We only had an original Voodoo1. Past that, it was nVidia only.

The main thing I remember was that nVidia cards were marketed as having more features for a given generation. For example, the Voodoo3 lacked 32-bit color, the Voodoo4 and 5 lacked hardware T&L. Buying an nVidia card felt like buying something that was "next gen" compared to the Voodoo cards of the time.

Plus when 3Dfx bought STB and started making their own cards, it felt like nVidia cards offered more choices since there were multiple manufacturers. Whereas with a 3Dfx card it felt like you were locked in to a single option. Whether that feeling was justified or not, it's what the general marketing was like at the time.

Back then, I was wavering between buying a Voodoo 3 and a TNT2. Ultimately, I went with the latter because all computer magazines from that time kept harping on about the TNT2 being a "future proof" card.

In hindsight, I would have been better served with a Voodoo 3, since I was mostly playing Unreal Tournament and Diablo 2, both of which look and run better in Glide mode. As for the "future proof" TNT2, I ended up replacing it with a GeForce 2 MX400 in 2001, after just over a year of service. Out of curiosity, I bought a second-hand Voodoo 3 around 2002 or so, which I've kept to this day.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-05-10, 20:40:

Back then, I was wavering between buying a Voodoo 3 and a TNT2. Ultimately, I went with the latter because all computer magazines from that time kept harping on about the TNT2 being a "future proof" card.

In hindsight, I would have been better served with a Voodoo 3, since I was mostly playing Unreal Tournament and Diablo 2, both of which look and run better in Glide mode. As for the "future proof" TNT2, I ended up replacing it with a GeForce 2 MX400 in 2001, after just over a year of service. Out of curiosity, I bought a second-hand Voodoo 3 around 2002 or so, which I've kept to this day.

i have a geforce 2 MX400, incredible card. one of the main cards that killed 3DFX alongside the geforce 256.

how much did you pay for that voodoo in '02?

winuser3162 wrote on 2024-05-10, 20:47:

how much did you pay for that voodoo in '02?

I can't remember exactly, but I think it was around 30 EUR.

Joseph_Joestar wrote on 2024-05-10, 20:50:

winuser3162 wrote on 2024-05-10, 20:47:

how much did you pay for that voodoo in '02?

I can't remember exactly, but I think it was around 30 EUR.

sounds about right

I remember when AGP was out, and I purchased a Nvidia TNT1 which had great specs compared to the Voodoo 2 I was using. The TNT1 drivers on the install disk were buggy as hell which was something I never had to deal with using a Voodoo 1 or 2.

I think I jumped to a Voodoo 5 5500 after that and then Kyro 2 to ATI 9000, so I skipped the Voodoo 3 and TNT2 and early GeForce cards until I started collecting.

The death of 3DFX sucked plus around that time Aureal bit the dust as well. Seeing the first innovators of gaming 3D video and sound get smashed wasn't fun.

Kind of funny how people pay crazy money for 3dfx cards now plus the popularity of Aureal compared to people not caring much for creative cards of the time or needing TNT and early GeForce cards.

The Voodoo 2 blew me away when I bought it in 1998, games with blocky graphics that were pretty much slideshows became smooth as silk, and on 800x600 none the less! I was absolutely sure 3dfx was here to stay so upgrading to a Voodoo 3 shortly after it came out was an easy decision... boy, what a disappointment that was! Completely underwhelming and killed any hype I ever had for 3dfx, so I was not really shocked when sometime later I read it was all over for them.

I still have both the V2 and V3, the V3 looks mint due to the little use it had as it was quickly replaced by a GF2 MX. Even though 3dfx were the architects of their own demise, I wish they would have remained competitive, having several diverse options was a really fun part of PC building back then that is pretty much gone now (and fierce competition is generally better for the consumer as well).

I already had moved on from 3dfx, Voodoo4/5 looked hype over substance and doubled-down on desperate marketing, so it's just 'whatever' to me then. It's more of a "oh no! anyway", and the strange post-3dfx obsession of the STB era marketing/branding has been headscratching to me when that was the snowball.

