There are a few games that does not work with the Voodoo2 (DOS list here: Voodoo 2 DOS Glide compatibility matrix), but everyone tends to focus on these early games. What you miss with a Voodoo1 compared to a Voodoo2 are all the later games. The Voodoo2 scales much better (just see Phils benchmarks) and if combined with a more powerful CPU it will enable you to play much more games than you ever will on a Voodoo1 with acceptable framerates.

The only build I can see a Voodoo 1 work is in a 1996/1997 system where the CPU is limited to a Pentium MMX and you have no intentions of playing later games or games in higher resolutions. Imo Voodoo2, especially in SLI gives the most complete package in terms of performance, compatibility and features (increased resolutions, etc)

Pros: 100% compatibility with statically linked DOS glide games, 3 DOS glide games with Voodoo2 incompatibility (Dreams to Reality, Prost Grand Prix, Tie Break Tennis) and glide 2.1.1 games.
1st and 3rd can work with Voodoo2 too but need tweaking (as the example - sometimes Voodoo2 works with these games only if a specific PCI slot was used).
Contras: Voodoo1 is the PCI 2.1 card, so - new motherboards may not work with it. There are problems with high FSB speed (133 and above). No retail Win2k/Xp drivers. 640x480 is the maximum resolution. Voodoo2 is much faster. Voodoo2 have SLI.

Yeah the only benefit I see is nostalgia and support for the oldest Glide games.

Also, Voodoo1 cards tend to ruin a VGA signal. Not so great at the Windows desktop above 800x600 or so.

1 disadvantage voodoo 2 cards have,is their build quality,they much more sensible then voodoo 1 cards,so far both voodoo 2 cards i bought 1 from innovision and 1 from stb don't work.

Agree with what has been said.

The main thing that stands out for me is just how slow the Voodoo is. It's ok for old games like Tomb Raider but for anything a little bit newer it simply doesn't have the performance. A Voodoo 2 is often 3x as fast.

The other issue is image quality. Voodoo 1 is very bad, Voodoo 2 is better and Voodoo 3 is excellent. This could be because I only use LCD monitors, however at 640 x 480, the V2 definitely has a better image. The V2 is also easier to work with in regards to drivers (Windows tools) whereas with the V1 you need to use environment variables for v-sync and gamma.

On the other hand a Voodoo 2 likes a fast processor. So in a Pentium 100 for example the Voodoo 2 isn't much faster but does allow higher resolutions, up to 1024 x 768 in SLI but many DOS games don't support this anyway.

There are only 2 DOS glide games with 800x600 support (Grand Theft Auto and Shadow Warrior). And there are no one with 1024x768 support. So - yes, P1 DOS only PC and Voodoo1 is the proper combo.

As others have said its mainly for compatibility, as well as nostalgia.

I got a Voodoo1 to use in my Netfinity (has a PII 350, so a little new for the card, nothing crazy though) , mainly because I wanted to play the older Glide games without much nonsense. The other reason is that it has historical value and I never had one at the time (wanted a 3DFX card, but never got one ).

Only reason I allowed myself that card is because I have a Voodoo5500 in another machine, so between those 2 cards I have the optimal way to play just about any Glide game. If I didn't have that 5500, I would have probably gone with a V2 setup instead. the V1 just doesn't have the muscle for anything after Quake2 really , and even with that game you're typically running 30fps at 640X480. Voodoo3 is also an excellent card , but you start getting into more incompatibilities with the older games (not all , Tomb Raider for instance works with a patch , but other things like Fatal Racing, Mechwarrior2 or Nuclear Strike which just don't run on a Voodoo3 and after). Image quality on a V1 does suffer a bit, but its also dependent on a number of things (the passthrough cable, the monitor, the 2D card etc).

Not that the Voodoo1 is a bad card of course, it was amazing in 1996.

Even on a good CRT, image quality takes a huge plunge with the V1. V3 and upwards has spoiled me 😀

Like others have said, use the V1 only for nostalgia or totally incompatible games!

philscomputerlab wrote:

On the other hand a Voodoo 2 likes a fast processor. So in a Pentium 100 for example the Voodoo 2 isn't much faster but does allow higher resolutions, up to 1024 x 768 in SLI but many DOS games don't support this anyway.

Voodoo1 should be slightly more demanding of the CPU. It doesn't have full hardware triangle setup so the CPU is tasked with some extra processing.

Depends. Do you really want to play a crappy 3d fighter, some obscure 3d platformer, or a flight sim that requires the earliest DOS Glide support?

swaaye wrote:

Voodoo1 should be slightly more demanding of the CPU. It doesn't have full hardware triangle setup so the CPU is tasked with some extra processing.

Both scale with processing speed, the V2 just a lot more. The results are at 640 x 480 resolution:

Looks right to me. Voodoo1 is slightly more demanding and thus a bit slower. The simplistic games allow even these slow CPUs to start pushing the Voodoo2 well past the Voodoo1.