3DFX's Unreleased Rampage GPU Lives On in 2019

AlphaAtlas

AlphaAtlas

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Before 3dfx was shut down, they started developing a "Rampage" GPU that never saw the light of day. Even though the Rampage cards didn't enter mass production, a couple of prototypes were made, and Oscar Barea and Martin Gamero Prieto got their hands on one for their upcoming book on the history of 3dfx. Now, footage of a living, breathing "Rampage 2000" GPU running Quake and other 3D titles for a couple of seconds has appeared on YouTube, suggesting that the company made at least partially functional drivers for the GPU before they went under.

Check out the testing videos here.
 
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That's awesome. My sophomore year of college my roommate got a box in the mail from his parents. It had his 6MB Canopus Pure3D card and Quake 2. He installed into his full tower with the Pentium 120 and he fired up Quake2 on his 21" Viewsonic. We were blown away.

Then I went back to playing Jedi Knight on my lowly Cyrix-powered Pentium Clone ("as fast as a Pentium 75!") on my tiny 13" Packard Bell monitor. :(
 
AlphaAtlas said:
...
Now, footage of a living, breathing "Rampage 2000" GPU running DOOM and other 3D titles for a couple of seconds has appeared on YouTube, suggesting that the company made at least partially functional drivers for the GPU before they went under.

Check out the testing videos here.
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By DOOM, do you actually mean Quake (original)? Because I didn’t see Doom, Doom 3, or DOOM in either of those videos...
 
Hostile said:
That's awesome. My sophomore year of college my roommate got a box in the mail from his parents. It had his 6MB Canopus Pure3D card and Quake 2. He installed into his full tower with the Pentium 120 and he fired up Quake2 on his 21" Viewsonic. We were blown away.

Then I went back to playing Jedi Knight on my lowly Cyrix-powered Pentium Clone ("as fast as a Pentium 75!") on my tiny 13" Packard Bell monitor. :(
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Jedi Knight was the first 3d accelerated game I ever played. Monster 3d (4meg ATI card). Seeing a game look that good and play at like 800x600 was mind blowing. I am pretty sure this is what really made me switch from console to PC. I was split at the time but boy...it only got better.
 
I don't know why, but I really miss supporting Win95/98SE in a production environment. While it was a PAIN IN THE ASS, I still had challenges back then that I really don't see today in basic support.
 
3dfx presence is surely missed in the pc space. My Voodoo 5 5500 was probably one of the most enjoyable gpu's I ever had. I remember stalking the 3dfx forums for a big announcement and everyone was expecting it to be Rampage. But it turned out it was bankruptcy and acquisition.

It's a shame the brand is dead forever.
 
Hostile said:
That's awesome. My sophomore year of college my roommate got a box in the mail from his parents. It had his 6MB Canopus Pure3D card and Quake 2. He installed into his full tower with the Pentium 120 and he fired up Quake2 on his 21" Viewsonic. We were blown away.

Then I went back to playing Jedi Knight on my lowly Cyrix-powered Pentium Clone ("as fast as a Pentium 75!") on my tiny 13" Packard Bell monitor. :(
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I had a Canopus 6MB too!
 
The erek dude could probably tell more, but I could have sworn there was working rampages with very crappy drivers running games like 10 years ago.
 
20190312_155349_resized.jpg
BloodyIron said:
Neat but was hoping for some shots of the card too
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Ok.

20190317_150828_resized.jpg
 
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TrailRunner said:
By DOOM, do you actually mean Quake (original)? Because I didn’t see Doom, Doom 3, or DOOM in either of those videos...
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Doom will run but it is software after all ;-)

Will run GLQuake, Quake II and Quake III Arena with OpenGL wrapper. Basically a new Direct 3D part with a Voodoo 3 2d core.
 
RaptormanUSMC said:
3dfx presence is surely missed in the pc space. My Voodoo 5 5500 was probably one of the most enjoyable gpu's I ever had. I remember stalking the 3dfx forums for a big announcement and everyone was expecting it to be Rampage. But it turned out it was bankruptcy and acquisition.

It's a shame the brand is dead forever.
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Me to, I was sad
 
BloodyIron said:
Thanks! What's with the Dsub Donglie bit?
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Due to a bug in the chip the DAC output is reversed (high is low and low is high)

So a dongle is needed to display the correct output.

