WEBVTT 00:00:00.000 --> 00:00:08.460 the owner of this GPU was recently offered fifteen thousand dollars by a 00:00:05.400 --> 00:00:10.980 collector why I'll tell you why because 00:00:08.460 --> 00:00:17.160 it's a ridiculously rare artifact from the early days of 3D gaming the bad news 00:00:13.320 --> 00:00:20.460 is the collector wasn't me 00:00:17.160 --> 00:00:22.699 good news is that I got my hands on it 00:00:20.460 --> 00:00:22.699 anyway 00:00:23.939 --> 00:00:31.199 the deal fell through the owner Ross agreed to drive it up to Canada for us 00:00:28.380 --> 00:00:39.000 to show it off and as luck would have it it actually works this is the real deal 00:00:35.940 --> 00:00:41.640 guys a very late stage prototype of what 00:00:39.000 --> 00:00:47.820 would have been 3dfx's final Flagship card the voodoo 5 6000 and this one has 00:00:45.420 --> 00:00:53.219 even been reworked by a former 3dfx engineer to reach what we believe would 00:00:49.739 --> 00:00:56.280 have been the final spec could this 00:00:53.219 --> 00:00:58.140 Beast of a quad GPU card of saved 3dfx 00:00:56.280 --> 00:01:03.180 and changed the face of gaming as we know it probably not but that doesn't mean that 00:01:01.440 --> 00:01:07.380 we can't fire it up and relive our wildest dreams from a parallel universe 00:01:05.280 --> 00:01:12.900 and fire up this message from our sponsor iFixit learn more about the 00:01:10.140 --> 00:01:17.280 extremely portable and affordable minnow and moire sets and how they can make 00:01:14.939 --> 00:01:21.360 your repair life easier at the end of this video what makes this card really 00:01:19.140 --> 00:01:26.280 special is that it's straight from 3dfx themselves making it the best Glide 00:01:23.820 --> 00:01:31.320 gaming experience on the planet I mean yes we showed recently that you can 00:01:28.200 --> 00:01:33.479 emulate 3dfx Hardware on a modern PC but 00:01:31.320 --> 00:01:39.200 so far you can only go up to the voodoo 3. you want to go faster 00:01:35.820 --> 00:01:39.200 you're gonna need bare metal 00:01:39.420 --> 00:01:45.540 Let's Ride not being a 3dfx historian 00:01:42.659 --> 00:01:53.040 myself I wasn't 100 sure what to expect I can tell you that I didn't expect an 00:01:48.240 --> 00:01:53.040 external DC Barrel Jack though okay 00:01:53.460 --> 00:02:00.299 sure rather than just putting a bigger cooler on the front you just add these little 00:01:58.320 --> 00:02:04.439 heatsinks to the back of where the dies are soldered I guess 00:02:02.640 --> 00:02:08.280 man I wish we'd done this video even like six months ago you guys would have 00:02:06.659 --> 00:02:11.220 been so impressed by the size of this card but now that the 490 exists it's 00:02:10.080 --> 00:02:18.780 like make up for it with your personality 00:02:14.700 --> 00:02:21.319 here we go it's loud it's right next to 00:02:18.780 --> 00:02:29.239 my mic wish I'd thought of that hey nice Athlon XP 2200 plus oh no 00:02:29.580 --> 00:02:34.860 is everything working right now like I it captures working and everything 00:02:32.940 --> 00:02:39.900 capture is working it's so exciting World of Warcraft 00:02:37.200 --> 00:02:46.019 1.12.1 I mean surely we can't play WoW on this 00:02:43.860 --> 00:02:49.500 yeah I didn't like that what should we play half-life 00:02:47.459 --> 00:02:56.340 if you have a 3D card that incorporates the voodoo 2 or Banshee chip sets you 00:02:52.620 --> 00:02:59.879 will want 3dfx mini driver let's go 00:02:56.340 --> 00:03:04.200 that is some mighty fine screen tearing 00:02:59.879 --> 00:03:06.900 the latency is great and this is Butters 00:03:04.200 --> 00:03:13.080 move if I had to guess and this is going to be pretty tough because I'm on a 60hz 00:03:08.580 --> 00:03:16.260 display I would say probably 100 to 150 00:03:13.080 --> 00:03:21.620 frames per second like it feels very 00:03:16.260 --> 00:03:21.620 very low oh get back here 00:03:22.560 --> 00:03:28.080 man imagine having this kind of money for a computer back then and like six 00:03:26.760 --> 