3dfx VooDoo / retro rig / capacitor thread

Susquehannock

Susquehannock

Supreme [H]ardness
Joined
Jul 26, 2005
Messages
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Put together a retro gaming rig and playing with old GPUs. Voodoo 4 is the only problem.

Anyone know where to find 3dfx drivers? Thanks.
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Vader1975 said:
I do not give up. I will find any driver that still exists. :)
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Thanks. Always good to have more than one driver version.

Running the ASUS v7700 GeForce2 right now (gold colored card). Found the Tweak utility. I remember back in the day it was an excellent overclocker. By far the best on a percentage over stock speed that I have ever achieved with any card. Might make up some chip heat sinks for it.

Funny story. The very VooDoo card shown above came in a HP pavilion my friend bought. Glitchy as hell in WindowsME. After weeks of hassle trying to get it running, HP finally sent him the ASUS seen above. So he gave me the VooDoo. Ran perfectly fine in my Win98 rig. A time later he gave me the HP box when I built a gaming rig for him. So now the v7700 was mine too.
 
Asked my friend who is a big nostalgia gamer. Has multiple 3Dfx cards, and a running Win 98 Glide box. Here's what he had to say:

Form's Friend said:
Honestly, and I'm super serial, most driver packages add nothing in terms of serious eye candy or performance. I use the latest legit 3dfx drivers with my V5.
I install a 3dhq driver package, any really, and then install the 3dfx drivers over it.
That gives me the 3dhq control panel which is superior to 3dfx's, and then use the 3dfx drivers

http://www.falconfly.de/vsa100.htm
3dhq: V1.09.00 Beta 10
3dfx: V1.04.01b beta 9x drivers
Click to expand...

Which again to reiterate, he installs 3DHQ's first, and then simply installs the 3Dfx package after that. He doesn't uninstall first or try to cobble together his own package.


Aaand... he just followed up with:
Form's Friend... again said:
01/13 5:41 PM Jason: IF he delves into 2k, I'd try the AmigaMerlin package. It was pretty good last I recall (3.1)
01/13 5:42 PM Jason: But again, I'd go with 9x
01/13 5:43 PM Jason: Tell him also to grab
01/13 5:43 PM Jason: http://www.falconfly.de/mesafx.htm
01/13 5:43 PM Jason: V0.6.2.0.2
01/13 5:44 PM Jason: OGL games FLLLLYYYYYYYYY with those
Click to expand...
(too lazy to format that one lol)

Hope that helps!
 
Formula.350 said:
Asked my friend who is a big nostalgia gamer. Has multiple 3Dfx cards, and a running Win 98 Glide box. Here's what he had to say
Click to expand...
Wow! The info is greatly appreciated. Please pass that along to your friend too.

Did not know about MesaFX. Found the 3dfxzone page and read more. Will definitely try it out.
http://www.3dfxzone.it/dir/3dfx/mesafx/index.php

Been looking at the hardware again and have all the parts for another complete system. Probably build a Glide box. Then again, 'VooDoo Box" does have a good ring to it. Discovered a Soltek SL-75drv4 Purple Ray mobo brand new & unused, purchased in NewEgg clearance sale for $10. Had forgotten all about it. Hooray for DIP switches.
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I won't lie. I am pretty jealous. I check ebay for voodoo cards pretty regularly and they are just so costly but I have always wanted to buy another one.
 
Dayum! Looks like my Canopus Pure3D and Pure3D II would fetch nice sums!
Even still have the box, docs, etc.

Would be sad to part my ultimate combo though - Spectra 2500 + Pure3D II :

index.php
 
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jaffy said:
Looks like you got a few bad caps on that board ;)
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Cerulean said:
I count at least 5
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Yep ... good catch. Damn capacitor plague. Did not realize they would go bad from sitting as well. A shame since this was final revision of the board that accepted T.bred CPUs. Oh well. One more thing for the electronics recycling bin at the landfill.
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Susquehannock said:
Yep ... good catch. Damn capacitor plague. Did not realize they would go bad from sitting as well. A shame since this was final revision of the board that accepted T.bred CPUs. Oh well. One more thing for the electronics recycling bin at the landfill.
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View attachment 14706
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Whoa now, it's not THAT hard to recap it!
 
WhoBeDaPlaya said:
Whoa now, it's not THAT hard to recap it!
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That is what I was thinking. Soltek was a very good company. They sent out free capacitor replacement sets to any customer who requested, whether you had a bad board or not. Will see if I can find the kit that I received way back then.
 
