3dfx Voodoo 3 is now 20 years old!
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- čas přidán 4. 04. 2019
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The other day I found an old PC on the street. took it home to open it and to my surprise, it had a voodoo3 2000 alongside an AMD K6-2 500MHz processor with 128MB of RAM, and a 10gb WD hard drive!
Wow, what a find!
I wish I had your luck
so now you have to give it to me
did it fire up?
hey！give me back my computer!
Voodoo 3 is also solid constructed. My exactly same version was left in the barn on a rural village and after three winters (under -40, this is Siberia) it was still alive and could run Half-Life and Unreal even with overcloking. However, one year later Voodoo died... Long live the Voodoo!
I had a Voodoo 3 3000 agp back then. Good times! I remember the day I bought it like it was yesterday. I feel old now lol
Same here, as well as having regrets you got rid of it instead of keeping it.
Ditto! Wish I had kept it now!
I was 6 years old when i got my pair of stb voodoo 2s for sli man that was an amazing birthday XD. I thankfully kept all my computer hardware and game consoles so I still have those v2s in my Slot A Athlon windows 98 rig :D
-My dad found one thrown out on the street-
me 2 i still have my 3dfx 3000 agp
I have many PC's but my Voodoo 3 / Pentium 3 rig definitely holds a place in my heart. :)
I'm still rocking a Voodoo 5500 in one of my Windows 98 machines! :D
You got a sweet card there! I would love to have that. Keep that collectors item safe.
@@SimmeringPotpourri The V5 5500 isn't really a collectors item, it's just been overhyped and price gouged by "retro" gamers. For well over a decade after 3dfx went bankrupt, you could get a V5 5500 on Ebay for a reasonable price under $100. Now they sometimes go for more than the original MSRP which is ridiculous.
3dfx cards which were collectible were the non-standard configurations like 6/8 MB Voodoo1 cards, 12/16/24 MB Voodoo2 cards, any Quantum3D gear and the Voodoo5 6000. There are also around 5 Spectre engineering boards out in the wild.
Many 3dfx cards are now suffering the same problem as Apple Macintosh machines from the mid 90s with leaking/dead SMD electrolytic capacitors. I've already had to completely recap my V5 5500 and a couple of my V3 cards. Unless you have skill reworking SMD parts, it's a crapshoot if you'll get a working card, or a marginal card that works now but fails down the line. The caps start leaking because the rubber plugs in the base dry rot and either let the electrolyte out, or let air in to dry it out and the capacitor dies.
Thanks for the reply guys. I got it around 10 years ago in as new condition for $50 (which I felt was expensive at the time but really wanted it). The caps are still good surprisingly! I have a capacitor ESR (equivalent series resistance) meter so I can check to see if the caps are still healthy whilst still on the graphics card. If they do go bad, I’ll just recap it, no biggie. 👍🤓
I have had one of those too and regret selling it after I had it in a retro machine for just a year or so. This was back in 2006 when the card were not as expensive. Now I kinda miss it. But I'll not pay the money people want for it today.
@@PierreVonStaines It's not possible to accurately check capacitance or equivalent series resistance while a capacitor is in circuit.
At least one leg of the capacitor has to be disconnected, and that's not easy with crusty two decade year old SMD caps.
This was my first major 3D-accelerated GPU. God-damn, I'm old....
the voodoo 2 was more spectacular mind blowing jaw dropping when it first came out
I have 2 Voodoo 3 3000 AGP cards, 1 Voodoo 3 1000 AGP, a Voodoo Banshee AGP and a Voodoo 1 PCI card. They are all in different retro builds and I am holding on to them. I never had them in the past but experiencing them now in 2019 is a joy. I see why people loved them in the 90s.
...and what a time to be alive! 3DFX hardware was something else. It was doing things with graphics that could only be dreamt of with other systems
At the start yes but by the time Voodoo 3 came out 3dfx were already falling apart and falling behind. The Voodoo 3 line traded blows with the RIVA TNT2 but only months later the GeForce 256 came out and that was it for 3dfx.
I'll always have a soft spot for 3dfx though and my Windows 98 PC has a Voodoo 3 2000 installed in it.
I vividly remember running Quake 2 on a 3DFX voodoo 2 and I was blown away!
I will never forget my friends face when he saw me playing Need4Speed with my V3 3000 the first time.
Omg, the dust looks so real... 20 years later i still own it and it has its vip place on the wall, that good old mate.
The late 90's and early 2000's was definitely good times in PC gaming and hardware. Brings back memories.
