D card. I was wondering though, is it possible to install a Voodoo3 2000 or 3000 PCI and use it in conjunction w/ my ATI Rage Fury Pro in the AGP slot? Perhaps I need a switchbox or something to do this? If anybody has any idea on how to do this, or if anybody knows if this is possible please reply.

 

[Remedy]

Both of those cards can sit in the system but only one card can play games at a time. If your playing quake or something that let's you choose the 3dfx open GL then the game is only gonna use the 3dfx card if your playing a game like quake that lets you choose the default open GL then its only gonna use the ati you have. They don't work together like SLI mode or as a combo for games.

 

[Eug]

This may or may not apply to but just a warning... I didn't have those two cards together, but in Windows 98 I couldn't get their drivers to coexist. (Note that I had the old Rage Xpert card not the Fury Pro - different GPU.) In Windows 2000 it worked fine, but in Windows 98, the V3 just didn't work properly in 3D games until I removed any remnants of the Rage Pro (Turbo) drivers.

Also, if you're gonna be running a V3, you'd probably want a fan on it, which would mean eating up TWO PCI slots, or else a PCI and ISA slot, which may or may not be a problem. Also it takes yet another IRQ.

By the way, I like the 2D on the ATI better than the 3dfx card.

 

[Mday]

you need drivers for win98 or w2k, which ever OS you are using.

in either case, only the PRIMARY display adapter can be used for gaming. it's whatever card boots first (the one you see all the booting info on). this can be changed in the BIOS.

and constant switching between primary and secondary is kinda unrecommended.

and only the PRIMARY display adapter can do anything good, meaning display DVD, games, other directx driven stuff.

this means that if you play games on your voodoo, this means the fury is secondary, which means you will NOT be able to: play DVDs using ATI's player using the card's IDCT, watch TV, record TV (tv refers to the signal which includes vcr)... so you are screwed.

actually I find the performance of my NON pro rage fury just fine. I don't play games that much.

 

[Mday]

you should be able to create 2 log on identities with differing hardware profiles, or 2 hardware profiles, one for fury as primary, one for voodoo as primary.

 

[DrWermit]

Marker, I'm using the Fury Pro with two 12MB Voodoo 2 boards in SLI and it seems to work with most games but I haven't tried to use a second 2D/3D card yet. Have you mastered the art of recording video and sound together in sync with the Fury Pro? Any tips would be appreciated. Thanks.

 

[phlashphire]

In addition to the main question, would this setup (one PCI and one AGP) work with 2 monitors?

 

[vanderStoep]

I had an voodoo banshee AGP card and a PCI video card in my system for some time and I did not have problems. Some games let you select which card you want them to use.

 

[Mday]

phlashphire, yes.

 

[Marker]

DrWermit, I have been using my ATI Rage Fury Pro to capture many videos and I don't have a problem w/ the video and audio going out of sync. Perhaps you can tell me some more details about your system? I have a P3-700 so that prob helps w/ the capturing.

Thanks to everybody who has tried to answer my question. It looks like it is possible, but how do you connect a single monitor to 2 video cards? My monitor only has 1 connector.

 

[DrWermit]

Hi Marker, thanks for the offer and you are right, ATI say a PIII gives best results. I have decided to upgrade to the All-in-Wonder 128 Pro card as I am trying to perfect the art of transferring video and sound from my satellite rx to CD's using MPEG2 compression and I think this card will make life easier.
Regarding your question, if you don't have both the standard D plug and BNC's on your monitor you will have to buy a monitor switch box. Don't buy a cheap one as you will loose quality. I suggest you go to www.belkin.com and see if they have one. Take down their reference number and check buy.com, onvia.com and computers4sure.com (via brandsforless.com) as all have free shipping today and some coupons/rebates etc. You will also need another cable with D plug's. Check that the Belkin cables have ferrite beads at each end. These are wrapped in plastic and look like a 1" long bump, sorry for non tech description. Anyway this setup should solve your problems.
Just to add that I agree with Eug, I think you will have a driver issue with the Voodoo 3000 so it would be best to go for the Voodoo 2's in SLI mode. I know this works fine and the results using the Wicked3D drivers are very good. I have two for sale if you are interested. Using this method you could avoid the swich box altogether.