HoMe

I-N-F-O

On Monday November 16, 1998, 3Dfx Interactive announced their newest chipset, Voodoo3. It will be a single chip 2D/3D solution, in an AGP 2x format, designed to be the successor to the current Voodoo2 SLI and Banshee offerings.

The Voodoo3 is 3DFX's latest chip. It is essentially, dual texture unit, multi-texture capable version of the their Banshee chipset, run at a much higher clock and memory speed. Here are the specs of the Voodoo3 chip:

3D Specs

• 16MB of SDRAM
• 100 billion operations per second
• Supports resolutions up to 2048x1536
• Full 128-Bit 2D accelerator
• DVD Hardware Assist
• Supports DirectX, Glide and OpenGL
• Alpha-Blending
• Single Pass, Single Cycle Bump Mapping
• Single Pass, Single Cycle Trilinear MIP-Mapping
• Patented Multi-Texturing Programmable Fog Tables
• Sub-Pixel and Sub-Texel Correction
• Sub-pixel and sub-texel correction to 0.4x0.4 resolution
• Per-pixel atmospheric fog with programmable fog zones
• Floating point Z buffer (W buffer)
• True per-pixel, LOD MIP mapping with biasing and clamping
• Highly accurate LOC calculations
• Support for 14 texture map formats
• 8-bit palletized textures with full bilinear filtering
• Texture compression through narrow-channel YAB format
• Support for multi-triangle strips and fans
• Gouraud Shading

The 2D Specs

• Fully integrated 128-bit VGA and 2D engine
• High-speed 128-bit Windows GUI acceleration
• Hardware acceleration for Bresham line draw, 2-edge polygon fill, scissor /rectangle clippers and full 256 ROPs
• Internal 256-bit datapath
• Source and destination chroma-keying for DirectDraw
• Color expansion and single-cycle block writes
• Accelerated 8, 16, 24 (packed), and 32-bit modes

Video Subsystem

• Resolutions of up to 2046x1536 at a full 75Hz screen refresh rate
• YUV 4:2:0 planar support
• 30 frames per second DVD playback with no dropped frames
• Supports the latest MPEG2 software CODECs via DirectShow
• De-interlacing using Bob Weave
• Separate gamma correction for video and graphics
• Auto page flipping using VBI for smooth motion video
• Supports up to 24 bits per pixel or 16.7 million colors

The differences between the two cards are:   

The written specs may be confusing, and 2 facts need to be cleared up: Niether cards support 32-Bit rendering or APG texture storing. The cards will plug into the AGP slot, but they will only make use of its bandwidth, it will not make use of main RAM texture storing. The 32-Bit rendering is "internal", the actual display will only be 16-Bit.

3Dfx has had a hard time deciding on whether to support 32Mb of RAM, but looks like they will with the Voodoo3 4000. This is more of a marketing boost then a performance one, but it will also give the card a slightly longer life span, seeing as newer games are texture-hogs, such as the up-coming 'Unreal Tournament' and 'Quake3:Arena'

Voodoo3 4000 AGP 4X Coming This Summer

But wait, there is another hope. Whilst we were poised to lament the non-arrival of a 'real' gamer's card, 3Dfx revealed to us a bit of early info on the Voodoo3 4000. Could this be it? Well, what little we do know about the board is that it will require the use of an (as yet unreleased) Intel Camino chipset. It will also be specifically designed and optimized for Camino in order to take advantage of AGP 4X just in time to compete head to head with nVidia's .25micron TNT2. This is indeed a first for 3Dfx and it seems as though (with 4X), AGP is finally worth more than it's initials and is thus getting full implementation. Remember for both the Voodoo Banshee and the Voodoo3 2000 and 3000 the board will be compatible with AGP slots but won't support full AGP 2X texturing as 3Dfx will stick with their own memory transfer routine. 3Dfx will time the release of the Voodoo3 4000 to coincide with Intel's launch of Camino and 'Quake3:Arena;  in summer 1999.

3Dfx ONLY For Voodoo3

As widely speculated after the STB deal, 3Dfx announced that ONLY 3Dfx branded boards will be available (both for retail and in system OEMs) in the US, though one or two OEM partners will likely be chosen for Europe as 3Dfx does not yet have the necessary capacity there. The next big news, according to 3Dfx, revolves around their retail plans for Voodoo3. In addition, 3Dfx is partnering up with the retail chains to present a spanking new corporate image complete with dramatically different packaging and in-store displays focused on bringing acceleration to the masses (and incidentally, making it easier for the rest of us to locate the 3Dfx isle). By providing instructional materials and assistance to retail sales personnel, 3Dfx hopes to have end-user's questions about acceleration technology and games answered at the point of purchase. And finally, there are the television ads.

This will all coincide with the first 3Dfx product launch incorporating the board manufacturing and distribution muscle of newly acquired STB (which they can't say much about because of the SEC lid on gossip until the 3Dfx/STB merger is fully approved). Hard core gamers fear not- this is just 3Dfx waking up and smelling the roses.

My URL: http://zap.to/voodoo3 and http://fly.to/mikesgames and http://www.geocities.com/SiliconValley/Hills/5069

I got it for free at http://come.to