I think for the voodoo 3 you can go with a Pentium 3, about 550 or 600MHz. Try to get a board with the intel 440BX-2 chipset, they seem to be the most compatible ones. The voodoo 5 would go well with a Pentium 3 of around 1GHZ, or even a Pentium 4. Intel boards are very compatible here, and also good quality in my experience. When looking for a motherboard for the voodoo 3, bear in mind that they are only AGP 2X, so check that the AGP slot in your motherboard can fit the card physically.

aha2940 wrote on 2021-08-20, 04:43:

I think for the voodoo 3 you can go with a Pentium 3, about 550 or 600MHz. Try to get a board with the intel 440BX-2 chipset, they seem to be the most compatible ones. The voodoo 5 would go well with a Pentium 3 of around 1GHZ, or even a Pentium 4. Intel boards are very compatible here, and also good quality in my experience. When looking for a motherboard for the voodoo 3, bear in mind that they are only AGP 2X, so check that the AGP slot in your motherboard can fit the card physically.

Ok, thank you much; though I may focus on the voodoo 3; my PCI V5 5500 is having some graphical anomalies, so probably done I guess.

Bohemond1099 wrote on 2021-08-21, 20:53:

[...]

Ok, thank you much; though I may focus on the voodoo 3; my PCI V5 5500 is having some graphical anomalies, so probably done I guess.

Don't throw it away!

Particularly the PCI V5-5500s are very scarce and there are people with the skills to reflow or replace bad chips who would happily take a defective one to repair it.

As for advice on the rest, focusing on specific boards or systems means you either pay through the teeth (if the stuff is available) or you have a long, long wait for things to turn up. Instead take the general idea of whatever caught your attention and look for similar.

Most important question is what you are trying to achieve here, as that will to a certain degree determine your options:
- are you aiming for a period-correct build of a PC that that V3 would originally have been in? Then you want a late 1999 system. Date is more relevant than specs in this case.
- are you aiming to enjoy Voodoo (3) games as fully as possible? Then you want a CPU/platform that won't bottleneck the V3. That means go for something newer. Advantage there is that newer is cheaper in this period and there's more choice - anything with universal AGP will work, so you can get early P4 or AthlonXP systems. Watch out for capacitor plague though - if you're not confident in replacing the beasts, you want to be sure they are good in advance.
- do you want a general retro system that won't just play Voodoo (3) stuff but also do DOS etc? Then you need ISA slots for DOS sound cards and you might want to look into stuff that can easily be clocked slower to run older speed-sensitive stuff...

Once we know what you're aiming for, we can give relevant advice.

If I recall correctly, The Voodoo 3 is a 3.3V AGP, so the latest you can go in motherboards is limited to the end of the 3.3V AGP 2x era, or the somewhat rarer "universal" that supported 1.5V and 3.3V.
Slot A or Socket A Athlon may be another suitable host board

dionb wrote on 2021-08-21, 22:47:

Don't throw it away! […]
Show full quote

Bohemond1099 wrote on 2021-08-21, 20:53:

[...]

Ok, thank you much; though I may focus on the voodoo 3; my PCI V5 5500 is having some graphical anomalies, so probably done I guess.

Don't throw it away!

Particularly the PCI V5-5500s are very scarce and there are people with the skills to reflow or replace bad chips who would happily take a defective one to repair it.

As for advice on the rest, focusing on specific boards or systems means you either pay through the teeth (if the stuff is available) or you have a long, long wait for things to turn up. Instead take the general idea of whatever caught your attention and look for similar.

Most important question is what you are trying to achieve here, as that will to a certain degree determine your options:
- are you aiming for a period-correct build of a PC that that V3 would originally have been in? Then you want a late 1999 system. Date is more relevant than specs in this case.
- are you aiming to enjoy Voodoo (3) games as fully as possible? Then you want a CPU/platform that won't bottleneck the V3. That means go for something newer. Advantage there is that newer is cheaper in this period and there's more choice - anything with universal AGP will work, so you can get early P4 or AthlonXP systems. Watch out for capacitor plague though - if you're not confident in replacing the beasts, you want to be sure they are good in advance.
- do you want a general retro system that won't just play Voodoo (3) stuff but also do DOS etc? Then you need ISA slots for DOS sound cards and you might want to look into stuff that can easily be clocked slower to run older speed-sensitive stuff...

