Just out of curiosity, were there any voltage mods for the Voodoo3?

On my testbench I have a 120mm fan blow across the entire card. Works very well.

maximus wrote:

KT7AGuy wrote:

From what I've read, to get a really good overclock on a Voodoo 3 you need to get either the 2000 or 3500 model.

This is what I've read as well. The 3500 makes sense, but the 2000 is a bit of a mystery. Why would the lower clocked model be a better overclocker?

I also have the 2000 one. Maybe they had good yields and decided to sell some of the 3000/3500-level chips as V3 2000 later on?

Why all the hassle with overclocking to the max with these poor old cards? It is only a 10% increase.....

And the cards survived many years, games and benchmarks so the stock cooling isn`t that bad. Just put an extra fan and be done, it is way cooler with that and it never even needed it before.
A lot of cases back then couldn`t even fit a case fan, so i guess that alone would be an improvement.

Reading all the custom cooling projects on the net, i bet more voodoo`s are killed by that than by heat with stock heatsinks 🤣

maximus wrote:

My little Voodoo3 cooling project appears to have ended in tragedy... :depressed: […]
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My little Voodoo3 cooling project appears to have ended in tragedy... 😢

The card is a Voodoo3 3000 AGP which I attempted to upgrade with a fan and ramsinks. It worked fine prior to the modifications.

I had to freeze the card to get the heatsink off, and even then it required quite a bit of force to remove. I'm afraid I broke some solder joints in the process. As always, electrostatic discharge is also a remote possibility.

If I did break some solder joints, might I correct the damage by popping the card in the oven for a reflow or "bake?" The card's buggered as is, so I figure it's worth a shot...

Ahhh yes, anyone who has pulled off voodoo heatsinks many times will be familiar with that.

There are two possible deaths actually.
#1 placing excessive force on the *PCB* of the IC, damaging the traces on the chip itself (applies to VSA-100 as well)
#2 pulling a BGA traces on the board <-- not as common of a problem if you freeze the heatsink before attempting to remove it

It's important to get a can of compressed air, flip it upside down, and FREEZE the heatsink until you get frost and it is very cold. This causes the thermal compound to become absolutely brittle allowing it to be freed from the chip easily.

You can see how the voodoo chips have an extended PCB, the traces on that PCB are *very* fine, my butter knife slipped and wasn't in contact with the credit card, causing the force to go down on the traces (and I got video distortion as a result):

Curiously enough I've removed heatsinks from voodoo 5500s all day and never had a problem. But the voodoo 4500.... bloody hell... those things die left right and centre. I just left mine with the stock heatsink and put a huge copper one at the back with 3M thermal tape. Keeps the card very cool.
Note: the voodoo 4500 heatsinks are larger than the 5500 heatsinks

meljor wrote:

Why all the hassle with overclocking to the max with these poor old cards? It is only a 10% increase..... […]
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Why all the hassle with overclocking to the max with these poor old cards? It is only a 10% increase.....

And the cards survived many years, games and benchmarks so the stock cooling isn`t that bad. Just put an extra fan and be done, it is way cooler with that and it never even needed it before.
A lot of cases back then couldn`t even fit a case fan, so i guess that alone would be an improvement.

Reading all the custom cooling projects on the net, i bet more voodoo`s are killed by that than by heat with stock heatsinks 🤣

In my case, the Voodoo 3 was in bad shape when I received it. The previous owner had attempted to mod it by pinching the fins of the heatsink to screw in a fan. In doing so, he also warped the mating surface of the heatsink slightly. It looked like hell and I decided to replace it. When I did, I also found that the previous owner had already popped the heatsink and replaced the epoxy with what appeared to be AS Céramique. I wiped off all the goo and mounted the EC-VC-RE cooler with Arctic Alumina epoxy.

As I mentioned before, I originally never thought about overclocking. That's why the cooler doesn't line up with the holes on the card. I originally just wanted to replace the damaged heatsink and improve cooling.

Later, after reading about how folks were able to get their V3 2000s and 3500s up to 200mhz, I decided to see what I could do with my 3000. As both Maximus and I already reported, the 3000 is really only stable up to about 181mhz. Benchmarking with 3DMark2001SE only yields about 50 extra points at 181mhz. Real world examples are even more dismal, as I can barely notice any difference at all in framerates of the games I run.

If I ever use another V3 3000, I won't bother attempting to overclock it. I might try to replace the glue with some Céramique, but that would be it. There is very little to be gained by overclocking a V3 3000. Also, if I were to replace the heatsink on a V3, I wouldn't use an EC-VC-RE again. They don't fit correctly and you need to attach them with thermal epoxy; a very permanent fix. As Darksheer previously mentioned, these cheapo vga coolers will probably fit better and cool the gpu just as well.

It is worth noting that while my solution may be an ugly and imperfect fit, it is still a single-slot cooler that doesn't obstruct the adjacent PCI slot in any way. This is critical in my IBM NetVista A40 that only has three PCI slots to work with.

meljor wrote:

Why all the hassle with overclocking to the max with these poor old cards? It is only a 10% increase.....

