wich voodoo 3 is the best?

[Sir Key]

i wanna get myself a voodoo 3 for emulation purposes cause i've recently checked ebay and the prizes are just laughable... so could someone advice me please wich one i should choose?? it's especially for emulation (n64 and psx) i've seen voodoo 3 2000/3000 and there are pci and agp ones... advice needed...

[ChrisRay]

Voodoo3 3500 TV

[Ninjaa]

Get yourself a nice Voodoo3 3000 PCI. It will serve you well.

[Kane]

I'd say get a pair of Voodoo 2's so that you don't need a monitor switch box for the Voodoo 3. Either that or get a Voodoo 5 5500 PCI, to make it worthwhile.

[Gamer1]

i have a voodoo 3 pci. it serves me till this day.

since you want to get a voodoo 3, get the 3500 tv. i have a 3000, its pretty good, but i wouldn't mind getting a 3500 tv, get a 3000 if you can't get a 3500.

between pci and agp. it doesn't matter, as the voodoos were created equal, between v5 5500pci and v5 5500 agp, there is no difference in terms of performance.

[Violineb]

dang Voodoos were that bad? No dif between PCI and AGP, I can't believe it! Oh and does a Voodoo do better emulation than let's say a GeForce2, GF2s seem to be one of the most compatable cards out there so what's so great about a Voodoo3?

[Gamer1]

no, the voodoos were that good ;).

what's good about the voodoos were

1) glide!!!, the best api at its time. too bad only voodoo cards could use it (not counting wrappers).

2) FSAA, probably the best at its time, and has only been rivaled lately.

[Ninjaa]

Gamer1, unless you are planning to use a Voodoo3 as your only video card, I would advise going for the PCI version. The performance difference may be negligable, but motherboards only have one AGP slot, while chances are a PCI slot or two might be free.

Myself, I am going to be doing some serious thinking about Lord Kane's idea. I just might want to go for a pair of Voodoo2's. I lost my voodoo3 years ago, and I still miss it. Even my GF3 seems lowly compared to it. :D

EDIT: Heh. I just put my bid in for a pair of Voodoo2s on ebay. Don't you guys DARE outbid me. :D

[Gamer1]

Originally posted by Ninja
Gamer1, unless you are planning to use a Voodoo3 as your only video card, I would advise going for the PCI version. The performance difference may be negligable, but motherboards only have one AGP slot, while chances are a PCI slot or two might be free.

Myself, I am going to be doing some serious thinking about Lord Kane's idea. I just might want to go for a pair of Voodoo2's. I lost my voodoo3 years ago, and I still miss it. Even my GF3 seems lowly compared to it. :D

EDIT: Heh. I just put my bid in for a pair of Voodoo2s on ebay. Don't you guys DARE outbid me. :D

you mean hybrid23 right? i love my voodoo 3 3000 pci, i'm not going to drop it unless i get a better card to replace it (a 9500 Pro... if it supports win98, it might... i just don't know anymore... does anybody have a 9500 pro and is using it right now on win98?), but that's when i get more funds... only excess money goes to my comp.

my score on 3dmark2001 se was 1056 :D, because of my voodoo 3... what a bottleneck...

[Violineb]

how do you use two Voodoo2s?

[Kane]

SLI (Scan Line Interleave). They link up and render alternate scanlines.

[Zeke_D]

I ran 2 voodoo 2 12mb in SLI mode for a long time, then switched to a radeon ddr and finally to a geforce 2

[Ninjaa]

2 Voodoo2 cards can be linked in a special mode where the two cards share the work. Each card renders half the screen. Performance is just a little above your average Voodoo3 IIRC.

Originally posted by Gamer1 you mean hybrid23 right?

Yeah, that was worded poorly, but I was referring to your advice that AGP/PCI is the same thing. An AGP card might be nice, but let's face it. Voodoo cards, as wonderful as they might be, aren't going to last forever. Having an AGP model would become a burden in no time.

[hnayoung]

Voodoo3 3000 --great card! still use it for emulation on my older PC.