Here is a screen shot of what it looks like with no dongle and a early home made dongle version.
 

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Neat! Thanks! :D

gdonovan said:
Due to a bug in the chip the DAC output is reversed (high is low and low is high)

So a dongle is needed to display the correct output.

Here is a screen shot of what it looks like with no dongle and a early home made dongle version.
Click to expand...
 
Nauseous said:
Why does it say the release date for the driver is 6-15-2013?
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That was the last time I was tinkering with drivers, been busy since. Well always busy but my hobbies are like on a carousel and I give it a spin and will pickup something different to keep me occupied for a few years before doing something else.

Last 2 years picked up on restoring vintage pinball machines, had over 30 pass through the garage area.
 

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I thought the era of 3DFx was an awesome time to be on the PC. I had a Monster 3D then upgraded to two Monster 2's in SLI. (Looking back, I can't remember how I could afford this as I was in college...)
 
I loves me some 3dfx nostalgia. I had so many of them. But even if they get drivers sorta working here, this is a 2000 era card. Probably about the same performance ballpark as Geforce GTS maybe not even Geforce 2. ie - not as good now as the integrated intel stuff. So don't have high hopes unless the goal is just to play Q3A at 1024x768
 
Burticus said:
I loves me some 3dfx nostalgia. I had so many of them. But even if they get drivers sorta working here, this is a 2000 era card. Probably about the same performance ballpark as Geforce GTS maybe not even Geforce 2. ie - not as good now as the integrated intel stuff. So don't have high hopes unless the goal is just to play Q3A at 1024x768
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MEGA SIGH

The point is to get a rare card, that was never completed and had no drivers available, working.
 
auntjemima said:
MEGA SIGH

The point is to get a rare card, that was never completed and had no drivers available, working.
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I love it from a nostalgia point of view. It's just pointless. But people need hobbies, I get it.

FYI the reason there are no drivers is Nvidia put the smack down on ANY further development for this stuff after the acquisition. There were drivers. We're just not allowed to see them. :)
 
Compddd said:
I had a Canopus 6MB too!
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Hah, that's a brand name from the past! I used to have something from them but cannot remember what now. Used to have a Gigabyte 4200Ti and back then when it went for RMA, they actually resoldered the caps. ;) From that era I was very excited about 3dfx Voodoo Banshee with 12MB VRAM, it was a beast for Unreal Tournament. I still have it somewhere. The only exciting board slightly after it was a GeForce 2 GTS. It was kind of crazy at the pace video cards were advancing at that time. Good times!
 
Burticus said:
I love it from a nostalgia point of view. It's just pointless. But people need hobbies, I get it.

FYI the reason there are no drivers is Nvidia put the smack down on ANY further development for this stuff after the acquisition. There were drivers. We're just not allowed to see them. :)
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I would say that I probably know 99% of everything there is to know about 3dfx.
 
Burticus said:
I love it from a nostalgia point of view. It's just pointless. But people need hobbies, I get it.

FYI the reason there are no drivers is Nvidia put the smack down on ANY further development for this stuff after the acquisition. There were drivers. We're just not allowed to see them. :)
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When Nvidia purchased 3dfx assets they specifically excluded having to provide any driver support for legacy product.

Released or unreleased of course. Why on earth would Nvidia spend any money on driver development on a product that was never released?
 
Bigbacon said:
Jedi Knight was the first 3d accelerated game I ever played. Monster 3d (4meg ATI card). Seeing a game look that good and play at like 800x600 was mind blowing. I am pretty sure this is what really made me switch from console to PC. I was split at the time but boy...it only got better.
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Until you experience Jedi Knight on a 2MB S3 Virge, you can't appreciate the voodoo.
 
M76 said:
Until you experience Jedi Knight on a 2MB S3 Virge, you can't appreciate the voodoo.
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Or the difference between software Quake at 320 x 240 x 256 colors vs GLQuake at 640 x 480 x 16 bit.

Newcomers just can't grasp the leap in quality that happened in such a short span of time.

From gaming at 320 x 240 (OR LESS) to 1024 x 768 x 32 bit in the span of 3-4 years effectively.
 
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