Back from the Dead: 3dfx's Unreleased Voodoo5 6000 Quad-GPU Card
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This review looks at the unreleased 3dfx Voodoo 5 6000 video card -- except it was hand-made by an enthusiast who specializes in retro hardware resurrections. It's a quad-GPU monster that competed with the likes of NVIDIA back in the day. This piece looks at the history of 3dfx, spanning the late 90s to early 2000s, and tells the story of the company's rapid, fiery rise and collapse. Modder Anthony ZXC-64 hand-built these cards using REAL 3dfx GPU silicon with a custom-designed PCB with hand-placed components. The review looks at the GeForce 2 GTS, the Intel i740, and the Voodoo5 6000, which we can use in single-GPU mode to simulate older 3dfx cards. It is a masterful work of art that this technology was able to be salvaged from scrap and restored to a physical, working product. That modders like ZXC-64 can combine hardware, software hacks, and find and patch-up drivers to bring passion projects to life is what makes computer hardware such an amazing hobby. Join us for the ride as we walk through the history of 3dfx and benchmarks with real 3dfx GPUs.
We just posted a brand new behind-the-scenes video on Patreon! You get exclusive content and also help fund our next efforts! / gamersnexus
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*UPDATE* - ZXC-64 is taking orders again. You can find his store here: / zxc64.hw
Anothny ZXCLXIV made this card that we bought for the video. You can find him on Facebook to inquire about purchasing one if interested; however, right now, his sales are closed.
TIMESTAMPS
00:00 - The Unreleased 3dfx Voodoo 5 6000
02:32 - A Rare Beast
04:42 - 3dfx History: Rapid Rise & Demise
13:43 - Building a Voodoo 5 6000 System
20:43 - Test Methodology Notes
22:27 - Benchmarks: Quake, Unreal Tournament, 3DMark
27:36 - 3dfx's Survival
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Host, Supporting Writing: Steve Burke
Testing, Writing Lead: Patrick Lathan
Video: Vitalii Makhnovets
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Cool video, but April 1 was a week ago.
@8:54 that comment didn't age well. 🤣🤣
Already got my mat in and I have to say it is quite nice. Yet another GN product of superb quality. Now I have (less) screws loose thanks to the sorting compartments. Will be testing the heat resistance this weekend with some projects, but I don't doubt it will hold up. 🔥😎 Thanks, Steve (and crew)!
@@harryshuman9637 It's not an April Fool's video or prank?
i always thought Athlons XPs xxxx+ meant "as good as an intel with xxxx Mhz"
Back in 1997 I was a sophomore in college. My roommate received a box from his parents one afternoon a few weeks before Christmas break. It had a copy of Quake 2 and a 6MB Canopus Pure3D 3Dfx card. It went into his custom built, full tower 166Mhz Pentium and the first time he fired up Q2 on his giant 21" CRT it was the most amazing thing we had both ever seen.
lain B i got that Voodoo card summer 1997, not any titles did supported it ! Quake, beta drivers, that took some time, then 2 Star Wars titles in 1998, after 3 years it was supported, by 2000 all titles did give some support...
@@lucasRem-ku6eb That's not true. I have the the X-Wing Vs. Tie-Fighter update for example still in my archive and it's file date ist 14th October 1997. And the Tomb Raider 1 patch dates back to 11-02-1997. Therefore in 1997 were a couple of supported games on the marked.
Anyone remember the Star Wars game "Rebel Assault' ?
Man, this brings back memories. I remember getting our first 3DFX card and starting Quake 2 for the first time. We were literally screaming 'wooooooooow!' at the monitor when the first level was rendered. Then once more when we fired the gun at the explosive barrels at the start of the first level. Real time light effects! We were totally blown away!
I had a pair of 12MB Canopus Pure3D II cards running in SLI with a 300A @ 450Mhz. Great cards, though I think to this day they are the single most expensive internal PC parts I have ever owned. It was an amazing time back then. I moved to a Voodoo 5 5500 after they came out.
THANK YOU for covering this! I’ve owned a few Voodoo 5 5500s over the years, among other 3dfx cards, so seeing this get coverage in this age is an absolute treat
Love seeing posts like this! Nostalgia is something we can all appreciate.
I stayed with 3dfx until The bitter end! If you are around back then and playing games seeing a voodoo 2 in SLI was incredible!
Best card I've ever owned.
@@GamersNexus I don't appreciate you reminding me im old lol
Seconded! Also, props to the team for persevering through all the pain getting it going, and keeping the setup in a corner somewhere for 3 years while you work on it on rainy days. (Just dealing with the endless Win9x reboots would fry most brains nowadays.)
A graphics card review on a THEORETICAL CARD WHICH NEVER EXISTED. This is utterly insane and I'm in love
Funny enough it was more real than the paper releases of the mining boom period. :D
No, it did exist. He showed one. That's also how he can say it replicated the original's bugs.