Once we know what you're aiming for, we can give relevant advice.

I'd like to be able to play up to Operation Flashpoint/Resistance if possible using the Voodoo 3 or if I find a replacement 5 on XP as well as Windows 98SE I also have a Voodoo 2 12MB on the way with pass-trough cable and a Matrox MIL2P/4BN/20 (which I hope is ok for the 2D part) which would be destined for a W98SE system build. Ideally I would like to build 1 system for each card; i.e. Vooodoo 2 PCI; Voodoo 3 PCI , and Voodoo 5 PCI (if I can find a replacement later this fall); but it has to be done with parts that are fairly common; i.e. not so rare that they are nowhere to be found.

Matth79 wrote on 2021-08-21, 22:55:

If I recall correctly, The Voodoo 3 is a 3.3V AGP, so the latest you can go in motherboards is limited to the end of the 3.3V AGP 2x era, or the somewhat rarer "universal" that supported 1.5V and 3.3V.
Slot A or Socket A Athlon may be another suitable host board

Ok, thanks, good to know.

Bohemond1099 wrote on 2021-08-26, 04:22:

[...]

I'd like to be able to play up to Operation Flashpoint/Resistance if possible using the Voodoo 3 or if I find a replacement 5 on XP as well as Windows 98SE I also have a Voodoo 2 12MB on the way with pass-trough cable and a Matrox MIL2P/4BN/20 (which I hope is ok for the 2D part) which would be destined for a W98SE system build. Ideally I would like to build 1 system for each card; i.e. Vooodoo 2 PCI; Voodoo 3 PCI , and Voodoo 5 PCI (if I can find a replacement later this fall); but it has to be done with parts that are fairly common; i.e. not so rare that they are nowhere to be found.

That's a lot of very similar builds...

If you're just interested in Win98SE and XP, there's nothing that a Voodoo 2 can do that a 3 or 5 can't. I'd suggest rather going for a single system with V3 now and V5 if/when you source one, and doing dual-boot Win98SE/WinXP on that.

You didn't answer my question about CPU/rest of system. Given you only seem interested in GPU, go with the cheapest option, which would be a P4 or AthlonXP with universal AGP (not even needed for the cards you have now, but if you want to replace the V5-5500 you'll find AGP far easier/less expensive than PCI) - which would also ensure the GPU is the only bottleneck. Do note that V3 is absolute minimum requirement for OF/R, so it's not going to look great even with an overpowered CPU.

Alterntive: use the V2 in a relatively high-end system paired with say a GeForce4Ti or similar. That way you can use the V2 for GLide and the much more powerful card for OpenGL and D3D.

If you want three separate systems, I'd suggest widening your scope. Maybe one for DOS (which needs an ISA slot for ISA sound card, and a CPU like a Via C3 that can be slowed down a lot), one entirely period-correct one for the Voodoo 3, and one max overkill XP system (optionally with the V2). For DOS, the recommended Voodoo is the V1, as there are a few V1-only DOS titles out there, and no DOS Voodoo game pushes the hardware enough to benefit from faster 3D cards.

dionb wrote on 2021-08-26, 12:19:

That's a lot of very similar builds... […]
Show full quote

Bohemond1099 wrote on 2021-08-26, 04:22:

[...]

I'd like to be able to play up to Operation Flashpoint/Resistance if possible using the Voodoo 3 or if I find a replacement 5 on XP as well as Windows 98SE I also have a Voodoo 2 12MB on the way with pass-trough cable and a Matrox MIL2P/4BN/20 (which I hope is ok for the 2D part) which would be destined for a W98SE system build. Ideally I would like to build 1 system for each card; i.e. Vooodoo 2 PCI; Voodoo 3 PCI , and Voodoo 5 PCI (if I can find a replacement later this fall); but it has to be done with parts that are fairly common; i.e. not so rare that they are nowhere to be found.

That's a lot of very similar builds...

If you're just interested in Win98SE and XP, there's nothing that a Voodoo 2 can do that a 3 or 5 can't. I'd suggest rather going for a single system with V3 now and V5 if/when you source one, and doing dual-boot Win98SE/WinXP on that.