^^ is a prime opportunity to play with my wick & sucker o_O

[edit] - seven bulging caps on this board by the way
 
Nice thread!

Funny how ive been itching to attempt to power up my old school winxp pc thst has a voodoo 2 12mb sli.

Hopefully it dont have bad caps from sitting for the past few years..

Nothing new to me as ive done quite a few boards in the past.. easy stuff.

Ive got another rig with a voodoo 5 as well as a bunch of other 3dfx cards stored.

Fun every few years to pull out the old 21" monitor and fire up some duke3d and quake!
 
I have both a voodoo 2 and a voodoo 4 lying around, did not realize they were worth anything. Just could never bring myself to get rid of them. I used to have a diamond monster 3d (voodoo1) but I think that unfortunately got lost in the shuffle over the years. That card brings me back to the glquake days when 30fps at 640x480 with bilinear filtering was mind blowing...
 
Did not realize it either. Been looking through the sold listings on Ebay. Amazing! Guess it goes with the gaming nostalgia boom that has been raising old console values too. The VooDoo 4 and 5, being at the end of 3dfx's life, are the rare ones apparently. Found a few with bidding wars that actually sold above $200. And that 3dfx mouse pad collection. :eek:

http://www.ebay.com/itm/3dfx-mouse-...285116?hash=item2375078f7c:g:IwgAAOSwYIxYB97W
 
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Susquehannock said:
Wow! The info is greatly appreciated. Please pass that along to your friend too.
Click to expand...
Most welcome, and will do!

I have a few 3Dfx cards myself, but I was always more interested in the unique ones from Quantum3D. They made ones from Arcade Cabinets to Military Simulators.
I had their Obsidian 100SB which was a Dual Voodoo 1 card (they kinda pioneered multiple cards in one, as far as I'm concerned), but sold that over a decade ago for like three times what I bought it for (paid like $45, bought/sold early 2000s). You couldn't get a sense of the length there, and so here it is next to a GeForce SDR (aka GF1)
I believe I still have an Obsidian 200SB somewhere Dual Voodoo 2 card, which is basically the same as the Obsidian X-24 consumer version. It was an arcade card.
Then my pride and joys...
A very-very-very rare "Sensor Post Processor" card which has a Voodoo 3 at it's heart but DVI output, and was physically connected via header pins and basically did Shader effects for these next two... (It's attached to one of them in that picture, sorry for the bad quality it was a ~2001 3MP camera lol)
Then I have two of the only very-very rare AAlchemy 8132 with 8x VSA-100 (V5 chips) and 32MB each. These pics are of the 8164 with 64MB/each but otherwise same cards, I just don't have any of mine handy...
Front, Back, Crazy power adapter (Yes, that sticker is legit, and Q3D engineers had a great sense of humor!), SPP+8132+Power

Unfortunately that 8132 required a unique PSU which put out 2.5-2.7V to feed these cards, so I've never actually gotten to use them. I do have drivers though, and I know the SPP works :D I actually came up with a way and shared it with others long ago (a 30-40A Adjustable Solid State Buck Converter), which proved to work so I'm glad it's not hopeless :p

[/thread hijack]

LONG LIVE 3DFX!
 
Formula.350 said:
Most welcome, and will do!

I have a few 3Dfx cards myself, but I was always more interested in the unique ones from Quantum3D. They made ones from Arcade Cabinets to Military Simulators.
I had their Obsidian 100SB which was a Dual Voodoo 1 card (they kinda pioneered multiple cards in one, as far as I'm concerned), but sold that over a decade ago for like three times what I bought it for (paid like $45, bought/sold early 2000s). You couldn't get a sense of the length there, and so here it is next to a GeForce SDR (aka GF1)
I believe I still have an Obsidian 200SB somewhere Dual Voodoo 2 card, which is basically the same as the Obsidian X-24 consumer version. It was an arcade card.
Then my pride and joys...
A very-very-very rare "Sensor Post Processor" card which has a Voodoo 3 at it's heart but DVI output, and was physically connected via header pins and basically did Shader effects for these next two... (It's attached to one of them in that picture, sorry for the bad quality it was a ~2001 3MP camera lol)
Then I have two of the only very-very rare AAlchemy 8132 with 8x VSA-100 (V5 chips) and 32MB each. These pics are of the 8164 with 64MB/each but otherwise same cards, I just don't have any of mine handy...
Front, Back, Crazy power adapter (Yes, that sticker is legit, and Q3D engineers had a great sense of humor!), SPP+8132+Power

Unfortunately that 8132 required a unique PSU which put out 2.5-2.7V to feed these cards, so I've never actually gotten to use them. I do have drivers though, and I know the SPP works :D I actually came up with a way and shared it with others long ago (a 30-40A Adjustable Solid State Buck Converter), which proved to work so I'm glad it's not hopeless :p

[/thread hijack]

LONG LIVE 3DFX!
Click to expand...

