The Dodge Garage is a good resource for all things 3DFX.

The only limitation about Voodoo I can remember is the small texture size limit, and 16-bit color.

There's a few posters here who maintain (and have data to support their assertions) that Voodoo 1 and 2 will run hotter when paired with faster CPUs, as the cards tend to be worked "harder" with a faster CPU. I've generally seen Pentium 4 and Athlon64 held as the "top limit" for that (I've never personally tested it out, but have no reason to disbelieve them). I think a 1GHz CuMine shouldn't be a problem (I have a Voodoo2 in mine, and while it can get warm, but I've never had issues with it; it has an AGP card for 2D and additional 3D as well). I have read that some of the community drivers for XP may have issues with GeForce FX cards as the "primary" but I've never tested that out for myself (my CuMine doesn't have a GeForce FX, and it doesn't run Windows XP).

Well Voodoo 1 needs another graphics card to work. I'm not sure what issues with AGP cards you mean though.

I did a video on 3dfx Voodoo CPU scaling a while ago:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ru2juYAXiug

Here the main charts:

The thing about Voodoo 1 is that you need to play the right games on it. Like the first Tomb Raider, Turok or Monster 3D. Newer games will struggle (like Unreal or Quake 2) and really need a Voodoo 2.

I don't know of any AGP conflicts. I've used Righteous 3D with various setups. I don't know if Voodoo1 can be used with Athlon/Duron though. Voodoo2 has some special Athlon drivers for compatibility and I don't think Voodoo1 ever got a similar release.

Thanks for all the replies!

Mau1wurf1977:
Thanks for your graphs. I've seen them before and they're a great reference. It seems like a Voodoo 1 card doesn't see any real gains beyond a 500mhz CPU. Really though, I'm just interested in making it work without killing it.

Originally, our offline conversation had me thinking that I wanted to try to pair it with the V3 3000 in my 1ghz NetVista. However, after many years of searching for the right deal, I was finally able to snag an ABIT BH6 v1.1 mainboard on eBay. Now really, this board is outclassed by pretty much everything else I own. I even have an ASUS TUSL2-C that would make a much better system. Heck, even the NetVista has an i815 board which is better. Still, I'm bitten by the nostalgia bug.

In 1998 I built a PC with a BH6 and a Celeron 300a, which I overclocked to 450mhz. Yep, I was one of those guys. We had a nasty heat-wave in the summer of 1999. One day I decided to check my e-mail without turning on the AC. My poor little BH6 apparently could not handle the heat. I replaced it with a BM6, but I've always had fond memories of using and working with that BH6. While I remember using the Voodoo 1 with the Celeron 300a, I was thinking of maxing out the BH6 with a 850mhz coppermine and Voodoo 3 3500. The V3 would be the primary card and the V1 would handle the occasional game that gives it trouble.

In that configuration, the BH6 makes much more sense than the i815 NetVista. With its ISA slots I can pop in an AWE64 and get good DOS legacy sound compatibility. Since the NetVista has no ISA slots, I'm stuck with the SB Live that I'm currently using with it. Also, as I mentioned to you previously offline, I'd like to avoid building any more system images for it. I'm really kinda sick of futzing with my NetVista.

So anyway, what do you all think? ABIT BH6, 850mhz coppermine, Voodoo 3 3500 AGP, Voodoo 1 PCI, AWE64, and maybe even a nice ISA hardware modem to give it that late-90s flavor. I've even got a spare 3Com 3C-905B NIC lying around that I could put in it. I'm kinda thinking that it could be an ultimate 3dfx gaming rig that should run anything prior to 2002.

Abit boards often used some really low quality capacitors so check for that. That just might be what killed your board back in 99.

I ran a BH6 with a SL2W8 Deschutes, myself. 😉 I gave up on my BH6 because it had cold boot problems and moved to BF6 which I had to recap eventually.

swaaye wrote:

Abit boards often used some really low quality capacitors so check for that. That just might be what killed your board back in 99.

I wasn't aware the BH6 was affected by the capacitor plague. I thought it was the boards that came out right after the BH6. Either way, if I put this board into service I will definitely have Chris over at badcaps.net lay hands upon it. He's done all my other legacy systems with fantastic results.

Right now, I'm just dreaming of what I could do with this BH6. I really don't need another legacy system. This little hobby is coming dangerously close to crossing the line into OCD territory.

KT7AGuy wrote:

So anyway, what do you all think? ABIT BH6, 850mhz coppermine, Voodoo 3 3500 AGP, Voodoo 1 PCI, AWE64, and maybe even a nice ISA hardware modem to give it that late-90s flavor. I've even got a spare 3Com 3C-905B NIC lying around that I could put in it. I'm kinda thinking that it could be an ultimate 3dfx gaming rig that should run anything prior to 2002.

Two Voodoo cards in a machine? I still believe that a V2 is a much better match but you have made up your mind 😀

It should work fine, just that I don't know if having two Voodoo cards can cause issues...

