- Q: If I have SLI should
I get a Voodoo3?
A: Your
choice, but the Voodoo3 is the next generation product in the
Voodoo family of products and clearly is the next level of
performance in the 3D arena. Voodoo3 offers several significant
advantages over Voodoo2 SLI that many users will find important
enough to choose to upgrade. The first of which is that Voodoo3
can render from 6 - 8 million triangles per second versus
Voodoo2SLI at 3 million, this enables the next generation of
highly complex games to scream at ultra high resolutions. Second,
the Voodoo3 3000 flat-out beats SLI in real-world game performance
and in industy-standard benchmarks; even the Voodoo3 2000 holds
its own against SLI. Next, Voodoo3 can display 3D in greater than
1024x768 mode and higher resolutions make for better-looking
content. If you haven’t played QuakeII at 1600x1200 you’re missing
something (sniping has never been so good). Also, Voodoo3 can also
display 3D in a window. Voodoo3 has integrated the world’s fastest
128-bit 2D engine and a high-performance video engine, too that
enables you to display resolutions up to 2048x1536 (dependant on
monitor support). With a fully-integrated solution you can free up
those two PCI slots and take advantage of the much faster AGP bus.
Finally, we’ve improved our color filtering in 16-bit modes since
Voodoo2 quite a bit: a discriminating eye will be able to see the
difference (see #11 below).
- Q: Can I use a
Voodoo3 with a Voodoo2?
A: Yes, but
why?. The Voodoo3 is a standalone product with 2D and 3D combined.
No other graphics card will be required.
- Q: Is Voodoo3
3D-only?
A: Voodoo3 is a 2D and 3D card. No other graphics card will be
required.
- Q: Will there be a
PCI version of Voodoo3?
A: Yes. The
Voodoo3 2000 will be available with a PCI bus or an AGP
bus.
- Q. Will you continue
to sell Voodoo-based boards to other board
makers?
A. 3Dfx will
continue to sell and support Voodoo2 and Voodoo Banshee chips to
our current add-in card and OEM customers.
- Q: Who will be
selling Voodoo3?
A: Voodoo3
will be sold by 3Dfx. Authorized distributors and retailers will
carry the products (examples include CompUSA, Best Buy, Electronic
Boutique, MicroCenter and Fry's).
- Q. When will 3Dfx
products hit the retail shelves? How many SKUs do you
expect?
A. We are
planning to launch the first 3Dfx branded products powered by our
recently announced Voodoo3 family of chips optimized for both the
retail and PC-OEM markets. Four SKUs will be shipped: the Voodoo3
2000 AGP, Voodoo3 2000 PCI, Voodoo3 3000 AGP, and the Voodoo3 3500
AGP. Expect the products to be available in the late March time
frame.
- Q: Are you going to
sell a 3D-only version of Voodoo3?
A: No. All
Voodoo3 cards will be 2D and 3D combined, but the performance of
the 3D is not lost in anyway with the combined card. Check out the
web site for the increased 2D and 3D performance!
- Q: What TV
resolutions will you handle?
A: NTSC and
PAL.
- Q: Why doesn't
Voodoo3 support more than 16MB?
A: A 16MB
frame buffer supports 1280x1024, 16bpp, triple buffered, 16bit
depth buffer, with 6MB of texture memory to spare. Voodoo3 will
also do full 3D rendering at 1600x1200! There is no need for 32MB
if 16MB produces same results! No popular games require 32 MB. Why
pay an extra $$ for an extra 16MB memory for no perceivable
benefit?
- Q: Why doesn't
Voodoo3 support 32b rendering, or large textures, or 32b
textures?