There was so much happening at the turn of the century it just felt like 3dfx wasn't keeping up at all and would eventually sink. Never a volume seller as 3dfx cards were a bit too pricey for budget builds, where other chip makers (S3, Trident) had that market stitched up, and then in the gaming market nVidia was releasing new variants all the time and under many brands. Was still a fan of 3dfx though, had SLI V2s (alongside a G200), and later some V5s - my gf had a Daihatsu from 1998-2002 with the number plate VSA-100, just by pure chance.

.

TBH, i felt sadder when Gravis gave up on sound cards than when 3dfx kicked the bucket.

A few decades later, I see things a bit differently, but still sometimes wonder about what could (or at least might) have been, but wasn't. There are many such paths not taken.

In retrospect, being happy knowing what did happen is much better than regretting what did not happen.

Had a Voodoo. But then also went to Riva TNT route. After that Geforce 2MX. Never played any locked exclusive Glide games so never missed that voodoo.

The Voodoo 1 absolutely blew me away as well as everyone in our LAN group. I was jealous of people who had one. Seeing a rocket go down a hallway in Quake 1 with the lighting effects was life changing. A lot of people upgraded to the Voodoo 2 but after that the hype was all NVidia and ATI. I didn’t even know the Voodoo 3, 4 and 5 were released until 6 months ago 🤣. I clearly remember people arguing at LAN parties about ATI vs NVidia in 1999. I decided to go another route. I walked into a PC store one day and remember being lured by the Creative 3D Blaster Savage 4 box art. I thought “this is going to be better than NVidia and ATI”. Oh boy, what a mistake that purchase was. I wish I had kept that card though.

This may be of interest. For about 10 years (late 90s to late 2000s) I played Quake (actually Quakeworld) nearly every day, and I usually ran the client with the -condebug option. The resulting qconsole.log file is 150 MiB in size.

I filtered out the F_SYSTEM proxy responses (which report client hardware of online players) and put them in a file.

Unfortunately the Quake log file doesn't include timestamps so I don't know the exact dates of anything.

3dfx, despite loosing market share near the end, was still quite popular. Their downfall was due to financial mismanagement and happened suddenly. The voodoo 4/5 was too little too late, rushed and not enough to save them financially from their bad decisions. So frankly it was a surprise. If they made better decisions, and just turned out something the market wanted rather than trying to bring card production in house, they probably would have been a major player in the industry even today.

I remember being quite shocked how 3dfx, which had become a household name by that point, with the voodoos being an item coveted universally by every PC gamer, dropped the ball like that after voodoo2. Pure complacency on their part, which allowed nVidia and ATI to up their game.

For comparison, and speaking hypothetically, it would be similarly shocking if nVidia completely skipped ray tracing and AI acceleration development for the 5xxx and 6xxx generations, allowing AMD and Intel to take over their market share.

My complete 3D upgrade path as far as i can remember was:

Diamond Monster 2 > Voodoo 3 2000 > Geforce 2 Ultra > Geforce 3 Ultra > Radeon 9800 Pro > Radeon X800XTPE > Geforce 8800 GTX > Geforce 280 > Geforce 580 > Geforce 690 > Geforce 1080 > Geforce 2090 > Geforce 3090 > Geforce 4090

I think that's my complete history.

Shagittarius wrote on 2024-05-11, 15:12:

My complete 3D upgrade path as far as i can remember was:

Diamond Monster 2 > Voodoo 3 2000 > Geforce 2 Ultra > Geforce 3 Ultra > Radeon 9800 Pro > Radeon X800XTPE > Geforce 8800 GTX > Geforce 280 > Geforce 580 > Geforce 690 > Geforce 1080 > Geforce 2090 > Geforce 3090 > Geforce 4090

I think that's my complete history.

I think that's accurate for alot of people. The Geforce 256 was the first to really challenge 3dfx while they were beginning to falter, and then by the Geforce 2, 3dfx was essentially dead and Nvidia was the king for graphics. I went through a similar pattern, Diamond Monster 2 -> Banshee -> Geforce 2.

I upgraded from s3 Virge/voodoo 2 to GF2 MX- something in 2003 and that was my last desktop PC upgrade until 2016 😜