You didn't answer my question about CPU/rest of system. Given you only seem interested in GPU, go with the cheapest option, which would be a P4 or AthlonXP with universal AGP (not even needed for the cards you have now, but if you want to replace the V5-5500 you'll find AGP far easier/less expensive than PCI) - which would also ensure the GPU is the only bottleneck. Do note that V3 is absolute minimum requirement for OF/R, so it's not going to look great even with an overpowered CPU.

Alterntive: use the V2 in a relatively high-end system paired with say a GeForce4Ti or similar. That way you can use the V2 for GLide and the much more powerful card for OpenGL and D3D.

If you want three separate systems, I'd suggest widening your scope. Maybe one for DOS (which needs an ISA slot for ISA sound card, and a CPU like a Via C3 that can be slowed down a lot), one entirely period-correct one for the Voodoo 3, and one max overkill XP system (optionally with the V2). For DOS, the recommended Voodoo is the V1, as there are a few V1-only DOS titles out there, and no DOS Voodoo game pushes the hardware enough to benefit from faster 3D cards.

Well I have been using a Pentium III 1.05Ghz/384MB RAM with my PCI Voodoo 5 5500; and I got to say the performance is pretty horrific to say the least; even in Quake III at 800x600 I am getting really bad constant frame drops from the 70s/80s FPS down to the 20s FPS and it's the same in pretty much any game I have tried. So I suppose that a Pentium III just doesn't cut it; or the Voodoo 5 PCI is just awful, one of the two.

Bohemond1099 wrote on 2022-03-01, 03:50:

dionb wrote on 2021-08-26, 12:19:

That's a lot of very similar builds... […]
Show full quote

Bohemond1099 wrote on 2021-08-26, 04:22:

[...]

I'd like to be able to play up to Operation Flashpoint/Resistance if possible using the Voodoo 3 or if I find a replacement 5 on XP as well as Windows 98SE I also have a Voodoo 2 12MB on the way with pass-trough cable and a Matrox MIL2P/4BN/20 (which I hope is ok for the 2D part) which would be destined for a W98SE system build. Ideally I would like to build 1 system for each card; i.e. Vooodoo 2 PCI; Voodoo 3 PCI , and Voodoo 5 PCI (if I can find a replacement later this fall); but it has to be done with parts that are fairly common; i.e. not so rare that they are nowhere to be found.

That's a lot of very similar builds...

If you're just interested in Win98SE and XP, there's nothing that a Voodoo 2 can do that a 3 or 5 can't. I'd suggest rather going for a single system with V3 now and V5 if/when you source one, and doing dual-boot Win98SE/WinXP on that.

You didn't answer my question about CPU/rest of system. Given you only seem interested in GPU, go with the cheapest option, which would be a P4 or AthlonXP with universal AGP (not even needed for the cards you have now, but if you want to replace the V5-5500 you'll find AGP far easier/less expensive than PCI) - which would also ensure the GPU is the only bottleneck. Do note that V3 is absolute minimum requirement for OF/R, so it's not going to look great even with an overpowered CPU.

Alterntive: use the V2 in a relatively high-end system paired with say a GeForce4Ti or similar. That way you can use the V2 for GLide and the much more powerful card for OpenGL and D3D.

If you want three separate systems, I'd suggest widening your scope. Maybe one for DOS (which needs an ISA slot for ISA sound card, and a CPU like a Via C3 that can be slowed down a lot), one entirely period-correct one for the Voodoo 3, and one max overkill XP system (optionally with the V2). For DOS, the recommended Voodoo is the V1, as there are a few V1-only DOS titles out there, and no DOS Voodoo game pushes the hardware enough to benefit from faster 3D cards.

Well I have been using a Pentium III 1.05Ghz/384MB RAM with my PCI Voodoo 5 5500; and I got to say the performance is pretty horrific to say the least; even in Quake III at 800x600 I am getting really bad constant frame drops from the 70s/80s FPS down to the 20s FPS and it's the same in pretty much any game I have tried. So I suppose that a Pentium III just doesn't cut it; or the Voodoo 5 PCI is just awful, one of the two.

