Voodoo Variations

Next-generation differences

One of the things that Scott really wanted to make clear was the distinction in the single-chip Voodoo4 product versus Voodoo3. At a glance, it seems like a single VSA-100 doesn't have much over last year's part. You've got exactly the same texture fill rate at the same core/memory clock speed. In fact, just add 32-bit color, support for larger texture sizes, and you've got a Voodoo4, or what some people have been calling a "Voodoo3 Ultra" with no real "next-generation" features to speak of.

In this light, it seemed that a thorough examination of what differentiates the VSA-100 architecture itself from the Voodoo3 was in order, and Scott Sellers, the company's CTO, was the perfect person to answer our questions.

Before we do however, here is an excerpt of Scott's recent interview at 3dfxgamers.com, 3dfx's own gaming-oriented website.

3dfx: Is the VSA-100 Engine, the chip that powers the Voodoo4 and Voodoo5, still based on the original Voodoo Graphics core, or is it an all new design?

Scott Sellers: It's somewhere in between. The VSA-100 is still based on the Voodoo Graphics core, for compatibility reasons, but we've made significant changes to the overall design. We had to build in support for 32-bit color, 2 pixels per clock rendering, new texture modes, new combine modes, tremendous scalability improvements, support for texture compression, larger texture sizes and a number of other new features. At heart, it's the Voodoo core, with lots of substantial changes. As a result, we consider it to be really close to a new architecture.

A little more detail please

FiringSquad wanted to learn a little more about VSA-100, and what really makes it different from any prior generation Voodoo Graphics accelerator. We asked Scott why people might make the assumption that VSA wasn't up to snuff.

Scott first said that it was partially 3dfx's fault for not emphasizing the difference between architectures. Most of the PR spin had been focused on VSA-100's scalability (Voodoo5) and Gigapixel performance, and they didn't spend the time to outline the core differences in the technology itself. While the fact remains that the underlying engine remains pure Voodoo, we'd like to make the point that the differences between Quake 1 and Quake 3 (which are based on the same core technologies) are startling, to say the least.