@@Dowlphinthe question is, where are the originals from the batch that WAS manufactured. Is it still “arrested” in some bankruptcy warehouse or something?
@@DowlphinBTW, there is even a more obscure thing. Back in 1996 Apple has designed its own 3D acceleration chip that was capable to drawing measly 100 million triangles per second. Of course, it was a failure, but the chip does exist somewhere for some IT historians to dig up, test, X-ray.
@@tatianaes3354 Dunno how many existed, but they could have landed in the trash and in the hands of collectors, museums and such.
I still have a bunch of 3dfx cards including a 5500 AGP, but I've always lusted after this guys cards because they are so well done and just make sense if you're into using these things. Also shoutout to GN for not only covering stuff like this but also offering merch that makes sense.
just one voodoo 2 12MB. :D
I don't know what it is about this video, but I was glued to the screen the whole time. Every time you guys do deep dives into the histories of companies or go deep into the evolution of pc gaming it's always a massive treat. The camerawork of Patrick working on the card and the b-roll showing off every angle of a card that seemingly came from an alternate reality just made it that much better. I still can't believe this is made and released for free on youtube and all done with the support of the community without needing to have any external sponsors. Well done to Anthony, well done to your whole team, and well done to everyone involved from the makers of the videos you guys referenced down to the one dude who sent you that ram Christmas wreath.
Thank you so much for the kind words and for writing this! I am sharing it with the team right away -- especially Patrick and Vitalii, who worked together on a lot of the footage and all of the writing.
Agreed, this is easily one of my favorite GN videos of all time. I’m sure a lot of it is nostalgia as it represents the era when I first got into building PCs, but regardless.. Awesome job GN team!
@@pacadet I remember the very first time I was introduced to overclocking through MaximumPC Intel p200mhz mmx article. First computer, Packard bell sub p60 or something like that from Montgomery Ward near Watertown NY (Fort Drum) :)
Took the words right out of my mouth 👍
Yeap,just been sitting, can't leave it. "It some kind of magic.."... Yeah,the Voodoo magic!!!
THIS... Is probably my favorite GN video... EVER! You guys did a great job. A refreshing change of pace. More historical retro video? YES PLEASE!
I can't up-vote this comment enough. Fantastic video!
MORE retro hardware 🙏
youtube.com/@LowSpecGamer Excellent channel for the stories behind tech.
the glorious age of Athlon XP tested would be cool too
Agreed
Yeah I am a nostalgic fool, but this made my day. Awesome work guys!
It reminded through what kind fo voodoo were going in order to run a new game ! I even reminded of plug n pray thing , coz when I installed a plug n play device I prayed for system not to crush , back than it seemed to work. It's now safe to turn off computer.
As someone who’s really into the retro PC scene (especially the early days of 3D gaming on the PC), it was awesome to see Gamers Nexus do this piece! What 3dfx did early on was truly incredible and I’ll never forget that feeling the first time I played GLQuake in 1997. Would love to see more historical pieces like this. Really well done! 👍
and doom
What's the point of retro even the phone in my pocket is massively more powerful? There is no benefit. All that old hardward does is waste power. It's like running an AC when you are not even home. We just need to recycle the silicon in them.
@@TrueMathSquare What’s the point in collecting old cars? Antiques in general? Sometimes it’s just neat, nostalgia, a hobby, or just for fun. Not everything has to always be the theoretical best no exceptions.
@@TrueMathSquareThat is a disgustingly utilitarian and dull outlook on other people's hobbies. The point of retro gaming/enthusiasm is to appreciate and enjoy previous eras of technology for the sake of preservation or memorabilia. It doesn't have to serve a utilitarian purpose. Not to mention the fact that from your attitude and ignorant comment, I can likely assume that you yourself are not a software or hardware engineer, so I doubt you truly have a profound appreciation for and understanding of how far along our software and hardware have come along. You're just a boring debbie downer.
Oh man, the golden age of GPU's. We had so much choice back then, 3dFX, Virge 3D, Matrox, Ati, Nvidia, Rendition Verite, PowerVR, so many chips, so many variations, it was a GREAT time to be a teen in the 90's. I still have my old Matrox Mystique, I just couldn't get rid of it.
My first gaming memories are on the Mistaque, it's such an adorable trainwreck. I actually bought one again last year, I can't even describe the joy of seeing it butcher the transparensies in Lucky Luke: Western Fever exactly as I remember it.
@@ozzyp97 Mystique was amazing. Sure it didn't have bilinear filtering, so no smoothing on textures, but my Mystique ran Motoracer at 640x480 at a super smooth framerate. Tombraider was also fast. And the version of Mechwarrior 2 that shipped with the card, is easily the best of all the 3D accelerated versions. It had the full soundtrack, unlike the others, and the pixelated 65k colours and moving skyboxes gave the worlds a really atmospheric look. Kept my Mystique as my 2D card after buying a VooDoo, and kept it in a spare machine afterwards just ot play Hyperblade and Mechwarrior 2! XD
I had a Virge 3d as my 2D card and a OG 3dfx card and a PowerVR in the same system. Stiil have the 3dfx hanging on a wall in my Garage !
