Voodoo3
Drivers Friday, April 30th
3Dfx
has just released the retail drivers for the Voodoo3 AGP and PCI boards. It is version
1.00.00 and available for Windows 9x and Windows NT. Get a download of the 9x version here, and the
NT version here.
Powerstrip With the V3 Friday,
April 30th
En
Tech Taiwan has just released Powerstrip(an overclocking program) now with
Voodoo3 support. That can be downloaded here. There is a new
Machines patch which allows V3 owners to play in resolutions higher than 640 x 480.You can
get a download of that file here.
Linux Support for the V3 Friday, April 30th
SuSE
has released a statement that in the upcoming release of Linux 6.1, support for every 3Dfx
card is included with the Voodoo3 family in beta. Read more about the beta support here.Some More Utilities Wednesday, April 28th
APK
has released its latest version of the 3Dfx Tuning Engine 2000++ SR-5. It now has a better
graphical interface. Get a download here. Hyperionics has put its HyperSanp 3.40 into
beta and is available for download. It has much better screen capture features and surely
worth a look. See more here. Beyond 3D has posted a recent
interview with Gary Tarolli of 3Dfx.
It's a great interview and definetly worth a look. Read on here.
The Good Stuff Thursday, April 22th
APK has released a newer
version of the Tuning Engine, now with up to 40% faster speeds, and allowing 5-25 more
FPS. This is a must have for all Voodoo3 owners. Get this program here.
Voodoo3 Wallpapers. Wednesday, April 21th
The wallpapers that 3dfx had made for the Voodoo3
are now available for download here.
They were originally to be on the Voodoo3 CD. They had to ditch the idea due
to unknown reasons.
HyperSnap Patch. Wednesday, April 21th
Hyperionics
also has a new 3Dfx update for the HyperSnap program. It's a new dll file, that replaces
the old one. If you have the program, then get this update.
A Great Reference... Wednesday, April 21th
Review Zone has posted a must see,
25 page Graphics Chip Comparison. This guide covers 7 of the current and soon to come
graphics cards. It's definitely worth the look. Check out this great piece here.
Great Utilities Wednesday, April 21th
APK
has released the new 3Dfx Tuning Engine 2000++. It has a high quality setting and 30%
faster code. Download here. Sharky
Extreme has also posted and extremely helpful OverClocking guide that really
helps with questions you might have. Read on here.
A Few good reads... Tuesday, April 20th
Nothing spectacular happened today so here are some nice reviews
and news that are worth a look. First off, Wicked PC had an enormous review of the Voodoo3
and is found here. 3Dfx anounces that NEC will start manufacturing
its computers with the V3, you can get the official press release here.
VoodooMag Review Tuesday,
April 20th
Dave Whittle over at VoodooMag has posted this month's Voodoo
Review. It's got some great general info and surely will be worth your time. It'll
keep you busy until they release those new drivers. Check out the piece here.
V3 2000 Review and more... Tuesday,
April 20th
BXBoards
has posted a nice review on the Voodoo3 2000. They also threw in a page which clarifies
some of the facts about the 22 bit rendering vs. the 32 bit. It's a good read and is found
here.
Find Your Own BenchMarks Tuesday,
April 20th
3DMark
has a program out that allows you to find out the benchmarks for your own system.
It's a good tool, and nice to see how the V3 lives up to its promises. Get a
download here.
New OC Tuesday, April 20th
Also, The've released another version(v1.4) of the V3
OverClocker. The only change in this version are a few spelling mistakes, so it's
your choice. Here's
the download.
New Voodoo3 3000 Images Scanned Tuesday, April 20th
I have just updated the new images of the Voodoo3 3000
board. Get them here at the
'Voodoo3 Pics' section
Drool Award for the V3 3000 Sunday, April 18th
Gamersdepot have awarded the Voodoo3 3000 AGP
card the 'Drool Award'.
I quote "There is no question at all that the Voodoo3 is CURRENTLY
the speed king". Read it here.
