ACCLAIM.. proto 3dfx boards!

Do any of the big chips have the 3DFX logo in just letters or the graphical logo thats in 3D? Usually, the prototype boards/chips 3dfx makes are in just lettering, retail: its with that 3D logo but this is just from comparing photos from the Voodoo2 proto to the retail as well as the Voodoo3 and even Voodoo4 and 5. Speaking of Voodoo 4 and 5. you might prototype boards of those. Those boards were quite long and had PCI variants and I think 3DFX planned on bringing back SLI with those chips. You could have that.... or the very very very rare "key" in knowing the history to Dreamcast's origins. rayer: rayer:

Another thing that might lead to that assumption is that they were next to the VR boards, which I presume where DC stuff?


Post Pictures ASAP. ALSO Post the numbers on the chips to know the date/year they were manufactured to see if it fits within the DC timeline of when it was in development.

If you have a spare PC. Plug them in, see what happens.

 

I can recommend you the Voodoo Forums of www.x-3dfx.com as best source of 3DFX prototype stuff.

The card with the four chips could be a Voodoo 5 6000 - which never made it to the market. There are around 50 working cards out there and it only runs on very few mainboard.
There are also prototype cards of Voodoo5 (2chips) with just 32mb Ram (normal=64mb) and Voodoo 4 (1chip) with 64mb (normal=32mb).

The card with DDR Ram can be a Voodoo 6 prototype - i think that it was called "Daytona". There should be at least one guy who has a working Daytona prototype - if pictures weren't fake.

No retail 3DFX card holds DDRRam.

 

The grafik-chips used on Voodoo 5 series are called "VSA-100".
Codename was "Napalm" - maybe that can help you out until i can see some pictures.

Maybe you've also got tech from 3dfx's "Dreamcast" chip.
That would be great.

 

now we're talking about it, does anybody know about the SLI capabilities of the original Voodoo chip? The dev manual has some coverage on it but I havent seen it realised in any consumer version...

 

My Diamond Monster II (Voodoo II) board can be run in SLI mode. I'm pretty sure, at least...

 

Yes, that's Voodoo II, they can all (?) run in SLI. The Voodoo 1 is another thing though...

 

Ah. I see .

A bit off-topic, but did anyone see how someone got Doom III running on two Voodoo IIs in SLI mode?

 

Heres a crapload of pics of it running on Voodoo2

http://www.firingsquad.com/media/gallery_index.asp/244/2

I say its like a higher poly version of HL1. Looks great and apparently runs good at around 30fps on it.

 

The question is, with all those mods, when you plug em in, will they run great, or catch fire? lol!

 

Those connectors look like some kind of RAM expansion... I don't recall that ever being on 3dfx cards...

 

What you got there is probably volt modded video cards to overclock it. That chip you took pics of looks like its the multiplier. Now I never seen the first SLI voodoo2 cards, do they connect like the new SLI cards of today or did they have both of the same chips on the same board?

Other than that it has dual display connections like what Matrox was known for but had it where its 2 chips on one card.

Post the pics on a 3dfx fan site, they might help ya out more.

 

SLI on the Voodoo 2 was done with a SLI-cable which somewhat resembled an IDE flatcable (with connector). These boards seem to lack them, though.

 

Psst...everybody....he told me the date on the Boards is 1994, if that helps.

 

I'd be amazed if they were made in 1994, are you sure the 1994 date doesn't refer to a patent or something?

...If they were made in 1994 they would pre-date anything retail that 'ran fast' at that time and probably needed loads of cards coupled together just to get a mediocre performance!

...I remember getting my first SLI (scan line interleave) set up in 1998. It comprised of two Creative 'Voodoo II' Cards joined via a ribbon cable. This was pretty 'cutting edge' for the time!

...Quake II and Half-Life never looked so good

 

Are the two VGA connectors on the rear outputs, or is there one in one out. So in other case are they dedicated boards (like the latter voodoos), or are they 3d accelerators which need a seperate 2d card.

 

The chips say 9621. Made the 21st week in 1996. Another way of determining the date by checking the numbers on the RAM.