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| Diamond ExpertTalk - Information compiled by the Diamond Tech Support Team |
IMPORTANT: Please consult the help files for installation/configuration of system, software and drivers as well the various sources of drivers  - Questions - General informations 
1-1
: What is Monster 3D II?
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: When will be Monster 3D II available?
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: Which games are in the box?
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: What is Voodoo2?
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: What makes Monster 3D II so much faster than Monster 3D?
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: Will an AGP graphics card and Monster 3D II work together?
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: What games support the Monster 3D II?
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: What is MegaMonster?
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: Who provides this MegaMonster cable?
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: What's the advantage of a 8 MB or 12 MB EDO DRAM over 6 MB EDO DRAM?
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: What makes Diamond's Monster 3D II model different from other
manufacturer's Voodoo2 board?
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: What's about Monster 3D?
1-13
: I read about a Monster 3D II pre-order program and a rebate?
1-14
: Which CPU do I need?
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: In display settings you can set the refresh rate for the appropriate
resolution of the Monster 3D II
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: My (S3 868/968) graphics card does not work with the Monster 3D II
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: The game FIFA 98 hangs when starting second half
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: Other questions?
- Answers - General informations1-1 : What is Monster 3D II?  The new Monster 3D is a 3D add-on graphics card that works together with your existing 2D graphics card or a 2D/3D combo card. It provides huge improvements in speed and image quality of 3D games, especially those specifically enhanced for the 3Dfx Voodoo engine (Glide). Three to five times faster than the first generation Monster 3D, the new Monster 3D II features the 3Dfx Voodoo2 chipset and has three dedicated 3D engines on a single card: one for triangle rendering and two for texture mapping. The board includes also 8 MB (model X100) or 12 MB (model X200) of fastest EDO DRAM and, therefore, allowing more realistic game play. 1-2 : When will be Monster 3D II available? Monster 3D II X100 (both versions) are available since April 1998. Monster 3D II X200 RTL (no games) is available since end of April 1998. The version Monster 3D II X200 RTL XL (with games) is available middle of May 1998. the special Monster Sport package (Monster 3D II with 8 MB or 12 MB, with games FIFA 98 and Formula 1 '97) is available since end of May 1998. 1-3 : Which games are in the box? The product comes in two flavors for the enduser: Retail with no games bundle and Retail XL with an extensive collection of top games. The European game bundle will be slightly different from the US version. The Retail XL version for the model X100 (the 8 MB version) for Europe contains: - Full version of Heavy Gear from Activision - Full version of Interstate 76 from Activision - Full version of Need for Speed II SE from Electronic Arts - OEM version of Tomb Raider II from Eidos as well as - Flight Unlimited (playable demo) - Final Fantasy VII (non-interactive demo) The Retail XL version for the model X200 (the 12 MB version) for Europe contains: - 1 CD Battlezone, full version - 1 CD Incoming, large texture version - 1 CD Monster Truck Madness 2.0, full version with 3 languages (limited audio localization) - 1 CD OEM version of Tomb Raider II from Eidos as well as - Flight Unlimited (playable demo) - Final Fantasy VII (non-interactive demo) 1-4 : What is Voodoo2? Voodoo2 is the next generation of the 3Dfx Voodoo graphics chip that provides a full-screen 3D only solution. It also uses a high quality external pass-through cable to connect to your computer's existing graphics card. 1-5 : What makes Monster 3D II so much faster than Monster 3D? Voodoo2 uses a much higher clock frequency and has fully hardware supported triangle setup. Moreover it executes dual textures per pixel and trilinear filtering in a single pass without speed degradation. 1-6 : Will an AGP graphics card and Monster 3D II work together? Yes, Monster 3D II has simply to be plugged into a free PCI slot and to be connected via an external pass-through cable with the AGP graphics card. The proven add-on-design, known from Monster 3D, makes installation easy for nearly every kind of PC configuration. 