I guess it’s not just Voodoo’s but old cards in general. When I buy a bunch of cards (ranging from an 8-bit ISA to a 10 year old GeForce) I’m happy if 50% turns out to be functional. Some cards tend to be more fragile than others, though. In 3Dfx terms I think the FBI/TMU chips on the V1/Rush/V2 are most vulnerable to physical damage.

Another thing is that one can still make money on selling defective valuable cards. Try selling a broken 16b VGA card or try selling a broken V5 5500 😉. Of course there are scammers who don’t mention that the card is defective; gotta live with that unfortunately. All they want is easy money.

Voodoo 2s are super fragile. The legs on the TMUs are soft and very fine pitch. These cards often ended up chucked in a "box 'o' stuff" with little or no protection.

The result, collapsed ICs and dead RAM.

Lostdotfish wrote on 2025-02-16, 08:44:

Voodoo 2s are super fragile. The legs on the TMUs are soft and very fine pitch. These cards often ended up chucked in a "box 'o' stuff" with little or no protection.

The result, collapsed ICs and dead RAM.

The upside of this is that Voodoo2 cards are very well documented and due to there being a good number of dead ones parts to repair them are not super expensive.

Voodoo5 cards are in a similar boat, plenty of spares out there and they are also really well documented.

Now try and repair one of the weird Voodoo4 cards out there, they are a different design to the Voodoo5 and while they use similar parts they are not as well documented due to being uncommon.

I have one of them weird Voodoo4 4500 cards and it works great, I actually like it more than the Voodoo 5 I have

There seems to be a combination of dubious build quality, poor handling in earlier times, price inflation now, and more than enough sellers willing to bullshit. Easily fixable cheap ones would've been hoovered up pretty effectively by now and the harder or hopeless to fix ones poisoning the well. The prices I've paid for all of them have been the kind you don't have to be first in line for, money you really expect working cards for. But even if you have infinite money the return on investment is thin if you have to buy multiple broken ones for each one that works, seems to be getting out of hand.

vvbee wrote on 2025-02-16, 09:11:

There seems to be a combination of dubious build quality, poor handling in earlier times, price inflation now, and more than enough sellers willing to bullshit. Easily fixable cheap ones would've been hoovered up pretty effectively by now and the harder or hopeless to fix ones poisoning the well. The prices I've paid for all of them have been the kind you don't have to be first in line for, money you really expect working cards for. But even if you have infinite money the return on investment is thin if you have to buy multiple broken ones for each one that works, seems to be getting out of hand.

Dead or not you are still paying the 3DFX tax, not much we can do about that.

Can't nope out of tax but there's a threshold for everything else, if my experiences are representative the current situation with 3dfx has crossed it in a fundamental way. The cards themselves are alright when they work, nothing amazing, but it's so easy to end up paying a premium for trash with the condition they're in. They also get to travel back and forth in whatever envelope or flimsy box as buyers obviously want refunds and sellers are motivated to keep peddling.

This can be true for anything sold online. Buy from a reputable seller. Everything else could be a gamble.

Most people just toss old hardware into boxes, heavy weights are pressing them, they grind and stratch on each other. Most people probably not aware how fragile a computer hardware is.

kixs wrote on 2025-02-16, 11:58:

This can be true for anything sold online. Buy from a reputable seller. Everything else could be a gamble.

It could be true but isn't. I've bought scores of old graphics cards and the bad experiences are almost all Voodoo, by far the highest brand dissatisfaction rate. I don't buy joblots of untested cards or scrapyard mystery boxes, so the baseline is I should be receiving working cards in normal condition. This is true reliably enough for all brands but 3dfx, for 3dfx the majority have been cards you want to send for a refund.

Probably from scrappers that tossed them into piles of other cards before sorting them out and pins were damaged or shorted and the new owners just plugging them in and frying them without visual inspection.

People could be plugging 4/8x AGP cards into universal slots that are not universal and frying them.

Old age and bad storage.

vvbee wrote on 2025-02-16, 19:31:

kixs wrote on 2025-02-16, 11:58:

This can be true for anything sold online. Buy from a reputable seller. Everything else could be a gamble.

It could be true but isn't. I've bought scores of old graphics cards and the bad experiences are almost all Voodoo, by far the highest brand dissatisfaction rate. I don't buy joblots of untested cards or scrapyard mystery boxes, so the baseline is I should be receiving working cards in normal condition. This is true reliably enough for all brands but 3dfx, for 3dfx the majority have been cards you want to send for a refund.

What can I say. I have different experiences. If the item was working and seller shipped it in an appropriate packaging, it usually works fine no matter the item.

In my time I probably bought some 30+ 3dfx cards. Only one was actually bad. I also bought a few as untested/defective and this was like 50:50. I assume most sellers knew the true condition. Of the cards that are still in my storage, I test them from time to time, all seems to work fine still.