The thing that cracks me up: $600 for a halo card was considered insane then, yet we were paying around $2000 for hunk of s**t Compaq and HP desktops from Circuit City to put them in
@@azureoval The Almighty Virge! GX/2? I got at least 10 S3 Virge cards in a Virge box! XD Some very odd looking cards, some of them.
8:54 I cannot overstate how much joy I get from seeing dated clips of people so confidently making definitive statements about tech.
kind of funny when we just got a 480 hz overclocked to 500 z for a monitor this year. 1080p but its there.
To be fair, they were right within the context. Nobody really needed to run Tomb Raider at 100+ fps
the 13:40 is even better - talk about swilling the kool-aid! lol
@@mr.dingleberry4882 no one referenced Tomb Raider - I was there - that was a quake reference... oh wait... said that RIGHT IN THE VID TOO.... ffs.... Quake was one of the first pay to tourney and frag out there you monkey....
i think it sounds weird nowadays tho but back in the day some games might just be weird at high fps, because it might screw up the physics/player control/game speed/etc.
Thanks for taking the time on this video, it was quite interesting. I had a 3DFX Voodoo 3 2000 AGP (well I still have because I am a bit of a hardware hoarder). I initially had it in an AMD K6-2 300mhz machine, eventually I moved it over to my first hand built PC, an AMD Athlon Thunderbird 1.4Ghz machine. I have so many memories of playing Unreal Tournament 99 on these systems on dialup 56k Internet... I actually remember there being some drivers that worked in Windows 2000. I had good luck with that back in the day as I seem to recall, but I feel like those drivers were considered experimental. I never remember hearing about working Voodo 5 6000 hardware. I just remember all the memes because people couldn't believe a GPU would need an external PSU and be 12" long haha. This alone didn't help 3dFXs reputation before they finally folded. I was truly dissapointed to hear that they went under back in the day...
We didn't get the Righteous 3D here in Sweden so we got my freinds aunt, who lived in the states, to buy two cards and bring them over on a plane when she came to visit. Still can remember the first time we fired the card up, heard the click and got to experience Glide Quake in all it's glory. It was simply the biggest leap in PC gaming ever.
Love the history about 3DFX. My first gpu was the Voodoo 3 2000. My jaw dropped to the floor when I installed it and ran Half Life and Quake for the first time with 3D acceleration.
Same here! Voodoo 3 2000 PCI was my first gpu. It cost me 999 Finnish marks(before Euro was a thing). Half life was my number 1 reason to start looking into upgrading and building my own computers back then. I still have it, including the box.
Mine is still somewhere in the basement ;)
I had a guillemot voodoo 1, and possibly a voodoo 3 😊
@@0gur Build it up man, put a sound blaster opl3 in it and get on adlibtracker 2
Same
The impact that Voodoo had on my gaming experience is hard to put in to words. Mechwarrior 2, Tomeraider, Descent 2, Interstate '76 and Quake 1 and 2. Good times.
Mechwarrior2 and Quake are really what got me excited for the future of PC gaming at the time
@@MegaCynar It's fun to look back at that time, and see how far we have come.
With you I play all of those I think it was Mechwarrior 2 that stands out to me we also play it on table top. That and set up a net work to play on more then one PC move pc plug them it de bug the a lost bank holiday weekend
@@jamesgodfrey1322 I still have the Mechwarrior games on my shelf, they are the only big box PC games I have left. The tabletop game I sadly lost over the years, a shame because I had all the box sets and map expansions, plus the huge amount of source/lore books.
@@lowpinglag nice I lost my box of old gaming's moving house may be worth looking on ebay as table top game turns up from time to time for non silly money
Wow, it does bring back memories! I worked for 3dfx during that time and through Christmas 2000 when it all fell apart and we were all laid off. We were expecting those chips in-house. Luckily, Nvidia picked up some of us (and I am still with that great company!)
This brings me back. Voodoo 4 was my first GPU I purchased when I got into PC gaming. Really wanted the 5, but the 4 was as much as I could get together from my birthday money. It was still a beast. I picked it up at EB Games which I don't think is around anymore in the US.
EB Games = Gamestop
Would love to see more retro stuff from Gamer's Nexus :D
Huge props to Anthony for all his work on these. Hopefully he can start selling them again soon.
Not unless sanctions on Russia lift - which isn't going to be happening any time soon.
Seeing he's ("Anthony", I mean) in Russia... that could be complicated for the foreseeable future. It's a nice card though, and props to the guy for making it.
