Return of the King! zx-c64 Voodoo 5 6000 Review

Return of the King! zx-c64 Voodoo 5 6000 Review

Introduction.

It happened. After 21 years, the 3dfx Voodoo 5 6000 accelerator saw the light and began to fall into the hands of enthusiasts. So far, the average retro players have only a few cards, however, until recently even this seemed impossible, since the rare lucky ones had only engineering samples of the AGP card, which were expensive. Highly expensive.

New face of Voodoo 5 6000

3dfx was gone, but still not forgotten and one of the proofs is the recent appearance of newly produced graphic cards by zx-c64 (Anthony). He designed new PCBs for certain graphic accelerators based on 3dfx silicon (obsolete but still popular among enthusiasts) and manufactured limited batches of these. His work began with relatively simple solutions. The first release was the Stoned Shaman accelerator (maxed out 3dfx Voodoo Graphics card), warmly welcomed by many addicted to retro hardware. Then, accelerators based on Voodoo2, Voodoo3 appeared in the list of zx-c64 creations, and a little later cards based on VSA-100 chips arrived in single-chip and dual-chip versions. That list was incomplete without a 4-chip solution also known as Voodoo 5 6000 till this time, but now time has come. Now I will share my experience with the newcomer and whether it is a full-fledged product, such as it was once seen by 3dfx engineers.

3dfx inprint. My personal story.

I'll start from afar. Forgive me, but it won't work out otherwise, this topic worries me too much, a lot in my computer life is connected with 3dfx accelerators. For those who came for the strict part of the review - specific technical data and dry numbers, graphs and conclusions, use the table of contents to navigate through the material. The rest, get ready for a hearty and, I hope, exciting reading.

In the introduction, I will briefly tell my story of acquaintance with 3dfx products, and at the same time I will explain why the accelerators of this company are of interest to me to this day.

For me, the era of 3D accelerated games began in 1997, when, with the help of my parents, the first upgrade of my (not even my personal, but family) computer based on the Intel 80486 DX4-100 MHz processor was carried out.

First, they bought me a Pentium 200 MMX processor and a video card, then, after about a month, they bought an additional FYI VIA VP3 motherboard (I can confuse the name a little), which later had to be changed under warranty. They bought it in parts, since the parents did not have money for a lightning-fast upgrade.

The RAM on this mega machine was only 16 MB of SIMM (8 from 486, another 8 MB was taken along with the motherboard), and the narrowest place after the "four" was the 425 MB hard drive manufactured by Conner.

ASUS 3DExPlorer V3000 AGP 4MB. Фото с сайта THG.ru

Video card, it is also my first 3D accelerator - ASUS 3DExPlorer V3000 AGP based on Riva 128 with 4 MB of video memory. At that time, it was considered a very good solution. Not bad, of course, by the standards of those who advised me to make such a choice. I had no idea how the 3D accelerator was supposed to work. For me, all video cards were the same back then. Formulations like “bilinear filtering of textures”, “table fog”, “rendering pipeline” didn't tell me anything. I was fond of computer games and started working with a 3D modeling program - 3D Studio MAX.

In general, I understood that games and MAX with a 3D accelerator should just work faster, and what should happen to the image and how to fully explain the differences between 3D accelerated games and "normal" (read, rendered in software mode) I am not fully could. And all my friends and classmates couldn't either.

The first time after the "upgrade" I actively bragged about the purchased pieces of iron to my friends, demonstrating at the breaks instructions from the video card and motherboard, which I carried with me to school every day. We didn't understand much about them, but they looked cool.

So, need I say that I could not comfortably play all games on the new system, even despite the presence of a powerful (at that time) processor and a fresh video card. The picture was slightly spoiled by a small amount of RAM, coupled with a slow and small HDD, which, for example, in the Jedi Knight game made the system freeze every 10 seconds to swap data. But all this was insignificant then, because the city of Nar Shaddaa, after checking the Enable 3D-Accelerator checkbox, began to look completely different. At the age of 13, I was happy that I had such a PC at home. And its modernization depended on my behavior, the quality of my studies and important holidays, such as a birthday or a new year.

At the same time, somewhere nearby, every now and then an interesting inscription flashed - 3dfx. Then all the most advanced and modern was associated with the abbreviation 3D, and therefore, the 3dfx sticker aroused interest. 3dfx appeared on game boxes, and older students talked about it when it came to computers. I've often heard ... .. "Do you have 3dfx?" At first I didn’t know if I had it or not, so I was meaningfully silent. Everyone around was talking, but I didn't have a clear understanding. If someone asked me, “what does this very abbreviation 3dfx on the box mean?”, I answered something like “the game is three-dimensional”. That's all.

Of course, such answers did not suit me personally

, because I was extremely interested in what it is - 3-d-f-x. And I started reading. One of the first articles, which I read at the end of 1997 or even at the beginning of 1998, in the "Igromania" magazine, was the material by Eduard Rauschenbach. In it, the author tested various 3D graphics accelerators, compared their capabilities in 3D and even showed in pictures how one video card differs from another.

It was then, in this material, that for the first time I saw so much new information for myself that my imagination did not let me fall asleep in the evenings and woke up in the morning, not dawn. I was constantly thinking about how cool it is to play games with a 3D accelerator. And although Eduard Rauschenbach's work did not include cards based on Riva 128 (if I remember correctly), after reading this material I realized that I have a 3D accelerator!

In the article I saw how “accelerated” games differ from those that worked in Software rendering mode, it became clear to me that not all accelerators are equal in speed and that the picture quality between them can be very different. I realized that the computer can be made to run faster thanks to overclocking. And I also realized that the quality of a video card is highly dependent on the driver. In short, I re-read this article several times and each reading brought me pleasure, as I found more and more interesting information for myself. And most importantly, it was this material that made me understand what 3dfx is and how the company's accelerators compare favorably with everything that was then available for purchase. According to the author, this magical Voodoographics is not just one of many, it is the best, the best of all gaming graphics cards. And what about me? I also have a 3D accelerator installed! I was impressed by the words of the author, but I didn’t fully believe that my Riva 128 could be worse than some kind of Voodoo. Of course, in the same magazine I found out that the Riva 128 accelerator is officially supported in the computer game Jedi Knight (Dark Forces II), and since this particular game was my favorite at that time, all the card's capabilities, I tested my system on it. Previously, I was already able to complete it to the end with my classmate on 80486, even before the system was updated. We played in 4 hands, without using the mouse and skipping the splash screens, as the game could freeze on the splash screen.

I have studied every corner of JK, which makes it even more interesting to look at the changes that have taken place. And if we forget about the inconveniences associated with the slowness of the hard drive, my delight knew no bounds, because the "squares" were gone, I no longer needed to play in a tiny window, everything became "beautifully blurred", the speed of work in comparison with the 80486 exceeded all my expectations. And, yes, I was able to watch all the screensavers in the game, now they did not freeze.

After such a triumphant test, I forgot about Voodoo graphics for several months. Played DF II: JK, Twisted Metal, Destruction Derby 2, Age of Empires, Warcraft II, Comanche 3, Quake and Duke3D and a whole host of other great games. Some of them were on the wave of technologies, while others were simply passed and, due to their large number, the passage took a lot of time ....

