Graphic cards history tree, wanna help?

[Rootax]

Videologic / ImaginationTech were very smart to leave PC space on focus on mobile market. Plus there PowerVR architectures were a very good base to do so in the first space by not being transistors monsters and efficients.

I wonder if 3DFX could have done the same things... or it was already to late for them to shift sectors...

 

[Blazkowicz]

3DFX failed at even doing entry-level graphics and OEM for the PC (after losing the dreamcast console to powervr)

having the voodoo4 pitted against the geforce2 MX was an especially cruel situation, as for crippled voodoo3 versions, which felt outdated already back then (velocity, v3 1000) : I've never ever seen such a card.

just before dieing they had a shrunk voodoo4, 180nm, with 64bit ddr, found on a few IBM computers. their first OEM-worthy card just before they died
http://www.3dfx.ch/gallery/v/3dfx_c...onfly/falconfly_voodoo4/falconfly_v424200pci/

 

[Topman]

I remembered the ALi M1561 Aladdin 7 chipset (for Socket 7).

It's a IGP with a ArtX GPU.

The first one IGP with HT¨&L.

ArtX - > designers of the the Gamecube GPU - > sold to ATi - > The team behind R300.


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[CarstenS]

Oh Eric where art thou?

 

[Florin]

Missing a couple of the early VGA manufacturers as reviewed in this 1989 InfoWorld article for instance.

I ran with the Ahead Technologies VGA Wizard Deluxe back in those days

 

[Putas]

Good job, I noticed few things.
To ATi should be added Rage II+ (without DVD). Rage LT Pro and XL/XC are from Rage Pro, so they should have branch left of Rage 128. And VT4 should imo continue Rage II line rather then VT2.
Virge MX should be connected to GX2.
Matrox M-Series and APVe should be added and Mpact /3600 from 1997 and Glint 300TX.
Not sure why you have different capacities for Permedia 2 and 2V. Glint R3 is the chip of Permedia 3, isn't it?
Cyberblade XP arrived in 2001.

their first OEM-worthy card just before they died

Banshee. And Velocity was so awesome it spilled into retail.

 

[vlask]

Good job, I noticed few things.
To ATi should be added Rage II+ (without DVD). Rage LT Pro and XL/XC are from Rage Pro, so they should have branch left of Rage 128. And VT4 should imo continue Rage II line rather then VT2.
Virge MX should be connected to GX2.
Matrox M-Series and APVe should be added and Mpact /3600 from 1997 and Glint 300TX.
Not sure why you have different capacities for Permedia 2 and 2V. Glint R3 is the chip of Permedia 3, isn't it?
Cyberblade XP arrived in 2001.


Banshee. And Velocity was so awesome it spilled into retail.

Glint 300TX - planned but probably never realeased, they did 500TX instead - at last i haven't found single card with 300TX or any article about it.

Permedia 3 and Glint R3 - dont know, Glint R3 is earlier and was used on Oxygen VX1 card. Permedia 3 Create should have Permedia 3 chipset, but dunno if they're the same or not.

different capacities for Permedia 2 and 2V - no info about 2V version - probably die shrink only, but never seen 2V card with more than 4MB

Mpact /3600 - is unclear - there should be 2 different clocked versions, but there are 3 makers of this chip and not sure if someone made slower versions, so i just used Mpact for both clocked variants.

Cyberblade XP - freelibrary says second half of 2000 - see here

Matrox M-Series - aren't they using P690 chipset?

Rage II+ never seen one without DVD after +, they spoke about it, but not sure if they ever made one without dvd. Need photo.

And VT4 should imo continue Rage II line rather then VT2 - VT4 have 3d capabilities? Thought that its only 2d card like VT2.

Rage LT Pro and XL/XC are from Rage Pro - Rage LT Pro comes from Rage LT since its evolution of this chipset and its mobile branch - if i link it to Rage Pro, then i should link every mobile chipset to desktop variants and for that theres not enough space. So i just branch 1st mobile version and then use all never chipsets only in mobile tree.

XL/XC are from Rage Pro - fixed
Virge MX should be connected to GX2 - fixed

Branching worked only before too many cards were released, at later year i gave up and split cards into highend/middle and lowend ones, sometimes i used other branch when out of space.

 

[Putas]

M-series has ps 2.0 so it is new chip.
Chromatic R/3600 had some internal changes to be clocked higher then 3000, it was a new chip.
Cyberblade XP sampled in 2000 but I don't think it reached market that year.
VT4 has Rage II 3d engine.
I swear I saw Rage II+ but cannot find any proof.
Oxygen VX1 card and Permedia 3 Create are same hardware released on same day. There were only slight software differences.
With 300TX you might be right, or it could even be same thing as Gaming Glint. 500 TX was next gen.

 

[no-X]

VT4 has Rage II 3d engine.

Are you sure?

 

[Putas]

Cool, now I am thinking about 3dfx branch. Voodoo2 was available in 1998. Shouldn't the Velocity be connected to Voodoo3, since it is same chip? Or if the connection to Banshee hints same market segment shouldn't the Banshee be on the left side also? And what is Voodoo4 4000 supposed to be, isn't it the rumored V3 4000 that was renamed to 3500? V4 4800 should certainly be above 4500. V4 4500 came out after Voodoo5 5500. And Daytona should be separated from Rampage, it supposedly got out in 16 MB variant of V4 4200 with some IBM PC.

Are you sure?

I examined it just moth ago, even bios chip says Rage IIc.

 

[Kaotik]

Daytona should definitely be separated from Rampage, it's VSA-101, only difference to VSA-100 being DDR instead of SDR memory controller.

Voodoo4 4000 was same as V4 4500 but with only 16MB mem, not sure if it was ever available on retail channel though

 

[vlask]

Little update - just added Apple cards and chips to the tree. Its not exactly my area of interest, so i might miss some later models. If you know any not there , let me know... Did also short txt file, where you can see also machines that used them. Its at http://vgamuseum.info/images/doc/apple/apple.txt

Btw its not graphics related, but i did (not finished yet) also similar CPU tree if you're interested...

http://vgamuseum.info/index.php/cpu

 

[Mobius1aic]

My only complaint is how your trees have more to do with succession of products and their replacements, as opposed to architecture, which is what I was expecting.

 

[Blazkowicz]

Voodoo3 is very similar to Banshee, it's about the same with a second TMU. Velocity may be a V3 with one TMU disabled that makes it back into a Banshee of sorts. I regret not having a Banshee or Voodoo3, prerably a PCI one but anyway 3dfx was dooming themselves by rehashing stuff already!