Thanks to [H]ardOCP members who visted 3Dfx collection

I remember the first time I fired up Quake2 with 3d-now enachements and SLI Voodoo2 I couldn't believe how fast it went. Greater then %50 improvement vs just the Voodoo2 SLI.
 
How do I know what my card can support? I've had a hard time learning about this card, finding drivers was a pain in itself. I've taken note of everything written on the card, maybe a 3DFX guru such as yourself can help me out.

3DFX T2 12 Rev D
2.15.06
BTI ML-1
94V-0
N2544 23E
0700
210-0382-004

Nice site btw.:)
 
3dfx cards were the best, bar none for a long time. But what made 3dfx so great was the community. So many websites, so many people in newsgroups, it really was a solid group of people that were in to 3dfx. The amount of knowledge I learned from those newsgroups really got me in to computers.

On top of that, 3dfx is still around. Every time you enable AA in a game you can thank 3dfx for that. New technology like Nvidia SLI was done years ago with the Voodoo 2 series.
 
If I ever get my voodoo 5 back I'm going to make a retro box. /has 750 mhz p3 slot 1+ 440 bx mobo + 2 sticks of 128 mb sdram + pick from windows 98 and 2k. I'm actually supposed to trade for it back froma friend, if he can find it.
 
Going to run most of the prototype cards through the following benchmarks this afternoon-

Turok
GLQuake
Quake III
Quake 3
Unreal Tournament
Return to Wolfenstein

Might run a few more as well, depends if I can find the discs.
 
I used to have duel voodoo2 setup 8 megs each sli.... then got me a geforce2 gts and said to myself geez vodoo sucks.
 
Shane said:
I used to have duel voodoo2 setup 8 megs each sli.... then got me a geforce2 gts and said to myself geez vodoo sucks.
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One would hope that a video card that was 2-3 years newer then a V2 setup would have better video quality eh?
 
Thanks, I'm tuning up the benchmarks page now with notes on the cards and some screenshots.
 
Heh I still got my 2xCanopus Pure3D 2s 12MB versions. Cost me $600... worth every penny :)
 
We can get a whole retro community up, that would be awesome! Can't wait to see the benchmarks page either.
 
Picked up a Quantum3D AAlchemy card this week- eight VSA-100 chips on a single board with 512 megs of ram =)

Now to get the beast running...

aalchemy_8164_front_l.sized.jpg
 
I am proud to add myself as a member of this "tribe".

I had a Diamond 8mb Voodoo2, and loved it at the time. My retro box was a p2-350@490 and 256mb of SDRAM.

However, I had good fortune on my side. My Voodoo2 broke and I sent it in for RMA. I got back two. Could you believe my joy, I got to climb the ranks into the SLI territory! 1024x768 goodness.


Ironically, all these years later, you can use a voodoo2 in XP as a secondary graphics card in 2d mode! It's true, the Voodoo2 can run the windows desktop.
 
Anyone out there with a Obsidian 100SB with SHADE modules?

I'm looking for a 100SB-4440 or a pair of modules.
 
Doward said:
Benchmarks on the 8 way VSA-100!! NOW!! :p
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Well I would have to get it running first! Have to make up a power supply for the beast as it uses external power connections.

I am working on my Mercury brick this week though, have a box setup with NT4 (what the Merc drivers support) and have been tinkering. Missing an input/output header and I'm waiting to hear from another Merc owner if I can borrow theirs so I can duplicate the piece.

Eight Voodoo II chipsets is about as [H]ard as it gets boys ;-)

Though if I can get that AAlchemy board with 512 MB of ram working.....hmmm...

q3d_merc_top_full.sized.jpg
 
lithium726 said:
:eek: holy freakin crap! im presuming htat is a 4way SLi setup? i never ever knew that existed!
Click to expand...

Link to pic fixed.

Each card (200SBi) has Two Voodoo II chipsets linked in SLI mode on one PCB and there are four cards with a controller module up top.

