Guru3d article on PCIe Express Scaling that has one interesing point

[Evilsizer]

Middle one is a Voodoo 5 6000 : http://menversus.com/articles/The Voodoo 5 6000

Bottom one (put it in for the lulz) : "Mercury ("the brick") is four Quantum3D Obsidian2 200SBi video boards for a total of eight Voodoo II chipsets with 96 MB configured for parallel operation."

that link doesnt have the pic you posted why i said its a joke pic. since there are 8 fans, a pcb like that back then wouldnt have been that compact for 8 vsa 100 chips. as well the heatsinks+fans for those cards were not that big, about the same size as some chipset hsf's back then that were stock. either a 40mm fan or 50mm fan on the heatsink that was thermal epoxied to the chip.

The Aalchemy system was neat:

For some reason I'm thinking it was either the "Obsidian" or "Mercury" stacked platforms that you may be referring to: http://www.thedodgegarage.com/3dfx/q3d_mercury_brick.htm and http://www.thedodgegarage.com/3dfx/q3d_mercury_faq.htm Nevermind just saw your edit.

edit: Other than competing with their own AIB partners, 3DFX really messed up by skipping hardware T&L right when their competitors added it and games started coming out that looked significantly better with it enabled. Made sure that all their recent screenshots looked garish by comparison.

they werent competing since they bought STB just before they introduced the Voodoo 3 cards. they cut out the AIB's all together which was a mistake as well as a lack of T/L hw on the vsa 100 chip.

 

[grumperfish]

That's right, I just re-read the wiki entry about the ill-fated STB purchase. Thanks for posting the vintage3d.org link - always heard the S3 Virge described as a graphics de-celerator but I never had one to see it first-hand, and the review breakdown over there is fascinating. It also has some SiS card reviews posted, one of which I did have for awhile after my Banshee died. A friend eventually pitied me enough to gift me his Voodoo 3 when he upgraded.

 

[Kenrou]

that link doesnt have the pic you posted why i said its a joke pic. since there are 8 fans, a pcb like that back then wouldnt have been that compact for 8 vsa 100 chips. as well the heatsinks+fans for those cards were not that big, about the same size as some chipset hsf's back then that were stock. either a 40mm fan or 50mm fan on the heatsink that was thermal epoxied to the chip.

The V5 6k had 5 different revisions each with a slightly different PCB, the one i posted might be just one of them with a "stretched" or custom fan mount : https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Voodoo_5 -> "The Voodoo 5 6000 is the unreleased high-end product in the Voodoo5 line. It was to use four 166 MHz VSA-100 processors"

the one on the pic appears to be the Rev1 : http://www.thedodgegarage.com/3dfx/v6k_faq.htm

Interesting fan mods : http://forum.hwbot.org/showthread.php?t=37936

Watercooling mod (dear god WHY) : http://www.techpowerup.com/forums/t...watercooling-first-and-second-edition.166373/

Same guy on OC.com with passive+fans : http://www.overclockers.com/forums/...3dfx-Voodoo5-6000-Gold-Second-Edition-200-MHz



You want a joke Voodoo take a look at this : http://www.tomshardware.co.uk/forum/265752-29-nvidia-revives-voodoo-line

 

[Evilsizer]

you saw these threads?
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/740276-3dfx-Rampage-B001 <- if you recall Rampage what they were working on after VSA-100.
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/731081-3dfx-Voodoo5-6000-First-Aircooler-Edition

 

[Kenrou]

you saw these threads?
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/740276-3dfx-Rampage-B001 <- if you recall Rampage what they were working on after VSA-100.
http://www.overclockers.com/forums/showthread.php/731081-3dfx-Voodoo5-6000-First-Aircooler-Edition

Jesus i wonder how one of those copper blocks+shroud would work on todays cards

I never had a Voodoo sadly, i went from a S3 Trio (32 i think) to a TnT2

 

[EarthDog]

Should I split the thread so you guys can wax nostalgic to your heart's content?

 

[Kenrou]

Sorry

Back to PCIe discussion

 

[EarthDog]

I'd be happy to... just LMK.

 

[M@rk]

there is a few sites with history about 3DFX and some of their products ect. here are a few links to get started
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3dfx_Interactive
http://www.thedodgegarage.com/3dfx/
http://www.voodoofiles.com/3dfxhelp.asp
http://www.falconfly.de/3dfx.htm
http://vintage3d.org/3dfx1.php#sthash.LexKJBCn.dpbs

i aslo cam across this
http://www.anandtech.com/show/580/2
i would say start from page one but on page two i wanted to point this out.

man that would have been some custom machine from Quantam back in the day, wish we got to see it. Wait i kinda think they did do it, i recall Quantam came out with cards with 2=4 vsa100 per side of the card and in one system stacked 4 or 8 cards in one. now this is going to bug me till i find that name of that card. will post later when i find it.

Thanks!

 

[Haider]

They never got past 16Bit because they had five generations of the same core. I remember reading about them as a kid and wanting one. But by the time I was in college and had money the GeForce 2 was stomping all over them so I got that instead.

They built a 3D only card Voodoo 1 then their new CEO ****ed up. He spent the cash developing a 3D/2D card without pushing the 3D side. That was the end. He wanted to take them mainstream. Ended up with not getting the mainstream market and not having developed the 3D side. It was 3DFX Voodoo or PowerVR (deferred rendering now big in tablets and iPhone/Pads) in the beginning...

 

[wingman99]

I had a voodoo2 creative SLI. Glide was the best back then with need for speed II SE when driving the bees would hit the windshield, it look like real life you could see them coming then splat I have not seen graphics that good since.

 

[M@rk]

I had a voodoo2 creative SLI. Glide was the best back then with need for speed II SE when driving the bees would hit the windshield, it look like real life you could see them coming then splat I have not seen graphics that good since.

Wish i wasnt a little kid when graphics were an exiting thing , Still dont care playing a ps1 or ps2 games from time to time when im bored

 

[Haider]

I had a voodoo2 creative SLI. Glide was the best back then with need for speed II SE when driving the bees would hit the windshield, it look like real life you could see them coming then splat I have not seen graphics that good since.

Yeah I remember those bugs, I didn't expect them to end up getting mashed on the windscreen