Voodoo 2 with a P3/800? Yes. After mulling this over further I think a strong argument can be made that the V2 is the ideal Voodoo card if you're only getting one Glide card - especially a mid range P3....

- V2 has superior IQ, resolution and pixel pushing power than a V1.
- even if a V2 is CPU bottlenecked (P166) it produces superior performance/IQ than a V1 and you have the satisfaction of knowing you've maxing out the CPU.
- Like V1 it's an add-on 3D card so system/GPU configurations are wide open compared to later 2D/3D Voodoo cards.
- most (but not all) V1-only games can run on a v2 (and later) with the proper environmental variables in the config.sys/autoexec.bat.
- V2 is well paired with most period systems capable of running most Glide games of the era .
- While V3 is much more powerfull than V2 and has even better IQ (superior to V2-SLI as well), V3 is a one-card 2D/3D solution limiting build scenarios.
- Pretty much the same goes for V4.
- Same for V5 with the added consideration that the higher end sorts of systems that pair well with the V5 will generally run Glide Wrappers fairly well. This calls into question how essential a dedicated Glide card is in that scenario.
- *IF* additional performance is necessary V2s can be combined in SLI - thoughquite likely the target system specs and game requirements will not specifically demand it, and even if they should (perhaps a late era Glide game in high res with AA), the powerfull base system suited for this setup should be able to run a Glide Wrapper in the first place.

So go V2 with a plain Pentium system - all the way up to CPU saturation in the P3/500 to P3/800 range (assuming 800 or 640 res). Much above P3/750 performance return is flat unless resolution without reducing resolution below 640. For V2-SLI this point is reach around P3/1000.

GLQuake is super playable on a P166 with V2 @ 800 res (60 fps +/-), so the poster child of the "Dawn Of Glide" can be experienced in all it's flaming glory. And all the solid entries of the Glide era will be more than playable too - though perhaps dipping to 640 res for the occasional game in the late Glide/D3D transitional era

Go the Wrapper route on a more powerfull system where high res/high AA is deisred.

Scraphoarder wrote:

That nice russian guy selling the V2 STBs seems to have an endless supply.

Anyone have the pictures of the box they came in? I remember seeing those pictures last year. You could count the exact number of the cards from the label.

I would say the voodoo2 isnt worth the price if you dont already like the games it supports.

I personally am not into many of the games it supports so I wouldnt spend the 50$ on one. I did come across one for free in an old gateway destination and played around with it a bit. Its neat but I just dont care for the games.

the only games from that era I enjoy are age of empires or roller coaster tycoon or simcity which are all 2d and dont really require much graphics power.

Api wrote:

Scraphoarder wrote:

That nice russian guy selling the V2 STBs seems to have an endless supply.

Anyone have the pictures of the box they came in? I remember seeing those pictures last year. You could count the exact number of the cards from the label.

I think his supply might be depleting a bit - he increased his prices recently. I bought a Voodoo card from him for just $18 a few months back. Now its $48.

I already have a Voodoo 3 2000 PCI, and will receive soon a Voodoo 1. Would it be worth getting a Voodoo 2, eg. are there games that would work better with it than a Voodoo 1 or 3?

Only if it's а DOS Glide game which can work on Voodoo 2, but can't on anything newer. Voodoo 1 is 100% compatible with DOS titles and Voodoo 3 is just faster for anything else.

If you haven't played q1/q2 on v2sli you haven't lived.

I am very biased, because I used to own a Voodoo 2 back in the day ^^... but for me a Voodoo 2 is the epitomy of 3Dfx, there's just something special about a seperate card to be used as a "3D accelerator" and especially having two of them connected.

a Voodoo 3 is nice if you want to play glide games but it doesn't have nearly the same charme that a Voodoo 2 has at least for me, Voodoo 4 and 5 is not that special anymore imho apart from being "rare and expensive" and being able to put a 3Dfx badge on your PC as games in that time weren't really dependent on glide anymore.

Thanks for the answers. I suppose Voodoo 2 would be most interesting in SLI to get the authentic experience that kolderman and imi are referring to. I'll add this to my TODO list then 😀

imi wrote on 2020-09-05, 11:57:

a Voodoo 3 is nice if you want to play glide games but it doesn't have nearly the same charme that a Voodoo 2 has at least for me, Voodoo 4 and 5 is not that special anymore imho apart from being "rare and expensive" and being able to put a 3Dfx badge on your PC as games in that time weren't really dependent on glide anymore.

What he said.

