Back from the Dead: 3dfx's Unreleased Voodoo5 6000 Quad-GPU Card
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Date: 2023-04-08
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Comments and reviews: 15
Mr.
Really cool video! Thanks! (Warning: long-winded comment incoming, so stop reading now if you want!)
If I recall correctly, the whole idea behind the VSA-100 chips was that you could throw quite a few of them on a single board. That is, the single-chip design was never really intended to be anything more than a bargain-bin card. I think they intended to eventually release cards with more than 4 of them, but it seems like they had a lot of problems just getting those to work in the first place, and cost was an issue as going the multi-chip approach resulted in a lot of duplication of parts (probably part of the reason why the boards were so big). I have not seen that oral history panel video, so I'll have to watch it later.
3dfx's graphics were actually quite a bit of tradeoff. The original Voodoo was awesome because there was nothing like it, but Voodoo II was limited in color depth and resolution compared to its competition, along with texture size (which wasn't really a problem until later on). It made up for those things with blazing speed and super crisp visuals, but personally I think that Voodoo graphics have aged poorly. With a fast enough CPU, software rendering can match or at least get close to GLQuake, and software rendering actually looks significantly better. The 3dfx hardware texture filtering smooths stuff out a bit too much (this is also a problem with other advanced 3D hardware of the time, like the PowerVR2-based Dreamcast) making the graphics look a bit blurry and sterile. I actually prefer the more pixelated but better detailed unfiltered textures.
Although I badly wanted a Voodoo, and my friend had one, when it came time to buy my first 3D accelerator I ended up buying an Nvidia Riva 128 card, the Diamond Viper V330 4MB. I chose the Riva because it offered the best combination of performance and visual quality, along with solid DirectX support (and it was very affordable). At the time, video cards would vary quite drastically in both software support and the image they output, so certain games would look different on certain cards, or not be supported at all. It wasn't the fastest, but it was the best all-around chip. I wanted to get the best bang for my buck. DirectX had a REALLY rocky start and for a while many people expected it to be a failure (Microsoft had also been developing their own 3D accelerator technology called Talisman, which was basically dead by 1997), so Nvidia took a bit of a gamble by embracing it. The Riva 128 released right after DirectX 5, which was really the first version that was worth using.
Also, back then drivers were often handled by the board manufacturers. Canopus, for instance, was a company known for not only adding extra features to their cards (they were one of the only companies to offer a 6MB Voodoo card), but they also put a lot of extra effort in polishing their drivers to give the best performance and image quality. I think this was another problem that 3dfx overlooked when they acquired STB, as Windows drivers always seemed to be an issue once 3dfx started selling their own boards, especially with those multi-chip cards. Losing the board partners meant also losing the talented people writing their drivers.
Still, 3dfx did a lot of things that were very ahead of their time, and they single-handed created the consumer 3D accelerator market, changing the landscape of PC gaming forever. It would have happened eventually, but the original Voodoo was practically a quantum leap in 3D performance, and nothing short of revolutionary.
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Really cool video! Thanks! (Warning: long-winded comment incoming, so stop reading now if you want!)
If I recall correctly, the whole idea behind the VSA-100 chips was that you could throw quite a few of them on a single board. That is, the single-chip design was never really intended to be anything more than a bargain-bin card. I think they intended to eventually release cards with more than 4 of them, but it seems like they had a lot of problems just getting those to work in the first place, and cost was an issue as going the multi-chip approach resulted in a lot of duplication of parts (probably part of the reason why the boards were so big). I have not seen that oral history panel video, so I'll have to watch it later.
3dfx's graphics were actually quite a bit of tradeoff. The original Voodoo was awesome because there was nothing like it, but Voodoo II was limited in color depth and resolution compared to its competition, along with texture size (which wasn't really a problem until later on). It made up for those things with blazing speed and super crisp visuals, but personally I think that Voodoo graphics have aged poorly. With a fast enough CPU, software rendering can match or at least get close to GLQuake, and software rendering actually looks significantly better. The 3dfx hardware texture filtering smooths stuff out a bit too much (this is also a problem with other advanced 3D hardware of the time, like the PowerVR2-based Dreamcast) making the graphics look a bit blurry and sterile. I actually prefer the more pixelated but better detailed unfiltered textures.
