Appearance: UsedFunctionality: WorkingDescription:============As pictured a 3dfxVoodoo3 1000 16MB SGRAM AGP Compaq OEM video card. Tested good.Warranty andReturns:=====================We understand thatthere may be compatibility issues, space constraints, or it just doesn’t lookperfect. This item can be returned within 14-days for ANY reason. However,shipping to and from is not refundable. Shipping:=========- Local pickup isalso available at no cost.- Most orders placedbefore 9am will ship the same day.Stock#:2001Voodoo3 was a seriesof computer gaming video cards manufactured and designed by 3dfx Interactive.It was the successor to the company's high-end Voodoo 2 line and was basedheavily upon the older Voodoo Banshee product. Voodoo3 was announced at COMDEX'98 and arrived on store shelves in 1999.[1] The Voodoo3 line was the firstproduct manufactured by the combined STB Systems and 3dfx.[2]History[edit]The 'Avenger'graphics core was originally conceived immediately after Banshee. Due tomis-management by 3dfx, this caused the next-generation 'Rampage' project tosuffer delays which would prove to be fatal to the entire company.Avenger was pushedto the forefront as it offered a quicker time to market than the alreadydelayed Rampage. Avenger was no more than the Banshee core with a secondtexture mapping unit (TMU) added - the same TMU which Banshee lost compared toVoodoo2. Avenger was thus merely a Voodoo2 with an integrated 128-bit 2D videoaccelerator and twice the clock speed.Architecture andperformance[edit]Much was made ofVoodoo3 (christened 'Avenger') and its 16-bit color rendering limitation. Thiswas in fact quite complex, as Voodoo3 operated to full 32-bit precision (8 bitsper channel, 16.7M colours) in its texture mappers and pixel pipeline asopposed to previous products from 3dfx and other vendors, which had only workedin 16-bit precision.To save framebufferspace, the Voodoo3's rendering output was dithered to 16 bit. This offeredbetter quality than running in pure 16-bit mode. However, a controversy aroseover what happened next.The Voodoo3'sRAMDAC, which took the rendered frame from the framebuffer and generated thedisplay image, performed a 2x2 box or 4x1 line filter on the dithered image toalmost reconstruct the original 24-bit color render. 3dfx claimed this to be'22-bit' equivalent quality.[3] As such, Voodoo3's framebuffer was notrepresentative of the final output, and therefore, screenshots did notaccurately portray Voodoo3's display quality which was actually much closer tothe 24-bit outputs of NVIDIA's RIVA TNT2 and ATI's Rage 128.The internalorganisation of Avenger was not complex. Pre-setup notably featured a guardbandclipper (eventually part of hardware transformation and lighting) but the pixelpipeline was a conventional single-issue, dual-texture design almost identicalto that featured on Voodoo2, but capable of working on 32-bit image data asopposed to Voodoo2's pure 16-bit output. Avenger's other remarkable featuresincluded the 128-bit GDI accelerator debuted in Banshee. This 2D engine led theVoodoo3 to be considered one of the more high-performance video cards of itsgeneration.[4][5]The Voodoo3 2000,3000 and 3500 differed mainly in clock frequencies (memory and core weresynchronous). The clock rates were 143 MHz, 166 MHz and 183 MHz respectively.While this gave the 3000 and 3500 a notable theoretical advantage inmulti-textured fillrate over its main rival, the 125 MHz TNT2, the TNT2 hadnearly twice the single-textured fillrate of the Voodoo3. In addition, theVoodoo3 consisted of one multi-texturing pipeline, the TNT series consisted oftwin single texturing pipelines.[6] As a result, Voodoo3 was disadvantaged ingames not using multiple texturing. The 2000 and 3000 boards generally differedin their support for TV output; the 3500 boards also carried a TV tuner andprovided a wide range of video inputs and outputs.At the time modernmulti-texturing games such as Quake3 and Unreal Tournament were consideredVoodoo3's performance territory, as Voodoo3's primary competition upon releasewas the dated RIVA TNT.[5] NVIDIA's RIVA TNT2 arrived shortly thereafter andthe two traded places frequently in benchmark results.[7]Although the Voodoo3was a replacement for the Voodoo2, it was often beaten by Voodoo2 SLI cards indirect comparisons.[8]Voodoo3 remainedperformance competitive throughout its life, eventually being comprehensivelyoutclassed by NVIDIA's GeForce 256 and ATI's Radeon. 3dfx created the ill-fatedVoodoo 5 to counter.3dfx Velocity[edit]3dfx released a lineof business / value-oriented cards based on the Voodoo3 Avenger chipset. Withthe purchase of STB Systems, 3dfx had acquired several popular brand names. TheVelocity brand had appealed to OEM system builders for years, with boards suchas the S3 Graphics ViRGE VX-based STB Velocity 3D and NVIDIA RIVA 128-basedVelocity 128 being used in many OEM systems from companies such as Gateway. The3dfx Velocity boards came with only 8 MiB of RAM, compared to 16 MiB on aregular Voodoo3. In addition, one of the texture management units came disabledas well, making the board more like a Banshee. Enthusiasts discovered that itwas possible to enable the disabled TMU with a simple registry alteration. Theboard's clock speed was set at 143 MHz, exactly the same as a Voodoo3 2000.[9]Drivers[edit]The last set ofdrivers officially released for the Voodoo 3 on Win9x was version 1.07.00. ForWin2000 the latest version is 1.03.00. Dual monitor support with V1.1.3b forMac OS 8 and 9.[10] After 3dfx shut its doors 3rd party drivers for Windows98/98SE, Windows 2000 and XP were developed by loyal 3dfx customers .[citationneeded]