I was just hoping to get up to Voodoo3 3500 speeds. It looked promising, given how hot the stock heatsink was getting, but apparently the core is not thermally limited. I agree, though... the more I dabble in overclocking, the more I realize it's not worth the time, effort, or risk. I'd rather just shell out for the faster part and be done with it.

I have a one PCI 2000 and it has no problem hitting 3500 speeds with its stock cooler, I almost never run it over stock tho if its not for a benchmark, really no reason to, as nogames I play on a V3 really care if its 20% or even 50% faster 🤣 .
It has the many pin type cooler on it by default, instead of the flat ones, that the 3000\3500 use. So a simple bracket fan over it is enough cooling.

Cases with 120mm Fans on the side door especially the ones with 2 over all the AGP\PCI slots can be just as effective for super cooling passive cards.
Something to consider.

That getto cooled core duo fan V3 AGP 3000, I think maxes out at 190ish mhz, without rear cooling. So not all runs are too bad.
Sink on it is not glued on either, the glue became so brittle on that one, it broke off on its on accord, actually popped the spring on the heatsink too. Came detached, luckily that happened when it was in storage, not while it was in use.

maximus wrote:

meljor wrote:

It looked promising, given how hot the stock heatsink was getting, but apparently the core is not thermally limited.

Makes me remember how scared was I of the temperature 15 years ago. People need to realize some chips like it hot. 3dfx was usually pushing theirs to the limit while being highly reliable. Nowadays there are some GPUs working just right at 120 C, and "enthusiasts" still make drama when trying to get below half of that. I miss common sense overclocking before ricers came around.

Putas wrote:

Makes me remember how scared was I of the temperature 15 years ago. People need to realize some chips like it hot. 3dfx was usually pushing theirs to the limit while being highly reliable. Nowadays there are some GPUs working just right at 120 C, and "enthusiasts" still make drama when trying to get below half of that. I miss common sense overclocking before ricers came around.

I remember those days. They peaked for me sometime in 2004 when I purchased a case designed by the devil himself.

Behold! The RaidMax Elite ATX-208

At first glance, that case looks innocent enough. A bit cheap, but relatively harmless. However, after installing the four 80mm fans in the front, you can hear the howling of souls being tortured in hell.

It was at that point I realized I had definitely crossed the line where more noise did not result in greater performance.

Fortunately, it wasn't too long after that when manufacturers started using 120mm fans. I've since realized that quieter is better. The only loud PC I still currently run is my old P200 MMX because it's just too much trouble to mod its AT case. Still, I might consider punching a hole for a 120mm fan on the top of it someday.

Some people freak out when they saw the temperature my GTX 260 ran at. Heat sink wasn't dusty, it just ran hot, and it has been running just fine for 5 years now. It could reach 90C under full load. The only issue I had with it was how loud the fan could get.

My mac mini generally runs at higher temperatures as well.

I generally don't care how hot components with stock heat sinks gets. I'm happy as long as the fan is silent.

People tend to exaggerate when it comes to power supplies as well. Someone tried to butt in when I bought a 450W power supply for my system. Apparently I needed at least 550W to power a mid range C2D and a GTX 260. My system was doing just fine with the 450W. I experienced no throttling, no sudden shutdowns, no excessively hot power supply. I think my system measured about 250-300W during prime95 and furmark when I ran my system through a cheap power meter. =)

I did a similar test with my PIII + TNT2 machine. It maxed out somewhere between 80 and 90W.

joacim wrote:

Some people freak out when they saw the temperature my GTX 260 ran at. Heat sink wasn't dusty, it just ran hot, and it has been running just fine for 5 years now. It could reach 90 C under full load. The only issue I had with it was how loud the fan could get.

I had stock GTX470s which easily reach 90 C+ too, and as it was on a cramped microATX board, one of them quickly gets to 98 C. Increasing the fan speed makes them unbearably annoying. The 480s were similar. I still keep one of them though, Reminds me not to jump straight away buying something at release 😄

Putas wrote:

Nowadays there are some GPUs working just right at 120 C

Which ones, I'm curious? From the "red" or "green" side? I thought both sides are getting more and more efficient (and cooler as result), but I haven't really been following this stuff lately.

joacim wrote:

Some people freak out when they saw the temperature my GTX 260 ran at. Heat sink wasn't dusty, it just ran hot, and it has been […]
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Some people freak out when they saw the temperature my GTX 260 ran at. Heat sink wasn't dusty, it just ran hot, and it has been running just fine for 5 years now. It could reach 90C under full load. The only issue I had with it was how loud the fan could get.

My mac mini generally runs at higher temperatures as well.

I generally don't care how hot components with stock heat sinks gets. I'm happy as long as the fan is silent.

People tend to exaggerate when it comes to power supplies as well. Someone tried to butt in when I bought a 450W power supply for my system. Apparently I needed at least 550W to power a mid range C2D and a GTX 260. My system was doing just fine with the 450W. I experienced no throttling, no sudden shutdowns, no excessively hot power supply. I think my system measured about 250-300W during prime95 and furmark when I ran my system through a cheap power meter. =)

I did a similar test with my PIII + TNT2 machine. It maxed out somewhere between 80 and 90W.

