As the resident anti-3DFX guy, I'm going to say no - at least, on the surface of things.

They cost a lot of money and by the time you're paying so much you may as well have gotten a high-end GeForce 2 or even a 4 Ti which will probably do the same stuff better. If you were hell-bent on running Glide on there, then I have no idea, I don't think anything worth bothering with was Glide-only past the V2 anyway, so you could always stick one of those in for compatibility I guess. Not caring about Glide and having never seen any worthwhile games not support D3D or GL, my answer would be to throw the idea in the trash and stuff a GeForce 4 Ti in because that card will run practically anything 98 is going to throw at it and then some, at least, as far as Direct3D and OpenGL are concerned. You could probably even resort to a GeForce 5 if you wanted DX9 support, though I personally dislike that series.

On the other hand, if you really want one? Screw the cost and go for it. I've done similar, like where I could have used a 486DX4, but no, I wanted a damn Pentium instead and nothing else would do, so I paid the price... Still kind of am, given it's been a whole world of trouble up to now, but it's what I wanted and I love it, I've had my monies worth already in the fun I have trying to make it work properly and I'm almost there. If you think you'll always feel something is missing without the V5 then save up and get one, because if that's the case it's the only way you'll be happy with the machine.

IMO a Voodoo 5 is nice but needs more work usually to get some games working than a Voodoo 2/Voodoo 3.

A voodoo 2 is most compatible but limited to 1024x768 res in SLI, 800x600 without. A voodoo 3 2000 is about as fast as V2 SLI with 22-bit color and higher resolution which looks pretty good but a few games need more work got get going.

I hate to say it but using a glide wrapper like nglide is pretty nice on a faster system. Unless you need a authentic feel to the whole thing.

A V3 can run all the Glide games at 1024 x 768 pretty well, over 60 fps in Unreal on a V3 3500. For 1600 x 1200 gaming, that's when a V5 comes in handy.

I actually prefer using the V3 for gaming, my V5 is more for special occasions and benchmarking.

If you get one for a good price, it's an easy choice, but they now go for ~ $200. So it really depends on your situation.

Looking at how much they go for at the moment, I say no. Not worth it.
As Phil are saying, if you can get a cheap and working one, then buy it.
There comes a time, when the price is just too high.
HighTreason has a solution too. Get something beefy, like a GF4-TI.

Get a V5 if you want resolutions like 1280x1024 for gaming in Glide. Otherwise you get pretty much the same experience in the lower resolutions with V3's.

I would say no, since V5s are gonna set you back a lot of money currently. If anything, I'd say get a V3 if you really want authentic Glide support, or, if you don't care as much about Glide, get something like a GF4 Ti and maybe use a wrapper.

Yes and no, not at those prices and 6 or 7 years ago the demand wasn't even that great not when one could have gotten one for like $15 shipped instead of paying $150 now days. Just get a V3 on the cheap while you can as the prices are creeping up! V1 and V2 are good but are lower spec and should only be bought knowing that they are lower res cards.

V1 $5 to $20 shipped
Voodoo Rush $40 to 50 shipped
V2 $15 to $25 shipped
V3 $5 to $30 shipped
V3 PCI $25 to $50 shipped
V4 4500 $25 to 75 shipped
V4 4500 PCI $75+
V5 5500 $100 to 150 shipped (blame the sellers for inflating the prices)
V5 5500 1.5v $200+ (SLI doesn't work when plugged into a 1.5v slot)
V5 6000 expect to pay anywhere from $1500 to 3500

The V5's are overpriced for what you get - software emulation options like nGlide still haven't brought them down to sensible prices. And the cooling solution kind of sucks in the long run, which can be another hassle.
They have their place, though.

-anti-aliasing for Glide, D3D, OGL
-pretty good performance for a PCI card, with the appropriate versions
-DVI out on the flashed Mac version

I like them as an alternative to the GeForce series. Less performance than GeForce 2, but quite enough for DX7 era titles. Besides missing Glide support, GF3+ are bugged in a couple of my favorite D3D games. And also, the Mac DVI doesn't have nVidia's issues with DOS games.

Haven't played with the V5 enough to map out its own bugs yet. I can say support for a PowerVR PCX2 on the side isn't perfect yet, D3D HAL switching isn't working any better than nVidia.

nforce4max wrote:

Voodoo Rush $40 to 50 shipped

I guess it must be a collector's item? That's not a useful card at all.

nforce4max wrote:

V1 $5 to $20 shipped
...
V5 6000 expect to pay anywhere from $1500 to 3500

Those are the prices you consider logical, or the current prices?

konc wrote:

nforce4max wrote:

V1 $5 to $20 shipped
...
V5 6000 expect to pay anywhere from $1500 to 3500

Those are the prices you consider logical, or the current prices?

The V1 prices are normal at least for on bid and sometimes amazon, I've bought multiple V1s in the past year at those prices. The V5 6000 prices are what I have seen on eBay over the past 6 or 7 years for the tiny few that have sold. If you don't feel those prices to be logical then I don't know what is unless you like overpaying to resellers who mark things up several hundred %.