If you can shell out a bit more, I'd just go with the Voodoo5 5500. I love the anti-aliasing on this card. Voodoo5 + Lewpy's plugin = IMO the best EPSXE experience bar none. ^^

[Gamer1]

Too bad that there aren't much voodoos around anymore. I can't find one anywhere. i would really love to have a v5 5500.

but hey, nvidia intended to desimate 3dfx. And nvidia is going through the 3dfx road by creating an api (cG) that is proprietary, and most likely that only nvidia card could support it.

[sxamiga]

I reccomend a Voodoo 3 3000 or a Voodoo 3 3500 tv. I used to have a Voodoo 3 3000 AGP and it was a darn fine card. I then got "seduced" by Nvidia w/the TNT2 and it has been Nvidia all the way from then on. My son has a Voodoo 3 3500 tv AGP card and he still uses it. Gets good tv reception and the graphics are still crisp and clear.
sincerely,
sx/amiga

[Kane]

>And nvidia is going through the 3dfx road by creating an api (cG) that is proprietary

Actualy, there you are wrong. As I understand it, firstly, cG is not an API, it's a programming tool. Second, cG is compatible with any DX9 compatible card. nVidia wrote it to facilitate coding of DX9 and OpenGL 2.0 apps

[Gamer1]

hmmm... i've heard otherwise. But, hey... that's actually great news to hear.

*wow, what a breath of fresh air

[Kane]

I could be slightly wrong there, as IIRC, ATi weren't co-operating with nVidia on this as they had their own shader language which was proprietory in the works, but once again, IIRC MS stepped in to make cg 'official'. 'Course I could be wrong, but that's how I derstand what happened,

[Demigod]

Cg is a joint venture by Nvidia and Microsoft. Nvidia may be creating their own version of it for their cards but the MS version will probably be standard.

[takwu]

I still use my Voodoo 3 3000 AGP :)
Voodoo 3 comes in 2000, 3000, and 3500. Higher number means higher clock speed. Get PCI version so that you can leave your AGP slot for your main card.

As for Voodoo 2. I have a pair of Diamond Monster 3D II 12MB in SLI. Texture memory is only 8MB, so there is the main difference. Resolution is limited to 1024x768, whereas Voodoo 3 can do up to 1600x1200. At the same configs, the Voodoo 2 SLI is slower than a Voodoo 3 3000, but closer to a 2000.

[ChrisRay]

Only reason to own a Voodoo2 is if you want glide compatibility. Thats all I use mine for. If you desperately need a new graphics card, Grab a Voodoo3.

However I think you can get a geforce 2 MX for about 20 dollars and it'll be FAR superior to a Voodoo3 and a lot more compatible.

If you plan on upgrading again. Get the Voodoo2 and then upgrade to a Nvidia/ATI card. And your Voodoo2 will be around for great compatibility sakes for glide games

[Dark Zero]

Crap, with all this talk, you guys trying to say I can get killer settings with my voodoo5 for epsxe? I never bothered tweeking anything in epsxe, just aslong the game ran it was fine by me.

voodoo5 5500 agp
pent3 800mhz
256 sdram pc133
win98se

with that in mind, you think i can pull better gfx certain games rather then on default as i have been using epsxe as?

[Zephon]

Originally posted by Dark Zero
Crap, with all this talk, you guys trying to say I can get killer settings with my voodoo5 for epsxe?

Yes, use Lewpy's Glide plugin and turn on 4xFSAA. Check out fivefeet8's amazing screenshots of ePSXe with his Voodoo5.

[Dark Zero]

i use lewpy's glide, for some reason if i turn fsaa on with certain games, its hellishly slow.

edit: or was it slow with interplotion? ah ill check later.

[Kane]

>i use lewpy's glide, for some reason if i turn fsaa on with certain games, its hellishly slow.

Runs really well on mine. It even ran well when I had my old 650. I only run games in 640x480 though.

[Dark Zero]

Maybe its my resolution then, i think i play it higher then 800x600. I would go try it, but too busy with suikoden III ^_^