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Aptiva - Information on 3Dfx video cards
Applicable to: World-Wide
This document contains information about 3Dfx Voodoo cards:
The 3Dfx cards are 3D video cards, which are supported by most of the newer games that use 3D technology. The cards are made by many different manufacturers. 3Dfx is the company that makes the chipset, and the different companies use the same chipsets. These cards come in three flavors:
Voodoo (3D add-on card)
Voodoo Rush (2D/3D card)
Voodoo2 (3D add-on card)
The Voodoo Rush cards are like other third party 2D/3D video cards. They take over from the onboard video, and should be detected by the BIOS as the video card. They tend to have more compatibility problems with the 3Dfx games than the other cards.
The 3D add-on cards work like this: You install the card in the system using a PCI slot. The card comes with a cable that is used to connect the monitor port of the onboard video (or other video card) to the 3D add-on card. The monitor is then connected to the 3D add-on card. In this configuration, the system continues to use the onboard video as before, and the onboard video is the video chipset detected by the BIOS, and shown in Windows95's Device Manager. The 3D add-on card should also be in Device Manager, but it will show up as a "Multimedia adapter" card, not a video card. The 3D add-on card takes over the screen display when a game is run that is 3Dfx compatible. These cards always use full screen mode only, so if you see windows, the normal video is being used.
Because the 3D add-on cards are not true video cards, the BIOS does not detect them as video cards, and will show the video memory of the onboard video chipset (or the third party 2D/3D card installed in the system).
The Voodoo chipset is the older chipset. For Pentium systems, this chipset offers the best value. The Voodoo2 chipset is faster, but will have only small improvements in performance over the Voodoo chipsets in Pentium systems. The Voodoo2 chipset shows its power when combined with the power of the Pentium II processor. If you have a Pentium system, the only reason to consider the Voodoo2 card is if you plan to get a Pentium II system soon, and you can move the card to the new computer.
Based on feedback from Aptiva owners, these cards appear to work fine in Aptiva systems. Technical support for these cards would come from the card manufacturer, and the support for the games comes from the game manufacturers. IBM does not provide support for third party hardware or software that you may install in your Aptiva.
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Video, Non-IBM Hardware/Software | |
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Date Created |
01-09-98 | |
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Last Updated |
10-12-98 | |
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Revision Date |
10-12-99 | |
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IBM Aptiva | |
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Product Family |
Aptiva | |
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2134, 2136, 2137, 2138, 2139, 2140, 2142, 2144, 2153, 2158, 2159, 2161, 2162, 2163, 2168, 2176 | |
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all | |
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