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It seems enthusiasts are quite interested in 3dfx GPUs for some reason --- lots of NOS parts with detailed documentation available? There was this not too long

It seems enthusiasts are quite interested in 3dfx GPUs for some reason --- lots of NOS parts with detailed documentation available? There was this not too long ago: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32960140 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=32960140

blt 2y ago
For people of a certain age, 3dfx is iconic. As a teenager, you read a bunch of reviews about how great it was. This was before widespread broadband and there wasn't much PC gaming content on TV, so you didn't really know what it looked like. After months/years of saving you finally bought one, put it in your PC, started up Quake 2, and it was f**ing amazing. GeForce came along soon enough and made it obsolete, but never had the same mystique.
- sundvor 2y ago
  Yup! And when V2 came out, I had two of them, if memory serves. The 3dfx Voodoo II was awesome for the longest time.
- dehrmann 2y ago
  I still remember being jealous of the kid at computer camp with the two SLI Voodoo 2s playing Unreal.
  - dcanelhas 2y ago
    SLI being "scan-line interleaving" at the time. Not to be confused with today's "Serial Link Interface"
    - theandrewbailey 2y ago
      > Not to be confused with today's "Serial Link Interface" Scalable Link Interface. And it's not available today either. The last cards that used it was the 1000 series. The 2000 and 3000 cards used NVLink, but that's disappeared from the 4000 series, too.
adastra22 2y ago
Maybe you're too young, but in the late 90's 3Dfx was so hot. They weren't the first GPU, but they were the first to break out and make it big in the PC space. The difference between software rendering and hardware accelerated Voodoo graphics was nuts. It was mind blowing. Once one of your friend's had a Voodoo card, software rendering was never enough. You had to get one too. Between the release of the Voodoo 3 and Voodoo 4/5, NVIDIA would eat 3Dfx's lunch, but not (at first) by having better tech. They just built momentum by consistently releasing new cards every six months like clockwork, whereas the Voodoo 4 and Voodoo 5 cards were feature-oriented releases stuck in development hell. 3Dfx was still the sexy hotrod brand, although NVIDIA's market share kept growing. Then the GeForce 2 came along and it was clearly better than any 3Dfx offering, while people were tired of waiting for a new Voodoo card. The rest is history.
- goeiedaggoeie 2y ago
  OMG i loved my 3dfx vodoo 3 card. I had a 20 port hub and we would basically have roaming LAN parties. You brought back a lot of good memories here.
- locallost 2y ago
  I agree except for Nvidia not having better tech. Riva TNT was not on 3dfx level, but GeForce was groundbreaking. 3dfx managed to match it with Voodoo 4/5 although it didn't get great press after all the delays, but then GeForce 2 came out and 3dfx was toast. At the time, a big angle was also that 3dfx made its own cards and Nvidia just did the chips for dozens of manufacturers, so it had the advantage there. But that's a bit of survivorship bias IMHO because e.g. Apple also does everything today and vertical integration is touted as their advantage. In the end either your tech works and has a market fit or it doesn't. Pretty crazy how Nvidia grew from that to a top 5 company in the world in 25 years.
  - whaleofatw2022 2y ago
    Let's also note that Before Voodoo3, 3dfx had other board partners. Also should note that back then, AFAIR ATI and Matrox only sold full cards. Nvidia also allowed, relatively, a lot of customization of their boards back then. My first GF2 had VIVO and even LCD shutter 3d glasses for a CRT.
anthk 2y ago
The 3DFX jump was almost the same as playing games badly rendered from the GBA (or maybe the first Nintendo DS games) to the quality of the PSP. Or, as a better example, compare the V-Rally game for the GBA with Ridge Racer for the PSP. Deus Ex and Unreal could run under a 3DFX card. The jump from a software rendered Quake (or just any software rendered Unreal game) to a hardware rendered one was pretty noticeable.

blt 2y ago

For people of a certain age, 3dfx is iconic. As a teenager, you read a bunch of reviews about how great it was. This was before widespread broadband and there wasn't much PC gaming content on TV, so you didn't really know what it looked like. After months/years of saving you finally bought one, put it in your PC, started up Quake 2, and it was f**ing amazing. GeForce came along soon enough and made it obsolete, but never had the same mystique.

sundvor 2y ago
Yup! And when V2 came out, I had two of them, if memory serves. The 3dfx Voodoo II was awesome for the longest time.
dehrmann 2y ago
I still remember being jealous of the kid at computer camp with the two SLI Voodoo 2s playing Unreal.
- dcanelhas 2y ago
  SLI being "scan-line interleaving" at the time. Not to be confused with today's "Serial Link Interface"
  - theandrewbailey 2y ago
    > Not to be confused with today's "Serial Link Interface" Scalable Link Interface. And it's not available today either. The last cards that used it was the 1000 series. The 2000 and 3000 cards used NVLink, but that's disappeared from the 4000 series, too.

adastra22 2y ago

Maybe you're too young, but in the late 90's 3Dfx was so hot. They weren't the first GPU, but they were the first to break out and make it big in the PC space. The difference between software rendering and hardware accelerated Voodoo graphics was nuts. It was mind blowing. Once one of your friend's had a Voodoo card, software rendering was never enough. You had to get one too. Between the release of the Voodoo 3 and Voodoo 4/5, NVIDIA would eat 3Dfx's lunch, but not (at first) by having better tech. They just built momentum by consistently releasing new cards every six months like clockwork, whereas the Voodoo 4 and Voodoo 5 cards were feature-oriented releases stuck in development hell. 3Dfx was still the sexy hotrod brand, although NVIDIA's market share kept growing. Then the GeForce 2 came along and it was clearly better than any 3Dfx offering, while people were tired of waiting for a new Voodoo card. The rest is history.

goeiedaggoeie 2y ago
OMG i loved my 3dfx vodoo 3 card. I had a 20 port hub and we would basically have roaming LAN parties. You brought back a lot of good memories here.
locallost 2y ago
I agree except for Nvidia not having better tech. Riva TNT was not on 3dfx level, but GeForce was groundbreaking. 3dfx managed to match it with Voodoo 4/5 although it didn't get great press after all the delays, but then GeForce 2 came out and 3dfx was toast. At the time, a big angle was also that 3dfx made its own cards and Nvidia just did the chips for dozens of manufacturers, so it had the advantage there. But that's a bit of survivorship bias IMHO because e.g. Apple also does everything today and vertical integration is touted as their advantage. In the end either your tech works and has a market fit or it doesn't. Pretty crazy how Nvidia grew from that to a top 5 company in the world in 25 years.
- whaleofatw2022 2y ago
  Let's also note that Before Voodoo3, 3dfx had other board partners. Also should note that back then, AFAIR ATI and Matrox only sold full cards. Nvidia also allowed, relatively, a lot of customization of their boards back then. My first GF2 had VIVO and even LCD shutter 3d glasses for a CRT.

anthk 2y ago

The 3DFX jump was almost the same as playing games badly rendered from the GBA (or maybe the first Nintendo DS games) to the quality of the PSP. Or, as a better example, compare the V-Rally game for the GBA with Ridge Racer for the PSP. Deus Ex and Unreal could run under a 3DFX card. The jump from a software rendered Quake (or just any software rendered Unreal game) to a hardware rendered one was pretty noticeable.