On my first PC back in 98 I had a 3S Virge , then I got a Voodoo Banshee when my good neighbor gave me his as a present when he bought his Voodoo 3 :).
I wish I had neighbors like that :-)
_Everything Just Works._
You sound like a mac fan 😂
@@zilog1 It was a parody of Jensen Huang and I've never used any product made by Apple, believe it or not.
I was never fortunate to own a 3dfx card. During the late 90s I had a NVIDIA Riva TNT. I loved that card and then I eventually moved on to the GeForce2.
"Just works" is a great description. Simple drivers, simple configuration, really didn't need to tweak anything for games that supported it. This appears to be the case from the V2 all the way to the V5 in my experience.
i still have mine, and my 5500 AGP, and their boxes/kit
great cards and experiences
I had a voodoo 2 banshee and it was rock solid.That was the good old days.
In the late 90's/early 2000's, our family computer was a Compaq desktop. When we started having issues, I called tech support, and it was determined that the issue was caused by a faulty graphics card. For some reason, they couldn't replace it with an identical card, so they sent us a Voodoo3 3500! Imagine my shock to see it featured in this video!
Five years ago I bought my first 3dfx card, a Voodoo 3 2000 PCI and I installed it in a mini tower pc with a s370 P3 800MHz and a SB Live! 5.1. This is also my first retro pc and probably the most unique as it is running Win ME! I also have another drive installed in this system with WinXP. Total amount of games running in this system? 65!
I had a couple of Voodoo 1 cards (Diamond 4mb and Canopus 6mb), two Voodoo 2 in SLI (Diamond), a Voodoo 3 3000, and a Voodoo 3 3500 TV. I have sold off the Voodoo 1 (Canopus) and the Voodoo 3 3500 TV, but I still have the others. I remember proudly displaying my "I Got A Canopus" sticker on my 17-in. CRT. Not only do I feel old... I am old!
my first 3D card. 2nd hand. Good memories. Half-life, AvP, Thief, Uneal, UT, Q1, 2, 3, Wheel Of Time,, and others. A great time for games.Then sold it to buy a 2nd hand Voodoo 5.
Played a lot of Quake 3 with my 3500 AGP. Ah, the days!
Screamer 4x4 still has great driving physics and car modelling even today.
descent 3 was the reason i bought my voodoo3 back in the day. loved seeing it in your video!
I remember buying that same card a 16 mb pci voodoo card from Walmart in July of 1999. Remember I installed it in a Compaq Presario desktop PC that we bought in April of 1998.
The Vodoo Banshee was my only 3dfx card. It was a night and day difference in games to the Matrox Mystic II which I had before. Seeing Phil play all these popular older games brings back memories. :)
Still have my first machine that I put together back in 99 collecting dust in my closet. ASUS MB, Pentium II 400 mhz, Sound Blaster 64, altec speakers w/ subwoofer, and of course the 3dfx voodoo III 3000. I was the envy of all my friends, for about 3 months lol.
I had a Voodoo Banshee. I wanted a Voodoo 3, then I wanted a Voodoo 5. Much to my great sadness, 3dfx went bankrupt. By the time I could afford an upgrade that was any good, the GeForce 4 was out.
I had the banshee too, mine came with a 3DFX version of mechwarrior :D good times.
Voodoo 3 3000 16MB AGP was the card I ran back then. It was paired with a Pentium II 266MHz at first but that was swapped for a Pentium III 700MHz (which I ran at 933MHz). Those were good times.
Man, I loved that video card.
When I got it, It was a dream come true. I wish I still have it.
Wow I can't believe it's been 20 years since I had this card. I had the Voodoo Rush which was a single card solution for 2D/3D. I skipped the Voodoo 2 and picked up the Banshee. I had the Voodoo 3 3000 AGP and the Voodoo 5 5500 AGP.
I remember my first 3dfx card! It was a Voodoo Banshee. Beautiful times!
Hard to believe it's been 20 years. I bought mine from a local game shop. Time sure does tick on.
Owned a 3dfx voodoo 3 2000 PCI (replaced an S3 virge DX), and the first time I played unreal and UT99 and walking up to a wall or a box and seeing the added effect of texture was amazing for back in the day (something you didn't talk about in the video).
Never had a 3d accelerator back in the day. Had to make do with a 2mb S3 trio :) But I remember reading many magazines about the Voodoo's and TNT's.