00:03:35.879 hundred dollars for one of these things 600 GPU but it runs like 00:03:33.120 --> 00:03:40.319 I just at now it's worth noting that this is a game from 1998. yeah right so 00:03:38.700 --> 00:03:45.720 this game came out a couple of years before this even had reached the 00:03:42.780 --> 00:03:51.480 Prototype whoa hey hey stop that yeah hence the voodoo 2 and Voodoo Banshee 00:03:48.000 --> 00:03:54.080 notes in the option screen there ah okay 00:03:51.480 --> 00:03:58.980 this thing absolutely blows away what I would have been using 00:03:56.580 --> 00:04:03.060 at the time I know obviously it looks like crap by today's standards but I 00:04:01.500 --> 00:04:08.580 wouldn't have been able to believe my eyes if I had seen this back in 2000. 00:04:05.700 --> 00:04:12.540 can I just say how painless this was for a prototype graphics card I don't think 00:04:11.099 --> 00:04:19.620 it was very painless to get it working to begin with well yeah but it's painless for me now 00:04:15.919 --> 00:04:22.199 yeah so go to console and then time demo 00:04:19.620 --> 00:04:27.660 as one word space blowout okay here we go 00:04:24.960 --> 00:04:31.740 oh look at it go we're gonna find out what the FPS was and this is a much more 00:04:30.360 --> 00:04:38.400 demanding scenario than what I was looking at and I feel like I 00:04:33.479 --> 00:04:40.380 underestimated it 119 frames per second 00:04:38.400 --> 00:04:45.419 oh okay let's try tribes a voodoo card has 00:04:43.380 --> 00:04:50.520 been detected If you experience Oddities you should try the wicked GL drivers at 00:04:47.520 --> 00:04:50.520 wicked3d.com 00:04:53.040 --> 00:05:01.560 oh so first of all 10 24 by 768 right 00:04:56.940 --> 00:05:04.320 yep bit depth 16 right can be 16 or 32 00:05:01.560 --> 00:05:08.639 well let's go 32 let's go okay I mean obviously we're just gonna 00:05:06.479 --> 00:05:12.620 crank everything to high right what could go wrong let's see how many FPS's 00:05:11.040 --> 00:05:17.240 we get here plenty we're getting shot down boys 00:05:17.639 --> 00:05:22.740 oh wait did I actually die seriously 00:05:21.120 --> 00:05:27.419 okay how do I how do I make this go away I 00:05:25.979 --> 00:05:33.000 think it's just paused you while it tells you about everything ah 00:05:30.419 --> 00:05:39.360 come on oh hey here we go we got something to fight play Master let's go 00:05:35.960 --> 00:05:41.840 what the what the crap am I even firing 00:05:39.360 --> 00:05:47.160 it's a bouncy ball oh my goodness bouncing up the thing oh I got one it's 00:05:44.580 --> 00:05:51.720 running shockingly well that is to say the performance is great on that era 00:05:49.680 --> 00:05:58.080 games and kind of problem free 00:05:53.880 --> 00:06:00.800 as far as I can tell for flipping gpus 00:05:58.080 --> 00:06:06.960 uh um Benchmark I mean she's running it 00:06:04.680 --> 00:06:10.620 Yep this is about what I remember this looking like 00:06:08.699 --> 00:06:16.320 I remember this second run through oops uh-oh okay mostly Problem free 00:06:13.860 --> 00:06:19.800 I thought this was pulled from an actual Matrix game at the time 00:06:18.000 --> 00:06:24.240 I don't think are you sure I don't you're making me doubt myself 00:06:22.560 --> 00:06:31.199 I mean the reflections are all looking okay kinda nope you're totally right 00:06:27.840 --> 00:06:32.819 it's just a matrix inspired demo so why 00:06:31.199 --> 00:06:37.259 Shazam you okay hold on a second did we 00:06:35.100 --> 00:06:43.020 faster and faster than a Ferrari and more reliable that that PC World ad in 00:06:40.560 --> 00:06:48.180 the bottom love it I remember this running a lot better on 00:06:45.539 --> 00:06:52.139 Hardware a couple of years later oh boy yikes I think software rendering would 00:06:50.460 --> 00:06:58.380 be actually faster oops no Hardware support rip 00:06:55.620 --> 00:07:02.039 we'll talk about that later oops no Hardware support just doesn't do bump 00:07:00.180 --> 00:07:10.319 mapping at all we'll talk about that later or