Sonnet 7200 PCI programming - Page 14

Acill · 20 July 2016, 18:36

I've been searching everywhere for one of these Sonnet Crescendo/7300 G3 500Mhz cards! So many were made but none ever show up for sale. If anyone has one I am interested please.

matthey · 20 July 2016, 19:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarrenHD

Wow, cool. Elbox is actually helping?

They would help more if they fixed existing bugs. The new version of pci.library is still broken for the Voodoo 4. Warp3D does not work correctly and only 16MB of the 32MB of gfx board memory is added to system memory. In addition, I received an out of memory requester on reboot from my visually impaired Warp3D using program.

strim · 21 July 2016, 08:51

Quote:

Originally Posted by DarrenHD

Wow, cool. Elbox is actually helping?

.

No one from Elbox ever contacted us nor they have answered our questions, if that's what you're asking about

.

Probably they would just prefer users to use the official pci.library, instead of some hacked version.

DarrenHD · 22 July 2016, 17:30

Quote:

Originally Posted by strim

No one from Elbox ever contacted us nor they have answered our questions, if that's what you're asking about

.

Probably they would just prefer users to use the official pci.library, instead of some hacked version.

Ok, understood. Nice to use the official pci.library anyway, less work to hack it

cmsj · 03 August 2016, 18:20

Quote:

Originally Posted by Acill

I've been searching everywhere for one of these Sonnet Crescendo/7300 G3 500Mhz cards! So many were made but none ever show up for sale. If anyone has one I am interested please.

I'm with Acill. I would also love to get my hands on a Crescendo. I fear that lots of them have probably gone to landfill as worthless ancient Mac castoffs

Hedeon · 23 August 2016, 10:30

If you find a Sonnet card, please test it in a real Mac when possible. I get reports about crashes and hangs, but find that I cannot really help in most cases. In one case someone's 68K is constantly crashing and I have no clue where it comes from. Another has hangs after a while in Warp3D. same there. Both are A4000 V3 mediators, btw.

If you're close-by... For a meal and some drinks I happily swing around by your place to look at it :-P

That being said. I fixed some bugs with the latest build and some MadWizards demos now work (till I feel you & Third eye conqueror) others not (Heavy traffic complains about passing a zero pointer to Warp3D). TIFY has some gfx issues in one scene. Was probably for Permedia2.

See also http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=71650 for a comparison.

I'll do a blog update with some pictures this weekend.

DarrenHD · 27 August 2016, 05:22

Quote:

Originally Posted by Hedeon

If you find a Sonnet card, please test it in a real Mac when possible. I get reports about crashes and hangs, but find that I cannot really help in most cases. In one case someone's 68K is constantly crashing and I have no clue where it comes from. Another has hangs after a while in Warp3D. same there. Both are A4000 V3 mediators, btw.

If you're close-by... For a meal and some drinks I happily swing around by your place to look at it :-P

That being said. I fixed some bugs with the latest build and some MadWizards demos now work (till I feel you & Third eye conqueror) others not (Heavy traffic complains about passing a zero pointer to Warp3D). TIFY has some gfx issues in one scene. Was probably for Permedia2.

See also http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=71650 for a comparison.

I'll do a blog update with some pictures this weekend.

Just an update from me. Entire family has been sick the last week and a half. I was the last to get it ...probably will last another few days...so I hope to start testing again soon

Darren

grelbfarlk · 27 August 2016, 16:31

Darren or Matthey, I thought both of you have Voodoo 4 cards. Can one of you test Amigenerator or WarpSNES with 16-bit modes?

Matthey has posted in other threads that 15-bit and 16-bit color modes are screwed up on the Voodoo 4. Something about how they only work in LE modes and not BE modes at all? From my testing the Voodoo 4 works with Warp3D just fine, I ran Quake 2 for over an hour without any crash but trying to use any 2D apps with 16 or 15 bit modes only seems to work in LE mode, and thus if the app wants BE mode the colors are all screwed up.

matthey · 28 August 2016, 16:26

Quote:

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

Matthey has posted in other threads that 15-bit and 16-bit color modes are screwed up on the Voodoo 4. Something about how they only work in LE modes and not BE modes at all?

