Custom built Voodoo 5 6000

Kaotik

Kaotik

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A modder from Mod Labs forums has aquired a 3dfx Voodoo 5 6000, reverse engineered (without hurting the card in process), created modernized PCB for it, ordered VSA-100 chips and other relevant parts online and build himself a brand spanking new Voodoo 5 6000.
Changes from original design include power via Molex instead of external brick (this has been modded to countless original cards too), use of PCI instead of AGP and capability to pass-through VGA-signal like Voodoo and Voodoo2 did.
Other than that, it works just like the real deal, bugs included.

https://www.modlabs.net/forum/topic/60674/
(via https://hothardware.com/news/3dfx-voodoo-5-6000-recreated-by-enthusiast-vsa-100)

upload_2021-2-20_1-56-39.png

upload_2021-2-20_1-56-46.png
 
Well, i know everybody loves 3dfx, but... gluing 4 chips on a board just to get AA? :O No wonder they got bought up right after that.
 
Theoretically. But back then, having lower fps/resolution for AA was not worth it yet, and those monster cards were advertised to address this, IIRC. I would have been more impressed from something like FXAA in hardware.
 
JoeJ said:
Theoretically. But back then, having lower fps/resolution for AA was not worth it yet, and those monster cards were advertised to address this, IIRC. I would have been more impressed from something like FXAA in hardware.
Click to expand...
They did advertise it as hardware FSAA, hardware being the T-Buffer.
One VSA-100 was limited to 2xFSAA but it was usable IIRC, same for 4x on V5 5500 with 2 VSA-100s.
edit:
Had to go and refresh my memory, so yes, 3dfx's T-Buffer was pretty much like accumulation buffer, they rendered multiple frames at once and blend them, each frame jittered slightly. One VSA-100 was good for 2 frames, two for 4. And 4 for faster 4 apparently.
 
JoeJ said:
Theoretically. But back then, having lower fps/resolution for AA was not worth it yet, and those monster cards were advertised to address this, IIRC. I would have been more impressed from something like FXAA in hardware.
Click to expand...

I stopped using a Geforce 2 after using it for a couple of weeks because the AA was so much crap compared to the V5 5500 that I had. Didn't matter to me if it was faster if it ultimately looked so much worse. And higher resolution didn't help. Games looked much better at lower resolutions with the V5's RGSSAA than it did with the Geforce 2 at higher resolutions and its crappy AA.

I finally stopped using the V5 5500 when the Radeon 9700 Pro came out. While the AA wasn't quite as good at least it was "good enough."

Regards,
SB
 
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I recall wanting a V5 5500 so badly. I had a Voodoo 2 in SLI at the time which I was incredibly impressed with. Thought the cover art of the V5 was amazing too (I was a kid, of course it mattered). 3dfx was firmly in the underdog camp too, which made me even more eager. I couldn't afford it though. My next upgrade was a Geforce 3 150. Followed by the incredibly dumb purchase of an FX 5800 to play Doom 3. Good as it was, HL2 became the favorite...

This homespun version also looks amazing. I'd love to have if, if only for my wall!
 
So only 55 full blown boards (220 / 4 per = 55).

Though I am surprised he has that many chips. As always, it would be really nice if there could be more.

Or even remix 4 chips into 1 single chip but maybe that requires too many driver changes?
 
Here's an interesting video. It was probably posted on here... I remember Gary Tarolli mentioning even back then that people were contacting him about building new boards.

 
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Kaotik said:
Apparently he is planning some sort of production run, PCBs are built by PCBway and he has 220 VSA-100 inventory
Click to expand...

Jesus, I wonder If I'll be able to get one. As @BRiT pointed out it won't make for a ton of boards.

How wonderful would it be if this was the start of a 3DFX renaissance? A modding community dedicated to modding and creating games to run on an ever spreading platform base on Voodoo 5 6000s. I can see it in front of me. And it is glorious.
 
BRiT said:
So only 55 full blown boards (220 / 4 per = 55).

Though I am surprised he has that many chips. As always, it would be really nice if there could be more.

Or even remix 4 chips into 1 single chip but maybe that requires too many driver changes?
Click to expand...
Oh but there is more.
This seller has 153: https://www.ebay.com/itm/1-PC-355-0...511158?hash=item4b5b8cf336:g:XQoAAOSwlkpcRLEU
This one has 83 trays of 24 chips so 1992 chips: https://www.ebay.com/itm/TRAY-OF-24...246340?hash=item33ffd16a04:g:XQoAAOSwlkpcRLEU
 
I'm assuming that Nvidia owns the IP rights since they purchased 3dfx, but, humor me, could more VSA-100 chips be produced? Either as dedicated silicon or FPGAs? If my dream is to come true we need more chips!

(Well yes, I'm obviously joking. But this was a nostalgia shot I sorely needed right now, and I'm riding it until it peters out)
 
BRiT said:
So only 55 full blown boards (220 / 4 per = 55).

Though I am surprised he has that many chips. As always, it would be really nice if there could be more.

Or even remix 4 chips into 1 single chip but maybe that requires too many driver changes?
Click to expand...
why stop at 4 ? Lets just go full modern and put like 5000 of them on a single chip and see what happens. Imagine the Image quality
 
If the guy who built this built another two and added the SLI interface... would it run 8 cores? Would it run Crysis? I feel these are important questions that need answering.

Also I'd be remiss if I didn't post a picture of the kick-ass box art. 3dfx had some of the best in my opinion.
 

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Leovinus said:
If the guy who built this built another two and added the SLI interface... would it run 8 cores? Would it run Crysis? I feel these are important questions that need answering.

Also I'd be remiss if I didn't post a picture of the kick-ass box art. 3dfx had some of the best in my opinion.
Click to expand...

I think a larger memory controller and higher amounts of ram would also be important.

I wonder how high a chip can clock on 12nm or heck even 16nm .. gotta be cheap to use that process now
 
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