I have a boxed complete AGP 3DFX Voodoo 5 5500, I used to have it installed in a daily use system, but a few months back after seeing the eBay prices, I packed it away and fitted a Voodoo3 2000(nearly as quick and runs cooler than the 3000, my preferred choice). At the same time I decided to sell on my spare voodoo3 cards, all voodoo3 3000 AGP cards via ebay(all 3 went overseas), all sold very quickly for £25 each plus postage. I do like 3DFX, but I think it's vastly overpriced these days. I recently bought a Voodoo Banshee from amibay(waiting for delivery) for 20 Euro's, that is very cheap these days for the EU. Voodoo2's are fetching more like 50-60 if you can find one and often those are untested.
As HighTreason says, I think a Geforce 2 or 3 or 4 is a better bet these days, or even a TNT2 Ultra, they are still really cheap, I got a free Geforce 2 GTS recently, and a boxed complete with 3D glasses ASUS Geforce3 for 99p.
TNT's are more difficult though as it's often hard to tell if it's a standard, pro or ultra card your looking at, or even a M64.

nforce4max wrote:

konc wrote:

nforce4max wrote:

V1 $5 to $20 shipped
...
V5 6000 expect to pay anywhere from $1500 to 3500

Those are the prices you consider logical, or the current prices?

The V1 prices are normal at least for on bid and sometimes amazon, I've bought multiple V1s in the past year at those prices. The V5 6000 prices are what I have seen on eBay over the past 6 or 7 years for the tiny few that have sold. If you don't feel those prices to be logical then I don't know what is unless you like overpaying to resellers who mark things up several hundred %.

I believe you didn't get exactly where I was going with this. The prices you mentioned are normal prices, what I would certainly buy a 3dfx card for.
But, at least in my region (Europe) and for some models, they are nowhere near real/existing prices listed currently on ebay. Searching for "3dfx voodoo" there's not a single V3 for less that 40euros shipped and the least expensive V2 currently costs more than 100euros. Not boxed or anything, bare working card. 3dfx prices are rising really fast...
Even last year I was able to get some V1 & V2s for ~30euros shipped, but still the prices you mentioned didn't exist.
I don't know, maybe for US->US and from .com ebay things are different, I just wanted to bring up that those prices don't apply in general.

the Voodoo5500 is a great card but yes the cost is high and the most neutral answer I can give you is its a great purchase if you can find one for a decent price (I got it for about £25), otherwise a Voodoo3 or even a Geforce2 + V2 SLI might be a better purchase.

konc wrote:

I believe you didn't get exactly where I was going with this. The prices you mentioned are normal prices, what I would certainly […]
Show full quote

I believe you didn't get exactly where I was going with this. The prices you mentioned are normal prices, what I would certainly buy a 3dfx card for.
But, at least in my region (Europe) and for some models, they are nowhere near real/existing prices listed currently on ebay. Searching for "3dfx voodoo" there's not a single V3 for less that 40euros shipped and the least expensive V2 currently costs more than 100euros. Not boxed or anything, bare working card. 3dfx prices are rising really fast...
Even last year I was able to get some V1 & V2s for ~30euros shipped, but still the prices you mentioned didn't exist.
I don't know, maybe for US->US and from .com ebay things are different, I just wanted to bring up that those prices don't apply in general.

Not everyone is from Europe and just going by the prices that I am used to in the states, I know for some things the prices are way too high in Europe and the same goes for those in Australia ect. 40 Euros is too much to be paying for almost any V3 and one is better off looking for better deals from elsewhere. Those Euro prices are hurting collectors in other parts of the world as resellers see that and inflate the prices that much more 😢

In short no one should be paying $80 to 100 USD for a V2 or $90 for a Banshee PCI ect, the prices for 3DFX cards in general are getting stupid. I really do Not like price inflation and I know that it discourages new comers from getting into this hobby.

First off, Thanks everyone for commenting. I've been around a while in that I've been in the IT field for around 15 years and I've been gaming for over 20.
I just recently got interested in putting together retro systems to play games that were near and dear to me.

What I found was that while I remember all the games, and I remember all the hardware. I had so many diffrent rigs over the years and they evolved many times. The line really blurred when it came to exactly which hardware I used to play what games and which things ran best.

If I start worrying about particular games that's easy enough to narrow down, but I just kinda wanted to know how everyone else felt about Voodoo5's place. Seems like most would agree it's not worth it, at least not at today's ebay prices.

nforce4max wrote:

Not everyone is from Europe and just going by the prices that I am used to in the states, I know for some things the prices are way too high in Europe and the same goes for those in Australia ect. 40 Euros is too much to be paying for almost any V3 and one is better off looking for better deals from elsewhere. Those Euro prices are hurting collectors in other parts of the world as resellers see that and inflate the prices that much more 😢

In short no one should be paying $80 to 100 USD for a V2 or $90 for a Banshee PCI ect, the prices for 3DFX cards in general are getting stupid. I really do Not like price inflation and I know that it discourages new comers from getting into this hobby.

I couldn't agree more with everything you wrote. Unfortunately we can't always look elsewhere for 3dfx cards for example, since for us to buy them using US ebay means customs cost + increased/crazy postage + really unwilling US sellers to post anywhere else. Maybe in some countries they're available in local market, but I can assure you this is not the case everywhere.
So yeah, as you said prices stay high and we end up with a bare V2 costing a 3-digit number without really having an alternative... 😐

There has been some talk of quad-SLI setups that can apparently outperform a Voodoo5 as far as Glide2x goes – but of course that would require taking up four PCI slots.

I wouldn't buy one v5, the only one for sale in my country have almost the same price of one gtx 970.
I'm not kidding
V5 5500: http://produto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB-752902 … pci-vintage-_JM
GTX 970: http://produto.mercadolivre.com.br/MLB-758524 … 970-pny-4gb-_JM

US$1 = R$3,70