The Voodoo3

April 1999: 3dfx releases Voodoo3

Codenamed "Avenger," The Voodoo3 is an amalgamation of everything 3dfx has done. They've taken the basic Voodoo 3D core, the 1-chip integrated 2D/3D solution of the Banshee, and the raw speed of SLI, and packed it into three new products, the V3 2000, V3 3000, and V3 3500. Capable of running 3D at resolutions of 1600x1200 and supporting 16MB of local on-board memory (split between frame buffer and texture memory), the 366 megatextel/sec Voodoo3 is the subject of our current review.

3dfx Architecture

All of which brings us to the current day: V3 as a competitor in the "next-generation" 3D market. Let's summarize the changes we have seen in the 3dfx product line over the years.

Voodoo Family Comparison
Name	Year	2D?	Chips	Clock Rate	Memory	Peak Fill Rate
Voodoo 1	1996	N	2	50 MHz	2+2 MB	50 Mtexels/sec
Voodoo Rush	1997	Y	3	50 MHz	4+4 MB	50 Mtexels/sec
Voodoo 2	1998	N	3	90 MHz	4+4+4 MB	180 Mtexels/sec
Voodoo Banshee	1998	Y	1	100 MHz	16 MB unified	100 Mtexels/sec
Voodoo 3 (3500)	1999	Y	1	183 MHz	16 MB unified	366 Mtexels/sec

Indeed, as you can see from the chart, there have been only two important architectural changes in the 3dfx chipsets over the years:

1. Multitexture, introduced with the Voodoo 2. 2. 2D core and unified memory architecture, introduced with the Banshee.

All the other changes can be classified under more memory, or higher clock speeds. One interesting aspect of the 3dfx chipsets is that they all have a synchronous clock: the memory clock speed is always the same as the chipset clock speed. That's probably a design issue.

As for Voodoo 3, there are three members of the family. Although they are mostly identical except for clock rate, there are a few differences.

Voodoo3 Family Comparison
Name	Speed	MSRP	Unique Features
Voodoo 3 2000	143 MHz	$129	no bundle, PCI version
Voodoo 3 3000	166 MHz	$179	TV-out, bundle
Voodoo 3 3500	183 MHz	$239	TV-out, Digital LCD output, bundle

Basically, the Voodoo 3 is a Banshee card with multitexturing, running at a higher clock rate. And I can prove that this is indeed the case: I loaded up the latest Banshee drivers from the 3dfx web site with my test Voodoo 3 card. Almost every game I tried ran under the Banshee drivers, including both OpenGL and Direct3D titles. While I wouldn't dream of benchmarking or testing the card this way, it proves an important point: Voodoo 3 is the same technology we've seen before from 3dfx.

In fact, let's look a little closer: the core 3D technology inside the Voodoo 3 has not changed at all since 1996! The rendering output generated by the Voodoo 1 card is pixel-for-pixel identical to output from the Voodoo 3. If you somehow obtained a copy of Quake 3: Arena today and ran it on the Voodoo 1 card, you would see the exact same image as you would on a Voodoo 3. Of course, it would be running a heck of a lot faster.

Which brings me to my next point: boy, is this card ever fast. Bear in mind I am testing the flagship Voodoo 3 3500 model, which runs at 183mhz. Let's jump right into the benchmarks, and fair warning-- buckle your seatbelt!