Most consumer PSUs have a false listing of power output, so I'm not surprised. I've seen some PSUs rated for 800 watts that I wouldn't trust doing 300 watts...

Yes, macminis and iMacs get hot-- and that is very bad. Especially for the RoHS non-lead BGA joints. The voodoo 3 uses 60/40 lead solder, so it's more resistant to heat stress. Electronics shouldn't get hotter than 60C if you want them to last and operate normally. To put it in perspective I have a *3.8 Ghz* prescott pentium 4 that runs at 40C at full load with stock OEM cooling that's rather quiet.

The voodoo3 cooling is rather bad though, it gets so hot the card smells like laundry... the voltage MOSFET also gets just as hot-- it needs a larger heatsink. Heat for the MOSFET is bad as that *can* fail. Also voodoo 3 PCBs on their soldermask become discoloured at the bottom from the heat. Eventually traces can be damaged from the heat.

Hello sorry for digging old topic I know I win a gold shovel but I need help . I'v bulding old PC based on Windows 98 and I order this Card in online shop and I waiting for package with it but sadly after I paid for it I read online there's a problem with the temperature of this card .I'd l like to make a mod like Maximus but with only one fan on radiator . Could anybody tell me what size of fan Maximus used ? I"m from Poland and at Polish websites I can't find any information about size of stock heat sink . Once again Sorry for dinging old topic and for my bad english but I'v not used this language for a long time.

I'm talking about this fan .

maximus wrote:

https://t.imgbox.com/Jujrjtm5.jpg […]
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I used 50mm x 10mm fans like this one:

EVERCOOL 50mm x 10mm Case Cooling Fan FAN-EC5010M12CA

If you want to replace the stock heatsink with a new HSF (heatsink and fan), any standard 55mm VGA cooler should fit. See below for examples.

Titan Copper VGA Heatsink Cooling Fan TTC-CUV3
EVERCOOL Cyclone Universal VGA Cooler VC-RF

I ended up removing the back fan once I was done with my overclocking experiments. If I was going to fix up another Voodoo3, I'd probably skip the ramsinks (they don't do any good) and just replace the stock heatsink with a new HSF.

I am curious to hear if the Titan TTC-CUV3 or Evercool VC-RF will fit the mounting holes on a Voodoo 3. I used a VC-RE on mine and it definitely did not fit. I had to use thermal epoxy.

Maximus: The back of my Voodoo 3 still gets really hot even with the VC-RE cooler on the front, so I've kept the fan on the back of mine. However, for other Voodoo 3 cards I've kept the original heatsink and just pointed a fan at them. It's very similar to the setup I use for my Voodoo 1, which I posted about here:

Tyan P200 MMX Voodoo 1

Pointing a fan at the Voodoo 3 seems to work just as well as anything else. Bonus: You don't have to risk breaking the card by removing the heatsink and glue. If you don't want to kludge a cooling solution like I did, some cheap brackets like these will also work very well:

https://www.ebay.com/itm/80mm-90mm-Dual-Fan-M … rd/392199547821

https://www.ebay.com/itm/PCI-Side-blown-Graph … NN/273408769425

KT7AGuy wrote:

I remember those days. They peaked for me sometime in 2004 when I purchased a case designed by the devil himself. […]
Show full quote

Putas wrote:

Makes me remember how scared was I of the temperature 15 years ago. People need to realize some chips like it hot. 3dfx was usually pushing theirs to the limit while being highly reliable. Nowadays there are some GPUs working just right at 120 C, and "enthusiasts" still make drama when trying to get below half of that. I miss common sense overclocking before ricers came around.

I remember those days. They peaked for me sometime in 2004 when I purchased a case designed by the devil himself.

Behold! The RaidMax Elite ATX-208

At first glance, that case looks innocent enough. A bit cheap, but relatively harmless. However, after installing the four 80mm fans in the front, you can hear the howling of souls being tortured in hell.

It was at that point I realized I had definitely crossed the line where more noise did not result in greater performance.

Fortunately, it wasn't too long after that when manufacturers started using 120mm fans. I've since realized that quieter is better. The only loud PC I still currently run is my old P200 MMX because it's just too much trouble to mod its AT case. Still, I might consider punching a hole for a 120mm fan on the top of it someday.

Omg... RaidMax. I'd forgotten that they existed. Back in the 90's, they made some gloriously horrible looking cases. That one actually looks pretty nice though. I wonder if anyone here in Norway sell that brand still. 😁

KT7AGuy wrote:

I am curious to hear if the Titan TTC-CUV3 or Evercool VC-RF will fit the mounting holes on a Voodoo 3. I used a VC-RE on mine and it definitely did not fit. I had to use thermal epoxy.

Interesting. I'll admit I haven't actually tried either of those coolers with a Voodoo3, but I just held another 55mm VGA cooler against my dead Voodoo3 and the mounting pins seem to line up. Did the pins on the VC-RF not fit, or was there some other problem?

Grrr.

Funny, it seems like only yesterday I was mad at myself for breaking that Voodoo3. How time flies.