On the rare occasion I sell old hardware on eBay, they are always listed with as much detail as possible, including any testing I've done. I'm also very clear the hardware is very old, and while it may be working when I go to list it, that does not mean it will continue working. I also state that if you don't know what the item is, and how to care for it, or repair it, to please not buy it. I really don't want someone buying something I post as "tested and working" and be shocked if it dies a week after they get it. So that warning is in all my listings, no matter it's $10 or hundreds.

Dealing on old hardware is a gamble as is, at least I know I can fix most issues if I buy something, but most people can't.

There was a local Craigslist ad for a Voodoo 3 where the seller said it was "Untested." I sent him a message saying that I was interested, and I would be willing to bring over a PC that it could be installed in so I could test it, as I wasn't willing to pay what he was asking if it didn't work, but I would be fine with his asking price if it did work. He never responded.

Repo Man11 wrote on 2025-02-16, 20:38:

There was a local Craigslist ad for a Voodoo 3 where the seller said it was "Untested." I sent him a message saying that I was interested, and I would be willing to bring over a PC that it could be installed in so I could test it, as I wasn't willing to pay what he was asking if it didn't work, but I would be fine with his asking price if it did work. He never responded.

Well that sucks.

Where I live, it's exceedingly rare to find anyone local selling any "good" old hardware. No demand for it in my neck of the woods. I put out local ads all the time looking for it, buy if I get more than 6 inquires in a year I'm lucky.

StriderTR wrote on 2025-02-16, 21:39:

Repo Man11 wrote on 2025-02-16, 20:38:

There was a local Craigslist ad for a Voodoo 3 where the seller said it was "Untested." I sent him a message saying that I was interested, and I would be willing to bring over a PC that it could be installed in so I could test it, as I wasn't willing to pay what he was asking if it didn't work, but I would be fine with his asking price if it did work. He never responded.

Well that sucks.

Where I live, it's exceedingly rare to find anyone local selling any "good" old hardware. No demand for it in my neck of the woods. I put out local ads all the time looking for it, buy if I get more than 6 inquires in a year I'm lucky.

My take was that he didn't want to test it - he wanted to be able to sell it as is for the price he was asking, and if I tested it and it was in fact either non working, or not fully functional, then I would want a discount. From his perspective he was better off waiting for someone who would be wiling to take the chance, and if it in fact did not work they would have no recourse. I was better off for not being willing to take that chance. He eventually stopped relisting it, so I guess he finally found someone who was willing to roll the dice. There is also a better than zero chance that he did know the condition of the card and knew that being honest was not in his best financial interests. Caveat emptor.

If I were to sell my V5 (still complete with box - but no, not fishing for buyers 😀) I'd have to state untested and that it worked when I removed it from my PC decades ago 😀

Repo Man11 wrote on 2025-02-16, 21:47:

My take was that he didn't want to test it - he wanted to be able to sell it as is for the price he was asking, and if I tested it and it was in fact either non working, or not fully functional, then I would want a discount. From his perspective he was better off waiting for someone who would be wiling to take the chance, and if it in fact did not work they would have no recourse. I was better off for not being willing to take that chance. He eventually stopped relisting it, so I guess he finally found someone who was willing to roll the dice. There is also a better than zero chance that he did know the condition of the card and knew that being honest was not in his best financial interests. Caveat emptor.

Yeah, I agree. Sounds like if he found out it had issues (or already knew/suspected), he'd lose his asking price.

If that had been me, I would have taken you up on your offer. In fact, I probably would have asked if you had stuff you may want to trade if you were a local. I may have assumed you were a fellow "retro junkie". I've done that before. 😜

Honestly, for me anyway, the Voodoo 3 is a very reliable card. While they run hot, I'm not sure I've ever had a dead one.

Newer ATI cards e.g 9700 Pro and some specific Nvidia models are way worse.

The mid-range cards often last longer as they aren't pushed to the limit. E.g Radeon 9600 is normally a good reliable card.

kixs wrote on 2025-02-16, 20:11:

vvbee wrote on 2025-02-16, 19:31:

kixs wrote on 2025-02-16, 11:58:

This can be true for anything sold online. Buy from a reputable seller. Everything else could be a gamble.

It could be true but isn't. I've bought scores of old graphics cards and the bad experiences are almost all Voodoo, by far the highest brand dissatisfaction rate. I don't buy joblots of untested cards or scrapyard mystery boxes, so the baseline is I should be receiving working cards in normal condition. This is true reliably enough for all brands but 3dfx, for 3dfx the majority have been cards you want to send for a refund.

What can I say. I have different experiences. If the item was working and seller shipped it in an appropriate packaging, it usually works fine no matter the item.

In my time I probably bought some 30+ 3dfx cards. Only one was actually bad. I also bought a few as untested/defective and this was like 50:50. I assume most sellers knew the true condition. Of the cards that are still in my storage, I test them from time to time, all seems to work fine still.

I'm specifically pointing out the direction of the Voodoo market in the past couple years.

If a card is packaged poorly for shipping and is returned it very likely goes back the same way, then back out again to some other buyer. Voodoos are disproportionately affected by this if their quality on the market is poor.

There are plenty of reasons for people to be hoarding good working ones, which leaves high priced crap on the market, and this is exactly the trend I see.