Every month or two, more and more games with support for 3D accelerators appeared, I learned how to install drivers, which I wrote to floppy disks from my mentor in the field of 3D modeling. I learned that there are so-called reference drivers and drivers from the manufacturer of the video card, which at that time differed from the reference ones, and, often, very much. Updating "firewood" (using professional jargon at 14 seemed incredibly cool) has become a new hobby. I waited for new versions to be released, assembled, installed them, demolished the system and installed everything cleanly. Every time I did it "for centuries". Senior comrades explained that there are certain approaches to installing and reinstalling drivers, my computer literacy grew every day. Gaining experience, I realized that a new driver is not always acceleration and profit, and in the case of Riva128, there were a lot of problems, starting with crashes and non-launching of games and ending with visual artifacts. It was these facts that made me wonder about the question "how is it with others?" The topic of 3dfx came up again, and interest in it grew further when, when trying to launch the game Turok, I was instructed to go into the forest. The game reported that I do not have a Voodoo graphics accelerator and therefore I will not see anything at all. And also, played to the point of holes thanks to classmates, Need for Speed II SE worked only in Software Rendering mode and my Riva 128 remained out of work. But the box had the same 3dfx logo. And then I was seized with just an insane thirst to try this miracle of technology.

Now it is already difficult to imagine, but then in 1996-1998 the majority of schoolchildren did not have any access to the Internet, even if they had a computer. Me and all my classmates, with the exception of one, even thought about a modem or playing games on the network simply did not appear. We all played singles. We met at school and discussed our achievements. Nobody, including me, understood the intricacies of marketing and did not know that the same Turok was later released with support for other three-dimensional APIs. All my friends and I had what they could find at the end of the game. There was money for the disc - I went and bought it. The game is running - you play. No - you change it. This I mean, all impressions were formed here and now, without the ability to "replay" and fix something.

And so, as they sometimes say, the beast runs to the hunter and the beast. An older friend of mine was going to sell Macronix Voodoo Rush, in a box. I realized that this was my chance and asked him to give this video card for a couple of days, suddenly, when I show it to my parents, they will allocate money to me and I will buy it. Meeting in the middle of the house, transferring, running home (yes, not walking, running!), Inserting the card into the PCI slot with trembling hands, removing the Riva 128 AGP. Launch. POST. Loading the OS. Installing the driver from the supplied floppy disks. First launch of Turok…. I didn't know how to describe my emotions. It was not delight, it was euphoria, one might say - shock. It just so happened that only a small part of the games I have supported Direct3D and OpenGL acceleration on Riva 128, and those that supported, in addition to smoothing surfaces and increased speed, did not amaze with special special effects. The rest could only work in Software mode, or to support 3D acceleration, patches were needed that I simply did not know existed. Just think, I played them on 486. But there were boxes with Dreamsto Reality, NFS II SE, Turok, they were all only for 3dfx.

So, after starting the Turok game, I could not come to my senses for a long time. Fog, the effect of light refraction under water, bright colored flashes of colored lighting - all this made me tremble with delight and summon all my family to the monitor, one by one. Now it doesn't matter that most of these effects are the merit of the game, not the accelerator, nevertheless, I first saw it on 3dfx Voodoo Rush. Then I thought that this game works like this only on Voodoo and most importantly - it did NOT slow down! At all! Yes, my HDD was tight and there was little RAM, but the game did NOT slow down! And the scale in the game was not as dark as on Riva 128.

Of course, I immediately moved on. The second game that made an equally strong impression on me was Need For Speed II SE. Even in software rendering mode, the game looked modern, quite beautiful. If we compare it with the first part of the series, there was more dynamics, freedom of action, everything was very dynamic, but still something was missing in the game. There was a visual feeling that there was no air in the game, there was no fullness of the world, everything was too artificial, abrupt, bright. The 3D world was empty. I wanted more visual realism, because the physics of the cars, although it was arcade, was felt. Tactilely felt that the action takes place in a world where there is gravity, there is air resistance. There are feelings, but there is no visual design for all these sensations. And so, when the game was launched on Voodoo Rush, everything turned upside down again. Fog, rain, snow, clouds, insects breaking on the windshield - all this visually revived the world, linked the sensations of driving with what you see around, into a single whole - the world of a three-dimensional game. Now I understand how technologies work, I realize that visually, if desired, all the same could be seen on Riva 128 and other cards of that time with full Direct3D support, but for me then, at the age of 13-14, the moment was important.

Unfortunately, they didn’t give me money for a new product, because quite “recently” I was already bought “almost the same”. A little later, my 3D mentor said that all these cards from 3dfx are mischief and that they cannot get the normal OpenGL support from them, which is so necessary in 3D Studio MAX. Well, then he was right, and his parents did not have the opportunity to buy. Unfortunately, those small pennies that I earned by repairing computers from classmates and their friends were not enough for anything, however, I also preferred to give this money to my parents .... In short, the transition to 3dfx Voodoo did not work out then.

Once again, my upgrade took place in 1999, at a time when cards based on Riva TNT 2 were just appearing on store shelves. Charged with the thought of buying, with the coveted amount ($ 140-150) in my pocket, I ran all over the place. firms in my city, looking for who have already brought the new product? If I recall the facts correctly, this is a glorious place - the NIKS computer store, it was there that I bought the ASUS V3800 Pro pure, based on Riva TNT 2 Pro with 32 MB of video memory. Why not 3dfx? Because my mentor in the field of 3D modeling said that 3dfx is only for games, and Riva TNT 2 is cooler. I listened.

I put the new card of the Riva family into my system, wanting to get even more speed, even more pleasure from games and modeling. Of course, the Pentium 200 MMX did not allow the video card to spread its wings, and I, being already an "advanced" user who had read many magazines, knew that I needed to update the motherboard and processor. And now, in tandem with Riva TNT 2, a Celeron 500 MHz worked on an MSI 6337 motherboard based on i815EP, and the amount of RAM was already as much as 64 MB of SDRAM. And, it would seem, everything should be fine, and it seemed to be ... .. All the games worked, the performance was very high, but something was missing .... There was not enough magic. Visual breakthrough. But after the purchase of the new system, there were no revolutionary changes, evolution was felt, but I did not get a furore, a breakthrough effect, a pleasant shock, like from Voodoo Rush. It took about a year or a little more and then I once again decided to turn to the magic of Voodoo, I wanted to play games with Glide. I had a lot of such games, besides, here and there the new 3dfx logo flashed here and there ... I wanted to try Glide, but my Riva TNT 2 did not support this API. It seemed to me that a miracle should happen, as before ... I imagined that by launching the game in Glide, I would get more than with D3D or OGL.

I began to think how I can get what I want. In the process of thinking, I remembered how at the very moment when I was buying my ASUS V3800 Pro pure box with its faceless Asian “beauties” and “golden” gypsy box design, some guy in front of me received a sealed box with a Voodoo3 2000 AGP, which "looked" at me with a mesmerizing look, inviting me to try to play with Voodoo. These thoughts prompted me to make an exchange without surcharges for a card from 3dfx. Armed with a modem, I posted an ad on komok.com and found someone willing to take my TNT2 Pro and give me their Voodoo3 3000 AGP. At that moment, I did not think that along with some Voodoo chips, I would lose such features as 32-bit color in games and support for large textures. The only thing I worried about was to try Glide, to find the magic. But then not everyone knew, and I didn’t know that 3dfx was on the verge of bankruptcy and that API Glide would never again be a favorite in game 3D simply because it was morally outdated. I didn’t know a lot of things and I was wrong about many things. This ignorance and these delusions pushed me to different, sometimes reckless actions, but they also helped me to develop.

In general, my second acquaintance with 3dfx happened on the example of Voodoo3. Everything was not so smooth here, largely because now I had not just one day for tests, now I own the video card. Of course, talking about the advantages and disadvantages of Voodoo3, I will focus solely on my memories.

The first game I played in an attempt to catch the "magic" was Return to Castle Wolfenstein. Ha. Ha. Ha. The first launch and the first disappointment - the speed dropped immediately, 32-bit color is no longer supported. In 16-bit color mode, the difference was visible to the naked eye, right in the menu. And it hurt. I instantly realized that those nuances that I was not paying attention to suddenly became important to me! The first impression is to cancel the deal, return it as it was! Of course, I didn’t know about any MiniGL drivers, I didn’t think that alternative Amiga firewood would appear soon. But all this would give me an increase in speed, Voodoo3 still could not give what immediately seemed important at that time - color accuracy in the most modern games. However, there was a sharp negative just before the launch of Unreal and Unreal Tournament. These games worked in Glide with detailed textures, you could see something that no other default accelerator could provide! At the time, I hadn’t studied the game config files yet and didn’t know that Detail Textures is included in D3D, so when I started playing with Glide, the mood was uplifted and I began to feel a kind of "elitism" from owning Voodoo again. The next game was the well-known "Drove" (Driver). Of course, this game should have worked fine on Riva TNT2, but my feeling of that time was spoiled by the fact that when launched in Direct3D, the game was incomprehensible why it shamelessly raped the HDD, as a result of which, constant data downloads made it annoyingly slow In 1998, I was already given a 10.1 GB IBM Titan 351010 for my birthday. This disk, despite the spindle speed of 5400 rpm, was quite fast (especially compared to the old 425 MB) and very reliable. So, on Voodoo3, the game immediately worked without any complaints, and I got excellent smoothness and excellent graphics. The disc was no longer used as often, no freezes and delays, only smoothness. Everything that I tried to play further could be divided into two groups: the first group - games until the end of 1999, the vast majority of which worked well (remember, these are personal feelings of that time, obtained on a specific configuration!). The second group consists of games released a little after 2000. How lucky there. Those that were made taking into account the architectural features of 3dfx cards still ran with dignity, and those that were released with an eye on 32-bit color and / or support for the hardware T&L engine have already begun to reflect problems associated with driver optimization rather than with the inability of Voodoo3 to give a playable fps even on medium details. However, this is a value judgment that needs to be tested and proven, a person's memory is very deceptive.

A lot of people in my place would make a simple and understandable conclusion from this whole situation and in the next upgrade they would buy an up-to-date 3D accelerator from ATi or nVidia. In the late 90s, these companies overtook all their competitors in terms of a combination of factors and it was from their assortment that one had to choose, but…. By that time, a fan of Voodoo graphics woke up in me. And the more there was dissatisfaction with the new 3dfx cards (well-founded, often!), The more I defended them. He defended not only because you always want to protect those who are offended, but also because everything was not so smooth with nVidia either. The fact is that starting with Riva 128 I very often ran into problems with drivers, constant incompatibility and glitches. All this was complemented by reviews from peers about overheating of cards based on Riva TNT and even TNT2, someone declined cuts like M64 or Vanta, each had their own spoons. The only thing that left me on the side of nVidia was a pretty good job in OpenGL, which was important for me then. I wanted a universal solution that would allow me to play my existing games, and at the same time, new items to work. In fact, for a long time there was no alternative to nVidia for me, but I always wanted something better.

And then information about the VSA-100 went to paper magazines. Nobody knew that this was the last 3dfx chip, because there were a lot of rumors and assumptions, there were a lot of guesses and everyone hoped that 3dfx would come out. And, like any new convert fan, I decided with youthful perseverance to support 3dfx with my coin. The Voodoo3 card was sold on the secondary market, my parents were treated with a long lecture in the style of “this is all for my future” and, as a result, I received an investment to buy a Voodoo 5 5500 AGP. This map fascinated me with just its appearance. And it doesn't matter that I took the OEM. I took a new card sealed in a film, which, in my opinion, with two GPUs simply could not slow down and be worse than competitors! I really wanted to not only try Glide on a fast map, but also experience the full-screen anti-aliasing effect that has been written about so much. In general, there was a lot to do with the new map. Only with its platform in the face of Celeron 550, as well as with the first versions of drivers, life did not go well. Where I wanted to get 32 bits per pixel, I got them, but in doing so I didn't get some crazy speed. It was not bad, sometimes even good, but it did not fly! A test of full-screen anti-aliasing showed that with rare exceptions it is possible to play with 4xAA, but most of the games worked well only at 800x600 @ 2xAA. This is how I remember it now. So it was deposited in my head. Nevertheless, I had special feelings for this card. I waited and hoped that upgrading the processor to 1 GHz Coppermine would solve most of the problems, and updating the drivers would help me, but here…. Like a bolt from the blue, the news came that 3dfx is gone…. I don't remember what I was thinking then. But I realized very quickly that under Voodoo 4/5 there would be no more top games, at least from those that were being conceived at that moment. The last Glide game I remember back then was Hitman. The Hitman game engine knew about Voodoo5 and worked with the proprietary 3dfx API. At that moment, no one thought about leaving Voodoo abruptly. The secondary market was filled with cards from this manufacturer, in many stores the shelves were filled with boxes of Voodoo3 and Voodoo4 / 5, but it was obvious that Hi-End solutions with the 3dfx logo would no longer be available.

Voodoo5 stayed with me for only a couple of weeks, after which I sold it and switched to the "dark side of power", dreaming in my heart that the already developed card based on 4x GPU VSA-100 would be launched on sale. Suddenly we will see a novelty, albeit under the nVidia brand. Unfortunately, this did not happen. And as long as 3dfx cards were still sold new or were freely available on the shelves of stores with used goods, I did not give up the importance of searching and collecting. I used different versions of accelerators GeForce, Radeon, played what was. And only after a couple of years, I again began to study the world of 3dfx much deeper, because now I have the opportunity to assemble a second computer and install the Voodoo accelerator, which has become quite inexpensive, into it. And so, in the process of this dive, I learned that the same Voodoo 5 6000 can still be bought…. Of course, I wanted to do it. Then there were: a long search (I was looking for several years), preparation for a deal (several months), a happy day of purchase and long hours of games and tests ...

While all this happened to me, I did not stop looking for information. I caught sight of leaked presentations of accelerators that were supposed to replace solutions based on VSA-100. Yes, the Specter series accelerators could be the future for 3dfx, in which there could be not two, but three main players competing in the ability to represent three-dimensional worlds in a new light. And as I learned from this presentation, there was no place for Glide in this alternate reality.

It was assumed that in order to maintain backward compatibility with games for this API, an emulator (wrapper) was to be released that would translate Glide requests to OpenGL or Direct3D. Logically, if this very emulator was to be produced by 3dfx itself, so there would be no doubt about the quality of its implementation. But…. It did not grow together. All 3dfx developments have disappeared into the depths of nVidia, and we are not interested in them in this review. But what is interesting is the fact that the VSA-100 is the latest chip from the company that has hardware support for 3dfx Glide and is officially compatible with this API. This fact makes Voodoo 5 6000 even more desirable card, because there is simply NO more powerful device with full hardware support for Glide in the gaming segment.

Remastered 3dfx Voodoo 5 6000. Myth or reality?

I believe that few of the readers are able to estimate the laboriousness of the video card production. Graphics cards, as a complete product that you can buy at the local computer store. For me it is also not easy to estimate. However, even with my meager knowledge, I understand that each new product is the work of a whole team. Someone designs the GPU architecture, others do the software stack, still others design the PCB, the fourth do the cooling, the fifth test and submit reports describing the issues and errors. And this, not counting the additional staff, those who manage the process, interact with the application software developer (read "game developers"), advertise and promote, work with sales channels and provide component supplies, warranty service and repair. In other words, a properly structured process is always the work of a professional team. If this is not the case, the success of the product in the market will always be a big question. What if …. all this will be done by one person? I would answer that if this is real, then this will take years and by the time such a product appears on shelves, its relevance will be zero. And, in general, I will be right when it comes to some kind of advanced solution that should meet the urgent needs of humanity. But when it comes to a set of operating systems, games and programs frozen in time, the situation here is far from so unambiguous.

In the case of old graphics cards, a lot has already been done (the graphics processor itself is already exists, the software stack is quite mature), but something simply does not need to be done or it has become much easier to do due to the development of technology. Nevertheless, in this case, there is a huge layer of work, unaffordable for an ordinary amateur.

First, it is necessary to study a huge amount of documentation for devices, if it is available. And if not? Further, regardless of the availability of documentation, it is necessary to study the layout of existing products and it looks not just like "took a picture in front and back and paint it the same, but cooler." All this is serious engineering work which in addition to knowledge in the field of designing electronic devices, requires additional skills. You will try to study and understand tens and hundreds of text pages in foreign language, without understanding of specific terms. Fortunately, talents have not died out on the Russian land. And after several years of painstaking work in the development of a whole line of accelerators based on 3dfx chips, zx-c64 presented to the public the dream of my youth, the Voodoo 5 6000 accelerator.

Honestly, when the first Voodoo cards from zx-c64 appeared, the first thing I thought about was that sooner or later he would make a six-thousander. When it will do it was not clear, but that this product will be, I never doubted.

Earlier in my collection there were already 3dfx Voodoo 5 6000 accelerators, as many as three. All of them were bought by me in Ukraine, one card from ALT-F13, a couple of others from another enthusiast from Kiev. Unfortunately, in the process of experiments, one of those cards was irretrievably burned, while I learned about the irreversibility of this loss later, after I sold this card to hard1k, who, in turn, gave it to zx-c64 for repair. Unfortunately, even Anthony could not restore the board, but its physical presence helped him to understand the nuances and allowed him to complete the project of designing a new printed circuit board with a lot of improvements.

So what is the output? In total, two revisions of the Voodoo 5 6000 from zx-c64 have got into small-scale production at the moment. The first revision of the card was released in the amount of five boards, which have already been bought by enthusiasts and sold to their personal collections. Officially, the boards were shipped without boxes. The accelerator itself came either in an antistatic bag, carefully wrapped in foam, or was neatly placed in a specially made cradle.

Zx-c64 Voodoo 5 6000 PCI 128 Мбайт SDRAM. First revision. Front view.

Zx-c64 Voodoo 5 6000 PCI 128 Мбайт SDRAM. First revision. Back view.

For those who familiar with the original design of the Voodoo 5 6000, a host of differences are immediately apparent. Well, for those who are not familiar with the original prototypes, I give as an example picture of one of the three cards that I owned myself.

3dfx Voodoo 5 6000 AGP 128 Мбайт SDRAM. Original prototype. Front view.

3dfx Voodoo 5 6000 AGP 128 Мбайт SDRAM. Original prototype. Back view.

So, the first and most important difference is the interface. All original prototypes of 3dfx Voodoo 5 6000 cards were designed for the AGP bus. 3dfx itself never planned to produce PCI versions of the flagship board, while this was not relevant for such a powerful accelerator.

Why did zx-c64 focused on PCI performance in the first place? The fact is that at present, universal retro PCs are very popular, in which powerful and modern devices are adjacent to old ones to ensure maximum compatibility with retro games, without sacrificing performance in the Windows 2000+ generation OSes and programs for them.

Thus, the PCI version of the card provides ample opportunities for choosing platforms. You can install the Zx-c64 Voodoo 5 6000 PCI in both an older Intel 440BX based system or, for example, an Intel X48 based motherboard. In either case, it will work, while the second video card can be any available graphics adaptor.

The first revision normally allows installation only in 32-bit PCI slots operating with a clock frequency of 33 MHz. But, if desired, by ensuring the correct isolation of the power pins on the PCI connector of the board itself, as well as removing the jumper on the motherboard that supports the PCI66 bus, the first revision of the Zx-c64 Voodoo 5 6000 PCI can work with a 66 MHz bus.

Pay attention to the photo, the connector of my sample is already prepared for working with PCI66, you just need to find the motherboard and modify the PCI66 slot.

Zx-c64 Voodoo 5 6000 PCI 128 Мбайт SDRAM. First revision. Front view. Without cooling solution.

The next important difference from the 3dfx prototype is a slightly redesigned power subsystem of the board.

All boards of the first batch use GPU rev. 220 VSA-100. To power the graphics chips, a 2-phase power supply system is used, the memory power is taken from the motherboard slot. The power system uses highly integrated LMZ23610 modules, which include a power controller, coil and power transistor.

At the time of the relevance of the Voodoo 5 6000, many PCs were equipped with 200-250 W power supplies, and 300 W power supplies were already a rarity and the lot of wealthy owners of the most expensive PCs. I'm not even talking about the fact that only few thought about power supply quality. That is why 3dfx engineers were seriously considering using Voodoo Volts (a new external power supply unit from 3dfx, 12 Volts 4.6 Amperes) to power their flagship product. On my original prototype, a power connector from the computer's power supply was also soldered, which gave freedom of choice and increased ease of use.

As for the Zx-c64 Voodoo 5 6000 PCI, in the first revision of the board, additional power is supplied only through a standard Molex connector, since there are plenty of high-quality power supplies around - choose any.

Zx-c64 Voodoo 5 6000 PCI 128 Мбайт SDRAM. First revision. Back view. Without cooling solution.

