Determined enthusiasts are building a custom 3dfx graphics card — VoodooX has 32MB RAM and DVI output

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The still-ongoing project started in October 2022.

Latest shot of the custom Voodoo X GPU, now with a black PCB.
Latest shot of the custom Voodoo X GPU, now with a black PCB. (Image credit: @oscar_barea on Twitter)

Since October of 2022, user @oscar_barea on Twitter has been posting his ongoing progress on a customized vintage 3dfx Voodoo card. His custom "VoodooX" is based on the 3dfx VSA-100 GPU, which was used in a variety of 3dfx cards, including the 3dfx Voodoo4 4500 and Voodoo5 5500. This will not be one of the best graphics cards, not unless you want to roll back the clock to the late 90s, but it's a fun project regardless.

A vintage 3dfx Voodoo5 GPU was auctioned off for $15,000 early last year. Any prototypes of 3dfx hardware represent a piece of timeless computing history at this point, as the company and assets were sold to Nvidia after it went bankrupt in 2000. Prior to that ignominious end, however, 3dfx was one of the first and greatest names in consumer-accessible 3D acceleration.

According to @AshEvans81, who is also participating in the project, the card is using auctioned-off "new" VSA100 chips popularized by the Voodoo4 GPUs. This means that the modifications to get VoodooX running with 32MB RAM are still ultimately within the spec of VSA100 (the Voodoo4 4800 AGP boasted 64MB), though the original thread will show this still took a lot of effort to get working.

The project has required a lot of hard work and genuine dedication to retro PC hardware from both Oscar Barea and Ash Evans, and some of us have fond memories of the 3dfx Voodoo era. Not many people care to revive archaic GPUs from before the turn of the millennium, not to mention ordering boards to attempt to create a functional graphics cards with new capabilities.

The work here is truly impressive, in particular the new support for DVI video output. Anyone who's had to deal with analog VGA video knows that video quality is much lower than with the now mostly abandoned DVI interface, which was a precursor of sorts to the modern HDMI standard. The immediate visual improvement offered by DVI, even on this old hardware, looks quite nice.

The in-progress project is still limited to 32MB of RAM, but the hope is to have a switch that toggles between 32MB of RAM and 64MB of RAM. Once that hurdle is cleared, VoodooX could be the best Voodoo graphics card ever made. Just don't mind the 24-year gap, as these things... they take time.

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Christopher Harper
Christopher Harper
Contributing Writer

Christopher Harper has been a successful freelance tech writer specializing in PC hardware and gaming since 2015, and ghostwrote for various B2B clients in High School before that. Outside of work, Christopher is best known to friends and rivals as an active competitive player in various eSports (particularly fighting games and arena shooters) and a purveyor of music ranging from Jimi Hendrix to Killer Mike to the Sonic Adventure 2 soundtrack.

9 Comments Comment from the forums
  • King_V
    Ok, my past-life-as-an-English-major self is gonna nitpick here:

    His custom "VoodooX" is based on the 3dfx VSA-100 GPU, which was used in a variety of 3dfx Voodoo cards, ranging from Voodoo4 through Voodoo5.

    This should be written as: "which was used in the Voodoo4 4500 and Voodoo5 5500"

    It was only two cards, it wasn't used in anything in between, unless you're counting cards that were never released.
    Reply
  • JarredWaltonGPU
    King_V said:
    Ok, my past-life-as-an-English-major self is gonna nitpick here:



    This should be written as: "which was used in the Voodoo4 4500 and Voodoo5 5500"

    It was only two cards, it wasn't used in anything in between, unless you're counting cards that were never released.
    There were more than those two that got released, as there were PCI and AGP variants as well, though I've tweaked the text as the Voodoo4 4500 and Voodoo5 5500 were the main offerings (just in PCI and AGP formats). But saying "between" does muddy the waters somewhat. :)

    But yes, the 4000, 4800, 5000, and 6000 never were released to retail.

    https://www.techpowerup.com/gpu-specs/3dfx-vsa-100.g946
    Reply
  • Beerfloat
    This is cool but it might be good to mention that there is at least one maker of 3dfx re-issues out there already; Anthony AKA zxc64 has a bunch of interesting cards available for ordering, including Voodoo 4 4500 and 5 5500 equivalent cards that feature both VGA and HDMI outputs, some Voodoo 5 6000 alikes, and also some pretty cool other stuff like Rendition Verite, PowerVR and Savage cards.

    Not associated with the guy, other than having bought one of his Voodoo 5 5500s. He’s in Russia and the site isn’t very quick. But the product is legit.

    https://www.zxc64.com/
    Reply
  • dtemple
    These are neat projects, but I wish somebody would sort out the stability with the DDR memory controller that was intended for use in the V4 4800. Anything less than that, I'd prefer just using a wrapper honestly.
    Reply
  • LabRat 891
    Isn't the lithography process used in those VSA-100s pretty ancient?
    Any smaller-fabs that'd be willing to re-produce the chip?
    (Or, yet another 'hang up' from nVidia buying 3DFX?)

    Regardless, I'd be willing to shell out ~$100 for a PCI66 'new' Voodoo, and well over $100 for a PCIe slotable version w/ tunable PCI bridge clocks*.


    *I've seen/read that VSA-100 can operate up into IBM's 133Mhz PCI clockrange (or higher), with performance increases every step of the way.
    Reply
  • sitehostplus
    Ok, and when do Nvidia's lawyers get involved and shut this down?

    I'm thinking this probably violates a boatload of patents they hold.
    Reply
  • LabRat 891
    sitehostplus said:
    Ok, and when do Nvidia's lawyers get involved and shut this down?

    I'm thinking this probably violates a boatload of patents they hold.
    It's using already-manufactured(by 3DFX) GPU chips. There's no more issue here than folks throwing RV and Muscle Car V8s in Tube Steel DIY Chassis.

    No one is building the IP-protected part(s), they're just kitbashing/salvaging+re-using.


    The 'rub' would (potentially) come up if a fab/company wanted new silicon made (using 3DFX/nVidia IPs).

    Even then, it might need to be settled in court.
    I'm not sure if 3DFX's IP's (that nVidia inherited in the buyout) have technically expired.
    It's been decades since the buyout, and it may be difficult for nV to claim those IPs are still 'in use'.

    'Dunno. But, this project (and ZXC64's) aren't doing anything 'risky' in that regard.
    Reply
  • sitehostplus
    LabRat 891 said:
    It's using already-manufactured(by 3DFX) GPU chips. There's no more issue here than folks throwing RV and Muscle Car V8s in Tube Steel DIY Chassis.

    No one is building the IP-protected part(s), they're just kitbashing/salvaging+re-using.


    The 'rub' would (potentially) come up if a fab/company wanted new silicon made (using 3DFX/nVidia IPs).

    Even then, it might need to be settled in court.
    I'm not sure if 3DFX's IP's (that nVidia inherited in the buyout) have technically expired.
    It's been decades since the buyout, and it may be difficult for nV to claim those IPs are still 'in use'.

    'Dunno. But, this project (and ZXC64's) aren't doing anything 'risky' in that regard.
    IIRC, SLI was officially discontinued in 2019. I'm pretty sure there are patents Nvidia continues to hold.
    Reply
  • JarredWaltonGPU
    sitehostplus said:
    Ok, and when do Nvidia's lawyers get involved and shut this down?

    I'm thinking this probably violates a boatload of patents they hold.
    Technically these are just existing parts, being repurposed. It's not illegal to own and use a 3dfx card, nor is it illegal to modify such cards. I think this is honestly such a minute number of people involved and little to no money being made that it simply doesn't matter to Nvidia.

    Now if someone were to try to fabricate new 3dfx chips and boards, that would be a different matter. But even making new boards would be effectively meaningless. As noted above by @dtemple, people could just use wrappers to run Glide games on far more potent hardware.
    Reply