gonsa

Do you remember this?
http://www.thinkcomputers.org/3dfx-graphic-cards-history/

Off course you do. My first one was a 3dfx Voodoo Banshee 
Good memories.

The first video card that I ever owned was a Voodoo3.  Loved that card.

Incase u guys didnt know 3dfx was the first one to incorporate SLI on their graphics card. First 3dfx i had was voodoo 3500 agp, 4500 agp then last was 5500 AGP

sengutso

Incase u guys didnt know 3dfx was the first one to incorporate SLI on their graphics card. First 3dfx i had was voodoo 3500 agp, 4500 agp then last was 5500 AGP

 
And Nvidia bought them and made it their own.
 
And a few engineers bailed over to ATI (Now AMD) to make crossfire.
 
Funny how that all started with 3dfx.

If I remember right ATI bought 3DFX. I had several of their cards.
voodoo 1 8meg
banchee for got what ver
duel voodoo 2 12meg with attached 486 heat siniks and OC lol
then the 5500 before I went to Nividia

Scalable Link Interface has little to do with 3dfx SLI
 
3dfx SLI means Scan Line Interleave which is exactly what happens when 3dfx SLI is in function.
 
NVIDIA SLI was more like SFR whcih is Split Frae Rendering on their GeForce 6000 & 7000 series, their Geforce 8000 series and up use AFR also known as Alternate Frame Rendering a better way of doing so in basic terms their meaning of SLI ahs little to do with 3dfx, even that they bought the 3dfx assests, thing is that 3dfx used the letters SLI on their Voodoo2 and Voodoo5 packaging, now NVIDIA can use it on their GeForce boxes, even that it has little do with the real SLI from 3dfx.
 
Only thing what remains the same are the basics, combining multiple graphics chips for a faster solution, but the way's of doing was different, which is nothing new to me.
 
The Engfineers that made crossfire were mainly Engineers that made MAXX, MAXX is an ATI technology that had nothing to do with 3dfx engineers it was their solution to compete with 3dfx's SLI, eventhough SLI had a much better function, MAXX did use Alternate Frame Rendering , which NVIDIA's SLI does today.
 
ATI's CrossFire is MAXX improved, only it used Tile Based Rendering which is imo the best way to avoid page tearing and ugly seams which gave ugly image quality, the Geforce 6 and 7 series camped with this issue a lot, the GeForce 8 series fixed this.
 
ATi used Tile based Rendering the main card would render the odd numbered tiles as where the salev card the even numbered tiles these square shaped tiles would form a single image, this way ATi always had the best image quality over NVIDIA and there was no way walking around this, it's a hard earned fact, they still use this technique, a few 3dfx engineers that worked on SLI & FSAA did go to ATI but mostly the ATi team did most of their work, imo CFX is a much cleaner way of multi-chip than NVDIDA's SLI, even that NVIDIA's SLI has become a lot more mature.
 
As a VGA collector I have been researching and comparing these techniques since the day they existed.

I remember having to get a 3D accelerator for EQ1 I think... when I tested Grand Prix Legends wheels went from pointy polygons to round and I remember thinking it was the pinnacle of graphical achievment... 
 

 

Gold Leader

Scalable Link Interface has little to do with 3dfx SLI

3dfx SLI means Scan Line Interleave which is exactly what happens when 3dfx SLI is in function.

NVIDIA SLI was more like SFR whcih is Split Frae Rendering on their GeForce 6000 & 7000 series, their Geforce 8000 series and up use AFR also known as Alternate Frame Rendering a better way of doing so in basic terms their meaning of SLI ahs little to do with 3dfx, even that they bought the 3dfx assests, thing is that 3dfx used the letters SLI on their Voodoo2 and Voodoo5 packaging, now NVIDIA can use it on their GeForce boxes, even that it has little do with the real SLI from 3dfx.

Only thing what remains the same are the basics, combining multiple graphics chips for a faster solution, but the way's of doing was different, which is nothing new to me.

The Engfineers that made crossfire were mainly Engineers that made MAXX, MAXX is an ATI technology that had nothing to do with 3dfx engineers it was their solution to compete with 3dfx's SLI, eventhough SLI had a much better function, MAXX did use Alternate Frame Rendering , which NVIDIA's SLI does today.

ATI's CrossFire is MAXX improved, only it used Tile Based Rendering which is imo the best way to avoid page tearing and ugly seams which gave ugly image quality, the Geforce 6 and 7 series camped with this issue a lot, the GeForce 8 series fixed this.

