3dfx Voodoo5

discussed in 2,490 posts, 1999-2008 · overall tone positive

Posts per month

Key threads

• Papa Doc's Voodoo5 vs GeForce3 benchmarks spark long argument 2002-01-14 · 311 posts
  Pierre "Papa Doc" Legrand published benchmarks comparing a Voodoo5 and a GeForce3 in Ghost Recon, NASCAR 4, Quake 3 and flight sims, finding the Voodoo5 competitive with 4x FSAA. Many disputed his methodology, including running 3DMark without hardware T&L, and argued the GeForce3 was better in every way. The thread ran to over 300 posts and degenerated into insults, ending up on multi-monitor and LCD resolution arguments.
• Voodoo5 price drop sparks 3dfx versus nVidia debate 2000-11-18 · 96 posts
  A Voodoo5 deal led to a long argument mainly between Keystone and Pierre Legrand over 3dfx's driver quality, FSAA, bandwidth and dual-chip design compared with nVidia's GeForce line. Many sim racers preferred the Voodoo5 for stability and FSAA, while Keystone argued 3dfx's design was dated and the company was failing.
• GeForce 2 versus Voodoo 5 for racing sims 2000-08-13 · 59 posts
  A user asked which card to buy for NASCAR Heat. Voodoo 5 owners such as Pierre 'PapaDoc' Legrand praised its full-scene anti-aliasing for removing shimmering in sims, while others favoured the GeForce 2's speed and Direct3D performance. Simon Brown reported Voodoo 5 SLI running slower than single-chip mode in several sims, switched to a GeForce 2 and described GPL's Direct3D quality on it.
• First impressions of Voodoo5 5500 full-screen anti-aliasing 2000-05-26 · 61 posts
  Tracey Miller, an early buyer of the Voodoo5 5500, initially found its FSAA disappointing in GPL, NASCAR 3 and Viper Racing because of apparent shape shifting, later realising some effects also appeared without FSAA. She reported lockups in GPL's Glide mode and posted benchmark figures. Others discussed level-of-detail effects, Egghead shipping the card early, and CPU upgrade options.
• Fixing F1 2001's DirectX 8 error on a Voodoo5 2002-04-17 · 40 posts
  Alison Hine could no longer run F1 2001 on her Voodoo5 because of a 'no DirectX 8 video adapters found' error. Many suggested different 3dfx drivers and ways to clean out old ones, but the fix came from B Farmer: toggling the Direct3D acceleration button in DxDiag, after which F1 2001 ran again.
• Voodoo5 slower than Voodoo3 in Grand Prix Legends 2000-07-20 · 33 posts
  Simon Brown found his new Voodoo5 gave lower frame rates in GPL than his old Voodoo3, and that single-chip mode was faster than the dual-chip setting under Glide. Others confirmed similar results, linked it to reports that the second chip was barely used without FSAA, and compared Glide with the D3D patch. Detailed frame-rate figures were posted, but no driver update solved the issue.
• Full-screen antialiasing on GeForce 2 versus Voodoo5 2000-09-15 · 36 posts
  A user asked whether FSAA worked in racing sims and whether a Voodoo5 was better than a GeForce MX for it. A long technical debate followed between Nos, Simon Brown, Mats Lofkvist and Magnus Svensson over whether 4x FSAA at 800x600 beat 1600x1200 without it, texture shimmering versus edge aliasing, and fillrate costs. Lofkvist reported GPL tests where V5 4x FSAA kept track lines visible further away than high resolution.
• Best Voodoo 5 5500 settings for N4 and GPL 2001-09-24 · 22 posts
  Robin shared settings that improved frame rates and quality on his Voodoo 5 5500 in NASCAR Racing 4 and GPL. Tom Pabst countered with comparisons arguing 3dfx cards were limited by texture size, which others said was a Glide limitation not present when using Direct3D, and that resolution and anti-aliasing matter more for sim racing. Robin then helped David Ciemny find the 1.04.01 beta and x3dfx drivers to reinstall his V5.
• Has 3dfx lost the video card war? 2000-08-18 · 40 posts
  Regular Racer argued 3dfx had fallen behind with the Voodoo 5 as games moved from Glide to Direct3D. Voodoo owners defended its anti-aliasing and compatibility, while GeForce 2 owners boasted of overclocked performance, and some compared 3dfx to the Gravis Ultrasound. Exchanges between Nos and others became testy.
• Video card wars: nVidia, 3dfx and ATI Radeon 2000-08-17 · 32 posts
  Regular Racer touted the new ATI Radeon, prompting a debate between Voodoo 5 owners who refused to play sims without rotated-grid anti-aliasing and others who valued GeForce 2 speed and T&L. Kai Fuller argued graphics features don't change how a car drives, and Simon Brown and PapaDoc clashed over driver reliability.
• Voodoo5 track texture problems in NR2002 2002-02-25 · 24 posts
  Bill Anderson showed smeared track textures in the NR2002 demo on a Voodoo5. Others said the retail game fixed the track, but walls and lines still showed odd colors, and Papyrus had said no fix was likely with 3dfx gone. Voodoo owners complained about being told to buy new cards.
• Poor GP3 frame rates on a Voodoo5 2001-08-07 · 25 posts
  Eldred Pickett reported very high processor occupancy in GP3 on his Voodoo5 system. Others explained a known Voodoo5 driver issue where 'fastest performance' mode is slower than single-chip or 2x FSAA mode. Switching to 2x FSAA greatly improved his frame rates, and Mark Jeangerard found the same fix helped GPL.
• Experiences with the Voodoo 5 5500 2000-07-07 · 29 posts
  Owners praised the Voodoo 5 5500's full-scene anti-aliasing in GPL, NASCAR 3 and NFS Porsche, while noting it was slower than GeForce cards, very long, and reportedly underperforming on Athlon systems. Some reported lock-ups with 2x FSAA under Glide, and one user struggled with Windows 2000 drivers.
• GeForce 2 or Voodoo 5 for driving games 2000-08-16 · 22 posts
  A buyer of a new Athlon system asked whether to choose a GeForce 2 or Voodoo 5 5500. Replies weighed the Voodoo's full-scene anti-aliasing against the GeForce's hardware T&L and future-proofing, and Pierre 'PapaDoc' Legrand linked his comparison review, which one poster thought slightly biased toward 3dfx.
• GeForce2 versus Voodoo 5 for racing sims 2000-06-30 · 35 posts
  Asked whether F1 2000 runs better on a GeForce, posters reported only small gains over Voodoo cards. Nos returned his GeForce2 for a Voodoo 5 because of menu corruption with FSAA, while others cited 3DMark scores in nVidia's favour and Nos dismissed such benchmarks as irrelevant to games. The exchange became testy, with some insults.

