3Dfx Rampage Driver Testing 2019

Hey you were not suppose to notice! LOL

More coming, A MUCH larger post on the forum is coming along with a request for those with talent to do some source code tinkering. I found the newest source code for Rampage several years back and a buddy of mine just started compiling it. Back in 2015-2016 we had a long thread going on a now closed 3dfx forum and I'm going to summarize those tests and experiments here and start over now that we have new code. Not sure how far 2 Rampage owners can get with such early production boards with no register documentation but were going to give it another go.

Quick summary not going over later events (like new and improved dongle and motherboard compatibility testing) in forum thread-

http://www.thedodgegarage.com/3dfx/rampage_2012.htm

The thumbnail view is Rampage is a Direct 3D part that will run OpenGL with a D3D wrapper. Most of the AGP functions were not enabled along with some memory management so 3Dfx could just work on bringing the core up to speed so effectively it is a PCI device in an AGP slot at the moment. We have the complete Win9x source and an incomplete Windows 2000 source but little documentation. The fact we have some OpenGL capability shows improvement in the Win95 driver we are working on, we had none at all before.

And yes, that is a green Mercury brick hanging out on the bench in the background.

Gary
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Could you turn off vacuum cleaner next time you shot videos? :dead:
 
XoR_ said:
Could you turn off vacuum cleaner next time you shot videos? :dead:
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Nope, artifacts from the dongle.

Its not tuned 100% and they guy who built it is in Germany, for long distance work it didn't come out too bad.

Edit- Oh the noise? Power PC and Cooling 425 watt power supply, its rather loud. I thought you meant the noise on the screen.
 
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gdonovan said:
Edit- Oh the noise? Power PC and Cooling 425 watt power supply, its rather loud. I thought you meant the noise on the screen.
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So you are already deaf... presumably from using old computers too much ;)
 
gdonovan said:
Yes, when geeks were manly geeks in the ages before watercooling. You did not have any street creed unless you had a minimum of 8 fans going at once. Full speed.

None of that regulated crap.
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This is how true PC boot up should sound like: (not my video)


With mandatory full volume beeper, 3.5" and 5.25" drive seek and disk scathing (y)

BTW. I think when it comes to volume nothing beats PowerPC G5
Wonder if I could put SAS 15K RPM drives in there... in RAID :cat:
 
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How many Rampage boards are there?
And how would people know if board they get is even functioning properly?
Writing drivers for this chip seems like mission impossible imho...
 
XoR_ said:
How many Rampage boards are there?
And how would people know if board they get is even functioning properly?
Writing drivers for this chip seems like mission impossible imho...
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1) 5 that I personally know about, maybe 7 total.

2) We compare notes a lot.

3) Impossible maybe but improvements have already been made. We don't expect production fit and finish.
 
gdonovan said:


I laughed my ass off, just awesome.
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That is seriously impressive! I just figured it was going to be some low-budget vid with horrible CG of the card but, that looks like legitimate PCB and components on it! haha
As such, I naturally expect those 6Ks to also be props, quality ones, but props nonetheless.

Also for you young folks out there (lawl, I'm only 35, but get off my lawn!)....
Back in those days, the graphics port (aka the AGP he mentions) was not like the PCIe on modern boards. So his "4 AGP cards" in a single motherboard is also a farce... albeit cute :p
 
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