hey guys,

I've been doing some reading, but I was wondering, how far the 5500 actually scales till the cpu becomes the majority of fps pusher??

I read somewhere that @ 1.0Ghz with cpu, the 5500 just begins to show it's potential, but what is the limit with this??

Is there no limit because there is no T&L or???

best is you have got an Athlon XP @ 2000Mhz or more. High FSB also helps, but keep in mind that KT333 (best and latest chipset for 3dfx cards) will raise AGP clock above 166Mhz FSB. But 180FSB should function without problems...

Get Epox 8K5A2 or 8K5A3 or 8K3A2 ... these are the best mainboards for 3dfx cards in my opinion

Indeed, AthlonXP 2000+ or Pentium 4 2,26GHz is the minimum you should have. Best is offcourse an Athlon 3200+ :+

I already ordered a few parts and today with the mail I found a package which contains motherboard, cpu and cooler.

The motherboard is a MSI KT3 Ultra version 1.0 with 333Mhz fsb support and support for agp ver 2.0, as in 1x/2x/4x, thus having 3.3V support.

The cpu is an XP1800+ palomino core, but I have a Tbred-b 2400+ hanging around, so gonna plug that in, put in the 512MB pc2700, set the 2400+ to 333Mhz fsb to start with and a little lower multiplier.

I'll be busy with it tonight, gonna be building it around the 5500 agp.

Will do 1st testing with the XP1800 @ 266 fsb, then same speed @ 333 fsb and then the same with the XP2400, just to see what the difference will be with increased fsb.

Will keep y'all posted.

wrote on 24.04.07 at 17:44:41:

Indeed, AthlonXP 2000+ or Pentium 4 2,26GHz is the minimum you should have. Best is offcourse an Athlon 3200+ :+

wrong the best is a AthlonXP Barton 3000+ with VIA Apollo KT333 which is ofcourse the best chipset, even a Duron 1800 beats a P4 2.26 ::)

The 3200+ won't opperate in KT333 mobo's because of it's 400Mhz DDR FSB ;) the 3000+ has a 333Mhz FSB which is also the highest CPU rating for the KT333 chipset ;)

well,

turns out the XP1800 palo is totally unoverclockable. :)

Scores so far:

XP1800+ @ default, ram @ PC2100, V5 @ default:

3DMark99: 7535
3DMark00: 5547
3DMark01: 2810

Must say that the 2001SE score is not too bad, or is it just me??

Gonna put in the other cpu tommorrow, see what she can do:)

Not bad at all, I got 2550 on my P4 2,26GHz.

wrote on 24.04.07 at 20:38:31:

well, turns out the XP1800 palo is totally unoverclockable. :) Scores so far: XP1800+ @ default, ram @ PC2100, V5 @ default: 3DMark99: 7535 3DMark00: 5547 3DMark01: 2810 Must say that the 2001SE score is not too bad, or is it just me?? Gonna put in the other cpu tommorrow, see what she can do:)

heh exellent for a 1553 Mhz CPU aka the AthlonXP 1800+ 8)

I think that the cpu is unoverclockable in such a way, that the mobo is the problem.

I seem to recall that the nForce2 chipset was the 1st to be able to lock the pci/agp bus.

I set the fsb to 150, making a total speed of 11.5 x 150=1725Mhz, but it wouldn't take it.

Gonna get some conducting paint, unlock the multiplier. :)

the record with 3dfx hardware (v5 6000) is about 4300 marks @3dmark2001se...
what about the 5500? how many marks does the 5500 get?

3400 a 3600 maybe not sure really, but we can always ask TM30 or Osckhar to test that out for us since they are the Heroes that did thise high insane scores with their Voodoo 5 6000 's right 8)

@ osckhar & TM30

Would one you be willing to test this out with a 5500 AGP as PCI?

May The Force Be With You, Jedi Knights!

Turns out, my XP2400 isn't working 100% anymore. :(

It'll run 3dmark99, gets about 50 points more then the XP1800.

In 3dmark2000 and 2001SE it'll hangup before it completes.

As soon as I receive my 5500 pci, I'll test that one on this rig as well.

Anyone have a cheap XP2000 tbred-b?? :)

Seems a bit strange tho, that the 6000 would reach about 4300 and the 5500, which has half of everything the 6000 has, can get pretty close to that.

Bought this beauty today for building a nice v5500 pc (now the v5 residents on a 1.3g tualatin 440bx configuration)

http://cgi.ebay.co.uk/ws/eBayISAPI.dll?ViewItem&rd=1&item=330112646256&ssPageName=STRK:MEWN:IT&ih=014

will add a raid 0 too for maxing out everything on this pc. Anyways was wondering. If isolating the vddqs of an agp 3.0 (0.8/1.5v rails) by cuting the traces and re soldering on the back of the agp pins a vi/o rail (3.3v) wouldn't do the job?