8 V2 chipsets with a whopping 96 mb of 125 mhz ram.

Even better- You can daisy chain (sync lock) units together and run them in clusters.
 
My god, did that Quantum3D Mercury actually work (well)? I dont remember hearing anything about that back in the day, it would have been godly. I was quite content with my SLI 12mb Voodoo2s then. Good memories of working my arse off for 1/2 a summer to afford them :p

PS: Thanks for the work you are doing to preserve the memory of 3DFX. I wish they were still around :(
 
saturnine2 said:
My god, did that Quantum3D Mercury actually work (well)?
Click to expand...

Don't have it up and functioning yet, missing output cable and board for monitor hookup. I did dissassemble the brick and test each card individually, they all work =)

The big deal with Mercury it was the first setup to do full screen anti-aliasing, matter of fact the VSA-100 AA and some other features of the chipset were demostrated on Mercury hardware first..
 
mercury_front.sized.jpg

mercury_open_front.sized.jpg


I have a whole system up and running now guys, works pretty sweet!

Quake3 with automatic 4x rotated grid anti-aliasing and motion blur effect is pretty awesome. I have a buddy who has friends ;-) whipped up a custom open gl driver for Doom 3 I'm going to try out this weekend.
 
ShuttleLuv said:
I think *personally*, the Voodoo2 SLI was the greatest videocard ever from 3dfx. Man, a truly killer setup then was a Celeron 300a @ 450 ( in my case, 464 :) ), 128 mb of PC100, a nice BX6 or BH6 mobo from Abit, and a SB Live.


Great site btw. :cool:
Click to expand...

I remember those days :p Time flies.
 
Damn I remember those days...

I remember seeing 3dfx cards at CompUSA, and dreaming of owning one. I didnt even know exactly what they did, all I knew was that they gave you a really nice picture on your monitor when you played Doom 2 :p.

I remember talking about these cards with freinds and saying how badly I wanted a Voodoo 5500...

Ah...t0hs3 were t3h days...
 
Doward said:
Benchmarks on the 8 way VSA-100!! NOW!! :p
Click to expand...

1) I'm pleased to report that the 8 way VSA-100 card is 100% functional and if I'm really lucky will be running benchmarks on it in two weeks. (Still waiting on custom power supply)

2) So far Mercury runs anything I can throw at it that runs Glide or OpenGL under NT4. The problem isn't so much Mercury but what will run under NT4! So far the newest game that I have run on it is Jedi Knight II Outcast and Return to Castle Wolfenstein but when I have time I'm going to try and run Medal of Honor later this week since it's a Quake 3 engine game.

A list of games tested so far is here-

http://www.thedodgegarage.com/3dfx/q3d_mercury_gamefaq.htm

Going to fool with a dual boot Win2000Pro setup and see if some of the DirectX rendering titles will work there (The Merc drivers work in W2k) as old timers will know, NT doesn't support any DirectX hardware rendering.

3) Doing a second benchmark page in a few weeks now that I have obtained the fastest platform that will support AGP 3dfx cards (Epox MB with KT333 and Barton 3000+ with 333 mhz bus) Blows the old 1000 mhz celery I ran the first benchmarks with into the weeds.

4) Like the newest 3dfx powered "item"? Price was too cheap to pass up.

blitzmain.gif
 
Great site...
Brings back some memories.
I remember upgrading from a Matrox M3d to a Stingray 128.
I stayed with 3dfx all the way up to a Voodoo3, then went to Nvidia.
Still have my Voodoo2 somewhere around here.
 
QwertyJuan said:
hey... how come my cards aren't mentioned on that site?? I feel left out.
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Nothing unique about them, just reference design boards (there is 3 listed on the big list page)
 
No direct X rendering at all for any V2 under NT or 2000, so much for that idea!
 
wow, you have a rampage...


excuse my french, but that is fuckin' awesome! does it work correctly? benchmarks!!
 
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