Depends on what you mean by smoothly. Going by the modern definition of 60+ FPS with no drops, I doubt you'll find many games which fit that description. But if you're content with 30+ FPS with some occasional dips into the 20s, that is doable.

With that in mind, I found the following games to run adequately on a Voodoo 1:

• Dark Forces 2: Jedi Knight
• Descent 2
• Final Fantasy 7
• Mortal Kombat 4
• Need for Speed 2 SE
• Pandemonium!
• Star Wars: Shadows of the Empire
• Tomb Raider 1 & 2
• Wipeout 2097

These are just the titles that I've personally tested. I'm sure there are more.

Beast Wars
Croc
Deathtrap Dungeon
Descent (3rd party Glide EXE)
Motoracer
NHL 98
Nightmare Creatures (Direct3D & 3rd party Glide EXE)
Quake GL
Resident Evil
Star Wars Rogue Squadron 3D
Turok

To echo Joseph_Joestar, it depends on your definition of smooth. For the time period, 30 FPS was generally considered smooth.

In addition to games already posted I'll add:

• Blood
• Fatal Racing (Whiplash)
• Shadow Warrior

3dfx Blood has a good framerate but idk if I could call it smooth with all the crashing

We might be able to add Tomb Raider, Battle zone, Forsaken, and MechWarrior 2 if around 30 fps average is considered smooth enough.

All the games listed above are solid choices. I would also suggest running games at 512x384 on the Voodoo 1 on games that allow you to change the resolution, you get a really nice framerate boost and IQ is not that much worse compared to 640x480.

Ignition
All DOS glide games

Battle Arena Toshinden
Cybergladiators
Interstate 76 Gold

F1 '97
Nfs 3
Nfs 4
Nfs 5
F1 racing simulation
Screamer 2
Screamer Rallye
Testdrive 4
Testdrive 5
Toca 1
Toca 2
Breakneck
Colin mcrae Rallye

All run fine on a 233mmx with v1

Voodoo 1 had enough rasterization/fillrate to max out at around 30fps at 640x480. 60 fps required going all the way down to 320x240 and nobody wanted that compromise. Pretty much all Glide games created before Voodoo 2 will run at that 25-30 fps framerate on Voodoo 1 in either 640x480 or mentioned by Garret 512x384 so imo there is little need for lists. That was the big draw of 3dfx when it first released - buying it guaranteed not only prettier game, but also smooth framerate.

Even 1998 Unreal and 1999 Unreal Tournament do nice 25 fps on Voodoo 1 if you remove cpu bottleneck
3Dfx Voodoo Knockout - 6 Rounds Unreal Tournament - BlastFromThePast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DhAy7zSVVoA
1st Gen 3Dfx Voodoo Graphics - Unreal Tournament Benchmark - BlastFromThePast https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uMGwJxCriHw

Thanks for your tips.
I think, that 24 frames per second can still be considered smooth, taking into account how "smooth game" was perceived in those times 😀

netdemon wrote on 2024-01-03, 14:55:

Thanks for your tips.
I think, that 24 frames per second can still be considered smooth, taking into account how "smooth game" was perceived in those times 😀

Yep, back in time (mid '90s to 2k) 24 to 30 fps was considered smooth PC gameplay.

Can you summarize the game list in your first post for convenience?

leileilol wrote on 2024-01-02, 01:09:

Interstate 76 Gold

I76 deserves special mention as apparently it doesn't run smoothly on later cards (at least that's what LGR said on one of his videos, haven't tried it out myself yet

I’m actually not totally sure how common or rare reducing resolution to increase framerate was. The common idea today is that it wasn’t done, but personally I used to reduce resolution to increase framerate at the time. Maybe I was the only one doing it, it’d be interesting to find out how common or rare it was. At the time, I probably would have reduced to 320x240 to get better performance, but I can definitely see other people not doing that. I wonder how common or rare it was overall.

Lowering to 512x384 already usually got you over 40fps, something unheard of on PC before 3dfx.

midicollector wrote on 2024-01-04, 04:21:

I’m actually not totally sure how common or rare reducing resolution to increase framerate was. The common idea today is that it wasn’t done, but personally I used to reduce resolution to increase framerate at the time. Maybe I was the only one doing it, it’d be interesting to find out how common or rare it was. At the time, I probably would have reduced to 320x240 to get better performance, but I can definitely see other people not doing that. I wonder how common or rare it was overall.

I'd think it was pretty common. Definitely was in dos days, Rise of the Triad even told you to upgrade if you went the slowest resolution.

However back in the late 90's early 2000's when hardware obsolescence was much faster is wasn't uncommon to have to reduce the resolution, luckily CRT's hide it a bit better as well.

Unreal defaulted to 512x384 on initial release for a reason 😀

512x384's also the resolution of some 3dfx arcade games that have seen ports over to Windows that actually look worse on 640x480, like NFL Blitz

Lowering 3D cards down to 320x240 was mainly a Virge/Rage/PowerVR thing more out of fill rate's sake, but became less practical by the second wave of 3d cards (though early laptop GPUs would take this turn next). 3dfx cards couldn't use that res until Banshee