Although I badly wanted a Voodoo, and my friend had one, when it came time to buy my first 3D accelerator I ended up buying an Nvidia Riva 128 card, the Diamond Viper V330 4MB. I chose the Riva because it offered the best combination of performance and visual quality, along with solid DirectX support (and it was very affordable). At the time, video cards would vary quite drastically in both software support and the image they output, so certain games would look different on certain cards, or not be supported at all. It wasn't the fastest, but it was the best all-around chip. I wanted to get the best bang for my buck. DirectX had a REALLY rocky start and for a while many people expected it to be a failure (Microsoft had also been developing their own 3D accelerator technology called Talisman, which was basically dead by 1997), so Nvidia took a bit of a gamble by embracing it. The Riva 128 released right after DirectX 5, which was really the first version that was worth using.
Also, back then drivers were often handled by the board manufacturers. Canopus, for instance, was a company known for not only adding extra features to their cards (they were one of the only companies to offer a 6MB Voodoo card), but they also put a lot of extra effort in polishing their drivers to give the best performance and image quality. I think this was another problem that 3dfx overlooked when they acquired STB, as Windows drivers always seemed to be an issue once 3dfx started selling their own boards, especially with those multi-chip cards. Losing the board partners meant also losing the talented people writing their drivers.
Still, 3dfx did a lot of things that were very ahead of their time, and they single-handed created the consumer 3D accelerator market, changing the landscape of PC gaming forever. It would have happened eventually, but the original Voodoo was practically a quantum leap in 3D performance, and nothing short of revolutionary.
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siberx4
It may not have been practical, but this thing would have been a monster if it came out. Great to see it at least living to some extent!
The video reminded me of an interesting bit of trivia: Your initial board/processor you attempted (Socket A, Athlon XP) had an unusual quirk of the platform at the time where AMD produced a line of mobile processors that fit the same socket, except they didn't actually have any separate mobile-specific fabrication lines or chip designs. In order to hit mobile power targets, they simply took their very best-binned Athlon XP desktop processors and re-ID'ed them to run at extremely low Vcore. Being very top-quality silicon meant they were still stable at these low voltages.
This meant the best way to reliably get a good overclocker in the Athlon XP era was to buy something like an Athlon XP-M 2400+ or 2500+ (preferred because of a combination of high multiplier and low rated voltage indicating high quality silicon). These chips would run stock at 1.35 or 1.4V compared to the 1.65V of their desktop equivalents, but since they were built on an identical process they could tolerate the same voltage as the desktop parts, giving massive headroom when overclocking. The high multiplier was desirable to ensure you could hit the chip's limits before you ran into bus clock limits on a given board.
These chips didn't have much of a price premium associated with them (since they needed to be realistically priced to still move units in price-conscious laptops) so they were a great deal to savvy and broke overclockers looking to build a fast gaming rig on the cheap!
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It may not have been practical, but this thing would have been a monster if it came out. Great to see it at least living to some extent!
The video reminded me of an interesting bit of trivia: Your initial board/processor you attempted (Socket A, Athlon XP) had an unusual quirk of the platform at the time where AMD produced a line of mobile processors that fit the same socket, except they didn't actually have any separate mobile-specific fabrication lines or chip designs. In order to hit mobile power targets, they simply took their very best-binned Athlon XP desktop processors and re-ID'ed them to run at extremely low Vcore. Being very top-quality silicon meant they were still stable at these low voltages.
This meant the best way to reliably get a good overclocker in the Athlon XP era was to buy something like an Athlon XP-M 2400+ or 2500+ (preferred because of a combination of high multiplier and low rated voltage indicating high quality silicon). These chips would run stock at 1.35 or 1.4V compared to the 1.65V of their desktop equivalents, but since they were built on an identical process they could tolerate the same voltage as the desktop parts, giving massive headroom when overclocking. The high multiplier was desirable to ensure you could hit the chip's limits before you ran into bus clock limits on a given board.
These chips didn't have much of a price premium associated with them (since they needed to be realistically priced to still move units in price-conscious laptops) so they were a great deal to savvy and broke overclockers looking to build a fast gaming rig on the cheap!
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Choralone422
It's pretty cool to see hard numbers of what the Voodoo5 6000 could have done if it had been released. Great dedication in putting this video together!