A: There are
two reasons: frame rate and image quality. Frame rate is the
single most important feature that a gaming platform can provide,
and not just average frame rate but sustained frame rate. How many
times have you been wiped out in a death match when your frame
rate suddenly drops as a number of characters and weapons enter
the scene? 32bpp rendering with full 32bpp frame buffer accesses
requires twice the memory bandwidth of 16bpp frame buffer accesses
regardless of the graphics engine: higher banchwidth requirement
means lower frame rate. As for image quality, we’ve gone to great
lengths to make games look great in 16bpp mode. We actually do the
rendering calculations internally at 32 bits to have full
precision with the16-bit operands. Then, instead of simply
truncating the results to 16 bits for saving in the frame buffer
we use a proprietary filtering algorithm that retains nearly the
full precision of the color value. The result is something that
rivals ANY full 32-bit rendering, only it goes a lot faster. We
think that’s what gamers really want.
- Q:That OS's will be
supported?
A: Windows 95,
Windows 98, and Windows NT 4.0.
- Q: Can I get the
143MHz board with TV?
A: The Voodoo3
3000 and Voodoo3 3500 are the only boards that will support TV out
through and S-Video connector. We’ll also make an RCA “dongle”
available.
- Q: Why do I have to pay for LCD
(DFP) output with the 183MHz product when I don't have
one!
A: As you may know the need for
Digital Flat Panel support is a growing and will likely become a
standard very soon. The Voodoo3 3500 card also allows a user to
run their VGA monitor and the DFP monitor at the same time. If you
currently do not have a DFP monitor, then this card will prepare
you for one in the future.
- Q: Will the Voodoo3 3500 still
have support for regular monitors? In the Specs it indicated
support for Digital Flat Panel Monitors.
A: The Voodoo3 3500 will have
support for all regular monitors and Digital Flat Panel (DFP)
monitors as well as support for TV output for an NTSC or PAL TV.
- Q: What is the highest color depth
available for the 3D output? Is it still 16-bit color or has it
been updated to 32-bit color?
A: The Voodoo3 uses internal
rendering calculations @ 32bpp with a proprietary compression
algorithm to store results at 16bpp. This gives us the best of
both worlds: high color depth and low memory bandwidth!
- Q: It also stated it has DVD
Hardware Assist. I currently have a DVD Hardware Decoder card.
When I purchase a Voodoo3 will I be able to remove the original
DVD Decoder card and play DVD movies directly thru the Voodoo 3
Card?
A: You can still use your original DVD decoder card. The
Voodoo3 card will just make the DVD decoding operate faster. By
integrating offers planar-to-packed conversion in hardware the
Voodoo3 offers full 30 fps (frames per second) MPEG-2 Playback
with no dropped frames, and Soft DVD support for all major
CODECs.
- Q:
Are all versions of the Voodoo3 going to be compatible with
super 7 motherboards, I would make sure to have full
compatibility because of the upcoming K6-3?
A:
Yes. All Pentium based motherboards and AMD motherboards will be
supported.
- Q: Will you offer trade ins for
those who want to upgrade from a voodoo2 to a voodoo3?
A: We
don’t have plans for a trade-in program.
- Q: Will there be a Voodoo3 4000?
When will it be out? Will there be a PCI version of all Voodoo3
boards?
A: As for PCI versions of the 3000
and 3500, we don’t think that there will be much market demand.
However, if that’s what end-users tell us that’s what they really
want we can change the product mix. Voodoo3 4000? Sorry, can’t
comment on un-announced cool stuff.
- Q: Will the Voodoo3 support Linux
as anticipated your flash presentation on the website didn’t
mention it, only the windows platforms.
A: We’re looking really closely at
Linux as a gaming OS: it’s become popular in many areas. However,
we can’t make any official comments one way or the other about
potential future products like Linux drivers.
- Q. Are the Voodoo3 2000, -3000 and
–3500 based on the same chip? What are the differences?
A. The –3000 operates at 166 MHz
and produces 333 million telexes (megatexels) per second, while
the –3500 operates at 183MHz and produces 366 megatexels per
second.
- Q. Will 3Dfx have a Mac-version of
Voodoo3?
