Orchid Righteous 3D II
The Orchid Righteous 3D II was their licenced version of the 3dfx Voodoo2, launched in 1998.
|
Released | 1998 |
| Bus | PCI | |
| Chipset | 3Dfx SST-1 | |
| Standards | VGA, SVGA | |
| Memory | 8 MB or 12 MB EDO DRAM | |
| Ports | 15-pin DSUB (analogue video out to monitor) 15-pin DSUB (analogue video in from 2D graphics card) 34-pin SLI header |
|
| Part # | 09-00348-02, 09-00348-03 or 09-00348-07 | |
| FCC ID | - | |
| Price | 1998: $299 | |
| See Also | Orchid Righteous 3D |
The Righteous 3D II got a second texture unit over the original Righteous 3D (Voodoo Graphics), and video memory was increased to 8 MB or 12 MB. On 8 MB versions, 4 MB of this memory was dedicated to the 2D frame buffer and 4 MB was for textures. On the 12 MB card, 8 MB was used for textures. The additional texture unit meant the card was capable of two textures per pass instead of one with the 3dfx Voodoo Graphics.
Like other 3dfx Voodoo2 cards, the Orchid Righteous 3D II supported 3D game resolutions up to 800x600 with Z-buffering and up to 1024x768 without Z-buffering, and supported GLiDE, Criterion Renderware, Microsoft Direct3D and Gemini Technology OpenGVS APIs. It also supported 3dfx' new SLI (Scan Line Interleave), allowing two Voodoo2 cards to be daisy-chained together for twice the fill rate - one card handled the odd lines while the other handled the even lines.
The Righteous 3D II could be configured to run in the following vertical refresh rates:
| 3D Resolution | Vertical Refresh Rates Supported |
| 512 x 384 | 72Hz, 75Hz, 85Hz, 120Hz |
| 640 x 400 | 60Hz, 75Hz, 85Hz, 120Hz |
| 640 x 480 | 60Hz, 75Hz, 85Hz, 120Hz |
| 800 x 600 | ? |
| 960 x 720 (12 MB only) | ? |
| 1024 x 768 (12 MB only) | ? |
The card came bundled with four games to showcase its capabilities: Incoming, G-Police, Jedi Knight: Ambush at Altyr5, and Battlezone.
It would be the final card released under the Orchid brand.
Board Revisions
Two board revisions of the Orchid Righteous 3D II is known: A and A1.
Competition
Around the time of the Voodoo 2's launch, ATI had released the Rage Pro, nVidia had their Riva 128, and Rendition with Verite 2200. These were all single-chip products (cheaper to manufacture due to lower component count), whereas 3Dfx' new card was still a three-chip solution. Despite this, no competitor could meet the smooth frame rates and excellent performance of the Voodoo 2, and many owners still liked the fact they could choose their own quality 2D graphics card to sit alongside it. Even the nVidia Riva TNT which launched a few months later with its combined 2D/3D chipset offered little challenge to the Voodoo 2.
In the Media
As we went to press, Diamond Multimedia had announced plans to acquire Orchid Technologies. This acquisition has not been finalized, however, and the future of the Righteous 3D II has not yet been decided.
The Righteous 3D II performance scores were in line with those of the Creative Labs 3D Blaster Voodoo2 on each version of our 3D WinMark test. On the Quake II test, the Orchid card achieved a respectable score, just barely breaking into 68-frame-per-second territory (at 68.2).
Those who used the original Righteous 3D card will find the new card's driver control panel very familiar. Although it is somewhat crowded and less intuitive than the Canopus and Quantum 3D applets, it offers a wealth of features and options for fine-tuning its performance (including the memory clock speed adjuster). Of note on the driver control panel is the button that links you to Orchid's online manual and technical support numbers.
The Righteous 3D II's software bundle is satisfying, although not overwhelming. It includes demo versions of Battlezone, G-Police, Incoming, and Jedi Knight: Dark Forces II.
Our overall impression of the Righteous 3D II was that it's a solid, reliable accelerator card, which will most likely be popular among existing Orchid customers. In a head-to-head comparison, however, the Canopus Pure3D II LX and the Diamond Monster 3D II come out on top."
PC Magazine, September 1998
Setting it Up
I have no information of the hardware set up for the Orchid Righteous 3D II card.
Note that there is known issue when running a Voodoo2 card alongside some S3 968/868-based boards which report that they are using 32 MB of frame buffer memory when they are actually using 64. When your Voodoo Graphics-based card attempts to find a free range of memory to claim for memory-mapped IO, this range overlaps the range actually in use by the S3 card. There is a fix for this issue - Google it.
Downloads
Operation Manual For Orchid Righteous 3D II. |
Original CD-ROM Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
|
More Pictures
The original retail box for the Orchid Righteous 3D II (1998)