Back then my friends and I had been into PC gaming since the early 90's. I can still remember playing Doom deathmatch for the first time via modem right after the shareware version was released! For a couple of years in the mid 90's my best friend and I had a 10 mbit coax network setup between our houses (we lived next door to each other) with enough space setup in each house so we could do 4 vs 4 matches of Doom, Quake, Starcraft, ROTT, Duke3d, Unreal and so on. We were all huge 3dfx fans from the original Voodoo cards up until the Voodoo 3 cards. But once 3dfx bought STB we all knew it was all going to be over sooner than later. Even so, most of the 3dfx years were a lot of fun and really helped pave the way forward for 3D gaming on the PC.
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It's pretty cool to see hard numbers of what the Voodoo5 6000 could have done if it had been released. Great dedication in putting this video together!
Back then my friends and I had been into PC gaming since the early 90's. I can still remember playing Doom deathmatch for the first time via modem right after the shareware version was released! For a couple of years in the mid 90's my best friend and I had a 10 mbit coax network setup between our houses (we lived next door to each other) with enough space setup in each house so we could do 4 vs 4 matches of Doom, Quake, Starcraft, ROTT, Duke3d, Unreal and so on. We were all huge 3dfx fans from the original Voodoo cards up until the Voodoo 3 cards. But once 3dfx bought STB we all knew it was all going to be over sooner than later. Even so, most of the 3dfx years were a lot of fun and really helped pave the way forward for 3D gaming on the PC.
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bloodem
I am so glad you covered this! As a retro enthusiast, I clicked on this video as fast as I could . I have all of the 3dfx cards (multiple cards of each generation, actually), except for the Voodoo 5 6000 and Spectre prototypes (which sell for 15k - 30k, so it s safe to say I will never have one of the originals ). One small note: Never, ever, ever, under any circumstances, install the unofficial Win98 service packs (there are some specific versions, and only a few specific modules that work OK, but knowing which one works better for which platform is a science in and of itself). For all intents and purposes, the vanilla Win98SE is all you need for gaming, and the service packs don t add anything that would make your games run better. Anyway, thank you again for covering this, awesome job! Looking forward to other retro-focused videos in the future!
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I am so glad you covered this! As a retro enthusiast, I clicked on this video as fast as I could . I have all of the 3dfx cards (multiple cards of each generation, actually), except for the Voodoo 5 6000 and Spectre prototypes (which sell for 15k - 30k, so it s safe to say I will never have one of the originals ). One small note: Never, ever, ever, under any circumstances, install the unofficial Win98 service packs (there are some specific versions, and only a few specific modules that work OK, but knowing which one works better for which platform is a science in and of itself). For all intents and purposes, the vanilla Win98SE is all you need for gaming, and the service packs don t add anything that would make your games run better. Anyway, thank you again for covering this, awesome job! Looking forward to other retro-focused videos in the future!
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pamdemonia
Oh wow! Except for the gpu (I had an ati 87radeon card, I think, agp 2?) I built a system using that red msi board with the same athlon cpu, but mine worked. (lol). Thanks for stirring up some amazing memories. I still have the case, a very early LianLi aluminum full tower, and dual booted win2k and Mandrake Linux, which gave me some amazing experiences trying to get the X server to play nice with AGP, and trying to get games to install on NTFS drives in system with no native 16bit support. Luckily I had really fast (256k+) dsl so I could download a cd sized iso in less than an hour.
Wow. I am old. Thanks for the memories. You do an amazing job with these history lessons.
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Oh wow! Except for the gpu (I had an ati 87radeon card, I think, agp 2?) I built a system using that red msi board with the same athlon cpu, but mine worked. (lol). Thanks for stirring up some amazing memories. I still have the case, a very early LianLi aluminum full tower, and dual booted win2k and Mandrake Linux, which gave me some amazing experiences trying to get the X server to play nice with AGP, and trying to get games to install on NTFS drives in system with no native 16bit support. Luckily I had really fast (256k+) dsl so I could download a cd sized iso in less than an hour.
Wow. I am old. Thanks for the memories. You do an amazing job with these history lessons.
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Skoal937
Hey not to be rude but did no one tell you about the Abit BX133-raid Motherboard and the Pentium III-S Tualatin 1400 Mhz. That's what I ran my Voodoo cards with. Both are available on Ebay and I would gladly buy them for you if you would do a future video with them. This was but one of many awesome motherboards at the time. The Tualatin was iconic because it was a server CPU that ran cooler than regular Pentium III's and it work on a bunch of iconic motherboards. A video with that combo and a Voodoo 6 would get the attention of anyone that built their own systems back then. I only used Abit motherboards back then, they were so awesome.