Well being truthful it was never great to begin with and the PCI bus wouldn't be helping it a great deal with frame times, its well known that the V5 5500 has issues with SLI and performance related to it. I have zero performance problems with a GF2 GTS on my 1ghz P3 slot 1 system and even the Voodoo 4 4500 runs fine on it so you may want to look at your V5 5500 and check its VRM components to make sure its delivering the correct voltages to the VSA chips. (Issues with the VRM on the V5 5500 cards failing is a know problem and can kill the VSA chips, best to get it checked if you are having issues with the card)

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-03-01, 03:56:

Bohemond1099 wrote on 2022-03-01, 03:50:

dionb wrote on 2021-08-26, 12:19:

That's a lot of very similar builds... […]
Show full quote

That's a lot of very similar builds...

If you're just interested in Win98SE and XP, there's nothing that a Voodoo 2 can do that a 3 or 5 can't. I'd suggest rather going for a single system with V3 now and V5 if/when you source one, and doing dual-boot Win98SE/WinXP on that.

You didn't answer my question about CPU/rest of system. Given you only seem interested in GPU, go with the cheapest option, which would be a P4 or AthlonXP with universal AGP (not even needed for the cards you have now, but if you want to replace the V5-5500 you'll find AGP far easier/less expensive than PCI) - which would also ensure the GPU is the only bottleneck. Do note that V3 is absolute minimum requirement for OF/R, so it's not going to look great even with an overpowered CPU.

Alterntive: use the V2 in a relatively high-end system paired with say a GeForce4Ti or similar. That way you can use the V2 for GLide and the much more powerful card for OpenGL and D3D.

If you want three separate systems, I'd suggest widening your scope. Maybe one for DOS (which needs an ISA slot for ISA sound card, and a CPU like a Via C3 that can be slowed down a lot), one entirely period-correct one for the Voodoo 3, and one max overkill XP system (optionally with the V2). For DOS, the recommended Voodoo is the V1, as there are a few V1-only DOS titles out there, and no DOS Voodoo game pushes the hardware enough to benefit from faster 3D cards.

Well I have been using a Pentium III 1.05Ghz/384MB RAM with my PCI Voodoo 5 5500; and I got to say the performance is pretty horrific to say the least; even in Quake III at 800x600 I am getting really bad constant frame drops from the 70s/80s FPS down to the 20s FPS and it's the same in pretty much any game I have tried. So I suppose that a Pentium III just doesn't cut it; or the Voodoo 5 PCI is just awful, one of the two.

Well being truthful it was never great to begin with and the PCI bus wouldn't be helping it a great deal with frame times, its well known that the V5 5500 has issues with SLI and performance related to it. I have zero performance problems with a GF2 GTS on my 1ghz P3 slot 1 system and even the Voodoo 4 4500 runs fine on it so you may want to look at your V5 5500 and check its VRM components to make sure its delivering the correct voltages to the VSA chips. (Issues with the VRM on the V5 5500 cards failing is a know problem and can kill the VSA chips, best to get it checked if you are having issues with the card)

Wow, thanks for such an informative reply; I actually was oblivious to the cooling issue since it looks so much better in that department than my voodoo 3 does; thanks.

Bohemond1099 wrote on 2022-03-01, 05:54:

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-03-01, 03:56:

[...]

Well being truthful it was never great to begin with and the PCI bus wouldn't be helping it a great deal with frame times, its well known that the V5 5500 has issues with SLI and performance related to it. I have zero performance problems with a GF2 GTS on my 1ghz P3 slot 1 system and even the Voodoo 4 4500 runs fine on it so you may want to look at your V5 5500 and check its VRM components to make sure its delivering the correct voltages to the VSA chips. (Issues with the VRM on the V5 5500 cards failing is a know problem and can kill the VSA chips, best to get it checked if you are having issues with the card)

Wow, thanks for such an informative reply; I actually was oblivious to the cooling issue since it looks so much better in that department than my voodoo 3 does; thanks.

