What makes Voodoo5 6000s so good?

[idNut]

I've heard a lot of controversy about those cards. I got rid of a Voodoo5 5500 PCI about six months ago because I was tired of the driver problem after 3dfx went out. What can be done to these cards that makes them so expensive and great? I personally loved 3dfx just because of the name and the Voodoo3 2000 PCI I got (My first video card) when I was 14. So if you could fill me in, I'd appreciate it.

 

[tapir]

The cards are expensive because they're all engineering samples. The Voodoo5 6000 was never actully released but there were a bunch of working samples floating around. It's the equivalent of what would happen if nVidia went out of business tomorrow, people would sell the sample Geforce FXs that have been showed at demos etc to each other as collectors items.

Unless I'm mistaken the 6000 is nothign to speak of by today's standards performance-wise. You can look up benchmarks if you care to.

 

[EdipisReks]

the 6000 is about on par with a geforce2 ultra. as was said, it is the rarity of the card that makes it "valuable". it's also kinda neat seeing a card that is so freaking long!

 

[spanky]

it's so good becuz u can ebay it for $900 now.

 

[Rand]

It's not so much that's it's great.... indeed outside of it's FSAA capabilities the V5 6000 is rather mediocre to very poor by modern standards in most respects.
It's merely the fact that it's so rare, and such an unusual piece of hardware that makes it popular.

It's pretty much strictly a collectors item.... similar to Bitboys Glaze3D samples, Pentium 60/66MHz with the FDVIV bug.

 

[idNut]

I see, so they're just collector's items? I got a 3dfx hat to show that I'm a fan, no need to throw away $900. I miss 3dfx.

 

[spanky]

Originally posted by: idNut
I see, so they're just collector's items? I got a 3dfx hat to show that I'm a fan, no need to throw away $900. I miss 3dfx.

i bet u can get like $50 for it on ebay. hahaha

 

[mrman3k]

I see no use in collecting old hardware as it is useless. I am a firm believer in efficiency and I would take a R9700 over a V56000

 

[SFang]

The price reflects its value, not its performance. After two years from now, R9700 would only worth $100, but V56000 may worth $2000 or more.

 

[idNut]

Originally posted by: spankyOO7

Originally posted by: idNut
I see, so they're just collector's items? I got a 3dfx hat to show that I'm a fan, no need to throw away $900. I miss 3dfx.

i bet u can get like $50 for it on ebay. hahaha

I'd probably never sell that hat since I've been in a car accident in it where my head smashed against the passenger window and the hat flew out on the road. That happened in the morning and it wasn't until about 4:00 in the evening the next day that I went and found it on the road with glass and rocks in it. I am very fortunate to have it and it's still in pretty good condition, too. I also got one of the 3dfx foreign shirts off of eBay that says "So fast it's kind of ridiculous" in some language. Yep, maybe my name should be 3dfxnut.

 

[sandorski]

Originally posted by: SFang
The price reflects its value, not its performance. After two years from now, R9700 would only worth $100, but V56000 may worth $2000 or more.

Actually, not too long ago they were selling for $2k! The Voodoo5 6000 was probably the most anticipated vidcard ever that didn't see the light of day on the market. It was, in it's day, what the Radeon 9700Pro is today, a competition killer(not that anybody would have gone under, just performance wise). It's also an extreme oddity in the sense that it had 4 gpus for a consumer market. The Voodoo5 5500 was also an oddity with 2 gpus, but the 6000 was twice as odd.

In short, the card is somewhat of a legend, even if it doesn't offer much compared to current cards.

 

[idNut]

Anyone see the Voodoo5 lunchboxes on eBay? Look pretty cool and might be worthy for my collection.

 

[spanky]

Originally posted by: idNut
Anyone see the Voodoo5 lunchboxes on eBay? Look pretty cool and might be worthy for my collection.

really? i'm gonna check it out... i need to replace my old school transformers lunchbox

EDIT - dude! i wannit!

 

[kylebisme]

Originally posted by: SFang
The price reflects its value, not its performance. After two years from now, R9700 would only worth $100, but V56000 may worth $2000 or more.

for people whose god is the almighty dollar that is, personaly i would still rather have a r9700.

 

[BFG10K]

What can be done to these cards that makes them so expensive and great?

The card isn't inherently great at all, it's just limited edition so that makes it a collector's item. About the only redeeming feature is its 8x FSAA support which pretty much no other consumer video card has.

 

[Rand]

Originally posted by: mrman3k
I see no use in collecting old hardware as it is useless. I am a firm believer in efficiency and I would take a R9700 over a V56000

I collect old hardware that's rare or especially innovative for the time..... but I believe in doing so at a reasonable cost. If I had $900 to spend, I wouldnt even consider throwing it away on the V5 6000, if it spent it on a graphics card at all it'd definitely be the R9700Pro.
That said, I'm all for buy 'collectors' hardware when it can be found at a reasonable price.