is a P3-500 ok to run an RT2000

[CMB]

Hi,
I returned home the other day to find the Fools... I mean Wise people at Natwest have upped my credit limit on my card.. so it now looks like i will be getting my dream rt2000 a lot early then once i thought
YAY

I remember researching before and making sure everything in my system was comaptible, Be-6, Sblive, UDMA 66 hard drive.. all is good.
Apart from... isnt the minimum spec required to run it a P3-500?
I have a p3-500 but Wil it run ok is what im asking.. Maybe im not putting to much faith in matrox's estimations.. But i remember reading that you only needed a 266 to play quake 3, and that a 300 was pefectly suited to play dvd movies through software,...

So will my trusty 500 hack it. or should i scrape around for something better.. and if my 500 is ok.. what benefits will a processor upgrade give me? faster rendering times?.
Thanks for your help..

Colin

[CMB]

OK.. a little bit of research on my part
and the min spec is a PII-300
so im ok then.. i can spend that money on a biggger hard drive
YAY

another question though.. ive been looking at the comnpatable cameras list.. and i have a 'SONY DCR TRV110E PAL'
Now the only incompatability it mentions is that the Ilink DV-IN is disabled on print to tape.. BUT i have had mine hacked for a long time and have been recording in from the SVHS socket manualy starting the recording.. So my question is.

Because the DV-IN is enabled will the print to tape work?

[CMB]

And another thing..
lol
I was just wondering about drivers..
is it like my max/RRG now
ie. like powerdesk and videotools.

or is it just one big program and thats it.

And the 3d performance is same as a max right. cos i want monkey island 4 nearly as much as i want this RT2000.. <well ok maybe not quite that much>

Thanks for taking the time to read all of my ramblings.. and if anyone out there could help with my querys id love to hear from you.

Colin

[cjyo~]

Well, I've just recently set up an RT2000 system (upgrading from a Marvel G200TV). When my brand new CUSL2 (815) didn't work after a week of struggling, I put the RT2000 in my trusty old BH6/Celeron 300a (@450)combo and it worked perfectly (Premiere DV, MPEG I frame, IBP and AftreFX work).

I just got an ASUS CUBX (p3-800) to replace the CUSL2 a couple days ago and that is also working fine with the RT2000.

Yes the drivers are like the Power Desk and Matrox Video tools, but (of course) you have to completely uninstall your old drivers and install the Standard VGA adpater driver before installing the RT2000. I would really recommend installing from scratch, though.

After three weeks of solid work after installing my RT2000, I had a lull last night - and I realized "Hey I have a G400 now! (and a p3/800)" So, I put in Unreal Tournament and gave it a go - needless to say it looks beautiful and it's very fast (with the Flex3d drivers).

I am using my Diamond MX300, instead of my Soundblaster Live MP3, just because it worked fine with my Marvel, but I have read on the RT2000 forums that you need the very latest Sound Blaster drivers for your card.

Be sure to follow the PCI slot recommendations on the RT2000 support site. Click on your motherboard in the list of Recommended Motherboards.

I also use the "setup /p i" option when installing Win98SE, to bypass the ACPI power management features.

I followed most of the proceedure described by Pertti (thanks!) here:
http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum2/HTML/004750.html

[CMB]

hey, thanks a lot for your help.

Can i ask more about these flex 3d drivers?
are they kinda like turbo gl only for the flex card (ie certain games) or do they acelerate general 3d?
also i read that the rt2000 supports 3D studio max.. now the thing baffles me.. but would i be right in thinking that it has a solid opengl driver?

[CMB]

.....and another thing..
:OP

on the hard drive side of things.. acording to the matrox site mine are ok..
<maxtor 20gig) i have 2, both udma66
as well as 2 udma 33 one 12 and one 16gig
that i use for running windows and temp files

in the matrox hard drive test that i have now (for my RRG and MAX)

it says i get around 5-6mg a second for the UDMA 33 and around 15mg for the UDMA 66

will that be ok..... i read somewhere before that dv needs 25mg second.... but also that 9gig = 45 mins of dv footage.. that works out about 3.5mg and thats what im capturing at now with my RRG

[cjyo~]

I don't know about TurboGL. I ran Unreal in Direct3d. I think the Flex drivers have some sort of OpenGL and you should be able to run 3DStudio, but the OpenGL isn't the best from what I've read.

The RT2000 DV and MPEG2 capture maxes out at 25mbits, which is close to the datarate of the Marvel at lowest compression (3.x MegaBytes/s). If your current drives work for the Marvel at the highest bit rate, they should proably be okay with the RT2000.

I don't know how accurate the Marvel HD benchmark utitlity is, but I have heard your drives should benchmark at least double the Max. bit rate of you capture card, so I guess 7MB (MegaBytes) is the bare minimum.

[This message has been edited by cjyo~ (edited 15 October 2000).]

[CMB]

Great, thanks again.

Cant wait to get my hands on one now

WOO-HOOOO

[Hal]

Originally posted by cjyo~:
Well, I've just recently set up an RT2000 system (upgrading from a Marvel G200TV). When my brand new CUSL2 (815) didn't work after a week of struggling, I put the RT2000 in my trusty old BH6/Celeron 300a (@450)combo and it worked perfectly (Premiere DV, MPEG I frame, IBP and AftreFX work).

I just got an ASUS CUBX (p3-800) to replace the CUSL2 a couple days ago and that is also working fine with the RT2000.

Yes the drivers are like the Power Desk and Matrox Video tools, but (of course) you have to completely uninstall your old drivers and install the Standard VGA adpater driver before installing the RT2000. I would really recommend installing from scratch, though.

After three weeks of solid work after installing my RT2000, I had a lull last night - and I realized "Hey I have a G400 now! (and a p3/800)" So, I put in Unreal Tournament and gave it a go - needless to say it looks beautiful and it's very fast (with the Flex3d drivers).

I am using my Diamond MX300, instead of my Soundblaster Live MP3, just because it worked fine with my Marvel, but I have read on the RT2000 forums that you need the very latest Sound Blaster drivers for your card.

Be sure to follow the PCI slot recommendations on the RT2000 support site. Click on your motherboard in the list of Recommended Motherboards.

I also use the "setup /p i" option when installing Win98SE, to bypass the ACPI power management features.

I followed most of the proceedure described by Pertti (thanks!) here:
http://forums.murc.ws/ubb/Forum2/HTML/004750.html

Hi. I read your post and it looks like you had success with exactly the same system I currently am wondering about for the RT2000: I have an ABIT BH6 with a Celeron 300A overclocked at 450 and just posted in this forum a series of questions about using it with RT2000. Would you mind reading my post and seeing if I indeed have the same as you. I think I called the post "Matrox RT2000 advice sought". I don't want to spend a ton of money upgrading my machine for nothing if it's not going to work. I'm also going to go to your website.
thx,
Hal

[Captain Marvel]

HEY,
Attention all you 300a @ 450 guys. Do your selves a favor and get the FCPPGA 533A and run it at 800. There going for 60 some to 70 some dollars. Mine is running fine in a BH6 with the original bios. I put the 450 in another system and cant stand how slow it is compared to the new one. Just my two cents.Oh boy, now I'm pissed .....I'm gonna disable the Smilies.