Re: Two Video Cards In One PC

#1

Afterburner wrote:

Quote:

Hi,

I am trying to watch some of my favorite AVIs but
my computer is too slow (P200MMX) to render
the audio and video in sync correctly. It's fine at
the original video size, say, 320 x 240, but I'd like
to view them at full screen if possible.

My system has 64Mb of ram and a 2Gb hard drive,
running Win98SE.

I have one 4Mb ATI Rage 3D Pro PCI and one
Matrox Millennium 4Mb PCI video card, and I
was considering plugging them both in to the PC
to see if that would free up some video ram for
the Windows Media Player to play my AVIs
in full-screen mode properly.

I know Win98 supports more than one video card,
no problem. But will it make a difference overall
if I plug both video cards in if neither of them is an
accelerator card, and they would only be connected
via the PCI bus, not through the Interface Connector.

Multiple video cards don't work like that. Having multiple video cards
in one computer is for using more than one monitor at once.

Things I would consider doing if it was my computer:

- buying a Radeon PCI video card. This is would be much faster.
- running the front side bus (memory speed) at 75MHz if the system
supports it (this would have your CPU overclocked to 225MHz).
- replacing the CPU with a better one. Your motherboard should be able
to support a second hand AMD K6 CPU at 400 to 500 MHz (depending on what
FSB speed your motherboard supports: the later K6s interpret a 2x
multipler as a 6x multipler). The motherboard would need a Bios update (
http://web.inter.nl.net/hcc/J.Steunebrink/k6plus.htm )
- installing more RAM
- getting a newer hard drive, as those old 2gb drives are very slow
(especially if you've got a Bigfoot one)

This is all kind of complicated to perform, but a techy type person
would be able to do it for you.

Quote:

Any help, tips, appreciated.

#2

Sounds like he won't have many opions as far as upgrading his CPU is
concerned... looks like an older generation Slot 1 processor.

In which case, you can find some faster ones (300 to 500 mhz range... I
believe they made some P3 Slot 1 CPUs as well) on eBay for some steep
prices.

My advice is to trash your current motherboard for a cheaper yet
flexible hardware set up (the MSI k7 Turbo is a ridiculously awesome
motherboard for its price.... will run most XP+ processors as well with
a few BIOS updates). A 100 to 150 dollars will get you an impressive
hardware set up as far as motherboard and ram is concerned... might be
able to slip a 30 GB Seagte or WD in there too.)

Good luck.

--
Cory "Shinnokxz" Hansen
-----------------------
http://corysplace.silius.net

#3

On Thu, 04 Mar 2004 16:30:30 -0700, Shinnokxz
<shinnokxz.takethisout. (AT) charter (DOT) net> wrote:

Quote:

Sounds like he won't have many opions as far as upgrading his CPU is
concerned... looks like an older generation Slot 1 processor.

P200MMX doesn't use Slot 1; it's Socket 7 - which probably limits the
CPU speed to 233 MHz (P55C @ 2.9V) or 450 MHz (K6-2 @ 2,2V), depending
of the split voltage compability of the mainboard.

<snip>

...
Jimmy Nilzohn

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Re: Two Video Cards In One PC

Matrox Videocards Matrox Videocards Discussions (alt.comp.periphs.videocards.matrox)

Re: Two Video Cards In One PC - 01-26-2004 , 07:24 AM

Re: Two Video Cards In One PC - 03-04-2004 , 06:30 PM

Re: Two Video Cards In One PC - 03-05-2004 , 01:15 PM