Voodoo2 SLI - did you own it?

[Sideswipe001]

People are disagreeing about how many people owned 2 Voodoo2s in SLI 'back in the day', so I wanted to start this poll to get a rough idea about ATers, and how many of us shelled out the dough for it.

 

[GimpyOne]

Yup, bought it with my brand new gateway system way back when! I remember I also opted for the all new giant 12gig hard drive and a whopping 128Mb of Ram. It was a monster system, the video cards had more ram then most of my friends entire computers at the time! Believe it or not I still have the working cards and the system is still running at home.

 

[mjuarez]

Well, I was saving for a couple of Diamond Monster Voodoo2, but I never got around to buying them. Oh, how I lusted after that SLI setup. I remember thinking Glide was the API of the future, until NVidia got its act together and starting giving 3DFX a very hard time with plain old OpenGL. Wow, that was a LONG time ago.

Marcos

 

[BlueWeasel]

I was into computers at the time, but not really into serious 3D gaming at the time. The first 3D card I ever purchased was a 16mb Banshee that I got for Christmas in 1998. It opened my eyes to GLQuake, Quake2, and Half-life over the next few months, and was the beginning of an expenstive addiction.

 

[Boogak]

I would have but I was just a poor college student back then. I did buy an Orchid Righteous 3D II from Fry's for $299 and I was planning on getting another for SLI goodness. But by the time I had the money, the Voodoo3's hit the market and I ended up getting a Voodoo3 2000 for $100 - which I financed by selling 1000 platinum on Everquest for $200 cold hard cash

Those were the good old days...

 

[imported_Hellbender]

My first 3D card was a 16 MB Riva TNT, which I got in '98 or so for Christmas. A few months later, I bought a 12 MB Voodoo2 so I could play Glide only games. Since I already had a TNT, I didn't see the point in having a second Voodoo2. Plus I was still in high school, so I couldn't afford another one with my part time job.

-H

 

[Mullzy]

I had a Diamond Monster 3d Voodoo2 for about 6 months and loved it... then bought another one to go SLI. I think I had the two 12mb cards but they might have been 8mb. Anyway... total was either 16mb or 24mb of 1024x768 action! (with only one voodoo2 you couldn't go above 800x600).

Good times...

 

[Mareg]

Oh yeah, I remember these joyfull days when I had my 2 Diamond monster in SLI. Unreal was such a great game on my setup. People used to come over my place just to watch me play !

 

[Alptraum]

I got two twelve meg Diamond cards right when they came out. Lmao, at the time that was like light years ahead of anything else out. It was amazing for its time. Pricey though. I still have them sitting on a shelf somewhere or in a box or something.

 

[capricorn]

I got a pair of them (generic Voodoo 1000 ones) at the tail end of their usefullnes so I could play Glide-enabled games. But also I got them with a brand spanking new fangled video cards called a "GeForce" from NVidia. (The original model - didn't even have a number; later called the GeForce 256, I think.) The GeForce was faster than the pair of Voodoo cards, so I ended up selling them on eBay.

 

[sandorski]

Vote Option unavailable.

Bought a single STB Blackmagic 12mb Voodoo 2, but never got around to buying the second card. The card blew me away in Quake 2, but especially in Unreal which was simply awe inspiring! I have never had such a dramatic experience before or since then.

 

[Gamingphreek]

Jeez my first graphics card would have to be a 2mb Number Nine card that i got with my first computer (I was in the 3rd grade and it was awesome ) However then my dad upgraded to the Matrox G200 and i was like holy sh!t!!! So then i got straight A's the rest of my 3rd grade year and my Uncle said he would give me a Diamond Monster 3d 4mb card but later he said he couldn't find it and went and got me a Voodoo 2 for 99 bucks. I almost fainted. About 2 years later after those cards were in use in a spare system i found a Voodoo 2 in a yard sale and my dad got it for me for a birthday present.

Ahhhh the good ol days.

-Kevin

 

[Jeff7]

Or another option - a 3d accelerator of any kind, single or dual card, was too expensive for me at the time.

 

[Schadenfroh]

my dad bought the 2 in SLI, i bought 1 voodoo2 12mb cause i did not have a job like he did at the time

 

[fsstrike]

I went from Monster 1 4mb, to TNT2, to GeForce3. x800/6800 next. I like to wait for BIG jumps

I never even considered the voodoo2, as it wasnt much better than the monster i alreay had for the money. Plus, I was only 6 or 7 at the time so I had no say Actually I cant even remember how old I was, all I know is that I got my montster 1 about the same time The need for speed 2 came out. Then not too much longer after that the v2 came out. I just remember asking my dad, and he said "No 8mbs isnt that much better than 4, wait for 16 or 32" and i did I didnt know that SLI was available either.