The Voodoo 3 silicon was meant to be branded as the Voodoo Banshee 2, But the delay in the vsa-100 silicon that was later branded as Voodoo 4/5 meant 3dfx had to create a stopgap model to compete with the Nvidia riva Tnt 2. and thus, the Voodoo 3 was born.
And Anti aliasing, And texture compression etc etc..
I have 2 of 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000 AGP both came from a Gateway 2000 PCs. One of them is still in one. I am privileged to have them as well. Its the 2D/3D card that just works for mid/late 90s era of PC gaming.
I was one of those people who had 3DFX everything. If they released it, I got one. The Banshee was the best Voodoo2 model as it was a combined 2D/3D card. With the 3000 series, I knew about the 3500TV version ahead of time and waited for it. Worth the wait as it was the best of the Voodoo3 series. The 5500 was the pinnacle 3DFX card. After 3DFX was bought by NVidia, I switched over to ATI Radeon cards.
To paraphrase sweeney Todd, at last! my week is complete again.
So many memories :) :) :) I had PCI Voodoo 2 first, through and S3Trio card and then I got a VooDoo 5500 AGP which was so expensive at the time, it took me three paydays to pay it off but it looked amazing :) Thanks Phil keep up the great content :)
Around that time I had an older Mac with just a 75mhz PPC processor that I mainly used for graphics design (studied that), and when I needed a new monitor the sales guy mentioned that I might need a better graphics card to support it's resolutions. And handed me a Voodoo 3 2000, which not only got unofficial-official Mac support by 3dfx by that time with a set of beta drivers, but was also dirt cheap compared to anything else on the Mac market. And what can I say, it turned my old Mac into a gaming machine! Of course there weren't too many Mac games, but Tomb Raider 3, Unreal Tournament etc. ran so incredibly well on that old CPU thanks to GLIDE that I quickly spent my time more in games than in design. This was an incredible card. :)
A memorable company in late 90's and early 00's gaming. One who's namesake I've bastardized and used to this day!
Switching to 3dfx was a thing. Everything became so smooth...
I had the exclusive UK rights to sell the Voodoo 3 cards to the trade at launch, as I recall we sold the first 3,000+ cards in the first 2 hours of launch, I still have one of the Schott bomber jackets with the 3dfx logo on the sleeve that we made for the promotion, I think we only had 25 made, so I guess I might think of putting it on eBay :) it's in mint condition too.
My first big box store PC purchase was from Gateway back in late '99. I went for the Pentium 3 @ 450 mhz, combined with 256 megs of PC100. And the Voodoo 3 3000 with 16 megs of dedicated video ram!
I kept that system up and running well into the mid 2000's with CPU and RAM upgrades. Upgraded to an ATI Radeon 7800 for a brief period. Then got the big dog.
An nVidia Geforce ti 4600 with 128 meg.
When a friend of mine invited me to play Half-Life on his computer with 3dfx voodoo in 1999, my mind was blown away and my jaw was near the ground - the graphics was outstanding! It was better than on my computer. Even now when I replay HL on my today's PC, the textures seem to be worse than on my friend's PC with 3dfx. Maybe it's a cognitive peculiarity ))
Also thanks for Clive Barker's Undying! It was my favourite game back in the days!
I think modern card are bad for retro 3D games
3dfx cards have certain filters in the RAMDAC stage and you'll also have played on a CRT display back then so those things could make the difference compared to the look of HL on today's hardware.
My first Voodoo 1 card was Canopus 3D that has 6MB of memory. Until I installed an Nvidia TNT II ultra. Nowadays I own a Voodoo 3 1000 (8MB) on my windows 98 PC just to play old games.
For Win98 gaming i collecting for myself pc with K6-3+@570 on 112.5 fsb + new voodoo 3 3000 + 256 pc133 ram. Maybe a cpu ist not enough powerful for voodoo, but i think is still balanced system
I just found my Voodoo 3 2000 recently. haven't loaded it up yet but hopefully soon see it in action. Messing with my FX 5500 PCI graphics atm. Thanks for the video PhilsComputerLab for the review!
Tnx for noticing Phil ! :) , have a voodoo 3 3000 in one of my pc's .
Man I feel old af, my first graphics card was the voodoo 2 and the second was a voodoo 3 3000. It was a long time ago now!
Loved this video. Great job Phil!
Wow, Clive Barker's Undying looks great for a game of that era and hardware. I never played it.
I worked at Electronics Boutique when that game was released :-)
I remember those cards. Always read about them in Boot magazine (Later maximum PC). My first 3D gpu was the Nvidia Riva 128 on my K6-233 cpu. Those were the days alright.