not yet pixel Shader no 00:07:05.100 --> 00:07:11.940 Hardware support rip hey 26 47 3D marks 00:07:10.319 --> 00:07:16.919 let's go there it is yep that's why it was so 00:07:14.819 --> 00:07:21.720 slow if you ran 2000 it would actually like probably be pretty good basically 00:07:19.560 --> 00:07:26.220 NVIDIA having that was a killer app for them what a cool trip to 3D gaming 00:07:23.940 --> 00:07:31.860 Christmas past but believe it or not this isn't the only time machine there 00:07:29.160 --> 00:07:37.020 are other brand new voodoo 5 6000s that are available today for a fraction of 00:07:34.500 --> 00:07:42.180 the cost of this one Russian modern Anthony zx64 has made a name for himself 00:07:39.539 --> 00:07:47.400 refurbishing and modding vintage gpus and the voodoo 5 6000 rebuild is his 00:07:45.000 --> 00:07:51.780 crowning achievement not only did he build his reproduction with only a 00:07:49.440 --> 00:07:57.000 non-working prototype for reference he actually improved the design by doubling 00:07:53.880 --> 00:07:58.680 the vram to 256 megabytes though it 00:07:57.000 --> 00:08:03.180 should be noted that Anthony recommends using the onboard jumper to fall back to 00:08:00.660 --> 00:08:06.900 128 Megs to improve compatibility with older games 00:08:04.380 --> 00:08:11.580 genuine 3dfx Hardware or not though this thing was wicked fast at the time even 00:08:09.419 --> 00:08:16.259 if the truth is that the voodoo 56000 was destined for failure before it even 00:08:13.500 --> 00:08:20.759 got to this prototyping phase so here's the thing 3dfx had a wealth of 00:08:18.599 --> 00:08:26.340 experience using multiple gpus together to make FPS number go up but the fact is 00:08:23.819 --> 00:08:32.820 the single GPU competition was getting good really good and in 2001 the GeForce 00:08:30.180 --> 00:08:36.899 2 and Radeon 8000 showed up with both strong performance and a new technology 00:08:35.459 --> 00:08:43.260 that would radically change the graphical Fidelity of video games shaders 00:08:40.080 --> 00:08:46.140 this meanwhile lack shaders and was 00:08:43.260 --> 00:08:50.339 expected to cost an estimated 600 US dollars at retail Unthinkable at the 00:08:48.600 --> 00:08:56.880 time even if it sounds pretty good today so as amazing as it was that's a turd 00:08:53.640 --> 00:08:59.519 that absolutely will not polish 00:08:56.880 --> 00:09:04.260 how did 3dfx get to this point they were the Undisputed Kings of the 3D gaming 00:09:01.680 --> 00:09:08.640 space from 1996 onward to understand that we have to understand why they were 00:09:06.899 --> 00:09:14.940 the Kings because it's not like they were the first incumbents like matrox 00:09:11.220 --> 00:09:17.040 ATI and S3 had their own 3D boards and 00:09:14.940 --> 00:09:23.100 Renditions Veritas series came out at around the same time and unlike 3dfx's 00:09:20.279 --> 00:09:29.600 early cards none of those required a separate video card just to run the 2D 00:09:25.620 --> 00:09:32.399 desktop two gpus one for 3D one for 2D 00:09:29.600 --> 00:09:37.680 3dfx actually came into this Market with a huge disadvantage but what they had 00:09:34.920 --> 00:09:41.940 was as perfect a blend of features and performance as you could possibly expect 00:09:39.540 --> 00:09:46.019 at the time not only did the voodoo 1 sport a faster fill rate than its 00:09:43.800 --> 00:09:51.060 competitors it had Hardware support for Z buffer depth information bilinear 00:09:48.300 --> 00:09:55.920 texture filtering anti-aliasing and it boasted higher resolution higher color 00:09:53.279 --> 00:10:01.260 output these are all things that other cards either relied on the CPU to do for 00:09:58.800 --> 00:10:05.700 them or just straight up couldn't do at all which meant that you could run a 00:10:03.360 --> 00:10:11.100 much lower tier processor like even a 486 and still get an enjoyable 3D 00:10:08.580 --> 00:10:16.740 experience I mean to be clear unlike today a dedicated 3D accelerator wasn't 00:10:13.620 --> 00:10:18.540 necessary to play