 

[Brian48]

I bought my first Creative 12mb V2 for $300. Shortly there after, I picked up my second for $249.95. Along the way, I had a Metabyte Wicked 3D 12mb V2, Diamond Monster 8mb V2 , STB Black Magic 12mb and two 3dfx V1000 12mb for a second SLI set. All of them came and went except for the original Creative cards, which I've kept and used up until the day I got my Visiontek GeForce3. I kept them in service even when I was running my 64mb Herc GF2. Recently, I had them running yet again when I put together a Win98SE machine for some "old school" gaming.

I still have the two Creative 12mb V2's in the closet. No doubt, one day again I may bring them back into service if I need real Glide support.

I still consider the V2 to be the greatest piece of hardware I ever got and as far as graphics cards go, the best I've used.

 

[imported_pak9rabid]

my first real vid card was some ghetto ass voodoo2 (12 MB) my dad ordered off of ebay for me way back when. man, getting a system that could run Glide was like the equivalent of the arms race between my friends and me. I had a friend who had the SLI config, but i was not too impressed. yeah he could run at 1024x768, but he was only getting like around 24 fps. I theorize this was because both voodoo2's made his system run EXTREMELY hot, as the voodoo2's (well, or any 3d accelerator for that matter) were't the coolest running pieces of hardware in the world. I went from the voodoo2, to a voodoo3 3000, then to a geforce 2 MX (boo!!), to my current geforce3 ti 200. i recently got the FX 5700LE from frys, but quickly returned it after deciding a new mobo/CPU would be a better idea. I will be upgrading to a 6800 as soon as the new wave of cards come out, as to drop them from the "fucking insane" price range.

 

[oldfart]

Had a Diamond Monster SLI setup. Paid $285 for the first card, and $185 for the 2nd one later on. Matrox Mill II was the 2D card. I was glad to eventually ditch the 3 card setup for a Voodoo 3 which was faster, had better IQ, heck of a lot cheaper.

 

[stimpyman77]

<-- Me goes and looks at my 4 Diamond Monster-12mb cards all wrapped so nicely in anti static bed sheets. Ah the memories..... I should Ebay'em or something... Gotta find something to do with them..

 

[Don Vito Corleone]

I had 2x Diamond Monster II 12 MB cards. I think I paid $299 for the first one and $279 for the second. I remember buying HS/fans for them as well, because I suffered heat-based problems with them, so my total was well over $600 for the pair. I also briefly had a Canopus V2, but got rid of it for some reason - I think it was also a heat issue. Probably a good thing, because it departed from the standard V2 design, and required a second Canopus for SLI.

Those were the days . . . Actually, NFS2-SE is still maybe my all-time favorite driving game, and it was only 3D-enabled through Glide. I'll have to see if I can find a Glide wrapper somewhere that will work . . .

 

[zephyrprime]

People over in the video thread sometimes assume that a whole lot of people used SLI back in the day but I got news for them: not a lot of people used it. Only a quarter in this poll and when you consider how not-typical Anandtech computer users are, you can imagine what the stats are like for the average computer user.

Only ~2% of people have a high end video card in the general market but ~50% of people on Anandtech do. So maybe only 0.5% of people in the general market had a SLI voodoo setup way back in the day.

 

[SonicIce]

I'm still using my Voodoo3 3000 right now. :laugh: Too bad im cpu bottlenecked at 300mhz. You guys should see Quake II!

Anyone know where to get a fan for this thing? It's about to burst into flames if I dont keep the case off with a floor fan on it. Not even overclocked.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: SonicIce
I'm still using my Voodoo3 3000 right now. :laugh: Too bad im cpu bottlenecked at 300mhz. You guys should see Quake II!

Anyone know where to get a fan for this thing? It's about to burst into flames if I dont keep the case off with a floor fan on it. Not even overclocked.

I think any cheapo GPU hs/fan should be more than sufficient(does it even have a fan?). Go down to a local PC hardware store and pick one up, though you might wanna measure around the GPU for anything that sticks up and might get in the way first.

 

[Need4Speed]

yep...i paid full price for both..299.00 a piece for the 12meggers. Funny how I justified it then, but can't justify 400 for a new one now.

 

[obeseotron]

Had a Monster 3D II 12MB with a 4mb riva 128, i upgraded to a tnt1 and stopped using the voodoo2 for anything but glide.