Get a great image of the Voodoo3 3000 AGP card here.
A Voodoo3 must... Sunday, April 18th
Hyperionics has an
excellent program called HyperSnap which allows you to take the best in-game screen shots.
They implement 3Dfx filtering techniques on their frame grabs which produces a much more
accurate display. Get a download here.
Voodoo Lights ScreenSaver Sunday, April 18th
3DFiles.com has posted a nice little screen
saver that is optimized for 3Dfx cards. It's a bit of eye candy that will truly
"save" your screen. You can get a download here.
V3 and the Games... Sunday, April 18th
EH Online has posted a nice piece on the
Voodoo3 Game Compatibility. They also address the issue of AMD & the V3.
It's part of a larger segment and definetly worth a look. Check it out here.
New V3 OverClocker Sunday, April 18th
Voodoo Extreme has posted the latest version(v1.3)
of the V3 OverClocker. Some of the new features are; setting high/low visual quality, and
restoring factory default settings. You can download it here.
Help!! Sunday, April 18th
As this site is a non-profit site, there is no
way I can afford the domain : www.v3p.com or www.voodoo3planet.com.
Please be nice and get me this Domain !!
Lowest Voodoo3 Prices Saturday,
April 17th
Virtual
World is now taking preorders for the Voodoo3 cards. They are, so far, the
lowest prices. The V3 3500 is at $216.93. The V3 3000 is at $154.02. The
V3 2000 is at $115.00. These are the prices for the AGP versions only.
The PCI prices are as follows: V3 2000 is at $110.64. You can check these out here.
Voodoo3 OverClocker Saturday,
April 17th
Voodoo Extreme
has posted the Voodoo3
Overclocker v1.2, It's the latest version and some new features are controls for the
Glide and Direct3D Vsync settings. You can get it here.
Voodoo3 Cooler
Saturday, April
17th
TennMax has introduced a new Voodoo3 board
cooler. It's compatible with all of the Voodoo3 boards and is priced at $23.50. The Cooler fits to the chip like a glove !!A
special thermal interface is used which enhances the conduction between the cooler and
chipset. You can check it out here.
New Layout Saturday, April 17th
The new layout allows the page to load faster than the older
layout !!
The Voodoo3 3000 board's pictures will be posted as soon as possible.
3dfx/STB Merger Effective Pending
Shareholder Approval Friday,
April 16th
3dfx Interactive has announced that the Registration Statement
which it filed in connection with the merger with STB Systems has been declared effective
by the Securities and Exchange Commission. Special shareholder meetings will be held for
both companies on Friday, April 30, 1999 to consider and vote upon the merger and certain
related matters. Sounds pretty dry for all the fuss it's caused. See the whole press
release right here.
Voodoo3 MotherBoard Friday, April
16th
Happy Cat Inc has posted a
review on the Voodoo3 MotherBoard (in Japanese) Here are the specs: It's an
OEM board called the Micro-Star MS-6168 with the Intel 440ZX MicroATX form-factor.
It has a surface mounted V3 3000. I really do not know any one who would be crazy
enough to get this board, cause it only has 3 PCI slots and 1 ISA slot, along with only 2
DIMM slots. Very limited specs when compared to Abit's BH6 motherboard, which has 5 PCI slots, 2 ISA slots , 3 DIMM slots
and Pentium III support, along with 'jumper' settings through the BIOS.
Let the Programmer's Talk Friday, April 16th
Epic Games' programming
lead Tim Sweeney has just updated the Unreal
Technology page with some very enticing information on 3Dfx's
new Voodoo3 cards, more specifically the 3000 variety. I'll let Tim do the talking:
The performance and graphical quality of the
Voodoo3s are simply amazing. Though we've had a board for over a month, beta drivers and
pre-release board problems prevented us from realizing just how far ahead of the pack this
hardware is.
