Lamentably, as we live in a linear time universe, there's nowhere to get a Voodoo card cheaply. At least, not intentionally. The same goes for getting a 1MB ISA video card for better than 8 bit color. It's also a bit late to scour yardsales and Craigslist for desirable oldware, but not impossible, depending on your location. I live a stone's throw from cattle farms, so it's a miracle if I can find a toaster oven at a yardsale.

the only way to get one at a nice price is having luck on finding someone selling a bundle full of old stuff they have no idea what it is.

and good luck finding a voodoo4 pci or voodoo5 pci for a low price...

Voodoo 3, 4, and 5 do not use a passthrough cable. Last 3dfx card that used a passthrough cable was the Voodoo 2.

But yeah, good luck getting one for a good price.

The last Voodoo 5 - 5500 I bought I got for under $100. Since then, prices have gone through the roof. The first Voodoo 5 - 5500 I got was the one I bought new when 3dfx was still around. I still have that card.

You can get fairly lucky with getting Voodoo 3 cards though. I've ended up with enough Voodoo 3 cards that I will probably never need to buy any more.

I still was a PCI Voodoo 5 - 5500, but with prices being what they are I will probably never get one.

1), if you have money....buy any 3dfx card. ANY because it is a collectors item
2) ,if the card is expensive as hell and you have one...don´t use it, to avoid risk of damage.
3) 3dfx cards get really hot, and took many years for companies to learn about proper cooling, and heat is not good for electronics
4) memory will fail also someday after being used, so if you have a really expensive card, it might not last 20 more years.

Either you can get a voodoo 2, or use a glide wrapper

Unfortunately we're all at the mercy of these high prices. They are going up. 2 years ago a Voodoo 3 3000 would frequently show up for $20-30 on ebay, now it's $50 and appreciating all the time. It wouldn't kill you to just grab one at those prices and hold it as an investment.

Honestly though, gtx 4xxx or better (AGP though) and a glide wrapper provides me with virtually all of my glide needs paired with a pentium 3 800mhz. It's the cheapest way to enjoy glide.

I snagged a few Voodoos ages ago when nobody really cared about them. The 4500's were never that common even then. The only reason I have a 4500 was because it was in a junk PC somebody gave me.

Guess my boxed 5500 AGP is worth what I paid for it new back in the day (which I find kind of funny).

Check local recycling shops in your area.

SETBLASTER wrote:

1), if you have money....buy any 3dfx card. ANY because it is a collectors item 2) ,if the card is expensive as hell and you hav […]
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1), if you have money....buy any 3dfx card. ANY because it is a collectors item
2) ,if the card is expensive as hell and you have one...don´t use it, to avoid risk of damage.
3) 3dfx cards get really hot, and took many years for companies to learn about proper cooling, and heat is not good for electronics
4) memory will fail also someday after being used, so if you have a really expensive card, it might not last 20 more years.

What would be the point of the cards if you didn't use them? I think they are worth absolutely nothing if they gather dust in someones closet until they die.
I have 5 voodoo cards, but none of the high end like voodoo 5. I have one diamond voodoo1, 2 diamond voodoo2's, one stb branded voodoo 3 2000 agp and one 3dfx branded voodoo3 2000 pci card. I have been using all of them except the second voodoo2 in my retro pcs.

The more stuff you have the less you use them.... every time I want to do the inventory I stop after a few boxes as it would take like forever to finish 🤣 But it would be useful as I forget what I have 🤣 Wish I had more time available for retro stuff... for a few months now I even don't have the time to test the stuff I buy from eBay in 45 day limit 🙁 A few motherboards are still untested from early July...

Some stuff should not be used frequently, like infamous GeForce FX 5800 Ultra which can die any moment. That said, Voodoo 1/2/3 are quite robust for everyday retro PC use. No so much Voodoo 4 or 5.

If I had voodoo 5, I would probably use it in Pentium 3 pc that I am trying to build. Currently only thing I have from correct time period is Geforce 2 MX so I have had it there while testing the parts.

I got lucked out that time I picked up 4 desktops from craigslist for $30 and one of them had a VooDoo 3 in it.

Baoran wrote:

What would be the point of the cards if you didn't use them?

The reason, that all other more or less precious items share which don't get much use: value-keeping and preservation of their original condition.

Baoran wrote:

I think they are worth absolutely nothing if they gather dust in someones closet until they die.

Reality proves your argument to be wrong. Lightly or even unused products always yield higher prices and are commonly considered to be worth more.