@@PeTTs0n88 wait... So GN paid a Russian in current times? Isn't that breaking trade sanctions and highly illegal?
@@PeTTs0n88 Not that complicated, though. Still it may require more time and money that he could be comfortable to use for this.
@@nouser8146 Using methods like intermediaries to circumvent trade/financial transaction and shipping restrictions can be an absolute pain. A lot of it will depend on the scale, if it's just a single individual selling a few cards (like in this case), it'll likely be possible, but it's still a lot more complicated than it would've been a couple of years ago. I've both bought and sold vintage PC parts to and from Russia in the past and yeah, let's just say it isn't worth it for me as a European right now. Then again - it all obviously depends on where you're located as well, and how you feel about supporting Russian business ventures. Not trying to take a side here or a moral high ground, just saying that'll likely affect quite a few people's way of thinking and doing business.
Nice Steve, now I feel old AF, but also thanks for the amazing nostalgia trip. The 90" and early 00" were crazy for IT enthusiasts, everything was evolving so fast!
This is the best video ever. I really love the detail you went on explaining the history of 3dfx. I have good memories of a Voodoo 2 (I think it was?) a friend of mine had, it was a beast and we spent the best time playing for hours and hours. No responsibilities, just 2 teenagers that luckily got an "accelerator" card and had all time in the world to play and learn. I even think this is the card that made me love PC hardware so much. Thank you!
Never thought GN would cover retro stuff... Great job, not only did you guys do well with the history of early 3D cards, but also you got a unicorn of 3D cards. You guys are awesome.
"Unicorn" really is accurate here, it never got released, was thought dead, was found and revived by a madlad hardware maverick, and finally reviewed two decades later. The chances of all this happening are shockingly remote yet here we are, really awesome just on that alone
This woman straight up said no one wants to run games at 120 fps. lol Ahhh, we were so young.
Possibly because of limited monitor abilities?
@@ttpechon2535 That may be the thought process but it doesn't make sense. Games run smoother when ran at a higher FPS even if it can't display that high. I have had many people argue with me about this and tell me I'm wrong. I'll never forget when I bumped up the FPS from 60 to 120 on my 60Hz monitor when playing Dead Space 3. The game looked so much more fluid. People can tell me I'm wrong all day long, but I know what I saw.
The mention of the Athlon sends me back. I upgraded to the Athlon from a Cyrix chip running Win 2000 that I used to heat a spare room in the house. Would absolutely love to see more videos like this. Huge thank you to you and Patrick for persevering through this to put this video out.
OMG! Thank you for doing the video, and Anthony for making these! My early years of PC gaming. A blast from the past!
I LOVED 3DFX. I remember getting a Voodoo I and showing the skull demo to my friend how could simply not believe it was being rendered in real time. It was such a revolution. Thank you for this, great video, loved every moment of ir.
which model/make did u have? I had the Diamond Monster3d (3dfx voodoo 1)and also the special edition Canopus Pure3d 6mb version(3dfx voodoo 1)
Thank you for doing this. You brought me back to my childhood when I used to drool over upcoming hardware in the PC magazines. Such a big part of my childhood.
imagine having a quad 4090 gpu card today just imagine having that kind of power at your finger tips
@@raven4k998 and a CPU powerful enough to not be a bottleneck for it. And a psu capable of powering it, along with a cooling solution capable of keeping your system and the room it's in from having a meltdown. Lol
@@shawng746 well at that point if you had that many gpu cores on a single card you could make a multi cpu card with a cpu that has the highest clocks and ipc over core count cause imagine yeah my systems got 128 cores and high ipc then your to boot she's running at 6ghz on multiple cores when she turbos that would be insane mind you the number of rads you would need to keep it all cool would be insane to but oh well🤣🤣🤣
@@raven4k998 Indeed. I'm certain by the time they are capable of producing things this powerful, the efficiency will be much better as well. Otherwise it would make zero sense to make it for the average to even somewhat high end at home consumer.
@@raven4k998 Would need a nuclear reactor to power it tho. lol
I loved this video, smiling all the way. This whole thing is so weird, and equally wonderful that these passionate people exist. Thank you GN
Thank you for covering the retro parts in such a nice way. Some other channels have done similar things with older parts and been very oblivious to the retro scene and people that enjoy it!
My Quake clan gifted me a second Diamond Monster 3D VooDoo2 back then.. I think I ran an SLI VooDoo2 system on an AMD K6... Those were the good times. It's crazy how much nostalgia that teal colored 3DFX logo invokes in me even today.
Quake clan, now there is a two word sentence that made my brain overflow with nostalgia. I spent an ungodly amount of hours playing Quake 2 both on LAN and on dailup.
3DFX voodoo ❤ I had voodoo 2 in late 90s. In that time it was a monster - no one could beat that performance.
Love it! From the history to the challenges to get it running, everything about retro computing is awesome. Hope you guys make videos like this more often!