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Hey not to be rude but did no one tell you about the Abit BX133-raid Motherboard and the Pentium III-S Tualatin 1400 Mhz. That's what I ran my Voodoo cards with. Both are available on Ebay and I would gladly buy them for you if you would do a future video with them. This was but one of many awesome motherboards at the time. The Tualatin was iconic because it was a server CPU that ran cooler than regular Pentium III's and it work on a bunch of iconic motherboards. A video with that combo and a Voodoo 6 would get the attention of anyone that built their own systems back then. I only used Abit motherboards back then, they were so awesome.
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HattoriZero
I bought my first A-Trend Helios 3D Voodoo 2 and it was amazing when playing Sierra's Homeworld and Unreal.
Riva TNT just didn't cut it for the low framerates.
I then convinced my classmate and his younger brother to buy Voodoo 3 which they played SWAT 3 on and was satisfied.
Finally I convinced my junior to purchase the 300 Voodoo 5 5500 AGP after showing him the display comparisons with GeForce 2 buggy drivers.
However, Nvidia's strategy of churning out new products every 6 months first & fix the buggy drivers later was what killed 3Dfx and got my junior above stuck with an expensive EOL Voodoo 5.
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I bought my first A-Trend Helios 3D Voodoo 2 and it was amazing when playing Sierra's Homeworld and Unreal.
Riva TNT just didn't cut it for the low framerates.
I then convinced my classmate and his younger brother to buy Voodoo 3 which they played SWAT 3 on and was satisfied.
Finally I convinced my junior to purchase the 300 Voodoo 5 5500 AGP after showing him the display comparisons with GeForce 2 buggy drivers.
However, Nvidia's strategy of churning out new products every 6 months first & fix the buggy drivers later was what killed 3Dfx and got my junior above stuck with an expensive EOL Voodoo 5.
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Richard
Ooof I bought 4 of the first Diamond VooDoo add in cards 300 a pop when Quake was patched for MP for LAN tourneys. There were other 3D cards (Verite/Matrox) come to mind and each new 3D chip had signed on game publishers which fractured the market. VooDoo outlasted most but that Glide API (which was hastily cobbled together) was doomed from the start. I used to remember the guys name responsible for producing it and even he later acknowledged its many weaknesses (no mention of him on Wiki). Microsoft's Alex St John with DirectX helped reigned it all in.
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Ooof I bought 4 of the first Diamond VooDoo add in cards 300 a pop when Quake was patched for MP for LAN tourneys. There were other 3D cards (Verite/Matrox) come to mind and each new 3D chip had signed on game publishers which fractured the market. VooDoo outlasted most but that Glide API (which was hastily cobbled together) was doomed from the start. I used to remember the guys name responsible for producing it and even he later acknowledged its many weaknesses (no mention of him on Wiki). Microsoft's Alex St John with DirectX helped reigned it all in.
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Josh
I was _all in_ on VoodooII. I had 2x 12MB Voodoo2s in SLI with a Matrox Millennium II 8MB + 8MB piggyback card. It was an amazing setup for its time! Then my house got struck by lightning, and smoked that video setup. I went out and bought a Voodoo3/3000 AGP...And the difference in performance over my old setup just wasn't there. At that point I figured out 3DFx's ship was sunk, and that was the end of them for me. :(
Thanks for the video. It was great learning a bit more about 3DFx's history, and noting some parallels with NVIDIA...
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I was _all in_ on VoodooII. I had 2x 12MB Voodoo2s in SLI with a Matrox Millennium II 8MB + 8MB piggyback card. It was an amazing setup for its time! Then my house got struck by lightning, and smoked that video setup. I went out and bought a Voodoo3/3000 AGP...And the difference in performance over my old setup just wasn't there. At that point I figured out 3DFx's ship was sunk, and that was the end of them for me. :(
Thanks for the video. It was great learning a bit more about 3DFx's history, and noting some parallels with NVIDIA...
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SK-HYJINX
My first work experience job was at a PC store with 3DFX Voodoo2's and we used Test Drive 4 to show it off. Good times, this might have even been the catalyst that made me stay up to date on graphical enhancements over the years. Good memories.
Was it Starwars Rogue Squadron that has like sooo many GPUs trying to partake in the GPU wars and not all had proper compatibility inc glitches.. etc. A few games had so many different gpu api's to cover.. not all worked well out of the box either, some missing instructions.
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My first work experience job was at a PC store with 3DFX Voodoo2's and we used Test Drive 4 to show it off. Good times, this might have even been the catalyst that made me stay up to date on graphical enhancements over the years. Good memories.