ATi used Tile based Rendering the main card would render the odd numbered tiles as where the salev card the even numbered tiles these square shaped tiles would form a single image, this way ATi always had the best image quality over NVIDIA and there was no way walking around this, it's a hard earned fact, they still use this technique, a few 3dfx engineers that worked on SLI & FSAA did go to ATI but mostly the ATi team did most of their work, imo CFX is a much cleaner way of multi-chip than NVDIDA's SLI, even that NVIDIA's SLI has become a lot more mature.

As a VGA collector I have been researching and comparing these techniques since the day they existed.

"The name SLI was first used by 3dfx under the full name Scan-Line Interleave, which was introduced to the consumer market in 1998 and used in the Voodoo2 line of video cards. After buying out 3dfx, NVIDIA acquired the technology but did not use it. NVIDIA later reintroduced the SLI name in 2004 and intended for it to be used in modern computer systems based on the PCI Express (PCIe) bus; however, the technology behind the name SLI has changed dramatically."
 
 
Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Link_Interface
 
"The Voodoo2 introduced Scan-Line Interleave (SLI) to the gaming market. In SLI mode, two Voodoo2 boards were connected together, each drawing half the scan lines of the screen. For the price of a second Voodoo2 board, users could easily improve 3D throughout. A welcome result of SLI mode was an increase in the maximum resolution supported, now up to 1024×768. However, due to the high cost and inconvenience of using three separate graphics cards (two Voodoo 2 SLI plus the general purpose 2D graphics adapter), the Voodoo2 SLI scheme, though revolutionary at the time, had minimal effect on the total market share that the Voodoo2 held and was not a financial success.
The potential of the Voodoo2's SLI was limited by CPU bottlenecking[5] Still, the long-term accomplishment of this technology can be seen in its usefulness in gaming as late as 2004.[6]
SLI capability was not offered in subsequent 3dfx board designs, although the technology would be later used to link the VSA-100 chips on the Voodoo 5.
Having since acquired 3dfx, Nvidia in 2004 reintroduced the SLI brand (initially called Scalable Link Interface) in the GeForce 6 Series. ATI Technologies has also since introduced its own multi-chip implementation, dubbed "CrossFire". Although NVIDIA SLI and ATI Crossfire operate on the original SLI principle of utilizing the power of multiple video cards, the implementation is different."

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3dfx_Interactive
 
Sli was first used by 3dfx and later on improved by nvidia. What do you think Jacob? a.k.a Genera Sales Manager
 
 
 

sengutso

Gold Leader

Scalable Link Interface has little to do with 3dfx SLI

3dfx SLI means Scan Line Interleave which is exactly what happens when 3dfx SLI is in function.

NVIDIA SLI was more like SFR whcih is Split Frae Rendering on their GeForce 6000 & 7000 series, their Geforce 8000 series and up use AFR also known as Alternate Frame Rendering a better way of doing so in basic terms their meaning of SLI ahs little to do with 3dfx, even that they bought the 3dfx assests, thing is that 3dfx used the letters SLI on their Voodoo2 and Voodoo5 packaging, now NVIDIA can use it on their GeForce boxes, even that it has little do with the real SLI from 3dfx.

Only thing what remains the same are the basics, combining multiple graphics chips for a faster solution, but the way's of doing was different, which is nothing new to me.

The Engfineers that made crossfire were mainly Engineers that made MAXX, MAXX is an ATI technology that had nothing to do with 3dfx engineers it was their solution to compete with 3dfx's SLI, eventhough SLI had a much better function, MAXX did use Alternate Frame Rendering , which NVIDIA's SLI does today.

ATI's CrossFire is MAXX improved, only it used Tile Based Rendering which is imo the best way to avoid page tearing and ugly seams which gave ugly image quality, the Geforce 6 and 7 series camped with this issue a lot, the GeForce 8 series fixed this.

ATi used Tile based Rendering the main card would render the odd numbered tiles as where the salev card the even numbered tiles these square shaped tiles would form a single image, this way ATi always had the best image quality over NVIDIA and there was no way walking around this, it's a hard earned fact, they still use this technique, a few 3dfx engineers that worked on SLI & FSAA did go to ATI but mostly the ATi team did most of their work, imo CFX is a much cleaner way of multi-chip than NVDIDA's SLI, even that NVIDIA's SLI has become a lot more mature.

As a VGA collector I have been researching and comparing these techniques since the day they existed.

"The name SLI was first used by 3dfx under the full name Scan-Line Interleave, which was introduced to the consumer market in 1998 and used in the Voodoo2 line of video cards. After buying out 3dfx, NVIDIA acquired the technology but did not use it. NVIDIA later reintroduced the SLI name in 2004 and intended for it to be used in modern computer systems based on the PCI Express (PCIe) bus; however, the technology behind the name SLI has changed dramatically."


Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scalable_Link_Interface

"The Voodoo2 introduced Scan-Line Interleave (SLI) to the gaming market. In SLI mode, two Voodoo2 boards were connected together, each drawing half the scan lines of the screen. For the price of a second Voodoo2 board, users could easily improve 3D throughout. A welcome result of SLI mode was an increase in the maximum resolution supported, now up to 1024×768. However, due to the high cost and inconvenience of using three separate graphics cards (two Voodoo 2 SLI plus the general purpose 2D graphics adapter), the Voodoo2 SLI scheme, though revolutionary at the time, had minimal effect on the total market share that the Voodoo2 held and was not a financial success.
The potential of the Voodoo2's SLI was limited by CPU bottlenecking[5] Still, the long-term accomplishment of this technology can be seen in its usefulness in gaming as late as 2004.[6]
SLI capability was not offered in subsequent 3dfx board designs, although the technology would be later used to link the VSA-100 chips on the Voodoo 5.
Having since acquired 3dfx, Nvidia in 2004 reintroduced the SLI brand (initially called Scalable Link Interface) in the GeForce 6 Series. ATI Technologies has also since introduced its own multi-chip implementation, dubbed "CrossFire". Although NVIDIA SLI and ATI Crossfire operate on the original SLI principle of utilizing the power of multiple video cards, the implementation is different."

Link: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/3dfx_Interactive

Sli was first used by 3dfx and later on improved by nvidia. What do you think Jacob? a.k.a Genera Sales Manager

 
From what I have told you were hard given facts from what you showed me well that is what the press wants to think what the truth is ;) The thing is I have my information from ex-3dfx Engineers & ex-ATi Engineers and I can assure you that they know a lot more than what the press has been blogging around ;)
 
NVIDIA SLI has totally nothing to do with 3dfx SLI, the only thing that makes people think it has something to do with it is that after NVIDIA bought the assets of 3dfx Interactive they had the ability to use the SLI nickname for their multi-chip technology that is the real story behind it.
 
Don't believe me? Make a topic at one of the following 3dfx forums:
 
At these boards I am Obi-Wan Kenobi :
http://www.3dfxzone.it/enboard/
http://www.x-3dfx.com
 
At this board I am Obi Wan KenobiV6K
http://x3dfx.yuku.com/directory#.TuovW_LCd2w
 
At this board I am Gold Leader
http://www.voodooalert.de/board/index.php
 
x-3dfx.com is my old home, it's still being renovated, we changed the name from 3dfx to x-3dfx on January 2001, to expand the life of the 3dfx HQ website of Europe, which was located in Belfast, Ireland; for all the 3dfx fans and ex-3dfx Employees.
 
x-3dfx Yuku.com is the sister site which also developed after our driver team split up, but it seems we have become one community again. these days we want to preserve as much as we possibly can.
 
Good thing is that 3dfxzone.it is keeping us up to date with fresh new drivers, as today they launched SFFT 1.9:
http://www.3dfxzone.it/news/reader.php?objid=16199
 
That driver supports all NTFS Operating Systems from Win2K pro to Win7 X64, yes we still have driver support, it's the will power the ex-3dfx programmers still have for us, even that SFFT himself is a fan like me and many other people that thrive within the 3dfx community.
 
Anyways you don't have to give me lessons lad, what you have told me ,really that would be like a joke in the entire 3dfx community, so really, lease don't ever come with such posts at me nr any other 3dfx Die-Hard, it's that they like myself would find that unprofessional and very humiliating. You will be laughed at, trust me rofl.

EVGAWeb_ShaneD

I remember having to get a 3D accelerator for EQ1 I think... when I tested Grand Prix Legends wheels went from pointy polygons to round and I remember thinking it was the pinnacle of graphical achievement... 

You might find this interesting that a friend of mine got F1 2010 working on his 3dfx Vodooo5 6000 AGP 128MB Rev.A 3700 Engineering Sample:
http://www.3dfxzone.it/news/reader.php?objid=9373
 
And here Another member of 3dfxzone.it got World of Warcraft running on his Vodooo4 4500 AGP 32MB:
http://www.3dfxzone.it/news/reader.php?objid=16080
 
And here the breakthrough that Windows 7 is no match for the Vodooo5 boards ;)
http://www.3dfxzone.it/ne....php?objid=15108 
Thanks to the SFFT driver team @ 3dfxzone.it we still can use our 3dfx cards in any Operating system that Microsoft chucks at us, they are already working on a Windows 8 x86 & x64 driver, as they use the beta version of Win8 to experiment this :)
 
The ex-3dfx programmers and fans that have the ability to program have been keeping us occupied with our 3dfx cards the past 11 years and from this very day on they will keep on doing that for us.

