First post, by Ozzuneoj
- Rank
- l33t
Okay, I have seen (and personally received) a few questions about this card online. While most seem to recognize this card as a 3500, some seem to think that because it doesn't require the Big Purple Dongle (TM), doesn't have a TV-Tuner and doesn't say what model it is at startup it cannot be a 3500 and should instead be considered a 3000.
The card has a 183Mhz clock speed, 5.5ns SDRAM, a Voodoo 3 PCI-style PCB, 3000-style heatsink, VGA out, TV out and Compaq labels. It's an odd conglomeration, for sure.
A little tiny bit of digging would prove what this card is, so here is what I found. See the attached images.
Everest and DIAG recognize this as a 3500 and the revision number matches what is printed on the label on the card.
The clock speed is definitely 183Mhz from the factory, as reported by 3dfx Tools.
Once I finally remembered what program can be used to extra a VGA card's BIOS (NSSI060), I extracted it and simply opened it with wordpad. The top line of plain text clearly says "Voodoo 3 3500 - Version 2.15.05-SD" and is dated 08/05/99.
Case closed! 😀
Now for some blitting from the back buffer.