I love you.
 
Good stuff there. And the sticker made me - lol. These are the kind of thread/jack which are cool.

Here is one that has me stumped. Diamond Multimedia. Sound & video combined in a twin level card.
 

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This mousepad:



is absolutely beautiful, now I'm gonna have to capture that graphic and get it printed on a mousepad sometime soon. Bought 3Dfx hardware out of the gate, Monster I from Diamond, then a Monster II 12MB card ($450!!!) then added another one that cost less and had my first real SLI rig many years ago. Still my favorite graphics accelerators in terms of performance - visual quality went to the Matrox G400 and there's still nothing that I've ever seen that looked better, Matrox knew how to get the best visual quality over the competition.

But I gotta get one of those mousepads to go along with my stock certificate for 1 single share of 3dfx stock - once they became 3dfx everything just fell apart, sadly, but the owners and managers did it to themselves.

"3Dfx is dead... long live 3Dfx..." :D

ps
If anyone has a decent high resolution scan of the original 3Dfx logo which is on that mousepad I wouldn't mind getting a copy I could use for the silk-screening onto a mousepad, thanks.
 
No hi-res of the pad, though I did stumble across this 3dfx Wallpaper page earlier today. Some good ones there.

Links removed by admin due to possible malware site.

This wallpaper would be great on side of my VooDoo 4 box. If it still works after sitting in a box for 16 years. Wish I had the original driver disk. Though it was bundled in with the HP Pavilion software if memory serves.

vPQuce0.jpg
 
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Tiberian said:
But I gotta get one of those mousepads to go along with my stock certificate for 1 single share of 3dfx stock - once they became 3dfx everything just fell apart, sadly, but the owners and managers did it to themselves.
Click to expand...

I have an insider info on how things worked around there from ex employees. So, alright... While I was officially part of the 3DHQ crew, I was just going to be a tester since I have no coding or engineering know-how. We were just a group of 3Dfx enthusiasts with serious delusions of grandeur to revive 3Dfx, bringing their prototype hardware back around 2003-5 (the Rampage, to start, since it was in silicon tests). Yea, seriously lol. Our main guy had money and had contacts, such as with a guy @ QuantumD [Hank Semenec, a genius engineer from 3Dfx] and some ex 3Dfx employees. While some drivers by 'us' (I really didn't do squat of course) did come out, the thing that 3DHQ can be proud of was getting our hands on and releasing the 3Dfx source (from said ex employees) which has helped everyone else further make better and more capable drivers. AmigaMerlin had been doing drivers before that, but only with decompiled stuff and INF tweaks, so it helped him a lot. But yea, I still have some of the 3DHQ stuff somewhere, the Investors doc for sure... Actually... there are these two things but I don't quite remember what they even are of anymore, but for nostalgia sake: 3DFXTEST.DOC and Rampage_Q3D_083199.ppt (I don't have Office, or I'd look, as they've been up there since April 2008)

Anyways the inside info... 3Dfx was like Google before Google lol They'd have vacation weekends where all of the staff would hop on a plane to like Mexico or some such. Probably not international travel, but still... 20-50 employees is a big bill for a weekend getaway. I heard Scott Sellers would come in on Friday with shorts and a hawaiian shirt on to gather everyone up heh I mean from what was told, it wasn't for even making a deadline, it was just cuz... "hey we're awesome, and it's Friday!". Rockstars of the nerd world... LOL

The biggest thing I was excited to had almost gotten my hands on was a black Voodoo 5 6000s that Hank was (or did) make, since he still worked for Q3D and Q3D had gotten all of the chips when nV bought 3Dfx, to continue making/servicing the AAlchemy cards. They would've had the more advanced silicon (VSA-101) than those in engineering sample V5 5500/6Ks too, like in the AAlchemys and V4 4200, they never materialized though. I even built a Dual AthlonMP on Tyan Tiger mobo system in anticipation for it lol *cry* Then when I saw an 8132 on eBay from a recycler for $80 I pounced! Months later same seller had the 8132+SSP that I got, which I had to fight a little more to get it at a still cheap $140, given it's 2x V5 6Ks! And I'm so proud to own them, too!