As for functional 3dfx cards? Oh Use quite a few even today for driver support and such :)
 
3dfx Voodoo3 3500C AGP 16MB + TV-Out Rev.A 2100 is in Avenger M99:
Avenger M99



Intel Pentium !!!/E 650Mhz Coppermine S.E.C.C. 2 / Slot 1
3x 128MB PC-100 CL3 Hyundai / Samsung
EPoX EP-BX3 Intel BX440 Chipset
3dfx Voodoo3 3500C AGP 16MB + TV-Out Rev.A 2100
Intel Pro 100/S Desktop Adapter
Philips FM/AM Radio Card 8Bit ISA
Creative Labs AWE64 Gold CT4390 4MB WAV-RAM 16Bit ISA
1x Maxtor Diamond Max 9+ 40GB ATA 100
FKI FK-403 Midi Tower
A-Open 350 Watt PSU

Windows 2000 Pro USA + SP4 & RU1 for SP4
AmigaMerlin 2.5 for V3-3500C
 
3dfx Voodoo5 5500 PCI 64MB Rev.A1 2900 is in Gradinko SMP 2000
Gradinko SMP 2000

 
Dual Intel Pentium!!!/EB 1000Mhz Coppermine
ABiT VP6 Raid Ver 1.0
4x 512MB PC-133 ECC Reg CL2.5 HP / Micron Crucial
Matrox Parhelia AGP 128MB 256Bit DDR Rev.A 2502 @ AGP x4
3dfx Voodoo5 5500 PCI 64MB 256Bit SDR Rev.A1 2900 [in practical 2x 32MB 128Bit SDR]
Creative Sound Blaster Audigy2 Platinum eX
Intel Pro/1000 MT Fast Ethernet Adapter
ASUS NEC 4 ported USB 2.0 PCI 32 bit card
1x Seagate Barracuda V 10+ 80 GB 7200 rpm Ultra ATA 133 HDD @ Ultra ATA 100
1x NEC DVD-RW ND 1300A Ultra ATA 100
Addtronics 7896A Server Tower
Enermax EG365VE 350 Watt PSU
CompaQ S710 17" 4:3 CRT Max Reso 1280 x 1024 x 32 @ 60 Herz
Used reso: 1024 x 768 x32 @ 85 Herz

WinXP Pro USA + SP3
DirectX9 August 2009 Release
Forceware 81.24 WHQL for GF 6800 Ultra AGP
SFFT Alpha 41 Modified by ps47 for V5 5500 PCI
 
3dfx Voodoo5 5500 PCI Macintosh + PC Bios 1.18_LCD is in here:
Sveta SMP 2004



Dual AMD OpteronMP 850 CG Sledgehammer HT1.0, 2x 2405Mhz , 2x 1024KB L2
2x 1024MB PC-3200 ECC Reg Kingston Value Ram in Dual DDR-400 mode, on one ram pool for the main CPU with this system]
Micro-Star International MS-9130 K8T Master2-FAR VIA K8T800 chipset
Hightech Industry Systems ATi Radeon HD 3850 ICEQ3 Turbo AGP 512MB 256Bit GDDR3 aka HIS HD 3870 AGP as Main VGA
3dfx Interactive Voodoo5 5500 PCI Macintosh 64MB 256Bit SDR [in practical 2x 32MB 128Bit SDR] PC Flashed to Bios 1.18_LCD as Secondary VGA
Realtek AC'97 6.1 on board Sound
1x Broadcom 1Gigabit Ethernet Adapter
1x Intel Pro 100/S Desktop Adapter as secondary network device
1x 250GB Western Digital Caviar SE 16MB Cache UATA 133 Main HDD
Enermax Modu82+ 525Watt PSU EPS12V + 2.3V
Addtronics 6896-A Entry Level Server Tower aka High Tower
Samsung SyncMaster 943 B1 19" 16:10 TFT Max Reso 1440 x 900 x32 @ 75 Herz
 
My latest project was this one a rebuiild of my 3dfx test PC of 2002 :)
 
Neva-Kee 3dfx 2002
AMD AthlonXP 2700+ Thoroughbred-B @ 2167Mhz, 256KB L2, 333Mhz FSB
1x 1024MB PC-3200 CL2 Kingston Hyper-X @ PC-2700 CL2
ASUS A7V333-R Rev. 1.04
3dfx Voodoo5 5500 AGP 64 MB 256Bit SDR Rev.A 2500 [ In Practical 2x 32MB 128Bit SDR]
ASUS IEEE-1394 Extension Card
Intel Pro-10/100 Management Adapter
Realtek AC'97 6.1 on board Sound
Windows 2000 Professional USA + Service Pack 4
SFFT Alpha 41 Modified by ps47