"VRM" isn't the cooling, it's the Voltage Regulator Module, i.e. the components (coils, caps & MOSFETs) near the Molex power plug that (should) ensure all the other parts of the card get exactly the correct voltage. A Voodoo3 doesn't have the same issue as it draws its power from the AGP or PCI slot, but a Voodoo5 needs more than it can supply.

dionb wrote on 2022-03-01, 07:00:

Bohemond1099 wrote on 2022-03-01, 05:54:

TrashPanda wrote on 2022-03-01, 03:56:

[...]

Well being truthful it was never great to begin with and the PCI bus wouldn't be helping it a great deal with frame times, its well known that the V5 5500 has issues with SLI and performance related to it. I have zero performance problems with a GF2 GTS on my 1ghz P3 slot 1 system and even the Voodoo 4 4500 runs fine on it so you may want to look at your V5 5500 and check its VRM components to make sure its delivering the correct voltages to the VSA chips. (Issues with the VRM on the V5 5500 cards failing is a know problem and can kill the VSA chips, best to get it checked if you are having issues with the card)

Wow, thanks for such an informative reply; I actually was oblivious to the cooling issue since it looks so much better in that department than my voodoo 3 does; thanks.

"VRM" isn't the cooling, it's the Voltage Regulator Module, i.e. the components (coils, caps & MOSFETs) near the Molex power plug that (should) ensure all the other parts of the card get exactly the correct voltage. A Voodoo3 doesn't have the same issue as it draws its power from the AGP or PCI slot, but a Voodoo5 needs more than it can supply.

Ok thanks; I will look at testing with my Voodoo 3 3000 and 2000 cards on the 3dfx side and Geforce 2 GTS and ATI 9800 to see how that compares. Quake 2, Dark Forces II Jedi Knight, Microsoft Flight Simulator 98, and Myth all run great on this Voodoo 5; but Unreal (patched), Comanche 4, Delta Force, Delta Force Land Warrior, and Quake 3 have horrible FPS drops. Notably Delta Force, Quake 3 and Unreal will get great average FPS, but 1% lows are horrendous. Found that hard to believe with OG Delta Force which uses voxel graphics which I thought were easier on performance.

Update found some stuff in my attick I had forgotten about:
1. A7N8X Nvidia Nforce 400 rev. 2; as far as I can find, XP 2600+ - AXDA2600DKV3C
2600+, Thoroughbred, Model 8, 266 MHz FSB before needing bios update to get up to XP 3200+ CPU.

2. Asus K7M Supports up to AGP 2x (AGP 1.0/2.0, 3.3V/1.5V) and up to AMD-A0750MPR24B 700Mhz without bios update, up to AMD-A1000MMR24B A 1Ghz with 2 more bios updates.

My first thought is the K7 is better relegated to Voodoo II and 3 3000 duty; whilst the A7N8X does heavier lifting, but I cannot seem to figure out if it actually supports 3.3v AGP on board: "Supports up to AGP 8x (AGP 2.0/3.0, 1.5V/0.8V)".

Personally I prefer to pair Voodoo3 with something like an Athlon XP 2000+. There are plenty of games you would run on one that will benefit from more CPU power.

swaaye wrote on 2022-03-10, 18:51:

Personally I prefer to pair Voodoo3 with something like an Athlon XP 2000+. There are plenty of games you would run on one that will benefit from more CPU power.

Ok thanks; will look at W98 for that then because I never had luck with any of the custom drivers for Windows XP. 30sec of 3dMark with a bsod is as close as that got for me with Voodoo 5.

Also, 😀, Voodoo2 is actually a pretty disappointing card in my experience. Even the 12MB card doesn't have enough texture memory. You will run into some stuttering caused by PCI bus texture swapping even with the original Unreal. I think of it as a super duper Voodoo1 for the most part.

I tried to play Diablo 2 with Voodoo2 SLI last year and there are quite a few areas that, if you run it at 800x600, it will drop from a solid 30fps to about 10fps. Voodoo3 2000 doesn't even blink.

swaaye wrote on 2022-03-10, 19:04:

Also, 😀, Voodoo2 is actually a pretty disappointing card in my experience. Even the 12MB card doesn't have enough texture memory. You will run into some stuttering caused by PCI bus texture swapping even with the original Unreal. I think of it as a super duper Voodoo1 for the most part.