I love these history lessons, my favorite episodes by far, plus seeing it in action. So cool.
Oh wow. Amazing! I thought the last card they made was the 5500, thank you for sharing this gem with us Steve!
Well the 5500 was the last one, the 6000 never pass the prototype stage and never was mass produced or sold to the public.
The 5500 is the last production card 3DFX ever made. The 6000 was still engineering sample hardware before 3DFX sold out to NV
Tell us you didn't watch the video without telling us...
You have to be kidding
@@HardPumpers yes, I commented while watching the video. Still amazing to see they had 6000 in the pipeline!
i would love to see LGR get hold of this. he’d be absolutely beside himself. awesome work GN, you guys are killing it.
Yeah, his entire life consisted of being cucked out by PUR and sperging over old hardware. He is so pathetic, he definitely would get a heartattack over this old card, lol.
I had the same thought. Maybe some comparisons of cards in its era.
Love LGR, one of the best tech tubers out there!
He can buy one for $1500. That's only a week of his Patreon money.
What a trip down memory lane … my old Athlon XP, Intel i740 agp, Voodoo GPU, Nvidia tnt and tnt2, then GeForce 256 gts …..Abit motherboard, Cyrix 266/333 chipsets …..aaaahh the good old days of gaming and troubleshooting 🥰🤯🥳💪👍
This video gives me all the nostalgic warm fuzzies. Loved every moment and I will be ordering a soldering mat to support future content like this. Thank you guys for developing and producing this video. As a PC gamer that grew up reading Computer Life and Maximum PC, I remember when my parents bought a VooDoo 3 card and I got to experience so many demos of games I grew to love. Thank you guys for this. ❤
I use to have 2 of those old voodoo cards in SLI. Wore 3d glass and played Quake 1 in 1024x768 (3d), while others struggled at 640x480 non 3d. The good ole days.
Just out of curiosity, which CPU, Motherboard, OS etc. did you use for the rest of the system?
@@Felix-ve9hs Had to look at the dates, possibly it was a brand new Pentium 4 that finally replaced my earlier 486dx2 but that would be November 2000. Seems I might have had those cards before this. The Voodoo cards would have been almost useless except I played Quake1 almost exclusively for years and they did write a Quake 1 launcher that was custom for the Voodoo cards. Now I did play this on a 21 inch Viewsonic P815 monitor, that cost a fortune in the 1999 time period. There were only 2 21 inch monitor at our computer heavy work location at this time.
@@concernednewfie 21 inch monitors weight a ton as well. I used to hate them so much, if need to move one pain in the butt.
@@donw4889 Yeah, it was over 100 pounds, but then the 36in Sony Wega of that day was 220 pounds.
@@concernednewfie If they were voodoo 2's you were probably gaming on a overclocked Celleron 300A like the rest of us were. Those were the best chips at the time of the Voodoo 2 release in 1998.
So awesome to see! I still have my Voodoo 5 5500, in storage, and I loved it so much as a kid. The PC version of FF7 looked so clean with it on a CRT, 800x600, 4x Super Sampling, back in the day.
This was an insanely cool blast from the past. Thanks GN team!
I'm happy that someone is out there making this kind of stuff. Very cool, thank you for bringing a spotlight to it!
Ahh, the good old days when 600USD was considered an obscene amount for a GPU... I miss the pricing of the old days... :) Such a cool card. And what a dude for building it.. Seriously impressive
Yeah but adjusted it was 1000. Which is still considered absurd today.
@@Real28 It was the 4090 of it's time
@@Real28 I paid 1100 for my 4070ti, a mid range card
@@NorHeadHunter sorry man but you got scammed
@@Real28 this was supposed to be ultra high end, with 4 full working chips Unlike a certain cut down version of the already second-placer chip going for 1600$ (allegedly, since most of the time it seems to be going for way over 2000)
Man, Unreal Tournament brings back some fond memories. Can’t remember which voodoo card I had at the time, but I will always recall the bizarre box graphic as it sat up high on a shelf. Who knows how things could have been if 3dfx was still around today
It's honestly really nice to see you guys covering vintage hardware. I know it's not your forte, but this was an excellent piece and I loved every second of it. Reminds me of all the old crappy computers I had when I was a kid. Thanks for bringing my nostalgia back up, plus some good, innocent memories.
I’m a dev but didn’t quite get into computing power until later in my career. It really is amazing watching the limitations people had to work with. Nowadays a basic 3060ti can do basic machine learning tasks in 24-48 hours. Add a few more cards and tasks and you can run a neural network. Even a decade ago a ML algorithmic machine to compute tasks/problems would have costed you a small business loan or waiting weeks just for a random windows or ram crash to cause you days of waiting around. I remember the absolute sweats trying to save money and the philosophy of work with what you got. Now it’s 300 dollars or so for a lot of computing.
Thank you for making this video, including the detailed history. This video brings such nostalgia. I had a Voodoo 3 3000 16MB and it was amazing.
I was around before Voodoo launched and it's hard to explain how big a breath taking leap forward that it was.
I was one of the morons to go for the matrox mystique... Should have gotten the Voodoo 🤣
inkysteve You meant for gamers, that took 3 years, on release, only Quake and 2 Star Wars titles supported it, that took them 3 years ! Only for MAYA people it was a big leap, CGI workstation, or cheap $ 3k Windows machine !
@@notjustforme8857 I'm one of those morons that always wanted the Matrox Parhelia... :)
@@notjustforme8857 I also had a matrox mystique.
@@lucasRem-ku6eb on release it was supported by Descent 2, Carmageddon, Screamer 2 and others. We were using it for lots of games.
Bring back memories of my first PC gaming experiences, at 58 years old I saw or played them all. Had a few of the cards as well. It was a great video.
I bet you had a Gravis Ultrasound, to not sure if you had an P200MMX like i had bought for 550$ back in 1997 :P (whats that in money today ? :P
I even picked games at the time that would support 3dfx because there was nothing even close to it at the time. That's how good it was at the time.
Im 59 and remember having a voodoo card when i was a kid. I have also played them all. Everything from a Commodore to Atari to todays PC's. This was a great video down memory lane for me.
@@Rohirrim009 Me too bud, then I found Descent, a first-person shooter and shoot 'em up game wherein the player pilots a spaceship through labyrinthine mines while fighting virus-infected robots, then it was a multiplayer. Not sure what card I had then, but that was the first Multiplayer TDM game I played. Great memories.
Thank you for doing this - some of us have been around since even before the Voodoo 1 days, so this is a SPECTACULAR treat.
i salute you for this coverage , great coverage on such an iconic era in pc gaming , computers , life in general the late 90s early 2000s were awesome
OH MAN!!! Brings back memories. I remember the ATI Rage Fury and the Voodoo3 3000. This is great stuff. Love seeing re-use of tech plus the nostalgia. Great fun. And I got a solder mat on the way! Keep the good stuff coming, GN!! :)
do u remember the first time you witnessed 3d rendering? I can recall a friend telling me about this and not understanding wtf he was talking about -- until he showed it to me. OMG :) this memory, I can still feel that excitement.
Had tge 3000 lol!
@@Matt-my7pz sweet! Still own it or u wish u did?
@@creampiecharlie yeah wish I did. My friend who hooked me up still has his 2000 haha. And a bunch of other of his vintage hardware.
Thank you GN for the trip back down memory lane here...I still remember my OG SLI setup. a Voodoo2 SLI thing. Ah the days of AGP, PCI and daisy chaining up to 3 GPU cards to make things work.
I remember putting in a preorder with Creative two or three months before the Voodoo2 was released. I bought two 12MB cards, one for me and one for a friend. When they were delivered I of course installed them both in SLI to see just what they could do. And then I played Tomb Raider all the way through in glorious SLI... Sadly my friend really wanted his card so it was only a temporary thing... This was an excellent replacement for the 6MB Voodo0 card that I had before this. I think it was a Canopus card, and yes it had 6MB of ram instead of the normal 4MB. Not all games could use the extra memory but when it worked I could load special texture packs that made things look just that bit better. Even so the Voodoo2 really blew the Voodoo out of the water.
Thanks for continuing to be the best there is GN. Nice trip down memory lane.
I absolutely loved how smooth UT99 was on my PII233 and Voodoo3 3000 AGP. I felt like the Glide/UT99 optimisation on the Voodoo3 more than compensated for my lower end CPU at the time. I still remember I used to run them both overclocked. The Voodo3 from 166 to 183 (the speed of the Voodoo3 3500 TV) and the PII from 233 to 292 (the highest setting my boards FSB would go? from 66 base to 83... again, using very old memory brain cells)
nice GN and thanks. Very entertaining. Consider doing more of these if you guys can fit it in your schedules. :)
Retro type stuff? We'd love to!
@@GamersNexus absolutely, you guys just hit a nostalgic nerve for a lot of people. Very much appreciated!
25:00 - Unreal Tournament 1999 runs by default with higher details in Glide than in Direct3d and OpenGL. Some graphics details (details textures and fog - volumetric light) are turned on only in Glide and off in Direct3d and OpenGL. So those results were biased in favor of the GF 2 GTS and Intel i740, because they run with lower details than the V5 6000 / Single Chip.
Solid video, so awesome to see this in-depth project going on in the community by an extremely dedicated person! I'd love to see more! It'd be awesome to see this dive into the new Model F keyboards that are being made in new layouts just recently
I almost skipped this video, but it was actually super informative. I loved hearing about some gpu history I had never heard before
I would really love more of these retro stuff in the furture when you guys have time. Its a really nice change from modern stuff. I love it!