So here some pics of the build so far











It's not some like a Voodoo5 6000 system or so, just my first Voodoo5 5500 AGP build rebuilt, the ASUS A7V333-R also gave me the best performance experience with the 5500 AGP< the EPoX 8K5A2+ & 8K3A+ felt as if I had a performance loss of about 15% with many apps especially when FSAA x2 and x4 were enabled. The Voodoo5 5000 AGP engineering Samples also had the best performance & stability with the ASUS A7V333-R Rev 1.02

But anyhow I kinda missed this setup, rebuilding will do me a lot of good, as for the sound card, I plan on giving it an Auzentech X-Fi Prelude 7.1 PCI 64MB XRAM, but for now it will have to do with the onbaord AC97

My first graphics card ever was a Voodoo3 2000 PCI. Got it back in the day to play Star Wars: Rogue Squadron. I still have it (and the box) and to my knowledge it still works.

I boght 2 voodo 2's to run at 800x600.  LOL.

Viper97

Gold Leader

Yes that's right and the first card which was an Engineering set of two 22MB Vodooo1 based cards in SLI, which was this very unique set:
 

Obsidian 100DB-4440-  What might be the rarest of prototypes I own, an Obsidian Voodoo Graphics SLI rig with both boards dated 19-96 (May 5-9 1996) with handmade circuitry on one of the cards near the SLI connector. The complete setup came from a computer at 3dfx *before* Quantum3D was spun off March 31, 1997.


http://www.thedodgegarage.com/3dfx/pro_v1.htm

I remember those... they were interesting.  I can't remember for the life of me which Voodoo card I had but I remember I had two of them and a bridge.  (I think I remember them that was way back in 96 and at my age, 15 years is a long way to remember!)

Well the card pictured is an ultra rare Vodooo1 SLI setup of two 22MB Voodoo1 based 3D Add-On cards designed by 3Dfx Interactive in 1995 ;) The Obsidian name was also later used by Quantum3D which also fused with 3dfx rapidly in 1996
More info of a production model of this very rare V1 set here:
http://www.thedodgegarage.om/3dfx/q3d_obsidian.htm
Click here for a screen shot of the 100DB-4440 display properties."
 
Not the most common thing made

gutcheck

I boght 2 voodo 2's to run at 800x600.  LOL.

Actually 2x Voodoo2 can do 1024 x 768 x 16, you probably forgot this

Soooo Gold Leader... You say you like these....3dfx cards eh? 
 
 
 I personally never owned a Voodoo card. I had Macs until 2000, and my first PC came with a GF3 in it (I still have it around here somewhere).
 Although my best friend at the time had gotten a Voodoo 3. I remember how we were all like  about it. We could finally play Quake2 and 3 with everything cranked up. Twas a great card. 

gutcheck

I boght 2 voodo 2's to run at 800x600.  LOL.

umm
talk about bottleneck, those cards could do so much more
 

blackomega

Soooo Gold Leader... You say you like these....3dfx cards eh? 

he sure does , but I'm one to talk lol
he knows more about them then I do, and thats saying alot right there
I just don't bring it up. it gets on some people nerves when I do that to much

3dfx is where my true gaming experience began, thanks to 3dfx we have 3D accelerated Games these days, thanks to 3dfx we have good multi-chip technology which evolved from their Scan Line Interleave, even that today's techs are very different the basics are still notable, another thing is the T-Buffer also a tech first created and used by 3dfx with their Voodoo5  class cards.
 
T-Buffer has the following techs :
 
Motion Blur
Depth of Field Blur
Soft Reflections
Soft Shadows
Super Sampled Rotated Grid Full Scene Anti-Aliasing, 2x & 4x on Vodooo5 5000 32MB & 5500 64MB cards as where their never released Vodooo5 6000 can do FSAA x2 , x4 & x8, thanks to it's 4-Way SLI solution.
 
3dfx had these techs since week 44 of 1999 which was first tested with their Dual Head Voodoo5 5500 AGP 64MB Rev.A0 4499:

http://www.thedodgegarage.om/3dfx/pro_v5.htm 
here my driver tab showing the FSAA modes on my Voodoo5 6000:

 
The Vodooo5 5000 AGP FSAA tab:

 
The Voodoo5 5000 PCI FSAA tab: