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3dfx Voodoo3 3000 AGP Graphics Accelerator

3dfx Voodoo3 3000 AGP Graphics Accelerator

List Price: $129.99
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Product Info Reviews

Features:
  • DirectX, Glide, and OpenGL support
  • 16-MB SDRAM
  • 7-million triangles per second, 333-megatexels per second
  • TV/S-Video out
  • DVD Hardware Assist


Description:

Fast and furious, 3dfx's Voodoo3 3000 card gives you blazing 3-D for the latest and most demanding games. If you're a hard-core gamer in search of the fastest 3-D action, then you'll want to get your hands on this gem of a graphics card.

The Voodoo3 3000's extensive feature set includes 3dfx's patented single pass, single cycle multi-texturing, dual 32-bit texture rendering pipeline, alpha blending, single pass, single-cycle bump mapping, gouraud shading, DVD hardware assist, 128-bit 2-D accelerator and--if that isn't enough for you--a TV/S-Video-out connector. With a core clock rate of 166 MHz and 350-MHz RAMDAC, this card offers impressive 3-D performance.

Installing the Voodoo3 3000 was a snap as the manual walks you step by step through the process. We tested the Voodoo3 3000 on a 333-MHz Celeron system with DirectX 6.1 at a resolution of 800 x 600. The card managed an impressive 58 frames per second in our Quake II time demo--very near 3dfx's claim of 60 frames per second.

We would love to see 3dfx support 32-bit color at some point in the future, especially since Quake III will support true-color textures. Additionally, 3dfx's Voodoo cards only support a 256 x 256 texture size, which will experience a decrease in image quality once game manufacturers begin supporting 2,048 x 2,048 texture sizes. However, 3dfx's advantage at this point lies in its proprietary Glide API (application program interface) and its clout within the 3-D graphics card arena--two good reasons why Voodoo3 3000 is a number one choice for those seeking the most intense gaming experience.

Pros:

  • Superb image quality
  • Impressive frame rate
  • Extensive game support
  • Glide API support

Cons:

  • No 32-bit output
  • Maximum memory of 16 MB
  • Limited by 256 x 256 texture size
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