Check out smaller creators like Tech Tangents, RetroBytes, LGR, Adrian’s digital basement and so one. (These where some of the first names that came to mind.)
@@Fractal_32 yeah i know that they exist. But their main focus is retro stuff. Gamers Nexus is not. And that is why this is such a nice change.
@@AeroFix94 Okay. :)
Getting goosebumps from this video. I was a very impressionable kid when gaming was moving from Wolfenstein to Doom to Quake. I begged my dad for an Orchid 3D. John Carmack is my personal hero and a big reason why I’m a game programmer today. Thanks for bringing back core memories I haven’t thought of in decades!
3dfx master race! Thank you for making this! Totally missed it on my feed!!
This video is so cool. I used a Voodoo3 on and off for many years up until about 2008 or 2009 (possibly later, maybe 2013/14) while Frankenstein-ing old computer parts to see how far I could take a janky build. Thank you for the treat down memory lane.
Too bad that this legendary monster Voodoo card never was officially released. Great video, like!
Thank you for this, guy's, really all of you. This is my wheelhouse. I've been in this game for a very long time :) and it's very nostalgic to watch this. While all my friends had ati and 3dfx,i had to be the weirdo with a Matrox millennium! When it worked it was awesome, but getting there could be a challenge!
Matrix Millennium gang
Matrox Millennium G400 :)
Matrox, S3, the first Geforce’s and for the last 15-20 years I’ve been an ATI/AMD fanboy. This video brought back so, so many cool fun memories! Thank you GN, Antony and all commenters.
I had Matrox Millennium with 3DFX Voodoo. Remember, the first two 3DFX Voodoo 3D-accelerators didn't have 2D graphics chips on board, you needed a separate 2D graphics card. Also the passthrough video cable 3DFX needed to function noticeably worsened the 2D image in resolutions higher than 800*600 (it became a bit blurry and if you looked closely you could see some "shadow" of the image especially on straight lines, that's analog video signals quirks for you). So even though Matrox Millennium had the best 2D image quality on the market at the time, using 3DFX Voodoo with it kinda completely negated that advantage. lol Looking back, I should have bought a much cheaper S3 Trio64 graphics card with my 3DFX Voodoo. Oh, well... You live, you learn.
I was around and fiddling with some of this stuff at the time, I remember some of those articles :) this takes me right back, thank you!! 👍
Wow the nostalgia. I remembered having a STB voodoo2 back in around 98. The next upgrade was a TNT2 a few years later. Then there was also Dual Celeron on Abit BP6 motherboard. Those were the days.
I remember the dual Celeron days! I was envious of those builds and overclocker when spending time on the overclocker forum. I could only afford a Cyrix MII, but later got a K6-3 after I killed the Cyrix trying to force an overclock. I can't remember what graphics card I had, but it wasn't 3d capable, I always wanted a 3dfx card...
No one's gonna run a game at 120 frames per second, meanwhile in 2023, CS:GO I can't believe your card runs below 400 frames per second
I had an i740 back in the day, too. I remember it was a massive pain to get it to work right on my K6-2 system. Doesn't surprise me that they had to run it on the P3 to get it to work right.
I found some i740's that actually looked well made, in a bunch of Dell workstations. Curious, I didn't recognize them, so I took one home to test it out and was surprised at how well it actually played (for what it was). Monster Truck Madness all night. Obviously not a belter, but good enough. Cool pieces of history! XD
Blast from the past! Love this so much! Thanks GN!
Nice work, GN, always happy to see stuff like this get coverage these days.
Ah, never expected GN to end up covering what is an admittedly niche product or series of products that zxc64's been putting out for the hardcore retro enthusiasts, and I must say I couldn't be happier to see it! It's especially nice to see since you folks at GN always do great work with a deep-dive, so having a digestible analysis of Anthony's Voodoo 6000 is a great resource for people who might want to learn more.
This was the most enjoyable GN video I've ever seen. Hits me right in the nostalgia.
Lots O' Nostalgia in this video, thanks for making it, so cool to see this old stuff that I used to want and see in those old magazines!!!
another banger. you're slowly becoming my fav tech channel. don't think tech tip man could make videos of this caliber.
Takes me back with joy, I still have 2 3dfx Voodoo cards that run in two of my old classic systems. First time I ever felt more skilled than Gamers, Nexus made me smile
This is the most interesting GPU related content I've seen since the RX6000 and RTX3000 series launched, great work guys! Being an older tech guy myself, I remember the hype around this card back in the day, it's amazing to see them finally coming to market even in a limited form! Absolutely loved it, I would honestly be interested in seeing more retro tech stuff like this in the future during quieter parts of the modern product release cycle.