most games but if you 00:10:16.740 --> 00:10:25.800 used full software rendering you'd be stuck at super low video quality I'm 00:10:21.000 --> 00:10:27.000 talking 320 by 240 256 colors if you 00:10:25.800 --> 00:10:31.440 were lucky Voodoo to the rescue then and a big part 00:10:29.580 --> 00:10:35.820 of their special sauce was the way that they wrapped these advantages into a 00:10:33.600 --> 00:10:41.459 relatively easy to program package with the Glide API remember guys this is in 00:10:38.459 --> 00:10:44.339 the days before direct 3D or widespread 00:10:41.459 --> 00:10:49.440 opengl support so each vendor had their own API that game developers needed to 00:10:46.800 --> 00:10:54.660 support but Glide was surprisingly similar to opengl in both syntax and 00:10:52.260 --> 00:10:59.040 feature set limited though it was so if a game developer had to program in 00:10:56.459 --> 00:11:04.740 support for each vendor's API well they were far more likely to support Glide 00:11:00.779 --> 00:11:07.440 over say s 3D or Redline this almost 00:11:04.740 --> 00:11:12.480 immediately gave 3dfx a special place in the hearts of Gamers even if the API was 00:11:10.079 --> 00:11:16.920 proprietary 3dfx then subsequently enjoyed a virtual monopoly in the 3D 00:11:15.120 --> 00:11:22.200 gaming space while the competition either made expensive gambles or sat 00:11:20.339 --> 00:11:26.640 with their development effectively on pause while they waited for the first 00:11:23.760 --> 00:11:30.959 direct 3D specification the nv1 for example from NVIDIA used a wildly 00:11:29.160 --> 00:11:35.760 different rendering mode than direct 3D would eventually use forcing NVIDIA to 00:11:33.600 --> 00:11:40.980 scrap their nv2 and then start playing catch-up but while 3dfx became well 00:11:39.000 --> 00:11:46.680 known for their robust feature set easy development and their multi-GPU scanline 00:11:44.399 --> 00:11:51.180 interleave or SLI which allowed for higher frame rates and resolutions than 00:11:48.600 --> 00:11:55.200 anyone else success seemed like a paralyzing Force for them and by the 00:11:53.100 --> 00:12:00.839 time of the voodoo 3 things started to take a turn with direct 3D and clearer 00:11:58.500 --> 00:12:06.360 opengl specifications to Target the competition was catching up and fast and 00:12:03.600 --> 00:12:12.660 in some cases even surpassing 3dfx's offerings for example NVIDIA's Riva tnt2 00:12:09.899 --> 00:12:17.399 brought competitive performance 32-bit color rendering and maximum texture 00:12:15.120 --> 00:12:22.260 sizes that were eight times larger than the voodoo 3 which could still only 00:12:19.620 --> 00:12:27.959 display 16-bit color in game meanwhile 3dfx rather than investing in GPU r d 00:12:25.320 --> 00:12:31.440 invested in a Litany of side projects and attempts to Stave off the 00:12:29.279 --> 00:12:35.940 competition the failed bid to provide chips for the Sega Dreamcast was a major 00:12:33.720 --> 00:12:39.899 blow that ended in a lawsuit and while the terms weren't disclosed Sega had 00:12:38.160 --> 00:12:45.000 intended to purchase the rights to use 3dfx's technology so as to prevent the 00:12:42.720 --> 00:12:48.540 competition from being able to and it's likely they got their way you can get 00:12:46.920 --> 00:12:53.160 your way by the way with a desk pad from ltdstore.com same price any size and now 00:12:51.720 --> 00:12:58.079 available in our stealthy circuit pattern and while they didn't know it 00:12:55.200 --> 00:13:03.060 then 3dfx's 1998 purchase of their biggest board partner stb systems ended 00:13:00.779 --> 00:13:07.500 up being not the monopolistic takeover of the market that many feared but 00:13:04.980 --> 00:13:12.300 rather the beginning of their end in effect it changed 3dfx's relationship 00:13:10.019 --> 00:13:17.040 with their board Partners from chipset provider partner to competitor which 00:13:15.480 --> 00:13:22.680 incentivized their Partners to support the real competition primarily NVIDIA 00:13:19.980 --> 00:13:27.240 and ATI