On the card's backplane, in addition to the analog D-SUB connector, the zx-c64 placed a Pass-Thru connector that allows you to output video signals from both the AGP video card and the Zx-c64 Voodoo 5 6000 PCI without the need to switch the video signal on the monitor or reconnect the cable. The principle of operation is the same as that of the classic Voodoo graphics / Voodoo2 accelerators, with the only difference that the quality of the analog video signal should be higher due to the use of the modern MAX4885AE multiplexer

Immediately anticipating the questions of those in need about the possibility of using the DVI / HDMI interface. In the case of 4 GPU VSA-100, it turned out to be extremely difficult, almost unrealistic, since an analog signal is used between the pairs of GPUs when forming the final image. In the case of one or two VSA-100s, there is no such problem, but 4 chips do not allow realizing a digital output, since in addition to hardware limitations there are also software limitations - there is no support for a digital interface at the driver and BIOS level.

Another change concerns the mechanism for setting the clock frequency of GPUs. If earlier the tiny XC9536 FPGA chip was responsible for this on original prototypes, now the frequencies of the four GPUs are set by 4 quartz resonators 14.318, the fifth is used for the ICS307 synthesizer.

A few words must be said about cooling. If the original prototypes were made, to put it mildly, "if only it worked", then the zx-c64 product is equipped with very quiet and high-quality coolers. Unlike the glued aluminum patches of the original prototype, the Voodoo 5 6000 from zx-c64 uses four copper coolers, usually used to cool down Socket 479 processors. These coolers were modified by Anthony and installed on the board using metal brackets located on the back of PCB. I can say with confidence that the stock zx-c64 cooling system not only keeps the temperature of all GPUs within reasonable limits (even under load with 8xAA), but also keeps the noise level very low. I measured the temperature of the GPU heatsinks during stress tests using a budget laser thermometer and, taking into account the error, none of the heatsinks warmed up above 57 degrees. The same applies to the power supply system, it was about 51-53 degrees under load. True, the chosen solution also has disadvantages. The point is that the total mass of the accelerator with the installed cooling system is about 670 grams. Of the entire mass, about 500 grams is accounted for by the cooling system. My operating experience suggests that it is better to use this card in a vertical position (on a stand or in a case that allows horizontal mounting of the motherboard). In the case of standard enclosures, I highly recommend fixing the back of the board to a stand or a standard enclosure clamp, if there is one. I have done this:

And something like this:

Thus, I conclude that the weight of the card does not have the best effect on the ergonomics of the board, however, its influence is not critical. Personally, I was able to easily fit both of my cards in conventional cases. One way or another, if the owners of the first five cards want to lighten their "burden", the presence of holes in the PCB makes it possible to do this without much effort, all the more from nice little things - standard fan connectors are placed right on the PCB. It is very convenient from all points of view. Once you've found the best solution for cooling your board, you're ready to house it.

Now about the box. Since the first batch did not involve the release of boxes, I decided to coordinate the release of my packaging options with zx-c64. After approval was received, I started a collaboration with a friend of mine, who performed the artistic part of the work. As a result I got the following box design:

It is assumed that in addition to the box, a proprietary disc with drivers and utilities, instructions and a poster will be released. At the moment, not a single copy of the box and accessories has been released, but the plans for the release have not gone anywhere.

Summing up the first results, we can say that from the hardware point of view, the board outperforms the initial 3dfx prototype even within the first revision. Among the obvious improvements are an upgraded power system, a more efficient and quieter cooling system, the presence of a Pass-Thru connector, universal cooler mounts and common fan connectors.

Now is the time to talk about choosing a platform for this gem.

How to choose a platform for zx-c64 Voodoo 5 6000 PCI.

So, let's say you bought a Voodoo 5 6000 from zx-c64 and while it is on its way to you, you decided to choose the optimal system configuration, both in terms of compatibility and performance. I must say right away that at the moment this issue has not been fully investigated by me, since for full-scale testing it is necessary to have a lot of platforms at hand and, of course, a lot of free time. That is why, I do not presume that everything described in this section will remain relevant after the release of this material, nevertheless, I will share the experience gained, which will allow you to get good results now, both in terms of performance and compatibility. ...

I will say right away that I personally believe that the installation of the Voodoo 5 6000 PCI from zx-c64 is relevant only on platforms that came out much later than the serial video cards based on VSA-100 saw the light. Why? I explain. Firstly, PCI performance itself implies the presence of a more efficient and technologically advanced accelerator in the AGP slot. Such an accelerator will require appropriate support from both the motherboard and the CPU. Secondly, the Voodoo 5 6000, being a card with four GPUs, and even devoid of a hardware T&L unit, is very dependent on the CPU speed. These two facts already indicate that platforms of the Pentium III class, with all due respect to them, should be left out of our attention.

For universality, as usual, you also have to pay. Not all boards are equally compatible and performant when working with PCI devices. So, for example, I have tested:

ASRock AM2NF3-VSTA
Gigabyte x48T-DQ6
Gigabyte G41M Combo
Gigabyte EG31
MSI X48C Platinum
Intel DX48BT2
Intel D975XBX2
Kraftway KWG43
ANOVO AIMB865 Napalm-FX mod
PORTWELL RUBY with G41
ASRock 775i65G

Based on the results of measuring the PCI bus bandwidth (testing was carried out using the corresponding subtest from the Final Reality package), all boards can be conditionally divided into three groups:

1) Boards based on i865 (I believe that the situation is the same on i875) are the fastest; when working with 3D, the speed of data transfer through the PCI33 bus is about 107 MB / s.

2) Motherboard based on nForce3 - show an average performance, about 95 MB / s.

3) Boards based on G31, G41, G43, X48 - the lowest speed of the PCI33 bus - around 85 MB / s

In order to understand how the PCI bus bandwidth affects the performance results, I carried out express testing in 3DMark 2000. I am sure that the bus bandwidth will have different effects in different tests and games. Obviously, to present the full picture, you need to write a separate material, but now there is another task. I wanted to choose a basic configuration that would allow us to carry out a full cycle of tests without any tricks and present to the public a more or less relevant picture demonstrating the capabilities of the Voodoo 5 6000 PCI from zx-c64. And in the future, of course, this topic can be developed, which is only the world of workstations and servers of different levels, where you can find cool solutions with PCI66 ... .. In short.

The highest performance indicators per processor frequency unit were shown by i865-based boards. All tested solutions worked with Core 2 Extreme x6800 at 3 GHz (800 MHz niche, multiplier - 15). The result was in the region of 9000 final points. Similar performance indicators (+ a couple of dozen points) were achieved on the only tested AMD platform (Phenom II X4 980 3.7 GHz + nForce3). But the newer Intel chipsets, those that work with DDR2 / 3 + PCI-Express, in spite of their manufacturability, rested on 8500-8991 points, depending on the processor clock speed. The highest score was on the x48 + E8600 @ 4.0 GHz, where a result of 8991 points was achieved.

From the point of view of personal preferences, I really like the i865, but in the end, for testing, I chose the aforementioned AMD platform. It is fully compatible with Windows 98 / Me, it shows medium-high performance level, without embellishment, and finally, it supports all possible SIMD technologies that could potentially be used to speed up games of the 90s. The only thing you need to know when working with motherboards on nForce3: if you have an accelerator based on VSA-100 and you are installing a driver from AmigaMerlin: be sure to set the VIA Chipset optimization item - BIOS defaults or Fail Safe. Otherwise, the system may periodically freeze in 3D.