Voodoo 4 BE (Big Endian) modes consistently work (no crashes) but with messed up colors. This bug has existed for many years.

Quote:

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

From my testing the Voodoo 4 works with Warp3D just fine, I ran Quake 2 for over an hour without any crash but trying to use any 2D apps with 16 or 15 bit modes only seems to work in LE mode, and thus if the app wants BE mode the colors are all screwed up.

The Voodoo 4 bug with Warp3D is a separate bug which may or may not show incorrectly rendered 3D triangles before freezing/crashing. This is a newer bug which does *not* affect 2D. Reverting to the old pci.library solves this problem for me. It is probably an init problem with how the board/registers are mapped so may only affect certain configurations. This is *not* a bug in W3D.

Quote:

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

Darren or Matthey, I thought both of you have Voodoo 4 cards. Can one of you test Amigenerator or WarpSNES with 16-bit modes?

I doubt anything can be easily done with either bug without Elbox help. Are you helping to program Amigenerator and/or WarpSNES?

grelbfarlk · 30 August 2016, 03:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by matthey

Voodoo 4 BE (Big Endian) modes consistently work (no crashes) but with messed up colors. This bug has existed for many years.

Or is it that they are just in Little Endian mode? That answers my question you had mentioned something to this effect in other threads, I just wondered if it had ever been fixed or if I was doing something wrong.

I notice that there was some discussion on the Linux driver development for the Voodoo 4 that how it handled BE modes was different than the Voodoo 3.

Quote:

The Voodoo 4 bug with Warp3D is a separate bug which may or may not show incorrectly rendered 3D triangles before freezing/crashing. This is a newer bug which does *not* affect 2D. Reverting to the old pci.library solves this problem for me. It is probably an init problem with how the board/registers are mapped so may only affect certain configurations. This is *not* a bug in W3D.

I haven't noticed this myself with the Voodoo 4 and Sonnet combo.

Quote:

I doubt anything can be easily done with either bug without Elbox help. Are you helping to program Amigenerator and/or WarpSNES?

No, I just was suggesting two applications which had the incorrect color issue.

grelbfarlk · 13 October 2016, 03:29

Quote:

Originally Posted by grelbfarlk

Quote:

The Voodoo 4 bug with Warp3D is a separate bug which may or may not show incorrectly rendered 3D triangles before freezing/crashing. This is a newer bug which does *not* affect 2D. Reverting to the old pci.library solves this problem for me. It is probably an init problem with how the board/registers are mapped so may only affect certain configurations. This is *not* a bug in W3D.

I haven't noticed this myself with the Voodoo 4 and Sonnet combo.

Actually I HAVE noticed this now, on the Voodoo 3 mainly with resolutions above 640x480, but it seems to depend on the application. GLQuake this happens very quickly at 800x600 but 800x480 is fine. While Quake2 800x600 seems ok but anything past that locks up, don't get the random triangles though.

grelbfarlk · 03 December 2016, 17:14

For anyone interested in overclocking here is how to do it. Let me stress-THIS IS A BAD IDEA. Do not bug Hedeon if your Sonnet is unstable when overclocked. The 400MHz versions use a different CPU than the 500MHz version and these cards are rare enough as it is. There are also slower clocked SRAMs on board for the L2 cache. You have been warned. If you do this you are risking killing your Sonnet. Also your 3.3V voltage will likely drop with with just a mild overclock.

I am not responsible for any inaccuracies or errors in this, I have only went from 400MHz to 433MHz now Sysspeed reports 494MIPs/407MFLOPs from 457MIPs/375MFLOPs. Almost completely unnoticeable in actual use.