I had voodoo 1 (Monster 1) and 2 (Monster 2) (I was Diamond Multimedia´s fan), best years.
Such a professionally well made video. I am impressed. Good job and a sub well earned!
Need to get one of these, asap!! ;) Awesome video, Phil! Thanks!
Seeing the 3dfx icon on my Windows 98 system tray brings me endless joy.
24 now, but still going strong!❤️
A few days ago I dug up my 20 years old V3 2000 :)
Wow. Doesn't seem like all that long ago when I was secretly installing a Voodoo 2 on my folks' PC and taking it out again when I wanted to play Rogue Squadron 3D. I think I had just started working at CompUSA at the time. Cheers for the video.
I remember I had the V3 3000, i lapped the heatsink and put Arctic silver thermal paste on the GPU then added two CPU fans on the heatsink. then I overclocked the hell out of it. It was a wonderful card for its time. Later I upgraded to a Radeon then returned it the next day because it was actually slower.
I was a small kid when these were out, so thanks for this vid! Gives me ideas on cards to collect, overclock, and benchmark!
Just don't overclock the top of the line models of V3 and later, they are already running close to the edge on factory settings.
@@armorgeddon i'd be able to push it further anyhow. cap mods and other mods i can do would let that happen.
Thank You! Philscomputerlab. You have been a great experience on my own build's. win9x will live on with your videos. Again, Thanks >>>>>>
I still have one of these floating around. I'm glad that you don't have to download custom drivers/patches for every game anymore. That got annoying with 28.8k dialup AOL.
Back then our first Family PC had an ATI Rage 128. I bought my first Voodoo card a 2 or 3 years ago and I opted to go High-End with the 5500. Love that card, makes playing those game from the 90's a real pleasure. But I have to say that it feels a bit weird that the card supported 1920x1080 out of the box and seeing the Win98 Desktop in that resolution knowing that a old card is doing it is something else.
It's like running win3.11 @1024x768x256colors, looks awesome
One of the best graphics cards ever I still miss that company
Hi Phil great video used a Voodoo 2 back in Australia, but these days still using my old Voodoo 3 300 had since new. Still using it on a Pentuim 4 1.7 ghx with a AGP 2x.still having a lot of fun with it CHEERS Pete from Turkey mate.
Great video! Although this really made me miss my Voodoo 3 3000 & AMD K6-2 450Mhz build which was my very first own computer I bought with the money I earned and put together myself. Sadly got rid of it many moons ago because didn't think I would have any use for it anymore. Little did I know that retro gaming would become a thing I like to do...
Also: God damn I feel old now! :D
I kept my voodoo2 way past its use by date, only upgrading to a nvidia TNT2 ultra after they'd come down in price. I remember the 3Dfx cards weren't coming down in price as fast as the nvidia cards, so the TNT2 cards were better value later on. Although I probably should've waited a little longer and bought a GeForce256 DDR. These days the 3Dfx cards are much more expensive than TNT2 cards, probably even GeForce cards, so it is difficult for us retro enthusiasts to experience them again, except through CZcams!
The Old Need for Speed Games love the Voodoo Cards. Cool video, I cant wait till it gets warm outside so I can dig through all my old Pentium iii stuff, I have a LOT of parts just sitting there & a couple Voodoo cards among that stuff.
This was my first GPU that actually turned my 233mhz machine into a gaming beast!
Voodoo 3 near and dear. First video card I ever bought and 1st PC upgrade dyi ever. After playing quake before and after Voodoo 3, mind blown.
Thanks for your nice review, I like this card because it's the last card supporting glide dos games with less troubles.
Basically Voodoo cards, especially Voodoo 3 series, can be called "Old reliable" when it comes to retro gaming.
I have been a happy owner of 1, 2 & 3. (3-3000 AGP)
1 & 2 paired with Matrox Mystique 4MB
Both Orchid Righteous 3D
Yea, every single 3dfx card I have, still works!
I have a voodoo 3 2000 in my retro gaming PC.
I remember buying the Voodoo 1 back in the day, it was my first 3D Accelerator used it for a few years before switching to a Nvidia TNT2 Ultra 16MB.
I still had the card up until 5 years ago when I had to clear out the garage it was stored in and it went to hard rubbish.
What a great times, late 90' and early 00' .still remember my voodoo cards(banshee and v5 5500) and games I have played like it was yesterday..yet don't remember 2013 r9 270x(good card) and games I played with..
I remember being so psyched getting that card.