whose rapid Hardware development Cycles became popular with system 00:13:24.240 --> 00:13:29.160 integrators like HP and Dell which 3 3D 00:13:27.240 --> 00:13:33.360 effects had no interest in catering to so without chips going into game 00:13:31.380 --> 00:13:37.980 consoles and with their board partners mutinying and taking over the system 00:13:35.100 --> 00:13:41.899 space 3dfx was left in the unenviable position of relying on only the 00:13:40.079 --> 00:13:46.860 Enthusiast segment as their customers and better options were now beginning to 00:13:44.700 --> 00:13:52.019 emerge for them as well perhaps seeing the writing on the wall 3dfx purchased 00:13:48.899 --> 00:13:53.940 gigapixel in mid-2000 after that company 00:13:52.019 --> 00:13:59.040 lost its bid to provide chips for the original Xbox the idea it seems was to 00:13:56.940 --> 00:14:04.500 finally get their next-gen GPU Rampage across the finish line that GPU had been 00:14:01.560 --> 00:14:08.100 in development since 1998 and had it released when 3dfx would have liked it 00:14:06.180 --> 00:14:12.120 to it's possible that they could have stayed competitive with the GeForce 2 00:14:09.839 --> 00:14:16.260 that they were staring down in 2000 unfortunately for them their creditors 00:14:14.279 --> 00:14:21.060 were fed up by Year's End voting for bankruptcy and liquidating the company 00:14:18.380 --> 00:14:24.720 NVIDIA would go on to acquire all of their intellectual property pretty 00:14:22.860 --> 00:14:29.160 bitter pill to swallow the parallels between 3dfx's downfall and NVIDIA's 00:14:27.240 --> 00:14:33.540 behavior lately is kind of ironic if you think about it because they've been going down a very similar path 00:14:31.820 --> 00:14:37.440 antagonizing their board Partners diverting attention to side businesses 00:14:35.579 --> 00:14:41.339 like crypto mining autonomous vehicles machine learning you get it but 00:14:39.480 --> 00:14:44.880 fortunately for NVIDIA it seems like they've got a wide enough mode around 00:14:42.779 --> 00:14:49.260 them and enough cash on hand to whether pretty much an apocalypse and there are 00:14:47.399 --> 00:14:52.920 no existential threats to them like 3D effects faced during their decline at 00:14:51.600 --> 00:14:57.600 least not yet this my friends is why competition is so 00:14:55.740 --> 00:15:02.579 important in the industry because it can and will light a fire under a company 00:14:59.459 --> 00:15:04.440 that's grown complacent like 3dfx did if 00:15:02.579 --> 00:15:08.279 they'd had less debt if they'd gotten the Sega contract or simply made 00:15:06.300 --> 00:15:13.680 different decisions who knows what might have happened when the competition heated up a 3dfx forced to compete well 00:15:12.000 --> 00:15:18.600 they still could might have survived unfortunately for this timeline they 00:15:16.079 --> 00:15:24.120 chose the voodoo 5. and I choose this segue to our sponsor iFixit if you're 00:15:21.839 --> 00:15:28.920 constantly on the go ifixit's Moray and minnow kits are for you I fix its 00:15:26.519 --> 00:15:33.420 pocket-sized tool kit The Minnow is just 14.99 it features a magnetized case 00:15:31.680 --> 00:15:37.199 that's easily opened and doubles as a built-in sorting tray it has 16 00:15:35.040 --> 00:15:40.680 different bits and the handle has a built-in Sim eject tool and if you're in 00:15:38.880 --> 00:15:46.260 the need of something bigger the moire driver kit is only 19.99 it's got 32 00:15:44.040 --> 00:15:50.220 different bits with extended reach necks and best of all every iFixit kit 00:15:48.600 --> 00:15:54.300 regardless of the price comes with a lifetime warranty so check out our links 00:15:52.320 --> 00:15:58.860 in the description and buy yours today if you enjoyed this video go check out 00:15:56.459 --> 00:16:03.300 our video on the 3dfx voodoo 2 SLI gaming setup for a little more on just 00:16:00.660 --> 00:16:07.160 how good 3dfx used to be and how much they allowed to slip through their 00:16:04.800 --> 00:16:07.160 fingers