Again-Don't do this.

jack-3d · 09 December 2016, 15:34

Right now I have all three G3 versions (400/512, 400/1M, 500/1M) at home and when I test each on the same Amiga I can see there is some performance increase version by version. But still I think its silly to risk overclocking to increase from 50 to 60 fps in quake (who does not consider 50 fps enough? ;o)

grelbfarlk · 09 December 2016, 22:36

I imagine that there is some application which nearly runs perfect but not quite smoothly that a little extra boost would run well. Quake 2 for instance doesn't benefit enough to say X is playable but Y is not (all supported resolutions run "well.")

For me it is Amigenerator, the "T" version runs perfect but I prefer the scanlines in the full version at 640x480 and there are little hiccups in the sound, though 33MHz more isn't enough.

I wonder how well the thermal pads are doing their job after 16 years I might try to replace them or just use fresh thermal paste, at least it may just extend the longevity of the cards till Strim makes a new 750FX board at 1GHz.

jack-3d · 09 December 2016, 23:20

I made quick test when I had all three models at home available. It was Quake1 in some hi-res (dont remember exactly maybe 800x600 or more)

Timerefresh (right after the New Game)
400/512 = 22,37
400/1M = 24,91
500/1M = 27,52

Timedemo (demo1)
400/512 = 17,9
400/1M = 19,6
500/1M = 21,4

grelbfarlk · 10 December 2016, 03:54

For Cowcat's Quake 2 I'm getting 44FPS at 640x480 doing demomap demo1.dm2. At 800x600 it about 32FPS. With Hyperion's Quake 2 it tops out at 48FPS at 640x480 and 35FPS at 800x600.

zipper · 10 December 2016, 12:53

Clearly better than my CSPPC + Voodoo3 or 4 - they did about 26 and 20 fps.

grelbfarlk · 10 December 2016, 14:48

BogoMIPS reports 880.11, which is right about in-line what a G3@433MHz should be. From http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/BogoMips/bogo-list.html

grelbfarlk · 17 December 2016, 03:34

Latest sonnet.library now does 49FPS at 640x480 in both Cowcat's and Hyperion's Quake 2 on demo1.dm2.

grelbfarlk · 27 December 2016, 15:33

It turns out that for just 33MHz increase, some (maybe a lot) of active cooling is required.

03 December 2016, 17:14	#272
grelbfarlk Registered User Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: USA Posts: 2,918	For anyone interested in overclocking here is how to do it. Let me stress-THIS IS A BAD IDEA. Do not bug Hedeon if your Sonnet is unstable when overclocked. The 400MHz versions use a different CPU than the 500MHz version and these cards are rare enough as it is. There are also slower clocked SRAMs on board for the L2 cache. You have been warned. If you do this you are risking killing your Sonnet. Also your 3.3V voltage will likely drop with with just a mild overclock. I am not responsible for any inaccuracies or errors in this, I have only went from 400MHz to 433MHz now Sysspeed reports 494MIPs/407MFLOPs from 457MIPs/375MFLOPs. Almost completely unnoticeable in actual use. Again-Don't do this. Last edited by grelbfarlk; 03 December 2016 at 23:20.

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20 July 2016, 18:36	#261
Acill Tech Guru Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: Oxnard, CA Posts: 189	I've been searching everywhere for one of these Sonnet Crescendo/7300 G3 500Mhz cards! So many were made but none ever show up for sale. If anyone has one I am interested please.

