3Dfx Voodoo3 2000
The 3Dfx Voodoo3 2000 was released just one month after the first Voodoo3 (the Voodoo3 1000), in April 1999. Unlike the original, the Voodoo3 2000 came in both PCI and AGP 2x bus form.
 |
Released | April 1999 |
| Bus | PCI or AGP 2x | |
| Chipset | 3Dfx Avenger | |
| Core Clock | 143 MHz | |
| Memory | 16 MB SDRAM (128-bit bus width) | |
| Ports | 15-pin DSUB (RGB analogue out) | |
| Part # | 210-0366-001 (PCI) 210-0364-003 (AGP) |
|
| FCC ID | - | |
| Price | Dec 1999: $180 | |
| See Also | Voodoo Banshee, Voodoo3 1000, Voodoo3 3000 |
The Voodoo3 2000 was an iterative upgrade over the earlier Voodoo3 1000, with just a bump in both core and memory clock speed from 125 MHz to 143 MHz and a 300 MHz RAMDAC.
While the Avenger core was capable of 32-bit colour rendering, 3dfx opted to reduce this to 16-bit precision through dithering in order to reduce the storage capacity in the frame buffer to 16 MB.
The Avenger chip (part #355-0025-001) was fabricated using a 0.25 micron process.
Voodoo3 fully supported not only 3dfx's own GLiDE API, but also Direct3D and OpenGL. By 1999, GLiDE was rarely seen, with most games being developed in Direct3D and OpenGL.
In terms of 2D refresh rates, the 2000 AGP could achieve 85Hz at 1600 x 1200, 100Hz at 1280 x 1024, and 120Hz at 1152x864, all presented in 16.7 million colours.
Three months after the Voodoo3 2000 was released, 3dfx launched their first cut-down version of it, called 3dfx Velocity 100. Designed primarily for the OEM market, these came with 8 MB of video memory instead of the full 16 MB and one of the TMUs disabled. This meant the Velocity was essentially the same as a Voodoo Banshee, though its clocks ran at the same speed as the Voodoo3 2000 (143 MHz). Later, enthusiasts discovered they could re-enable the disabled TMU with a simple amendment to the registry.
Board Revisions
If you are looking to identify a particular Voodoo3, note that the Voodoo3 2000 and Voodoo3 3000 share the same part number.
| Model Number | Description |
|---|---|
| 210-0364-003 | Voodoo3 2000/3000 AGP version with SDRAM |
| 210-0366-001 | Voodoo3 2000/3000 PCI version with SDRAM |
| 210-0371-001 | Voodoo3 3500/TV |
| 210-0371-002 | Voodoo3 3500/TV |
| 210-0380-001-A0 | Voodoo3 1000 for OEM Market (3dfx Velocity) |
| 210-0382-003 | Voodoo3 2000/3000 PCI version with SGRAM |
| 210-0382-004 | Voodoo3 2000/3000 PCI version with SGRAM |
| 210-0383-001-A0 | Voodoo3 1000 for OEM Market (Compaq, no heatsink) |
Competition
The Voodoo3 2000 competed head-to-head with nVidia's RIVA TNT2 and ATI's Rage 128. To a lesser extend, it also competed with the Matrox Millennium G400 and S3 Savage4.
Sadly, the V3 2000 was unable to keep up with the competition, partly due to its limiting 16 MB RAM compared to competing cards that came with 32 MB such as ATI's Rage Fury and nVidia's TNT2 Ultra. Having said that, if you wanted to get into 3D gaming in late 1999, it was a decent cost-effective entry point.
In the Media
The Voodoo3's dual-TMU architecture ladles out all the hot visual gravy you've come to expect from 3dfx, with features such as per-pixel, perspective-correct texture-mapping, a 16-bit z-buffer, and single-cycle trilinear mip-mapping. Notably absent from the Voodoo3 port, however, are next-gen features such as single-pass bump-mapping and anisotropic filtering. But these no-shows will be the least of Voodoo3's worries in the long run.
In a gaming world that's increasing populated with large textures, the Voodoo3 is an AGP 2x part without AGP texturing support. On the Voodoo3, large textures (such as Quake III's 512 x 512 textures) are automatically down-sampled to 256 x 256. Since the Voodoo3 can slam textures in and out of local memory at much higher speeds than AGP texturing allows, 3dfx figures the chipset's 256 x 256 limitation is a small price to pay for faster framerates.
Also cutting into the life span of the Voodoo3 is its lack of a full 32-bit rendering pipeline. The Voodoo3 follows in the steps of its ancestors by rendering internally at a 32-bit color depth and dithering down the output to a tame 16-bits. Even though the Voodoo3 makes great strides in image quality by banishing banding artifacts with a post-processing filter, true 32-bit rendering backed by a 32-bit z-buffer would do a lot to remove a big question mark in front of Voodoo3's future.
The Voodoo3 is currently shipping in two flavors, the 143 MHz Voodoo3 2000 and the 166 MHz Voodoo3 3000. Defining the high end of the Voodoo3 line in the multimedia-rich Voodoo3 3500 TV. This 183 MHz AGP/PCI part adds video capture (including MPEG-2 encoding on the fly), a TV tuner, high-quality video-out, an FM stereo tuner, and DVD playback support. You can expect to see the Voodoo3 3500 TV in the July timeframe."
Maximum PC, July 1999
Setting it Up
Before removing your existing 2D card switch the video driver to Standard VGA. Click Start, Control Panel. Double-click on Display.Select 640X480 and 16 colors. Accept the changes.Power off the system and remove your existing 2D card.
Install the Voodoo3 Card in a free AGP or PCI Slot. Power on the system and verify that video appears during post. Start Windows in Normal mode.
The last set of official drivers released for the Voodoo3 on Windows 9x was v1.07.00. For Windows 2000 the latest version is 1.03.00. Later drivers exist that were written by unofficial third-parties.
Downloads
All drivers support both PCI and AGP variants of the Voodoo3.
Operation Manual Get in touch if you can provide this missing item! |
Voodoo3 Windows Drivers For 2000/3000 cards. Supports Windows 95/98.
Requires DirectX 6.1 or higher. |
Voodoo3 Windows Drivers For 2000/3000 cards. Supports Windows 95/ 98.
Requires DirectX 6.0 or higher. |
Voodoo3 Windows Drivers For 2000/3000 cards. Supports Windows 95/98.
Requires DirectX 6.0 or higher. |
Voodoo3 Windows Drivers For 2000/3000 cards. Supports Windows 95/98.
Requires DirectX 7.0 or higher. |
Voodoo3 Windows Drivers For 2000/3000 cards. Supports Windows 95/98.
Requires DirectX 7.0 or higher. |
Voodoo3 Windows Drivers For 2000/3000 cards. Supports Windows 95/98.
Requires DirectX 7.0 or higher. |
Voodoo3 Windows Drivers For 2000/3000 cards. Supports Windows 95, 98, and ME.
Requires DirectX 7.0 or higher. |
Voodoo3 Windows Drivers DirectX 8.0 support |
Velocity 100/200 Windows 3.1 Drivers This is a 3dfx Velocity Driver that should work on a Voodoo3
but will only use one TMU when used on a Voodoo3. |
V.Control 3dfx Hardware Tweaker
A Win32 (Windows 95,98,Me,NT4,2000,XP) utility for controling 3dfx graphics adapters. Currently supports 3dfx Voodoo Banshee, Velocity, Voodoo3, Voodoo4, Voodoo5. |
.png){kind=link}
More Pictures