Busiest threads

• Papa Doc's Voodoo5 vs GeForce3 benchmarks spark long argument (82 posts about it)
• Voodoo5 price drop sparks 3dfx versus nVidia debate (47 posts about it)
• GeForce 2 versus Voodoo 5 for racing sims (33 posts about it)
• First impressions of Voodoo5 5500 full-screen anti-aliasing (29 posts about it)
• Fixing F1 2001's DirectX 8 error on a Voodoo5 (23 posts about it)
• Voodoo5 slower than Voodoo3 in Grand Prix Legends (21 posts about it)
• Full-screen antialiasing on GeForce 2 versus Voodoo5 (17 posts about it)
• Best Voodoo 5 5500 settings for N4 and GPL (16 posts about it)
• Has 3dfx lost the video card war? (15 posts about it)
• Video card wars: nVidia, 3dfx and ATI Radeon (14 posts about it)
• Voodoo5 track texture problems in NR2002 (13 posts about it)
• Poor GP3 frame rates on a Voodoo5 (12 posts about it)
• GPL D3D/open GL (12 posts about it)
• Experiences with the Voodoo 5 5500 (12 posts about it)
• is GPL performance better in D3D than in Glide with a Voodoo 5500? (11 posts about it)

Sentiment by year

Each post that discussed it was rated from −2 (very negative) to +2 (very positive).

Who talked about it most

Dave Henrie · 170 Simon Brown · 117 Pierre Legrand · 59 Nos · 51 Goy Larsen · 43 Tracey A Miller · 37 Olav K. Malmin · 35 Joe Marques · 34 EldredP · 33 Greg Cisko · 29 Larry Lindstrom · 28 BRH · 28 GTX_SlotCar · 27 Robin · 26 BRH · 25 Tom Pabst · 25 (unknown) · 25 Peter Hooper · 23 bertr · 23 Kevin Barnes · 22

Search the archive for 3dfx Voodoo5