I also draw public attention to the incorrect operation of the memory subsystem in old operating systems (Windows 98-Me, in particular) on systems and chipsets with more than 3 GB of RAM installed. For example, on PCI-Express Intel chipsets (I'm talking at least about G31 / 41 and newer). If you decide to use such a system, make sure that the installed amount of RAM does not exceed 2 GB, otherwise the performance in 3D games drops by about half. A similar scenario is planned to be tested on the AMD platform.

At the moment there is an assumption that if you do not touch the memory drivers for Windows, switching the Memory remap option to Disabled will solve the problem, but this topic is under study and if you have something to say - welcome to this thread of our forum. If you are an English speaking user, feel free to write in English.

I also want to supplement the material with information from colleagues. The zx-c64 itself reports that when the frequency threshold goes over to 3 GHz on the Intel platform, apparently due to errors in the drivers, the Voodoo 5 6000 starts to hang. Tested on Windows XP. I conducted preliminary testing on two accelerators from the first batch, all my tests were performed only under Windows 98 / Me and I have not yet revealed an obvious effect of the CPU frequency on stability, however, zx-c64 will not just raise the issue, most likely there is a problem. This is Voodoo 5 6000 - not the first 3dfx card to show a "speed bug". It is necessary to compile a new version of drivers from the source code, correct mistakes of the past. If anyone wants to help, write me here, through the forum or by email.

Summarizing the information provided on choosing a platform:

The highest PCI33 performance is achieved on the Intel 865/875. These chipsets can be considered the most preferred, especially if your motherboard supports Core 2 processors.
It is better to keep the frequency of the Intel processor within 3 GHz (even better - a little lower)
The physical amount of RAM in the system should not exceed 2 GB, at least until the Memory Remap theory is confirmed or the memory manager of Windows 98 / Me is revised.
PCI-Express Intel chipsets up to and including x48 have a low PCI33 bus speed. Not all motherboards based on these chipsets can be made to work in Windows 9x without problems.
When working with a platform for AMD processors and with drivers from AmigaMerlin, you must manually set VIA Chipset optimization - BIOS defaults or Fail Safe to avoid freezes (valid for all VSA-100 based cards)
When overclocking the PCI bus, the performance results grow instantly, which means that PCI33 bus bandwidth is insufficient even on i865. If you have a Windows 9x compatible platform with support for fast processors and PCI66, their use is theoretically preferable, although stability and absolute performance indicators are not yet known.
If you practice overclocking and want to use Voodoo 5 6000 PCI graphics cards, make sure that the PCI bus frequency does not exceed 66 MHz.
The frequency potential of the 220-series VSA-100 chips used on all serial zx-c64 cards lies within 200 MHz, as a rule, the results of stable overclocking of 4 GPUs to a frequency of 183 MHz can be considered decent.

Performance.

Well, it's time to test our today's hero. By tradition, I describe the configuration of the test bench, the list of tests and games used, as well as testing modes. I must say right away that the Voodoo 5 6000 from zx-c64 is a very interesting and complex product, the study of which has not yet been completed, so others will follow this material.

Now I will focus on demonstrating the absolute performance of the Voodoo 5 6000 and show how much faster this card is than the Voodoo 5 5500 PCI, which until recently was the ultimate dream for many retro gamers. I will not ignore the Voodoo 4 4500, this card, in some situations, can also be a good choice, but how much it is able to meet the basic needs of retro lovers, being installed on a fast platform is a question. I would like to draw your attention to the fact that testing of Voodoo 4 with 2x anti-aliasing was not carried out, since at the time of testing the "full" Vooodoo 4 PCI was not available to me, I had to run tests on the Voodoo 5 6000 in Single-Chip Only mode, which excludes the possibility of activating 2xAA for the "emulated" Voodoo 4 4500 PCI.

Test bench configuration
CPU	AMD Phenom II X4 980 Black Edition (3,7 ГГц)
Motherboard	ASRock AM2NF3-VSTA (BIOS ver. P3.30)
RAM	2x 1 Гбайт DDR-2 OCZ Platinum 1066 МГц (5-5-5-15)
Graphics card #1	ATI Radeon X850XT Platinum Edition 256 Мбайт
Graphics card #2	zx-c64 Voodoo 5 6000 (3dfx Voodoo5 6000 PCI) 128 Мбайт 3dfx Voodoo 5 5500 PCI MAC @ PC (166/166)
Sound card	Creative Audigy 2 Ex Platinum
RAID controller	Tekram TR-824 (Silicon Image 3114)
Storage	2x Samsung SSD PM800 TH 64 Гбайт 2x WD Raptor ёмкостью 250 Гбайт в RAID0
Optical Drive	ASUS DRW-2483ST
CPU Cooling Solution	Noctua NH-U12S chromax.black
OS	Microsoft Windows Millennium Edition
Driver for Graphics card #1	Catalyst 5.9 (Radeon.ru)
Driver for Graphics card #2	Amigamerlin R2.9 Raziel64 Evolution Driver Expert Edition V1.01.16 + 3dfx Tools от 1.00.09

BIOS Settings
CPU Configuration:
Enhanced Halt State	Disabled
CPU Frequency Multiplier	X18.5 3700 MHz
CPU Voltage	1.4000 V
NB Frequency Multiplier	X10.0 2000 MHz
Memory Clock	400 MHz (DDRII800)
Memory Controller Mode	Ganged
Chipset Settings
OnBoard UAA Audio	Disabled
AGP Aperture Size	64 MB
AGP Fast Write	Enabled
AGP Sideband Address	Enabled
Primary Graphics Adapter	AGP - (when using Windows Me Windows XP+ with ATI ) PCI - (when using Windows Me with 3dfx)
ACPI Settings
ACPI HPET Table	Enabled
Advanced IDE Configuration
OnBoard IDE Controlled	Both
OnBoard SATA Controller	Enabled, non-RAID
HD Fast Detection	Enabled
Advanced PCI/PnP Settings
PCI IDE BusMaster	Enabled
Advanced Floppy Configuration
Floppy A	Disabled
Advanced Super IO Chipset
Все параметры	Disabled

Synthetic benchmarks and games
Synthetic Benchmarks
Name	Parameters
WizMark3D	Default settings
Final Reality	Default settings, repeats – 5 times.
3DMark 99 MAX	Default settings
3DMark 2000 v1.1	Default settings
3DMark 2001SE v.330	Default settings, for Amigamerlin R2.9, in D3D, 32 BPP rendering is forced ON
Games
Name	Parameters
All tested games are launched with the maximum graphics quality available for setting via the game menu.
Incoming	Direct3D, 800x600 / 1024x768, 32 BPP, No AA + AA
Descent 3	3dfx Glide, 800x600 / 1024x768 / 1600x1200, 16 BPP, No AA + AA
Expandable	Direct3D, 800x600 / 1024x768 / 1600x1200, 32 BPP, No AA + AA
Quake II ver. 320 + MiniGL 1.49	3dfx OpenGL, 800x600 / 1024x768 / 1600x1200, 16 BPP, No AA + AA Demo1.dm2
Quake III Arena v 1.11	OpenGL, 800x600 / 1024x768 / 1600x1200, 32 BPP, No AA + AA Demo1
Unreal Tournament version 432	3dfx Glide, 800x600 / 1024x768 / 1600x1200, 16 BPP, No AA + AA. CTF-FACE, 16 bots.

