Voodoo 3 2000

A closer look

The Voodoo 3 2000

From the back

The Voodoo 3 2000 is the low-end card of the Voodoo 3 line. It only runs at 143/143MHz while the V3 3000 runs at 166/166MHz and the V3 3500 does 183/183MHz. Like all the other V3 cards, the V3 2000 only has a heatsink without a cooling fan. The heatsink on the V3 2000 is much smaller than the ones present on the 3000 and the 3500 cards, but 3dfx didn't need to put a large heatsink on a card that's only specified to run at 143MHz.

The heatsink is only attached to the chip with an adhesive thermal pad. You can yank the heatsink off the chip when it's hot, but you'll have to apply more force if the card is cold.

Our OEM V3 2000 uses Hyundai 7ns SDRAM. The memory is only rated to run at 143MHz (1000/7), but ratings are usually on the conservative side. We should be able to push the memory beyond specifications.

The V3 2000 memory

Heat?

We ran the V3 2000 at the normal 143MHz speed, and measured the temperature of the heatsink with a digital thermometer. We placed the measuring tip against the side of the heatsink because we wanted to use a spot on the heatsink that would be easily accessible if we decided to attach a fan.

Even after running several 3DMark benchmarks and Q3 timedemos, the side of the heatsink never went above 112 degrees Fahrenheit. In fact, 112 was the highest temperature we measured on the V3 2000 through all our overclocking tests without active cooling.