Quantum3D Obsidian2 90-2440 3Dfx Voodoo 2 PCI Graphics / Video Card - Tested

auntjemima said:
It's used in arcade games. It doesn't require a pass thru.

Edit: and it's only a 10mb card.
Click to expand...
How does the memory layout work on this? A 2MB framebuffer for 640x480 @ 16-bit color with the remaining 8MB for texture/asset storage, or 4MB for the framebuffer with 6MB for textures?
 
Halon said:
How does the memory layout work on this? A 2MB framebuffer for 640x480 @ 16-bit color with the remaining 8MB for texture/asset storage, or 4MB for the framebuffer with 6MB for textures?
Click to expand...
It's SLI still, so the texture storage is split among the TMUs. So 2 for the framebuffer, and 4 for each TMU. Effectively, it's 4 for texture storage.

Edit: Oops, I mistook this for one of the X24s. This is not an SLI implementation. This board has the standard layout with dual TMUs, but with a meager 2MB framebuffer. So each TMU gets 4 MB, but effectively 8 for texture storage. Standard Voodoo2s were 4+4 (8MB model) or 4+8 (12MB model). This is 2+8.

tl;dr

Yes, to the former.
 
Last edited:
auntjemima said:
It's used in arcade games. It doesn't require a pass thru.

Edit: and it's only a 10mb card.
Click to expand...

Technically, you don't have to use a passthrough for any of the V1 or V2 cards. You just use switch the cable to the card, use a second monitor, use a KVM, or switch the input on your monitor. You will get a much better signal that way as the passthough bit generally degrades the image from your 2D card quite a bit.
 
cyclone3d said:
Technically, you don't have to use a passthrough for any of the V1 or V2 cards. You just use switch the cable to the card, use a second monitor, use a KVM, or switch the input on your monitor. You will get a much better signal that way as the passthough bit generally degrades the image from your 2D card quite a bit.
Click to expand...
Indeed. The passthrough was garbage. Even being heavy gauge and short the signal was trashed.

If you were fortunate enough back in the day to have a monitor with multiple inputs, that was the way to go.

There's a reason why the 3dfx Banshee was made.
 
I use the pass-through on my Voodoo II SLI setup, however on a LCD screen it doesn't look all that great.. hooking up to a CRT looks far better. I think the LCD screens try to generate too sharp of a picture and get graphical/pixel misinterpretations when displaying it to the screen because of the signal degradation.
 
w1retap said:
I use the pass-through on my Voodoo II SLI setup, however on a LCD screen it doesn't look all that great.. hooking up to a CRT looks far better. I think the LCD screens try to generate too sharp of a picture and get graphical/pixel misinterpretations when displaying it to the screen because of the signal degradation.
Click to expand...

There are two hoops to jump through for an LCD monitor that impair quality. The first is that unless you're running at the LCD's native resolution - unlikely for what a Voodoo2 setup supports - the monitor's going to have to scale input to the native resolution, and most don't do a very good job. The second problem is that the Voodoo2's outputting an analog signal, which the monitor then has to convert back to a digital signal before scaling that. There's a lot of room for quality impairment in so many steps. And as has been pointed out, the VGA passthrough cable also trashed output quality for the card being passed through the Voodoo2.

So: if you have a CRT monitor supporting multiple inputs (or a creatively managed VGA KVM), so the primary card and Voodoo2 each have their own direct ability to connect with a full quality signal, you'll be in good shape. But it was built for a bygone age, and the further away we get, the trickier it is to enjoy vintage hardware the way it was meant to be experienced.
 
Last edited:
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top