My first exposure to anything 3DFX was when i was looking for a way to improve the performance of Diablo 2 and it was suggested to me that i try the Glide Wrapper for it. I had heard that Diablo 2 was a Glide game with D3D tacked on but i didn't know what that meant until i used the Glide Wrapper with it.
I'm surprised how nice the image quality is with this card, very smooth and clean. I remember hearing about how Sega was considering the 3dfx Voodoo graphics tech for the Dreamcast, but went with NEC PowerVR instead and tanked 3dfx stock price in the process IIRC.
Cool! this brings back memeories!
I played soooooo much Red Baron 3d with the 2 8 meg Voodoo 2's. The 3 was considered a weak upgrade at the time and although it didn't do Glide, the TNT was the winner and so I upgraded. Not too much longer they got bought out. Still, at the time the VooDoo's had a significant advantage.
Thanks Phil. I still have mine. They are really expensive now.
I was lucky and had a friend that worked for STB so had a 3000 and then an early 5500 prototype. It was a very happy time. I wish I still had them but left them at an ex’s without realising a long time ago.
VooDoo3 1000 is also an OEM variant of the lineup which performs similarly to a 2000 and can sometimes be overclocked to reach that performance, but an aftermarket heatsink would help greatly since I know of no 1000 equipped with a heatsink.
I had a Voodoo 3 3000 PCI as my mom's Sony Vaio PC didn't have an AGP slot. Still really great for games at the time.
3DFX Voodoo was what got me hooked into 3D gaming. My first 3D card was a Canopus Pure3D with 6mb memory. It was then followed by a Voodoo Banshee. My last Voodoo card was the Voodoo 3 2000 before finally moving to an Nvidia Geforce2 MX 256 since by that time 3DFX unfortunately kicked the bucket already.
Amazing how time flies! I had the 3dfx Voodoo 3 3000, it had the same heatsink as yours but was a lower profile card! It was my first real 'performance' game playing video card. Cost around £60? I think it was 16mb a big jump from my previous 1mb video card!!
I actually have one in an old system I picked up that was being thrown out! It's similar size card to yours but has a smaller black heatsink!
I've heard they're quite sought after and going for a good price?
I recently sold a couple of older video cards, an s3 Virge dx and an ATI Rage 2 + DVD think it was 4mb? Both cards got snapped up very quickly and I could have sold it several times over, had lots of enquiries! 😯😁👍😎
13usd for voodoo3 3500? omg, now its different story :)
Damn time flies..
Oh man, Screamer 4x4. I remember when that game brought my PC to its knees.
Ah memories. My first dedicated GPU, a Voodoo 3 3000. My first ever game I played on it was the original Thief. Looked like someone smeared vasoline over a PS1 game but it was jaw dropping to me back then. Also bought a 3dfx gaming mouse pad, promised improved mouse movement and I believed it.
I no longer have my retro gaming PC, but for some reason I decided to keep my STB Voodoo 3. It’s amazing to see how far we’ve come in terms of technology, and of course game development.
Seeing that ebay listing for 13 dollars makes me wanna cry as someone getting into the hobby makes me wanna cry lol
I know right?
I had a Voodoo3 3500 back in the day and that same Samsung HDD a few years later on.
My V3 was the standard version with the TV controller, but I added active cooling to the heatsink and got the card to run at 209 MHz. I think the RAM finally crapped out when I went higher. But I ran that card for a very long time because I liked the TV features.
I had the Vodoo Banshee back in the day.
Picked a 3500 up for cheap back in 2000. Replaced my 8 Meg ATI All in Wonder. Though I think back the ATI was a bit better colour wise the 3500 was fast.
Used to put it against my friends tnt2 and it was close. Man serious Sam ran like a bomb on it.
Really odd how it's been almost twenty years, doesn't feel like it.
I owned a voodoo 2, 3 3500, and a 5 5500. Ah, the memories 😊
I had a Voodoo Banshee, which got me from 1998 until about 2003 or so.
I bought a voodoo 2 12mb at a Best Buy for some odd amount, like $83 new. I remember the "new electronics smell" was really strong. Man! That was back when Best Buy was more like circuit city and sold loads of pc games and their use to be entire departments for enthusiasts. Now its all appliances and phones and entire departments have been reduced to a little bit of shelf space with no selection anymore.... That card was AWESOME! I'd go to the grocery store and buy computer and gaming magazines for the pc demo disks inside and my voodoo card felt so bad ass lol... Im old haha
Oh yea, game demo CDs with magazines... Good times.