I have a bit of a question about Voodoo2-style 3D accelerator cards... I've taken it upon myself to build some sort of "kick-a$$" "Windows 98 Gaming Rig", as I call it. AMD K6-2 450, clocked at 68*6 ~400 because of motherboard. 2x 128MB PC100 SDRAM. Sound Blaster AWE64. 10GB HDD. 40x CDROM. This thing was looking so good, until I realized all my old video cards were 2mb...or worse (yes, it's possible). So I hopped on ebay and got an Xpert 128 PCI...16mb with 3D support. For a dollar plus shipping, can't go wrong. I have an STB BlackMagic3D (a 12mb variant of 3DFX Voodoo2 accelerator) and am wondering if adding it would increase performance, hold back the Xpert, or have no effect at all. I don't want to test by trial-and-error because the Voodoo drivers are pretty much permanent once installed. Thanks in advance

Isn't the Xpert already a 3D card? If I'm not mistaken, the Voodoo2 is supposed to be paired up with a 2D card.

Well, yes, it is a 3D card. However, I'm not sure how its 3D capabilities are compared to the Voodoo2. Generally yes, you would pair it with a 2D card...or a very very weak 3D one. As I recall the S3 Virge was 3D capable but so miserable you'd almost always pair it with a 3DFX V2 for game use.

Just as an aside, I have now played the included game "Moto Racer 2" and my own copy of Need For Speed III: Hot Pursuit. Both performed well below my expectations for a machine like this. The system bus is quite a bit slower than I'd like but I think this issue is being caused exclusively by the graphics card. Looks like I may try the Voodoo2...there isn't much worse than what I'm getting.

As a follow-up, I have installed the STB BlackMagic 3D 12mb voodoo2 accelerator, and it is performing at a level I didn't think possible. Question answered - yes, even on an already-3D-capable-card, the Voodoo2 increases performance dramatically.