The Idea here i think is that the 3dfx cards are Preciousss!
I got tons of crappy cards ( Ati rage Pro etc ) that i am real happy to run fanless, and they dont do 3d anyway. I would prefer a boosted heatsink over a fan anyday for the +1 bonus, but fan is easy, Moded sink is luxury.
Now the voodoo3: Sure they are heavy duty and all... But any electronics has a lifetime that is a function of many parameters: one of them being temperature cycle magnitude. Mo matter how resilient they are, you make them last longer by cooling them in order to reduces the thermal cycling stress.
That might be irrelevant for some people, but in 15-20 years from now when collectors and retro enthusiasts are going to want to use and preserve hardware that has become rare and valuable, they are going to think: Damn those folks back then should have taken better care of their stuff, now i gotta pay 200$ for that voodoo3.
Call me over zealous if you want but its still the way i think. Now i got my own personal and pretty unscientific rule about cooling electronic i deem valuable: If you cant keep you finger on a part because its too hot, then its worth cooling 😜
I definitely cant keep my finger on a Stock Voodoo3 heatsink more than a few seconds.
Just look at the C64 community, how many are starting to use heatsinks on many of the chips such as SID or PLA. Sure they were "designed" to work without them but now, after a couple decades of use. Ohh, chips are starting to fail. Quick lets Put heatsink on them before its too late!!!
FM sound card comparison on a Grand Scale!!
The Grand OPL3 Comparison Run.