1-7 : What games support the Monster 3D II? All games using Microsoft's Direct3D and all games running at the current version of 3Dfx's Glide API. Games that use the Quake engine will run without problems using the OpenGL driver. Monster 3D II works properly if DirectX 5.0 or a current version of Glide is installed on your system. Some older games will need to be recompiled from the game manufacturer to the newer version of Glide. But altogether there are over 400 games available for our Monster 3D and almost all new games support one of the needed API. There are games available that have their own older glide version in a separate game directory. Such an old glide.dll file does not recognize the new Monster 3D II. In such a case just copy the newer file glide.dll in the game directory. 1-8 : What is MegaMonster? When connecting 2 Monster 3D II cards with an internal cable (the 'MegaMonster cable') you get a MegaMonster. This is also known as the so called SLI mode. MegaMonster will almost double the performance and enables resolutions up to 1024x768 with z-buffer. Some games can be played at over 100 frames per second. MegaMonster will only be working when two Monster 3D II X100 or two Monster 3D II X200 are installed in a PCI slot. Both have to be from Diamond. 1-9 : Who provides this MegaMonster cable? This cable is available free of charge via the internet www.diamondmm.de or via our Diamond Multimedia European Customer Support. 1-10 : What's the advantage of a 8 MB or 12 MB EDO DRAM over 6 MB EDO DRAM? At the 8 MB configuration, 4 MB will be used for frame buffer & Z-buffer and 4 MB for textures instead of only 2 MB for the frame buffer with a 6 MB solution. With a 4 MB frame buffer you can use 800x600 games with a Z-buffer. The Voodoo2 chip set allows several different memory configurations, but 8 MB is now the most balanced solution between performance and 3D quality. A 12 MB version, 4 MB will be used for frame buffer & Z-buffer and 8 MB for textures, is an optimal solution for the near future, if there will be enough games available, using 8 MB texture memory. 1-11 : What makes Diamond's Monster 3D II model different from other manufacturer's Voodoo2 board? Diamond has shown its expertise in designing fast and reliable 3D graphics accelerators. In the past, Diamond was able to provide better 3D performance than others, using the same hardware configuration. We believe that the right combination of hard- and software will push Monster 3D II to the highest performance levels. The know-how we have gained already in developing a Voodoo board, will help to reach this target again. Optimized drivers will additionally increase the speed of Monster 3D II. 1-12 : What's about Monster 3D? Monster 3D, based on the Voodoo chip and 4 MB EDO DRAM, will still be available after Monster 3D II starts shipping. Monster 3D offers premium 3D accelerations and supports many, many 3D games. As this product is already available for a while, a lot of game manufacturers optimized their products for it. The favorable price is a convincing argument for those who want to boost the PC with affordable 3D power. Quality and performance are continuously guaranteed by Diamond's regular driver update. 3D gamers enjoy an excellent price/performance ratio for all current 3D action games. 1-13 : I read about a Monster 3D II pre-order program and a rebate? This is only available for our US customers. 1-14 : Which CPU do I need? To use the Monster 3D II a 166MHz CPU is ok. But with such a CPU the performance difference to a Monster 3D is as good as not visible. To see the performance of Monster 3D II, we recommend at least a CPU with the performance of a P2 300 MHz. 1-15 : In display settings you can set the refresh rate for the appropriate resolution of the Monster 3D II When changing the resolution, the settings in a game will not be effected. This option in the Monster 3D II settings sets the refresh rates at each given resolution. When going back into the Monster 3D II settings the resolution will automatically switch back to 640*480. If you then choose another resolution in the Monster 3D II settings, you will be able to see the configured refresh rate. The graphics mode for a game is always set directly in the appropriate game setup. 1-16 : My (S3 868/968) graphics card does not work with the Monster 3D II In case the display is faulty or pixels remain on the display, please change the address range of the graphics card (e.g. to FB000-FBFFF). The problem with graphics cards using the S3 868/968 processor is that these cards use 32*32 frame buffer and Windows 95 addresses the Monster 3D II to the second 32MB block. For correction and solution please add the file FXREMAP (file from S3FIX - s.bbs or internet) to your autoexec.bat. 1-17 : The game FIFA 98 hangs when starting second half You can find the voodoo2 patch for FIFA98 in the internet under http://www.fifagaming.com/fifa98/downloads. 1-18 : Other questions? There are information updates on http://www.diamondmm.de and www.3dfx.com and www.voodoospotlight.com! eof |
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