Furthermore, that raises a very philosophical question, whether someone can enjoy his belongings without using it or not. I can. I love looking at my boxed 3dfx collection without even opening them. The money has been spent very reasonably when looking at the current going rates, although that wasn't my initial intention.

blurks wrote:

The reason, that all other more or less precious items share which don't get much use: value-keeping and preservation of their o […]
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Baoran wrote:

What would be the point of the cards if you didn't use them?

The reason, that all other more or less precious items share which don't get much use: value-keeping and preservation of their original condition.

Baoran wrote:

I think they are worth absolutely nothing if they gather dust in someones closet until they die.

Reality proves your argument to be wrong. Lightly or even unused products always yield higher prices and are commonly considered to be worth more.

Furthermore, that raises a very philosophical question, whether someone can enjoy his belongings without using it or not. I can. I love looking at my boxed 3dfx collection without even opening them. The money has been spent very reasonably when looking at the current going rates, although that wasn't my initial intention.

I'm assuming he's talking from a personal perspective, which is to say, on a personal level it would worthless to him. Financially speaking it's another story but if you have a lot of stuff just sitting around doing nothing, it can feel a bit like unneeded clutter that brings nothing of value. YMMV of course.

In regards to the OP, that boat has sailed I'm afraid. Like others have said, a cheap Geforce and Glide wrapper is your best bet if you want access to Glide on the cheap now.

It's kind of crazy to me how much computer hardware has risen tbh. While the cost of retro console gaming continued to rise and rise computer gaming always seemed to stay quite cheap (for stuff I wanted anyway). I suppose I was being naive but I always assumed it would stay that way.

We need a retro enthusiast billionaire to convince Nvidia to do a limited run of highend voodoo cards.

If you have unopened new card in your collection, you don't even know if it works. I know there are collectors who collect rare items for the sake of having them, but for me I value the cards more when they are inside a pc which they might have used originally almost 20 years ago. If you have a card in your collection only as rare item to have and never to be used, it should not even make difference if the card works.
I am personally only worried about if a card fails while in use that if I am able to find something for the pc to replace it with, so the cards have more value to me while they are inside a pc, so I try to preserve them by adding extra cooling and such like I installed fans for both of my voodoo3 cards recently.

I know that when I die one day all my retro pc stuff will most likely go to e-waste because nobody who I know would understand their value.

Baoran wrote:

I know that when I die one day all my retro pc stuff will most likely go to e-waste because nobody who I know would understand their value.

Sure, but that doesn't keep me from buying stuff and admiring it in the cabinet.

Duouk2000 wrote:

In regards to the OP, that boat has sailed I'm afraid.

Not so sure about that. I see parallels to the NES situation, where the price peak has already passed and collectors are loosing more and more interest in it. I suspect the NES to be very affordable in a few years again when all the collectors have woken up from their collecting craze and realize they need to materialize before the crash is incoming. That is very similar to 3dfx stuff. Currently all the nice cards and boxes are spread in collections. Those collections will vanish. Like I say, no collection is forever. Most collectors are in their mid 30's or 40's and I assume, they have no intention to keep PC hardware until they die. In about 5-10 years 3dfx stuff will become more available again, provided that not many of the current survivors get trashed over the next few years.

oeuvre wrote:

I got lucked out that time I picked up 4 desktops from craigslist for $30 and one of them had a VooDoo 3 in it.

Damn you, and here I am with the single Voodoo 3000 that I bought new 18 years ago, for like as much as it cost back then, and two non-working Voodoo 2000s.

blurks wrote:

Furthermore, that raises a very philosophical question, whether someone can enjoy his belongings without using it or not. I can. I love looking at my boxed 3dfx collection without even opening them. The money has been spent very reasonably when looking at the current going rates, although that wasn't my initial intention.

The question is how you view them. If you view your cards as collectibles, sure - they are as good as any other collectible that people often keep on display without looking - action figures, comic books, Fabergé eggs... why not 3dfx cards?

BinaryDemon wrote:

We need a retro enthusiast billionaire to convince Nvidia to do a limited run of highend voodoo cards.

Might as well just convince a retro enthusiast billionaire to give you a few thousand bucks so you could buy all the Voodoo cards you want on eBay.

blurks wrote:

Baoran wrote:

I know that when I die one day all my retro pc stuff will most likely go to e-waste because nobody who I know would understand their value.

Sure, but that doesn't keep me from buying stuff and admiring it in the cabinet.

Instead of admiring specific parts, I am mostly admiring 2 period correct PCs that I have on my desk in my bedroom even though I don't use them as much as I would like. I just feel like the parts belong inside those PCs.