Ultima; check Dutch sites like marktplaats and Tweakers.net Vraag & Aanbod (http://tweakers.net/aanbod/list_ads/cat/46)

wrote on 25.04.07 at 12:36:12:

[...] Anyways was wondering. If isolating the vddqs of an agp 3.0 (0.8/1.5v rails) by cuting the traces and re soldering on the back of the agp pins a vi/o rail (3.3v) wouldn't do the job?

The problem is not about power-ing up a 3.3V video card inside a 1.5/0.8V only AGP slot, but it is about the AGP signaling. In the case of AGP 3.0 mainboards, the signaling is done through 1.5/0.8V lanes and for example a Voodoo5 needs 3.3V powered lanes to "talk" through them to the motherboard's chipset.

I tried that one as well, but they tend to charge very high prices here in holland.

Will give my XP1800 a try 1st, gonna unlock it, set the fsb to 333Mhz and see how far she can go.

1533Mhz = 11.5 x 133
1900Mhz = 11.5 x 166

Gonna see what she does at that speed, dunno if palomino's can take that speed, or if they quit at 1700 or something.

fastest palomino is 2000 or 2100 I think, 2100 runs at 1.73Ghz, so my guess is it won't take that 1900Mhz.

I had my doubts about the xp2400, as it would run 3dmark99 flawlessly, but it would hang on 2000 and 2001.

So I went to play UT on it, been playing it for the last 2 hours and no hang up whatsoever.

Looks like it has something to do with 3dmark??

just received my 5500 pci today, and I ofcourse benchmarked it right away on the XP2400 rig.

Score for 3dmark99 is 7473, almost the same as the agp part, which was to be expected.

It also had 33910 cpu marks. LOL

Strange thing was tho, that I scored 7473 with the PCI card and XP2400, where I scored 7535 with the AGP card and XP1800, so I'm gonna do some more benching.

But as it looks now, I'd have to say that the 5500 PCI is running on max what the pci bus can do.
Gonna do some cross testing to verify this.

XP1800 + 5500 PCI 3dmark99: 7426
XP1800 + 5500 AGP 3dmark99: 7539
XP1800 + 5500 PCI 3dmark2000: 4882
XP1800 + 5500 AGP 3dmark2000: 5597
XP1800 + 5500 PCI 3dmark2001: 2335
XP1800 + 5500 AGP 3dmark2001: 2834

seems pci really is limiting scores. :(

this is strange, I installed the vsa100 clocker, I didn't change a thing at all, except enable overclocking.
Didn't raise it even a single Mhz, but when I ran 3dmark99, I saw the fps go way over 100, instead of max 75 all the time, and the score went up to 12549, is that normal??

is this cause vsync is disabled somehow?? could that be limiting my score before??

wrote on 08.05.07 at 20:49:03:

this is strange, I installed the vsa100 clocker, I didn't change a thing at all, except enable overclocking. Didn't raise it even a single Mhz, but when I ran 3dmark99, I saw the fps go way over 100, instead of max 75 all the time, and the score went up to 12549, is that normal?? is this cause vsync is disabled somehow?? could that be limiting my score before??

Yes, thats definitly what happend to you ;)
If your Monitor syncs to let's say 75Hz and your FPS go over 75, they will be halved. This should have a LITTLE impact on your score ;)  ;D

too bad my scores for the other 3dmarks didn't go up as well. :)

Ahh well, gonna give the pci version another run on this rig, see if that scores evenly "high"

yesterday I ordered a few parts for my 5500, being:

Zalman Thermal Adhesive A+B)
Akasa AK-210 Chipset Cooler 40x40mm Blue LED

I ordered 2 of the coolers, gonna take off the original ones, use those for ram cooling on the back probably
and I have some ram sinks for the front ram.

Will post back with pics as soon as it's finished.

You can fit a Cooler Master SAC-P01 on the back of the VSA-100 chip, should cool a bit better.

well, my current fan placement is as seen in the pic:

http://img527.imageshack.us/img527/9213/fanplacementam6.th.jpg

what I'm planning to do is put ramsinks on all ram chips and perhaps set the fan in the middle a little bit closer to the voodoo card, so that it'll blow enough air over the back of the card to keep it cool.

but by "the back of the vsa-100, do you mean putting the heatsink to the pcb, with some thermal adhesive between them??

Yes on the PCB but SAC-P01 heatsinks have a small patch of adhesive tape which should suffice (so no need for thermal adhesive).

well,

I have some left over smaller heatsinks, I'll see if I can fit those on there with thermal tape.

I'll use the tape from the ordered heatsinks.

I'm curious myself now how it will turn out. :)

In the other thread you can see pics of my modded 5500 pci.

I've done some overclocking, and results are there, but not all that great a difference.

In 3dmark99 scores are the following:

@ 166Mhz = 10900
@ 180Mhz = 11040
@ 190Mhz = 11182

So it's a steady climb, and I suppose it's ok, still have to get rid of that immense score improvement of the newer cards, this is nice already, right??

btw, I'm using powerstrip for clocking the card, as vsa100 clocker is making my rig reboot for some reason, even if I raise the speed with just 1Mhz.