Baffling why Voodoo 5's are fetching $500 on ePay now, three months ago they were $300. Is there any nostalgic charm to a Voodoo 4/5 like there is for a Voodoo2 or Voodoo1, or are people paying this kind of money for future sales profit? I pair my PCs of this vintage with Voodoo2's, or even a Voodoo1 if the system is old enough. Voodoo5's loose that pre-millennium vigour. By the time Voodoo5 emerged, there were plenty of better alternatives on the market, whereas the Voodoo2 was the king of the castle. You also get to pair it with a steller 2D card of your choosing. What's not to like?

Is it worth the cost? Yes, but don't give in to ebay price inflation from speculative investors. $45-$70 max shipped.

I don't think there are many Voodoo5 owners that don't also have a Voodoo Graphics or Voodoo2.
The V5 does offer features for older Glide games that you don't get from any other piece of hardware. The valuation is definitely over the top however, considering the high level of software emulation available today.

Does the amount of RAM have a effect on game compatibility (8 MB, 12 MB)?

The last 3dfx card no matter what it was would have always going to attract a premium as the company had a cult following, plus that's its the latest and fastest native glide card.
I'm happy with the situation where collectors pay the premium and rest of us that just like messing around get probably the best cards for the job for an acceptable price, namely

V3 is probably enough for the vast majority of glide games
V2 is sexy
V1 for dos compatibility

but if a V5 was to fall into my hands I'd keep it 😀

cde wrote on 2020-09-09, 16:27:

Does the amount of RAM have a effect on game compatibility (8 MB, 12 MB)?

Only for supported resolutions as far as I'm aware

chinny22 wrote on 2020-09-09, 16:32:

cde wrote on 2020-09-09, 16:27:

Does the amount of RAM have a effect on game compatibility (8 MB, 12 MB)?

Only for supported resolutions as far as I'm aware

Voodoo2 has the same 4MB buffer memory on both 8 and 12 MB models, so it only effects games that need more memory for textures, like Quake3.

KT7AGuy wrote on 2017-03-08, 22:58:

If I didn't already have my Voodoo 2 and 5 cards, I wouldn't be buying them now. To me, the price is way too high.

Wow. I just revisited this thread and checked prices after 3.5 years. The cost of various 3dfx cards has at least doubled; tripled in most cases. For V5 cards, prices have more than quadrupled. Real hardware Voodoo cards are now way beyond affordable and are strictly for serious enthusiasts only. Stick with free GLIDE wrappers that do 99% of what a real card can.

Something I don't like, tho, is that nglide, the major glide wrapper, doesn't allow me to force 16x AF and 4x AA in graphics card control panel, it just ignores these, and it's noticable. On a voodoo5 I should be able to enable some FSAA and maybe some AF, idk, I don't have one, I want one, I'm willing to pay a pretty buck for it too, but current prices are way beyond what I can justify paying for one... why won't nglide support AA and AF?

Voodoo5 doesn't have anisotropic filtering as something you can force, and to run 4X FSAA you basically need to play games at 640x480 because it is extremely heavy on the card's limited fillrate. 2X FSAA is not really worthwhile.

DGVoodoo2 can force anti-aliasing but not specifically AF. It can force bilinear filtering. Voodoo filtering....varies. Sometimes there are no mip maps for example. The trouble with forcing anisotropic filtering in general is you can cause visual anomalies by forcing all textures to be filtered however you want. Textures aren't always what you might expect.

zeckensack's old Glide wrapper does have a force AF option. It may have compatibility quirks with that however.

God Of Gaming wrote on 2020-09-09, 19:12:

Something I don't like, tho, is that nglide, the major glide wrapper, doesn't allow me to force 16x AF and 4x AA in graphics card control panel, it just ignores these, and it's noticable. On a voodoo5 I should be able to enable some FSAA and maybe some AF, idk, I don't have one, I want one, I'm willing to pay a pretty buck for it too, but current prices are way beyond what I can justify paying for one... why won't nglide support AA and AF?

On nglide can't you set an arbitrary resolution and it will sample it for you? You can try a multiple of your screen resolution.

swaaye wrote on 2020-09-10, 03:27:

Voodoo5 doesn't have anisotropic filtering as something you can force, and to run 4X FSAA you basically need to play games at 640x480 because it is extremely heavy on the card's limited fillrate. 2X FSAA is not really worthwhile.

2XAA at is fine at 1024x768 on the V5, and looks good, e.g. in Half Life.

Is the Voodoo 2 worth it? A few years ago...probably. Nowadays? Let’s just say that for the price of a Voodoo 2 on eBay (120 USD or so) you could buy an entire AMD thin client that comes with Windows embedded and would’ve no issue emulating one in DOSbox+dgVoodoo. Unless you have an Super Socket7/440BX based machine that can benefit from Glide versions of old school games...and even then, eh. I would rather buy an S3 Savage4 or Geforce4MX for my AGP slot than to use up 2 PCI slots for Voodoo2 SLI.