A. Just as there are Voodoo2
boards for the Mac, the Voodoo3 can also be a Mac graphics
solution. We have received very positive response from Mac-Voodoo2
users and will continue to provide solutions for that platform.
Currently, we are discussing this option with some of our board
partners.
- Q. At Comdex, you introduced
Voodoo3 as a 125MHz chip and a 183MHz chip. Why the
change?
A. When we put Voodoo3 into
production, three things happened which we think are very exciting
for consumers and hard-core gamers.
First, we discovered that we could
beat our projected internal clock rate of our entry-level chip, so
we decided to power the Voodoo3 2000 with a faster 143MHz chip.
This still is offered under the price point we had pegged for the
125MHz chip, so it’s a real bonus for consumers.
Second, we were able to yield
excellent performance from a 166MHz version of the chip, so it
made sense to make that the heart of the Voodoo3 3000, the
high-end mainstream product. The Voodoo3 3000 offers
industry-leading performance for the vast majority of game
enthusiasts, and promises to be an enormously popular product for
us. We think consumers will agree that it’s a tremendous value and
very powerful graphics accelerator.
Third, we discovered that the 183MHz
chip again yields performance that exceeds even our expectations.
Based on the relative performance of this chip versus the other
Voodoo3 chips (not to mention the technology available from our
competitors), it was clear that this processor was an ideal engine
to drive the Voodoo3 3500 product. The –3500 is an ideal product
for hard-core gamers who demand the ultimate in performance and
interactivity.
- Q. When will 3Dfx offer AGP
4X?
A. We’ve announced that a 4X
member of the Voodoo3 family will be available to our OEM partners
in time to intercept the debut of AGP 4X in the market.
- Q. When will the AGP 4X board be
available?
A. The AGP 4X member of the
Voodoo3 family is timed to ship with the high-volume ramp of the
first 4X AGP chipsets.
- Q. Does Voodoo3 support
anisotropic filtering?
A. When we launched at Comdex ‘98,
this was primarily a software feature which we decided not to
productize after having reviewed the resulting image quality that
it provided.
- Q. Does Voodoo3 support full scene
anti-aliasing?
A. This is another primarily
software feature that is under review.
- Q. With the introduction of
Voodoo3, will there be any revisions made to
Glide?
A. We use Glide to tie together
all of our hardware offerings with a common API. Glide 3.0 has
recently been released and Voodoo3 is fully Glide 3.0 compatible.
Voodoo3 is also fully backward compatible with the older Glide 2.X
API.
- Q. Will Glide be updated prior to
the release of Voodoo3?
A. There will be unique Glide
drivers for Voodoo3; however, the core Glide functionality and
programming interface will be unchanged for Voodoo3.
- Q. Does Voodoo3 have any special
support for AMD’s K6-2 and 3DNow! instructions?
A. We have worked diligently with
AMD to insure that our drivers for Voodoo3 as well as drivers for
Voodoo Banshee and Voodoo2 will get the maximum possible benefit
from the 3DNow! instruction set. You can even see several AMD
K6-3D systems in our booth today!
- Q. Are you providing optimizations
for Pentium III? How about optimizations for Pentium
II?
A. Collaborating with Intel, we
optimized current and future Voodoo products for the Pentium III
processor, enabling consumers to enjoy greater levels of realism
in their games and entertainment content. All of the application
programming interfaces (APIs) supported by Voodoo3 - including
Microsoft's Direct X6, Glide from 3Dfx and OpenGL from Silicon
Graphics - have been optimized for the Pentium III processor. As a
result, content developers can incorporate more intricate models
and scenes, and apply significantly greater realism to the
movements of characters and objects.
As for Pentium II, with Voodoo Banshee
we introduced a patent to directly handle out-of-order commands
from the Pentium II so that there are no CPU stalls. This hardware
optimization results in as much as a 15 percent performance
improvement.