Since watching this video, I've been in such a nostalgic mood -- and one can't put a dollar figure on the smile it put on my face... ...and who remembers PhysX, pencil trick Durons and good ol' Celeron 300-500a overclocking? ❤❤
What a brilliant video thank you :) I was always really gutted 3DFX advertised this card and then never made it. I had the original 4mb voodoo addon card back in the day and I still think it was one of the biggest single leaps in graphics performance we've ever seen going from 2d to actual 3d. It would be great if we had this amount of choice with card chipsets today like back then. This really was an exciting time in the history of PC's and PC graphics. Keep them coming Gamers Nexus you are by far the best reviewers of anything PC related on KZhead.
I had a Voodoo 3 3500 back in the day and it was amazing for glide and open gl titles. I had a lot of fun in unreal tournament. It had a built in TV tuner as well with a blue input pod which was awesome. Good times.
So cool. I had 3dfx cards way back when. Glad to see some still around. Molex, Vga cords, and Crt displays cannot be easy to find. Oh how times have changed. Great video GN
Most the old cords are insanely easy to get. I have more than I could ever know what to do with. Hell, you can probably still get a VGA cord off the shelf at best buy.
@Gamers Nexus, heheh really refreshing piece Steve! I remember when I was fresh into high school we were talking about voodoo cards and even those expensive 2 grand Oxygen cards. Quakeworld and Quake 3 is what we played and we were envious of anyone who had a Pentium III especially with 128megs or 256megs of ram. Now as an OpenGL graphics programmer, I look back on all this and feel so nostalgic. Boy, have we come a long way~ Thank you! 👏👏👍👍
So cool to see GN go into the history like this! My first GPU was an STB Velocity 128 (nVidia Riva 128), and the Voodoo was the one everybody wanted back then. These tests even included pretty close to my current 98se machine with a GeForce 2 GTS paired with a P3 800. Good times!
Wow. That’s an stunning creation. Well done Anthony. What a bit of kit :)
Thank you to both party's for this. I grew up through the voodoo, early geforce and radeon era. Seeing these come to life is amazing. Thanks for this!
Amazing Video. Love old hardware! Need to make a series for this type of thing.
I miss these GPU's so much. The names, box art, all the crazy stuff around them. I hope someday we can see something that wild again.
Nostalgia is a crazy thing and thankful some people are hardcore enough to give us these gems. Thanks Steve and Anthony
YES! So glad to see this type of enthusiast and retro projects. Am I biased as the owner of 2 different voodoo 5 5500's in retro PC's? Maybe- but this type of niche content is still impeccable.
I still have the V5 I stole from the returns / damaged cages at PC World back in the day. Still works like a charm. Haven't installed it in any retro rig though. I did for a while, but swapped it out for a Geforce 2 Ultra and used a pair of 8MB V2s for the Glide games.
ACHTUNG! xD - Thank you for using a scene out of one of my videos! Great advertisement. Keep on rocking!
I love the progress bars in each graph. Good idea and implementation.
Running UT99 on voodoo2 with consistent 85 fps with frametimes that made it so fast too... such a pleasure. Shame 3dfx went under.... really, for all of us :(
Nvidia snapped them up like the big green monster it is! XD Less competitors - HIGHER PRICES! Then PhysX, Hairworks, now RTX... The devil is running the show.
VGA to CRT. I don't know about the Frame Times but the input lag was much lower. Mechanical keyboards were also mostly used.
@@thepcenthusiastchannel2300 And don't forget PS2! It was interrupt based and much lower latency because there was no polling BS like with USB.
This is wonderful - seeing those benchmarks again is beyond legendary. The better days of gaming - from the 90s to the mid-00's was godlike.
This is beautiful! So happy to watch this review!!!
Great video, brings back memories of my Matrox Milenium and Original 3DFX Voodoo card playing Quake This enabled transparent water and no more hiding in it, great times Glide-ing about
They also had timing perfect with their bet on "Use more memory", the prices went through a drop for memory at that time, while every other adapter was trying to optimize with things like "tiling".
Dang didn't think this kind of card would be a thing you could own. Thanks for covering this, it's quite the treat to see a mythical card from a bygone era covered.
oh wow, yet another Touhou fan! I saw Patchouli talking about the RTX cards on this channel back in a few months ago...
Now THIS is my kinda hardware video
Great video. Thanks for the trip down memory lane. Loved my Voodoo2 :)
This is bloody brilliant, it's brought back so many memories for me. I was stuck on an Intel i740 for years and had no idea how bad 8 to 20fps was in Half-Life, until I got my first voodoo2 and saw 60+ fps which was mind blowing on a CRT. I recall the Kyro II being a thing around that time too. Good times, thanks GN :-)
Awesome video, my first pc had a Voodoo card and ironically was a very similar model Dell with the same case design. I still have it running 98 for old games but regret getting rid of the Voodoo card at some point. Would love to see more videos like this
Super fond memories of that era. 2x Orchid Voodoo2 12MB’s in SLI on a PII450 was something else in ‘98.