Was it Starwars Rogue Squadron that has like sooo many GPUs trying to partake in the GPU wars and not all had proper compatibility inc glitches.. etc. A few games had so many different gpu api's to cover.. not all worked well out of the box either, some missing instructions.
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Funken
This is like a trip down memory lane. (Showing my age...) I can remember when these cards came out. Back when there was no such thing as buying a card online. You had to physically go to your local Best Buy, Frys, etc., to buy a card, but that was part of the fun. I remember at the time what a shame it was that 3dfx went out of business. The Voodoo cards were the coolest and the multi chip architecture made them look like they were going to run away with the performance crown.
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This is like a trip down memory lane. (Showing my age...) I can remember when these cards came out. Back when there was no such thing as buying a card online. You had to physically go to your local Best Buy, Frys, etc., to buy a card, but that was part of the fun. I remember at the time what a shame it was that 3dfx went out of business. The Voodoo cards were the coolest and the multi chip architecture made them look like they were going to run away with the performance crown.
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Fintan
That card is amazing looking. I remember having a 3DFX Voodoo 3 and it was a beast at the time. After that I moved to Nvidia and GeForce but always remember how amazing the Voodoo was when I first installed it. Fascinating to hear your point on how Glide API was their focus and how Direct X was becoming more of a thing (which Nvidia would have supported). Great content as always guys. I must seek out that video with the 3DFX lads that you showed a few clips from.
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That card is amazing looking. I remember having a 3DFX Voodoo 3 and it was a beast at the time. After that I moved to Nvidia and GeForce but always remember how amazing the Voodoo was when I first installed it. Fascinating to hear your point on how Glide API was their focus and how Direct X was becoming more of a thing (which Nvidia would have supported). Great content as always guys. I must seek out that video with the 3DFX lads that you showed a few clips from.
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itznotmytube
This blast from the past (3dfx, Diamond, S3 oh my!) got me wondering about another big name back in the day - Creative Labs. Apparently still around, founded 41 years ago, listed only in the Singapore stock exchange. Looked up some of their offerings, and their SuperXFi stuff looks really cool! Now to look up reviews, if anyone does that :D
Regarding the video, impressive work from the maker Anthony; definitely some good engineering skills at play there!
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This blast from the past (3dfx, Diamond, S3 oh my!) got me wondering about another big name back in the day - Creative Labs. Apparently still around, founded 41 years ago, listed only in the Singapore stock exchange. Looked up some of their offerings, and their SuperXFi stuff looks really cool! Now to look up reviews, if anyone does that :D
Regarding the video, impressive work from the maker Anthony; definitely some good engineering skills at play there!
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Mike
Yea the Athlon 2600+ at 2133 MHz I fought that PR in 1998 tooth and nail the Intel ZD MDR PR as in fake Public Relation Rating System that scored competitor CPUS against Intel slower CPUs performance wise negating Davidow's Unique and Differentiated product market axiom and was Pillared by Intel, Carter, Grove , Otelinni and ZD and their National Socialist industrial fascist regime for doing it and Sanders and Z ad Krelle and all at IDT are witnesses. mb
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Yea the Athlon 2600+ at 2133 MHz I fought that PR in 1998 tooth and nail the Intel ZD MDR PR as in fake Public Relation Rating System that scored competitor CPUS against Intel slower CPUs performance wise negating Davidow's Unique and Differentiated product market axiom and was Pillared by Intel, Carter, Grove , Otelinni and ZD and their National Socialist industrial fascist regime for doing it and Sanders and Z ad Krelle and all at IDT are witnesses. mb
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Mr.
That was the card I wanted like no other back in the day, I got a Voodoo Banshee in the meantime (after having a Diamond Monster 3D II on my old PC, which I loved) to wait for it. However, the 6000 never got released and I got a 5500 later on that I never used and sold for a good profit some years later to a collector on eBay.
That Anthony guy is a genius to reverse-engineer this and actually make working cards out of NOS, just amazing.
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That was the card I wanted like no other back in the day, I got a Voodoo Banshee in the meantime (after having a Diamond Monster 3D II on my old PC, which I loved) to wait for it. However, the 6000 never got released and I got a 5500 later on that I never used and sold for a good profit some years later to a collector on eBay.
That Anthony guy is a genius to reverse-engineer this and actually make working cards out of NOS, just amazing.
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