On past the chipsets and cards, we look deeper into the 3dfx history to find the API. The API is the basic set of instructions for rendering the sequence of events sent to the video card. 3dfx cards used the ever popular Glide. The API is the main product that game developers are interested in. Glide was the industry standard during the early days, and a good thing for 3dfx. Glide was specific to 3dfx cards, and if the programmers for a game did not program in anything except Glide, then users without a 3dfx card were out of luck as far as hardware acceleration goes. This helped 3dfx to overpower the market. Eventually new API's were released, notably DirectX from Microsoft. In today's world, the main API based system used is probably DirectX, but many games are also coded for OpenGL support. The next big product on the market was the Voodoo 2. The Voodoo 2 came out in March of 1998, and it showed big improvements in speed over the Voodoo Rush and Voodoo 1. The Voodoo Rush came with a 50 MHz core, and for the most part 8 mb of video memory. I am sure you are laughing about that, but in its time, this was pretty good. The new Voodoo 2 supported resolutions of up to 1024x768, and boasted a nice 3.6GB/second memory bandwidth. It came with 12 mb of video memory, and featured a 90MHz core clock, much improved over the 50MHz core of the first gen cards. The Voodoo 2 was 3dfx in its prime. Life was good, gamers were happy, and money was being made. After six months of sitting on top of the world, 3dfx came out with another integrated 2d/3d card known as the Voodoo Banshee. This card boasted an even better 100 MHz core speed, but 3dfx cut out the multi-texturing unit. Most users with Voodoo 2's were satisfied with their current product, and did not attempt to mess with the Banshee. The Banshee was outperformed by the Voodoo 2, and frankly wasn't worth the money. The Banshee and the Rush were two good examples of mistakes 3dfx made. Neither card contained a multi-texturing unit, and both cards were outperformed by older models. These cards faded with time. Another six months, another card. The Voodoo 3, released in April of 1999, came back with a multi-texturing unit and ironically enough, was a big success. I see a pattern developing here . This card also came in a few different flavors. The lower end card, the Voodoo 3 2000, came with a core speed of 143 MHz. The next step up, the Voodoo 3 3000, came with a core speed of 166 MHz. The Voodoo 3 was also the first series of video cards to feature AGP support. The Voodoo 3 could be bought in PCI and AGP form. Shortly thereafter, the Voodoo 3 3500 was released, featuring TV-out, and a core speed increase up to 183 MHz. At this point in the 3d world, 3dfx began losing ground to rival companies. 3dfx still reigned supreme, but it was evident at this point that they needed to do something fast to silence the competition. Nvidia's TNT 2 was on a higher level than the latest Voodoo's, boasting 32 bit rendering, while Voodoo cards still only produced 16/22 bit. Many users at this point began to switch from the Voodoo to the Nvidia chipsets. In October of 1999, Nvidia released the GeForce 256. 3dfx failed to show up for the game. The Voodoo 4 and 5 had been very anticipated, and they were late in arrival. Not good for the 3dfx pocketbook. Voodoo fans became tired of waiting after continuous delays. Once the Voodoo 4 and 5 were finally released, they were applauded, but there is a price to pay for being fashionably late. They were nice cards, but they failed to accomplish the task at hand: Silence the competition. To sum up the cards in a nutshell, 3dfx simply added more graphic processors and ram, which made beefing up the card simple. They also added 32 bit rendering, and incredible anti aliasing support. The fourth and fifth gen Voodoo cards finally had delivered all the features that 3dfx fans had been craving. If only they had been sooner. However, in many viewers eyes the Voodoo 5 5500 was king of video cards. Being king often comes with a fancy price tag, and the Voodoo 5 was no exception, especially considering that an equivilant GeForce card could be purchased at half the price. 3dfx was in money trouble. They had lost their market, and did not have the funds to stay in business much longer. All they had going for them was an incredible project codenamed "Rampage." From what I heard during its creation, this card would have dominated the industry, and once again crowned 3dfx king of video. Sad to say, the Rampage card never made it into production. The Voodoo 5 6000 was the last production 3dfx product made, and it was a rare find. It was mostly sold for server purposes, and contained four graphic processors, with 128 mb of video memory. At the time 3dfx went out of business, they were still ahead of the game in many aspects. Their cards featured technology way ahead of its time, as well as incredible amounts of memory. Over 2 years after the release of the Voodoo 5 was the first time we saw more than 64 mb of ram in a retail graphics card. The anti aliasing capabilities of the Voodoo 5 were also superior to many cards released over a year afterward. 3dfx had incredible technology, but the market and their bank account simply did not allow them to share it with us. To finally point out just how far ahead 3dfx was, the upcoming GeForce 5 card will feature technology that would have been in the 3dfx Rampage. This technology will be over 3 years old when it is released, and it will still be ahead of the industry. Looking back at history often makes you wonder what lies ahead...