Note that Voodoo 5 6000 testing was carried out with two versions of the most popular and fastest drivers available at the moment. This is relevant, since they differ not only in performance results, but also in problems related to the launch and operation of certain games. In all benchmarks, tenths and hundredths of fps were rounded for readability.

As for the list of games, there are actually much more games worthy of testing than presented in the table. Of course, like you, I am interested not only in these projects, circulating from material to material, BUT! The main BUT is that these games contain performance measurement tools, with proper use of which, you can conduct alternative testing and understand what else to strive for and whether it is worth it. If readers request, in the next article I can add a number of projects, playing in which I can express my subjective impression of smoothness.

If we conditionally imagine that the WizMark and Final Reality test packages reflect the performance of video cards in games released before 1998, it turns out that there is practically no difference between the Voodoo4 4500 PCI and Voodoo 5 5500/6000 in the resolutions that were usual at that time. And this is partly true. Games of that time will fly at 640x480 and 800x600 on all accelerators from our list. And especially there is no difference whether there will be 150 or 300 fps on the counter. Unless only Voodoo 5 can pamper players with better quality full-screen anti-aliasing. An example is Need For Speed II SE with 3dfx Glide support. This game works well in Software mode on Pentium II processors, but the appearance of Glide makes this game much more colorful. The only problem is that it is impossible to select a resolution in the game. You always have to be content with the basic one - 640x480. On Voodoo 3, for example, nothing can be done with the "ladder", but on Voodoo 4 and more powerful cards - please. At the same time, given the low resolution and relatively simple graphics, Voodoo 4 performs great with its 2xAA! But the king, of course, is the Voodoo 5 6000, which produces the "softest" picture among video cards with native Glide support.

Benchmarks of the 3DMark series up to and including 2001 are very sensitive to the addition of VSA-100 GPU. So, when switching from Voodoo 4 4500 to Voodoo 5 5500 PCI, there is an almost twofold increase in performance! But the replacement of the 5500 model with the 6000 operating at equal frequencies does not give such superiority any more. Here, as I see it, there are additional factors in the form of a slight drop in the efficiency of the SLI technology, as well as a catastrophic lack of PCI bus bandwidth, which, by the way, for our test platform is 95 MB per second according to the version of the test built into the Final Reality package.

And here is the first game. Unfortunately, the heaviest resolution supported by my monitor - 1600x1200 - is not available. Nevertheless, even without this, the game can put the Voodoo 5 6000 on the blades! If in the NoAA mode all the test participants showed decent results, then the transition to 2x AA is not so easy for Voodoo 5. Yes, from my point of view, more than 30 fps for games of that time is normal, but we know where that level of uncompromising gaming is, right? As a result, I can admit Incoming is playable on Voodoo 5 5500 PCI only with 2x anti-aliasing, and on Voodoo 5 6000 with 4x anti-aliasing. Unfortunately, 8xAA can be used only conditionally, and even then, only in 800x600. In this game for Voodoo 5 6000 I would choose 1024x768 with 4xAA.

One of the favorite games of today's test, it seems to me that from a visual point of view, Descent 3 is not ashamed to show fans of space shooters even now. Descent 3 looks great, pleases the eye with rather sharp textures and high-quality special effects in the form of smoke / steam and well-aligned colored lighting. At a resolution of 1024 by 768 without using full-screen anti-aliasing, you can play comfortably on any card presented in this review, the fps and smoothness are pleasing even if you have Voodoo 4 as a Glide accelerator. But at 1600x1200, only Voodoo 5 survived without AA. 5500 PCI and Voodoo 5 6000 PCI. Moreover, the latter flexes its muscles without a hint of tension, demonstrating a readiness to increase the load. Indeed, when you select the Raizel 64 driver, after activating 2xAA Voodoo 5 6000 makes it possible to play comfortably even at 1600x1200! But with an increase in AA quality, you will have to go down and be content with only a resolution of 1024x768, which is also not bad, of course, but my choice is 1600x1200 + 2xAA.

With 8xAA, everything is fine, but only at 800x600. Why play at such a low resolution with a high degree of anti-aliasing is an interesting question, but if some people like this picture, why not?

I would like to draw your attention to the abnormal behavior of Voodoo 5 6000 with AmigaMerlin drivers in 2xAA mode. Of course, the testing took place several times and the results were repeated. In general, it is the 2xAA mode with these drivers that causes strange behavior in games, in some of which (not included in the tests) a black screen is observed at startup. If you have experience or know how to get around this problem - let me know in the forum.

Another representative of the Direct3D community, launched with 32 BPP color depth. The game is funny, colorful, rich in special effects. And although the main difference between the VSA-100 and its predecessors was 32-bit color support, Voodoo 4 copes with Expandable only conditionally and only at 800x600. What a twist. Switching to Voodoo 5 5500 PCI will allow you to play with relative comfort already at 1024x768. But on the Voodoo 5 6000 PCI you .... With a stretch you drive to 1600x1200 and even then without anti-aliasing. Enabling full-screen anti-aliasing in this game causes the Voodoo 5 6000 to modestly say: "Master, can I raise no more than 1024x768 pixels and stroke them only twice?" Of course, you can increase fps by reducing detail or reducing color accuracy, but why? In 2021, I want to play the way it was impossible before. So, if you like 3dfx like me, Expandable is best played on a Voodoo 5 6000, using anti-aliasing very carefully.

I also note that this game has a strange problem with the AmigaMerlin drivers. At 1024x768 with 8xAA, the game refused to pass the test - it hung. At the same time, the Raizel package allowed you to spin Expandable in almost any mode, as much as you like. However, sometimes, even after a cold start of the system, Raizel64 would freeze at 1600x1200 2xAA.

And here is the cult classic. Quake II "flies" on 3dfx cards, showing ideal performance at 1024x768 without AA on each of the graphics cards presented. Switching to 1600x1200 annoys only the Voodoo 4, but the Voodoo 5 gives heat regardless of the model.

Next, we raise the rates. When activated 2x AA Voodoo 5 does not experience any difficulties, all models of this family cope with a resolution of 1024x768, and 1600x1200 is played perfectly only on the 6000-th. Note that the Amigamerlin driver shows oddities in this case as well, showing terribly low results.

Quadruple anti-aliasing rehabilitates the Amigamerlin driver, which, although slower than Raizel64, can not be called anomalous. In terms of performance, it is very interesting that the Voodoo 5 6000 with 4xAA demonstrates results that are almost exactly the same as those of the Voodoo 5 5500 PCI obtained when tested with 2x AA. Conditionally suitable for playing on a "six-thousander" can be considered 1600x1200, but to be absolutely perfect - 1024x768.

There isn't much to say about 8x AA. Works great at 800x600, relatively well - 1024x768. Next is a slideshow. There is a feeling that the highest resolution is affected by the lack of local video memory. And although the purpose of this material is not to compare the picture quality on the Voodoo 5 6000 and other cards, including those from the competitor's camp, I would like to give an example of what a game looks like at 1600x1200 with 8x RGSAA full-screen anti-aliasing.