I tried to play Diablo 2 with Voodoo2 SLI last year and there are quite a few areas that, if you run it at 800x600, it will drop from a solid 30fps to about 10fps. Voodoo3 2000 doesn't even blink.

Good to know; I have 2 Voodoo IIs, but still trying to figure that stuff out; got a 2D card, but got wrapped up in trying to figure out what the best setups are for the slew of AGP cards (right now my collection is fairly small, Voodoo IIx2, Voodoo 3 2000, Voodoo 3 3000, Asus version of NVIDIA Riva TNT2 32 MB, Radeon 9000 Pro 128MB, FX 5200, 6600 GT, 6800 GT 256MB and a Radeon HD 4650 1GB as far as AGP cards goes; I got these mobos laying around; a P4 2.8Ghz system that took a crap on me and feels like basically trying to plug holes to get it patched up (getting things like sound and USB working again).

Part of the reason I'm so interested in this stuff is that I really loved the 90s/00s; had a fantastic time (even on military deployments!), but my chagrin was being ignorant of computer technology at the time; I was much more a gamer back then; now I'm much more interested in the time machine concept and recapturing some of that unique time of innovation that you definitely don't seen now. (honestly the last modern GPU worth a darn was the GTX 1080Ti imo; 2080Ti was not much better and now AMD /Nvidia are just doing milk runs). I think it's a shame we don't have pioneers and innovators like we did in the 90s aside from a few notable exceptions like John Carmack; anyway, I really appreciate the help from everyone; just working on the funds as I go, because if I buy it all at once my wife may execute me at dawn.

I was planning on getting a V5 6000, but with the current turmoil, not happening from where I am. So now I'm looking at getting these other builds started and focusing on either W98SE or XP.

I am really fascinated by how poorly this Voodoo 5 PCI runs; all reviews I heard/saw said it was pretty much the same as the AGP version. From what I'm seeing out of my Voodoo 3 3000 it is giving a good run for the Voodoo 5 PCI's money, so I assume something is not right somewhere; but I digress.

swaaye wrote on 2022-03-10, 19:04:

Also, 😀, Voodoo2 is actually a pretty disappointing card in my experience. Even the 12MB card doesn't have enough texture memory. You will run into some stuttering caused by PCI bus texture swapping even with the original Unreal. I think of it as a super duper Voodoo1 for the most part.

I tried to play Diablo 2 with Voodoo2 SLI last year and there are quite a few areas that, if you run it at 800x600, it will drop from a solid 30fps to about 10fps. Voodoo3 2000 doesn't even blink.

I'm not trying to argue with you but that's not the experience I get with a single 12MB Voodoo 2 @ 800x600. Both those things you mention are flawless. I think you might have some other issue going on. If you have a particular area or test you want me to run to compare let me know I'd be happy to help.

Edit: just for comparison what kind of frame rate do you get in unreal for the benchmark, I know you wont hit the texture thrashing you say you are experiencing but still it would be an easy place to start a troubleshoot.

Shagittarius wrote on 2022-03-10, 22:19:

swaaye wrote on 2022-03-10, 19:04:

Also, 😀, Voodoo2 is actually a pretty disappointing card in my experience. Even the 12MB card doesn't have enough texture memory. You will run into some stuttering caused by PCI bus texture swapping even with the original Unreal. I think of it as a super duper Voodoo1 for the most part.

I tried to play Diablo 2 with Voodoo2 SLI last year and there are quite a few areas that, if you run it at 800x600, it will drop from a solid 30fps to about 10fps. Voodoo3 2000 doesn't even blink.

I'm not trying to argue with you but that's not the experience I get with a single 12MB Voodoo 2 @ 800x600. Both those things you mention are flawless. I think you might have some other issue going on. If you have a particular area or test you want me to run to compare let me know I'd be happy to help.

Edit: just for comparison what kind of frame rate do you get in unreal for the benchmark, I know you wont hit the texture thrashing you say you are experiencing but still it would be an easy place to start a troubleshoot.

Well I'm sure it will be rough after bouncing between a 2080Ti and borked Voodoo 5; but I'm hoping that with two of them Voodoo IIs in SLI it's not too bad. I think the Voodoo 1 would be too much for me outside of Tomb Raider.