2 voodoo`s work fine as long as you install the v3 drivers and use it as a primary card. Simply put the right glide driver in the game directory to use the old v1 games.

There are some cases where the v1 becomes unstable or not working at all when used with a 133mhz fsb cpu. At 100mhz fsb or lower it should be fine in any system.

If it is not working on a fast slot1 100mhz cpu, try setting the fsb to 66mhz and see how it goes then...

Mau, I can't wait for the final charts man, you've done an amazing job!

F2bnp wrote:

Mau, I can't wait for the final charts man, you've done an amazing job!

The V2 project, once published, should interest you then 😀

Lots of work but I'm hoping to be close to finishing within a month or so.

Voodoo 1 can run perfectly fine games from it's era and even beyond with a matching hardware (like a P166MMX or P233MMX) if you're not too rough on the graphics settings (games are playable in 640x480 and all games really fly in the 512x384 resolution).
I do not have tried Unreal on my Voodoo 1 rig (because I lend the cd years ago to friend...) but tomb raider, half life, quake, quake 2, requiem avenging angel, jedi knight, etc... run just fine on it. Considering the age of the card, playing some 99 games with it and a PMMX is just oustanding for me. I will try some late 99 and early 2000 games on it just for fun.

Like Mau1wurf1977 said, If you really want to play with resolution higher than 512x384 and don't mind period correct harware, just go with a Voodoo 2 instead (games are playable in 800x600 and really fly in 640x480 for the most demanding ones of its era).

Quake 2 on a V1 is pushing it. The timedemo is quite lightweight. More taxing scenes in the game. Quake 2 is really something you want to play on a Voodoo 2. GLQuake on the other hand is perfect for a Pentium MMX and a V1. Half life? No way... Pentium III 1 GHz with a GeForce or Voodoo 3 is what I would go with 😀

Just tested it again five minutes ago just to be sure, for me Half Life is "playable" in 640x480 with a P233MMX and "enjoyable" at 512x384. Same with Requiem, considering that it was games targetted for voodoo 2 it's just amazing how well the Voodoo and a PMMX can keep it up. Of course if you really want to have a smooth experience a PIII is a must, but how many people were able to afford a pIII computer back in 99 ? I wish I could have had a PMMX with a Voodoo 1 instead of a k6 233 with an S3 Virge DX back in 97 🤣 . Games on a P233MMX and a Voodoo 1 appear as fast or even faster than on my k6-2 350 with an ATI Rage Pro 8 MB in 99 😵

But that's the thing, who cares what people were able to afford back in the day 🤣

We want to play these games with ideal systems. At least I do 😵

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

We want to play these games with ideal systems. At least I do 😵

Totally agree 😀

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

But that's the thing, who cares what people were able to afford back in the day 🤣 We want to play these games with ideal systems. At least I do 😵

Never said that I don't wanted to play games on "ideal systems" it's just that for me there is more challenge into be able to play Half Life 1 or Requiem with a PMMX and Voodoo 1 than on a PIII with a voodoo 3 that's all...
I'm just impressed that a PMMX and a Voodoo card can play games of 99, what is wrong with it ? That why I used the terms "playable" or "enjoyable", don't really sounds like "you must play on a PMMX and it's butter smooth", that's sound more like it's a performance for its time. 😀

Edit : I myself use a PIII 800 for early Glide games paired with my Voodoo 2 SLI and even a Duron 850 paired with a Voodoo 3 for all the other hungry Glide titles 🤣

meljor wrote:

There are some cases where the v1 becomes unstable or not working at all when used with a 133mhz fsb cpu. At 100mhz fsb or lower it should be fine in any system.

Thanks for that info! I did a bit more digging and found that the V1 cards are most happy when used with a 66mhz FSB. Some folks were reporting problems when running at 100mhz FSB, so I think I would avoid it entirely.

For my BH6, it sounds like the best/fastest CPU to use for the V1 would be a P2 450mhz Deschutes.

It seems like folks are confused why I would want to use a Voodoo 1 instead of a Voodoo 2. Well, mostly its because I already have two other systems with V2 SLI setups. It's also because I think that for a sub-1ghz system, a Voodoo 3 primary card with a Voodoo 1 would cover all the bases better. The Voodoo 3 would be used 90% of the time. The Voodoo 1 would only be used for the rare game that the V3 couldn't handle. It also seems like it would be much cheaper and with better performance to pull this off than a Voodoo 2 setup.

For a 1ghz+ high performance system with a GeForce 3 Ti500 or faster, it makes sense to run Voodoo 2 cards alongside it. For a 450mhz CPU, the Voodoo 3 is the more ideal setup and the Voodoo 1 would fill in any gaps.

No? I welcome all criticism and suggestions.

Thanks!

Mau1wurf1977 wrote:

But that's the thing, who cares what people were able to afford back in the day 🤣

We want to play these games with ideal systems. At least I do 😵

Agreed. There's no such thing as overkill. 😎