23 August 2016, 10:30	#266
Hedeon Semi-Retired Join Date: Mar 2012 Location: Leiden / The Netherlands Posts: 2,009	If you find a Sonnet card, please test it in a real Mac when possible. I get reports about crashes and hangs, but find that I cannot really help in most cases. In one case someone's 68K is constantly crashing and I have no clue where it comes from. Another has hangs after a while in Warp3D. same there. Both are A4000 V3 mediators, btw. If you're close-by... For a meal and some drinks I happily swing around by your place to look at it :-P That being said. I fixed some bugs with the latest build and some MadWizards demos now work (till I feel you & Third eye conqueror) others not (Heavy traffic complains about passing a zero pointer to Warp3D). TIFY has some gfx issues in one scene. Was probably for Permedia2. See also http://eab.abime.net/showthread.php?t=71650 for a comparison. I'll do a blog update with some pictures this weekend.

27 August 2016, 16:31	#268
grelbfarlk Registered User Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: USA Posts: 2,918	Darren or Matthey, I thought both of you have Voodoo 4 cards. Can one of you test Amigenerator or WarpSNES with 16-bit modes? Matthey has posted in other threads that 15-bit and 16-bit color modes are screwed up on the Voodoo 4. Something about how they only work in LE modes and not BE modes at all? From my testing the Voodoo 4 works with Warp3D just fine, I ran Quake 2 for over an hour without any crash but trying to use any 2D apps with 16 or 15 bit modes only seems to work in LE mode, and thus if the app wants BE mode the colors are all screwed up.

09 December 2016, 15:34	#273
jack-3d kLiker Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Brno / Czech Republic Posts: 371	Right now I have all three G3 versions (400/512, 400/1M, 500/1M) at home and when I test each on the same Amiga I can see there is some performance increase version by version. But still I think its silly to risk overclocking to increase from 50 to 60 fps in quake (who does not consider 50 fps enough? ;o)

09 December 2016, 22:36	#274
grelbfarlk Registered User Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: USA Posts: 2,918	I imagine that there is some application which nearly runs perfect but not quite smoothly that a little extra boost would run well. Quake 2 for instance doesn't benefit enough to say X is playable but Y is not (all supported resolutions run "well.") For me it is Amigenerator, the "T" version runs perfect but I prefer the scanlines in the full version at 640x480 and there are little hiccups in the sound, though 33MHz more isn't enough. I wonder how well the thermal pads are doing their job after 16 years I might try to replace them or just use fresh thermal paste, at least it may just extend the longevity of the cards till Strim makes a new 750FX board at 1GHz.

09 December 2016, 23:20	#275
jack-3d kLiker Join Date: Mar 2011 Location: Brno / Czech Republic Posts: 371	I made quick test when I had all three models at home available. It was Quake1 in some hi-res (dont remember exactly maybe 800x600 or more) Timerefresh (right after the New Game) 400/512 = 22,37 400/1M = 24,91 500/1M = 27,52 Timedemo (demo1) 400/512 = 17,9 400/1M = 19,6 500/1M = 21,4

10 December 2016, 03:54	#276
grelbfarlk Registered User Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: USA Posts: 2,918	For Cowcat's Quake 2 I'm getting 44FPS at 640x480 doing demomap demo1.dm2. At 800x600 it about 32FPS. With Hyperion's Quake 2 it tops out at 48FPS at 640x480 and 35FPS at 800x600.

10 December 2016, 12:53	#277
zipper Registered User Join Date: Mar 2004 Location: finland Posts: 1,838	Clearly better than my CSPPC + Voodoo3 or 4 - they did about 26 and 20 fps.

10 December 2016, 14:48	#278
grelbfarlk Registered User Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: USA Posts: 2,918	BogoMIPS reports 880.11, which is right about in-line what a G3@433MHz should be. From http://www.tldp.org/HOWTO/BogoMips/bogo-list.html

17 December 2016, 03:34	#279
grelbfarlk Registered User Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: USA Posts: 2,918	Latest sonnet.library now does 49FPS at 640x480 in both Cowcat's and Hyperion's Quake 2 on demo1.dm2.

27 December 2016, 15:33	#280
grelbfarlk Registered User Join Date: Dec 2015 Location: USA Posts: 2,918	It turns out that for just 33MHz increase, some (maybe a lot) of active cooling is required.

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