Screenshots from the Quake II game were taken using the built-in engine, then from the TGA format they are re-saved to PNG for uploading to the site. These images cannot be considered as reference images in terms of color rendition assessment. I recommend viewing these screenshots at 100% scale, this will allow you to evaluate the quality of the proprietary full-screen anti-aliasing mechanism from 3dfx, which you can read about in one of my past materials (in Russian).

Here it is, the hardest game in our list today. For a long time it was the benchmark for all of video cards reviews, knelt down and "punished" accelerators from ATI and NVIDIA at high resolutions. Let's see in which mode our heroes break.

Voodoo 4 gives up already at 1024 by 768 without anti-aliasing. Obviously, to play on this accelerator at 1024x768, you will need to reduce the detail and accuracy of the color palette. Voodoo 5, depending on the model, copes with resolutions of 1024x768 and 1600x1200, however, there is an unambiguous feeling that when you activate anti-aliasing, above 1024x768, we will not take off.

Indeed, I believe that if you will use Voodoo 5 6000, then with maximum detail and 4xAA you can play well, but only at 1024x768. The use of the 1600x1200 resolution with AA activated is basically only possible in 2x mode. When switching to 4xAA, the game will either give an error or show disastrously low performance. This is due to the lack of local video memory available for the VSA-100. In the case of Voodoo 5 6000, the situation will be different if 256 MB are soldered on the card, but this is a topic for another material ... ..

When graphics cards based on Voodoo 2 chipset saw the light, it seemed that nothing could bring a bundle of two such cards to its knees. Indeed, Voodoo 2 SLIs are very good in many games, but their time has passed quickly enough. They were replaced by Avenger chips, which showed a significant increase in performance if a fast central processor was installed in the system. And many of us have played with Voodoo 3 in Unreal Tournament and enjoyed excellent performance and picture quality. It would seem, what could be better? It might be better, for example, Voodoo 5.

Without anti-aliasing, the Voodoo 5 5500 does an excellent job up to and including 1024x768. You can play safely without worrying about the number of bots and any simplifications in terms of graphics quality. But the resolution of 1600x1200 was only capable of the Voodoo 5 6000. I think that with a decrease in the number of bots, the 5500 model will also be able to cope with this resolution, but an ideal game without AA is only on v56k.

Enabling smoothing in UT kills performance instantly. Voodoo 5 5500 PCI will allow you to play comfortably only in 800x600, Voodoo 5 6000 in 1024x768, but the maximum of the available resolutions is obeyed only by Voodoo 5 6000, and then conditionally. To play comfortably at 1600x1200 with 2xAA, you need to reduce the number of bots or reduce the detail.

The activation of the more difficult AA modes makes the situation even more frustrating. On Voodoo 5 6000 with interference you can play at 1024x768 4xAA and again, you need to lower the graphics quality. Eightfold anti-aliasing leaves no chance for the hero of this review, playing at 1024x768 is no longer possible, at best 800x600 can do it.

Before summing up the general results of the tests, I would like to say about the quality of drivers for 3dfx accelerators. Unfortunately, due to the rarity of the Voodoo 5 6000, and as a result of the unavailability of these cards in free sale, the fine tuning of the driver settings for these accelerators was carried out by enthusiasts very superficially. The situation is further complicated by the fact that those who like to make corrections to drivers are afraid of persecution from copyright holders, and therefore, not all problems can be eliminated at all without making changes to the source code of the drivers. In addition to the already described anomalies in the Voodoo 5 6000, I have compiled a summary table with information about the shortcomings that arose during the work with the map. There are solutions for some problems, but others require additional analysis.

Драйвер Razer64 1.01.16
Game	Problem	Solution
Expendable	Rare freezes at 1600x1200x32 BPP x 2xAA
Half-Life	Texture corruption at 1600x1200 @ 8xAA, Glide
Rogue Squadron	Texture corruption at, Resolution limit is just - 1024x768	Change the Refresh Optimization settings and Force refresh to 60 Hz
Unreal Tournament	White horizontal strokes on CTF-Face's tower and cosmic space at 1600x1200 @ 8xAA, Glide. Including Single-Chip mode


Драйвер AmigaMerlin R 2.9
Game	Problem	Solution
3DMark 2001	32 BPP color depth is not available	You must force 32 BPP rendering, to get working 32 BPP option
Final Reality	No D3D device is detected	You must force 32 BPP rendering
Quake III	To operate normally at 1600x1200 on some system you should enable Analog SLI
Expendable	Hangs at 1024x768x32 BPP x 2xAA
Rogue Squadron	Белые горизонтальные полоски в меню игры на красном якоре повстанцев, при нажатии на паузу в миссии	Change the Refresh Optimization settings
Unreal Tournament	White horizontal strokes on CTF-Face's tower and cosmic space at 1600x1200 @ 8xAA, Glide. Including Single-Chip mode	Change the Refresh Optimization settings
Descent 3	Game crashes

In this material, I would like to invite all interested specialists who could help in upgrading drivers for the Voodoo 5 6000, send me a message. Confidentiality is guaranteed. Terms are being discussed.

Conclusion.

We live in a unique time. Those who, was children and adolescents in the 90s, played PC games, grew up, received education and professional skills. These people, driven by nostalgic feelings and a thirst for self-realization, were able to do the seemingly impossible - to reproduce a number of solutions for playing retro projects. A special breakthrough took place in Russia, where, due to the low cost of an hour of work, it became possible to implement such complex developments as the Voodoo 5 6000.

The new card from zx-c64 turned out to be quite successful from the hardware point of view. The relative disadvantages of the new Voodoo 5 6000 include only a heavy cooling system, which, at the same time, has excellent efficiency. As for the rest, even the first revision of the "six thousandth" shows excellent performance results and high image quality. We can say that the Voodoo 5 6000 128 MB from zx-c64 will be able to provide comfortable gaming at 1600x1200 in most games until 1999-2000, while enabling full-screen anti-aliasing at this resolution can severely impact performance or even make the game impossible due to lack of video memory. Enabling full-screen anti-aliasing is only reasonable at relatively high resolutions like 1024x768. One way or another, none of the commercially available products from 3dfx for home use can surpass the Voodoo 5 6000 either in graphics quality or in performance, which makes the new product from zx-c64 an uncompromising solution for fans of old games.

Discussion of material and accelerator zx-c64 Voodoo 5 6000 PCI I propose to conduct in this topic of modlabs forums (feel fre to post in english)

P.S. At the time of this writing, the second version of the accelerator is already available for ordering and purchasing - Special Unified Xcelerator 6000. An ironic and slightly absurd name, isn't it? I already have two different cards of the second revision in my hands. It's only the beginning….

INCOMING, Direct3D, 32 BPP, No AA © MODLABS.NET
Graphics card name	800x600		1024x768		1600x1200
Graphics card name	Min	Avg	Min	Avg	Min	Avg
zx-c64 Voodoo 5 6000 @ Voodoo 4 4500 PCI (166/166 MHz)	57,69		36,63		-
3dfx Voodoo 5 5500 PCI 64MB (166/166 MHz)	132,22		85,06		-
zx-c64 Voodoo 5 6000 128MB (166/166 MHz) AmigaMerlin R2.9	215,41		163,79		-
zx-c64 Voodoo 5 6000 128MB (166/166 MHz) Raziel64 1.01.16	251,4		170,1		-