Yep, good times that make for good reminiscing! Now I need sleep.... hahah (Which on that note, sorry for the rambling nature of the post, my brain is kinda shut off <_>)
 
Tiberian said:
ps
If anyone has a decent high resolution scan of the original 3Dfx logo which is on that mousepad I wouldn't mind getting a copy I could use for the silk-screening onto a mousepad, thanks.
Click to expand...
GO GO GADGET GOOGLE IMAGES! (and the Larger Than tool lol)
1920x1080 Version (a variant actually, as it's not 100% identical to that)

Might be able to easily re-create it though with this text from that logo:
3Dfx Interactive Text
 
The first one there is the one they started using at the opening of a 3D game, the second was the one used prior to that for 3D games. The original logo for the company itself was the one featured on the mouse pad, and I found a PNG version of it (albeit a small one):

3_Dfx_Logo_Transparency.png


They modified that one too and added the two-layer starburst with one yellow and one blue but I prefer the original yellow-only one as pictured above. Ain't the best version of one of those logos I've found but it's workable and I've blown it up using a pretty good rescaler to 250% of that then placed it on a black mousepad over at ArtsCow, planning to order a few of them in the coming weeks so it should be pretty cool I suppose.
 
eclypse said:
Nice thread!

Funny how ive been itching to attempt to power up my old school winxp pc thst has a voodoo 2 12mb sli.

Hopefully it dont have bad caps from sitting for the past few years..

Nothing new to me as ive done quite a few boards in the past.. easy stuff.

Ive got another rig with a voodoo 5 as well as a bunch of other 3dfx cards stored.

Fun every few years to pull out the old 21" monitor and fire up some duke3d and quake!
Click to expand...

Yup just cracked open the old rig and shined a flash light on the board and low and behold 3 blown leaked caps out of 12 of the large important ones..

So ive got a big project on my hands now.

Found a bag of 50x 2200uf 10v that will work on amazon for like $4.50 free prime shipping ;) sweet.
 
eclypse said:
Yup just cracked open the old rig and shined a flash light on the board and low and behold 3 blown leaked caps out of 12 of the large important ones..

So ive got a big project on my hands now.

Found a bag of 50x 2200uf 10v that will work on amazon for like $4.50 free prime shipping ;) sweet.
Click to expand...
Sounds like we're in the same boat. Needed several 2200uf. That is a good price. What caps are they? I went with Rubycon ZLJ series. Spendy, but figured what the hell.
 
Susquehannock said:
Sounds like we're in the same boat. Needed several 2200uf. That is a good price. What caps are they? I went with Rubycon ZLJ series. Spendy, but figured what the hell.
Click to expand...

Uxcell brand? Wont be used much. Need 12 and not willing to blow 3-5 ea on them as ive done in the past.
 
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Susquehannock said:
Rubycon caps on the way. Found caps on other boards bulging yet not burst yet. Including a few on the Abit kr7a that I am using in the Win98 rig right now. Found it interesting that all the bad caps are 6.3v, two different brands, three different 'F' values.
Click to expand...

If I recall correctly, part of the cause for the entire bad cap plague was some improper electrolyte formula got used in bulk by several manufacturers of components. There was also a plague of counterfiet caps as well i seem to recall.
 
eclypse said:
Uxcell brand? Wont be used much. Need 12 and not willing to blow 3-5 ea on them as ive done in the past.
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Was just curious. I paid 78 cents each in a lot of 10 which did not seem too bad for these particular caps.
Gman1979 said:
If I recall correctly, part of the cause for the entire bad cap plague was some improper electrolyte formula got used in bulk by several manufacturers of components. There was also a plague of counterfiet caps as well i seem to recall.
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Yes indeed. They are calling it the "Capacitor Plague" now. Wonder how many millions of dollars were wasted on dead hardware across the globe. Think it was even attributed to communication satellite failures.

>> https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capacitor_plague

[edit] - got to looking at my Abit kr7a boards. One has Teapo (Taiwan) caps that are on edge of failing. The other has Rubycon (Japan) in the same locations that all look great. Both are "version 1.0" but the logo is at different spots. Guess they were made on different production lines and/or Abit decided to switch up cap suppliers at some point.
 
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Back to the Voodoo ... runs great. Stuck it in my XP box for now and tried out five random drivers from that link posted above. Ran three tests each in 1024x768. 16 bit color & texture were 3dMark default settings. Best scores with Dozer v1.1. All other drivers were 500-700 points lower. That includes the XP native driver, and official 3dfx.
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Voodoo4.dozer.a.jpg
Voodoo4.dozer.test2.a.jpg
 
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