Cannot serve with first-hand experience but this channel is a good way to see

https://www.youtube.com/@3dfxvoodoocards6

3dfx cards in action. Some games are also played with the Banshee.

I have a Banshee AGP in my Slot-1 PIı 450 1996-1998 build and I like it over a Voodoo 2: No passthrough, sharp image, similar performance. Also allows me to keep my Voodoo 2s unused 😅

Thanks a lot for the video linke iceman. The Banshee footage looks quite good. It is not the ideal 3dfx card I want ( it seems that the v3 is) but the Banshee still could serve as decent starting point in the 3dfx world.

appiah4 wrote on 2023-06-19, 13:26:

I have a Banshee AGP in my Slot-1 PIı 450 1996-1998 build and I like it over a Voodoo 2: No passthrough, sharp image, similar performance. Also allows me to keep my Voodoo 2s unused 😅

Thx for sharing your impressions.

It depends which games you want to play but in general in single texture games the Banshee is faster than Voodoo2 because it has higher clocks. For example Unreal engine use multi texturing technology so Voodoo 2 is faster.
This is the biggest downside but apart from that Banshee has more resolution flexibility, it has an excellent VGA and GUI acceleration and you don't need a 2D card like even a pass through cable.
Pay attention on temperature. Banshee can be extremely hot and generally they are passive cooled.

Voodoo Banshee is the direct predecessor of the Voodoo3 and actually has very little in common with the Voodoo2 architecture-wise.

It was my first 3D card back in the day. I played the crap out of everything with it on a K6-2 450 with 192mb of RAM.

Stermy57 wrote on 2023-06-19, 13:54:

It depends which games you want to play but in general in single texture games the Banshee is faster than Voodoo2 because it has higher clocks. For example Unreal engine use multi texturing technology so Voodoo 2 is faster.
This is the biggest downside but apart from that Banshee has more resolution flexibility, it has an excellent VGA and GUI acceleration and you don't need a 2D card like even a pass through cable.
Pay attention on temperature. Banshee can be extremely hot and generally they are passive cooled.

Thanks for the warning about the temperature. I have already thought that the Banshee might get very hot. It is the same with the Voodoo 3.

The games I want to play are mainly glide games from 97 to 99. With the Voodoo 3 I would have enhanced the time peroid from 97 to 2000 but with the Banshee I would be more than happy if 97 and 98 guns run well.

I think for tha purpose the Banshee should be alright.??

Yes it’s a perfectly good card for the period you want to play, and the prices are more reasonable than the Voodoo 2 or 3.

They are certainly a better choice than a Voodoo Rush when it comes to less popular 3dfx cards. They fall into the same pitfall that many other vintage cards do that weren't exactly class leaders back at release. The issue is that it's not still 199x and price/performance/early driver issues from reviews of the time can definitely lead you astray. I think it's a solid choice as long as "just shy of a Voodoo II most of the time" is enough for the titles and resolutions you are shooting for.

Minutemanqvs wrote on 2023-06-19, 18:07:

Yes it’s a perfectly good card for the period you want to play, and the prices are more reasonable than the Voodoo 2 or 3.

Thanks for the reply. That's true for Voodoo cards the price of the Banshee is really reasonable. I have also watched some more footage of the Banshee in action on youtube and I I believe for the games I am into the Banshee is decent card.

DrAnthony wrote on 2023-06-19, 19:14:

They are certainly a better choice than a Voodoo Rush when it comes to less popular 3dfx cards. They fall into the same pitfall that many other vintage cards do that weren't exactly class leaders back at release. The issue is that it's not still 199x and price/performance/early driver issues from reviews of the time can definitely lead you astray. I think it's a solid choice as long as "just shy of a Voodoo II most of the time" is enough for the titles and resolutions you are shooting for.

Thx for the info as well. The Voodoo 2 is double edged sword for me at the moment. A Voodoo 2 Sli configuration would be the ultimative early glide machine but getting 2 voodoo cards at a good price in a rather short time frame is difficult to say at least. The Banshee is more attractive because it can show its full potential with a single video card.

As there's no multitexture on the Banshee, there's overbrights on some games that don't have them on Voodoo2/3, like Unreal and Half-Life. 😀

The banshee was just shy before the STB merger so it wasn't part of the rebrand party and general nostalgiagoggles about that. No 3dfx-branded Voodoo eyes vanity box+ no inflated bungholiomarks = availability.

Some need to know that happiness isn't always about a pair of 3d cards with serious bandwidth issues.

leileilol wrote on 2023-06-20, 14:33:

As there's no multitexture on the Banshee, there's overbrights on some games that don't have them on Voodoo2/3, like Unreal and Half-Life. 😀

The banshee was just shy before the STB merger so it wasn't part of the rebrand party and general nostalgiagoggles about that. No 3dfx-branded Voodoo eyes vanity box+ no inflated bungholiomarks = availability.

Some need to know that happiness isn't always about a pair of 3d cards with serious bandwidth issues.

Thanks for mentioning pontial issues with games that support mulitexture. I need to research more an that matter before pulling the trigger for the Banshee.

My plan is to get a glimpse of the world of 3dfx gaming with the Banshee for cheaper price than other 3dfx cards like the Voodoo 2 or 3. But if the experience with the Banshee is way worse than with the Voodoo 2 or 3 than I will get a V2 or 3.

After all having a 3dfx system is my childhood dream and I am willing to pay more for it.

retep_110 wrote on 2023-06-22, 06:52:

Thanks for mentioning pontial issues with games that support mulitexture. I need to research more a that matter before pulling the trigger for the Banshee.

What she's talking about aren't issues, but benefits of using the Banshee in such games.

Half-Life overbrights are a good thing, see screenshots here: Re: Half-Life overbright compatibility

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2023-06-22, 06:55:

retep_110 wrote on 2023-06-22, 06:52:

Thanks for mentioning pontial issues with games that support mulitexture. I need to research more a that matter before pulling the trigger for the Banshee.

What she's talking about aren't issues, but benefits of using the Banshee in such games.

Half-Life overbrights are a good thing, see screenshots here: Re: Half-Life overbright compatibility

Got it totally wrong then. Thanks for the correction and the very informative link.

It is more like a trade-off related to multi-texturing when enabled on early 3D hardware accelerators, which is used to reduce the number of rendering passes to improve performance. However, this makes the overbright feature one of the causalities and brightness may have to be tweaked for compensation.

Unreal is another good example related to this issue, see the B2 sign in the screenshots where the difference can be noticed: 3dfx Voodoo image quality. It is quite bright on Voodoo cards that doesn't support multi-texturing.

That's very interesting thx for the further information. I was too slow btw. The Banshee is gone already. But I will keep my eyes open and if see another at a good price I will pull the trigger. I think the Banshee is good starting point for glide gaming. If I am really lucky and see a Voodoo 3 at a good price I can still sell the Banshee and use part of the money for the V3 then.

It's a great card. Better compat than voodoo3 and about as good as v2 on most games, but with better quality and less slots.

kolderman wrote on 2023-06-23, 06:45:

It's a great card. Better compat than voodoo3 and about as good as v2 on most games, but with better quality and less slots.

Voodoo Banshee has the same Glide compatibility level as with the Voodoo3 if that's what you mean.

Neither of these cards can run DOS games with the Glide API integrated into the executable nor Windows ones that uses GLIDE.DLL and SST1INIT.DLL.

Thanks for the info kolderman and Gmbl256.

Another question about the compability. If the compability is the same as the Voodoo 3 does this mean that there might be some compat problems with earlier glide games?