3dfx Voodoo2 1000 PCI Powered 3D Accelerator

by 3dfx

Product Details

• Product Dimensions: 7 x 0.2 x 3.5 inches ; 1.4 pounds
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds
• Shipping: This item is also available for shipping to select countries outside the U.S.
• ASIN: B00000JDKS
• Item model number: V21312
• Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #380,158 in Electronics (See Top 100 in Electronics)
• Discontinued by manufacturer: Yes
• Date first available at Amazon.com: September 4, 1999

Product Description

Amazon.com Review

As the reigning leader in 3-D graphics accelerators for games, 3dfx consistently produces amazing 3-D acceleration at unbeatable prices. Still selling like wildfire, the V2 1000 is a veteran graphics card boasting respectable 3-D performance with 3 million triangles per second, 12-MB of EDO DRAM (4-MB frame buffer and 8-MB texture memory), and a core clock of 90 MHz.

Newer 3dfx cards offer both 2-D and 3-D acceleration, eliminating the need for a separate 2-D card, but the V2 1000 needs to connect to your existing video card, making installation slightly trickier. However, the easy-to-follow manual walks you effortlessly through the process, with quick troubleshooting tips and a toll-free tech support number in case you encounter problems.

As the predecessor to the newer Voodoo3 models, the V2 1000 offers all the basics of an accelerator card without the frills of later versions. Although the performance is still top-notch, there are only two reasons why you would purchase this card. The first is if you have another accelerator, based on a non-3dfx chipset, and want to run Glide applications--3dfx's proprietary API. The second reason is if you already have a V2 1000 card, and want to connect the two V2 1000 cards in SLI mode to achieve resolutions as high as 1,024 x 768.

Pros:

• Inexpensive
• Can attach two V2 boards in SLI mode for increased performance
• Glide API support

Cons:

• Trickier installation
• Lower resolution support
• Outdated by newer boards

Amazon.com Product Description

Voodoo2. Still one of the world's most powerful 3D graphics technologies for entertainment, the award-winning Voodoo2 accelerator began shipping in February of 1998 and has since garnered sweeping support among board manufacturers and PC-makers worldwide. Voodoo2 is an expandable architecture that delivers over three times the performance of the industry resetting Voodoo Graphics. Voodoo2 enables highly immersive, interactive and realistic 3D experiences across interactive electronic entertainment platforms - personal computers, coin-operated arcade system and location-based entertainment. Voodoo2 contains a full floating-point hardware triangle setup unit for maximum triangle throughput on Pentium, Pentium Pro and Pentium II powered systems.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars great graphics card, February 2, 2000

By 

mike barrett (Columbus, Ohio) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 3dfx Voodoo2 1000 PCI Powered 3D Accelerator (Personal Computers)

I just got this product the other day because i had a sorry ati rage IIc card, i have a pentuim II 350 mhz computer with 128 mb of ram and this card works like magic. I have unreal tournament and this game with everything on high at 800x600, i got an average of 27 to 40fps. For being an older card this can cook. Don't even get me started about SLI, with two of these together you get voodoo 3 3000 performance which is fast, very fast. This card would be a great edition to anyone looking for the best low cost 3d card. I recommend it.

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Works (sort of), January 4, 2000

By 

Jon Adair (Tampa, FL) - See all my reviews

This review is from: 3dfx Voodoo2 1000 PCI Powered 3D Accelerator (Personal Computers)

I wanted to add fast 3D to a machine that had a good 2D card (TV tuner, video capture, etc.) I didn't want to remove. The Voodoo2 card did the trick...sort of. It works great and Quake3 and other games look great.

The only problem stems from the fact that you have to feed the output of the 2D card into this card. If I'm in 3D mode and something makes Windows flip back to 2D mode (game crashes, window pops up, etc.), the 3D card almost never switches back to letting the 2D video through.

All I have to do it move the video cable back and forth between the video cards to work around this, but it is annoying. The latest drivers from 3dfx don't seem to help with this at all.

The good news is that Quake3 almost never crashes and the card looks great at 800x600 (you can add a second identical card and chain them together to run higher resolutions, which I might try).

4 of 4 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Still an Excellent Card, April 5, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: 3dfx Voodoo2 1000 PCI Powered 3D Accelerator (Personal Computers)

Even though this card is only 12megs remember that it is a 3D accelerator that is added as an expansion of your regular video card. This card handles the 3D processing exclusively. As well, two card can be put together to give 24megs and double the processing power.

To correct a few mistakes by other reviewers. VooDoo2 works great with the latest DirectX. The only problem you might have is if you are using old drivers. Get the latest drivers from [their website]
In many ways there is more support for these cards now then when 3DFX was in business. The user base for VooDoo is huge.
This card is very easy to setup on any system. I have set it up on Windows95, 98, 2000 very fast and with no difficulty. It is one of the easiest to install expansion cards I have installed. As long as you have the latest drivers.

The other comment made by a reviewer here stated that this card was only good for Starcraft. Well Starcraft is not a 3D game. VooDoo does nothing for Starcraft, you cannot even use VooDoo to run Starcraft because Starcraft uses NO 3D technology. However I personally play Unreal with a single VooDoo2 12meg card and it flies on my K6-2 350.

The other benefit of having a VooDoo2 is that it runs games using GLide better and faster and with more features than newer 3D cards since such games were programmed specifically for VooDoo.