On the PC, most technological improvements come in little
incremental improvements, such that we seldom have a chance to experience a single major
leap. Back when 3dfx introduced the Voodoo 1, that was one of those rare leaps. Since I've
been off working on "OpenGL land" on the Riva TNT, ATI Rage 128, and other
accelerators, I haven't had a 3dfx card in my machine since soon after Unreal shipped. So,
for me at least, getting a Voodoo3 and being able to play at those ultra high resolutions
at a great frame rate, is another one of those leaps.
While the Voodoo3's fill rate is outstandling, where the card really
clobbers all others is its texture management performance. This is a very important
characteristic, because it determines how smooth the performance is from frame-to-frame.
Unreal, though it shipped nearly a year ago, still pushes texture limits harder than other
3D action games, and Unreal Tournament pushes them even harder.
Unreal 224 performance is also being helped by some new lighting
optimizations, and a major new engine feature, which Erik de Neve (Unreal optimization and
algorithmic texture guru) has been working on. But I'm not allowed to talk about that
since Mark Rein is writing a press release about it now.
Tim also mentions that the 224 patch is now being tested in-house at
Epic and that due to some changes which were made to the latest revisions of Glide, 3Dfx's
native and proprietary 3D graphics API, Voodoo3's require either the copy of Unreal that
ships with the V3 cards or an original copy of Unreal which has been patched with the
(soon to be released)224 to function properly.
V3 vs TNT2 Tuesday,
April 13th
Keep this in mind: we're
going to see more of these than hooker's at Sweet Dick's bachelor party in the next few
days/weeks/months. GamersDepot have posted a Voodoo3 vs.
TNT2 "First Impressions". Here's a bit on Image Quality:
DUANE: The issue of
image quality is one of the most debated topics concerning these two chips. We found the
image quality on BOTH chips to be EXCELLENT, and trend setting. Gone from the Voodoo of
the past are the distorted images or "banding" that occurred. I was pleasantly
surprised by the Voodoo3 in both it's OpenGL, and D3D image quality. There are absolutely
no complaints from me whatsoever. The TNT2 was, of course, top notch as well. It would
take a VERY discerning eyeball to see the difference between the TNT2 and V3, even if you
are running the TNT2 in 32bit color rendering mode.
HEINRICH: We could
not believe the quality of the V3's picture. I had expected the TnT2 to be
head-and-shoulders ahead, with its 32MB of memory as opposed to the V3's 16MB, its ability
to render 32-bit color where the V3 can only handle 16-bit, and most importantly the
TnT2's ability to handle 2048x2048 textures while the V3 lags at 256x256. I was wrong.
I've looked at screenshots at all resolutions. We compared these babies side-by-side. I've
even looked at Sharky's posted grafts of V3 on top of TnT2. And I can't tell the
difference.
'User's
Manual' Monday,
April 12th
This is new section is opened due to the fact that I
recieved my card !!
The installation was simple, and it works like magic. As soon as I get my
photographs pocessed and scaned, they will be posted on the 'Voodoo3
Picture' page.
16bit vs 32bit Sunday, April 11th
A new section has been opened, the 16bit vs 32bit page !!
Voodoo3 3000 and 2000 Sunday, April 11th
Some great reviews of the Voodoo3 3000 and 2000 versions. The Voodoo3 3000 review
may be found here.
The Voodoo3 2000 review may be found here.
A great job by Sharky ! :-]
Pumping Polygons! Friday, April 9th
3dfx President Greg Ballard, has stated , "Right now we think that fast
framerates, at high resolutions, is the holy grail of gaming. Until other people can give
us all those other things (32-bit color and huge texture support ) and a very fast speed,
we think that raw speed is the way forward right now."
Ballard has confirmed that a newer Voodoo3 4000 version, along with
32-bit color, greater speed, and huge textures support (2048x2048 pixels), might be out in
the market in time for the release of Quake 3: Arena. Expect to see it by
Autumn.
The fact still remains. April, will be the month of the Voodoo3, and the
Voodoo3 will still be the fastest card ever, even when competing with nVidia's Ultra TNT2
chip. |
