Mac 3D Game Card Roundup: I've posted an article comparing the performance of the VillageTronic MP960, Voodoo3 3000/2000 PCI, ATI's Rage128 Orion and Formac's Proformance 3 in 3D games, Macbench and movie playback at: http://www.xlr8yourmac.com/Graphics/MP960/. Also included are important driver installation notes on the MP960 as well as comparisons of AGP cards in the new Apple G4 AGP system. Included is a 'bang for the buck' (or $$ per FPS) value rating.

Dual Voodoo2s on One Card - First Obsidian X24 Mac Tests: I've tested Quantum's dual Voodoo2 SLI card (two Voodoo2s on one PCI Card) in my G4/450 AGP system. As noted in my review of the X24 last year in a PC (no generic mac Voodoo2 drivers were available then) - these cards run hot and may not be a good choice for many macs without added cooling. This card was from a bargain bin at a reader's local CompUSA (under $100 he said - a rare find).

The G4 case, like the B&W G3s, has a large fan blowing on the PCI slots which seems to help. In limited tests so far at 100MHz (using a voodoo2.var) file I've seen no problems. As noted in my Voodoo2/SLI article, Quake1 doesn't run but Unreal, Quake2 and Q3test ran fine with excellent performance. Scores from the stock Rage128 AGP and a 166MHz Voodoo3 AGP card tested in the same G4/450 AGP system are included for comparison:

For Mac owners with a single monitor who don't want to lose DVD player functionality but still want better game performance than the Rage128, a Voodoo2 is still an attractive option. As noted in my original Obisidan X24 review, the 'medusa' passthru cable had poor monitor image quality at higher resolutions, but looked OK here on an IBM LCD at 1024x768 (running it on a non-LCD would be a better test of sharpness however). For more on Voodoo2 and SLI mode, see my Voodoo2 review posted several months back.

3Dfx to Announce Napalm Cards at Comdex: 3dfx has a press release concerning 'Napalm' (aka Voodoo4) announcements to be made at COMDEX 99. Interesting quotes include the comment "Chief among these features will be a focus on fill-rate and the ability to achieve over one billion pixels per second."

UT DEMO PATCH: Westlake Interactive has appx. 1MB Unreal Tournament Demo patch that according to reports in my 3Dfx forum, fixes problems some people had with the game crashing. Note the 50MB demo first release has only Glide (3dfx) and software mode support. Here's a direct download link to the patch.

Mac 3Dfx Forums Posts Reminder: Keep in mind that negative posts at 3dfxgamers.com's Mac forum hurt our cause (as does mirroring the UT Demo at other sites I'm told). These posts can taint their impressions of all Mac owners, which might affect future mac product development. 3Dfx's public Voodoo3 and Voodoo2 drivers have been a boon to Mac gamers (for once we can get card pricing the same as the PC). I know we're all hoping for a Mac Voodoo4 right now, but remember your comments in their forum can help or hurt the image of Mac owners with their brass - who may use those comments and reactions in deciding future Mac product development.

If not for the 3Dfx drivers and low-cost PC Voodoo2 and Voodoo3 cards - where would we get the kind of high performance gaming at these prices now? (Voodoo2 2000 PCI Cards are as low as $85 - I paid $95 for a OEM Voodoo3 3000 at a PC show recently). Try getting that level of performance elsewhere for even twice the price. Let's not destroy the relationship with one company that has tried to provide us with low-cost, high performance hardware. I for one am thankful for their free driver releases and look forward to future products from them for the Mac.

(6:30 PM) The 3dfxgamer.com Mac Unreal Tournament demo (50MB) is available now - very heavy server load there all day today. Minimum System Requirement is a 200 MHz 604 w/64MB or RAM and OS 8; Recommended system is a 3dfx Voodoo3 2000 PCI (or faster) and G3/400MHz w/128MB of RAM.

3dfx has posted new articles on interviews with Bryan Speece (their Mac products director) and Kathy Tafel (Apple Computer's partnership manager for worldwide developer relations). Interesting reading.

Mac Unreal Tournament Demo: Watch 3dfx's 3dfxgamers.com site today for the release of the Mac Unreal Tournament demo. They also have a page of UT screenshots and framerates comparing Glide to software mode and an interview with game developer Mark Adams of Westlake Interactive. They also have an article on improved state of Mac Gaming.

Voodoo cards/TRIII Demo Exit Tip: The main site game news page on Thursday had reader tip that hitting return (vs mouse) allowed exiting the demo normally with a Voodoo3 card.

3Dfx Comments on MacTell Closing:

"We are sad to hear that Mactell has closed its doors and will no longer be supplying products to the Mac market. It is unfortunate that business conditions did not allow them to continue operating, as we know many Mac users were waiting for the EvilEye Voodoo3 product that was scheduled to be released in the near future. We believe this product would have had a very positive impact on the Mac market, raising the standard for 3D graphics on the platform.

Now, more than ever, 3dfx is showing its support for the Mac platform. We are committed to delivering the fastest, highest performance graphics controllers that Mac users have ever seen, the same way as we've always done on the Mac and other CPU's. The Mac is growing as a game platform and anywhere there's gaming going on, there's a market for 3dfx's superior performance. That's not to say that other Macintosh segments won't also be the beneficiary. Design, Publishing and Authoring professionals won't mind having blazing 2D performance available to them in their work along with the ability to blast away at their favorite game when they finish.

We're going to make sure that our technology is available to Mac users in reasonable timeframes and at fair market prices. We don't see Mac users as second class citizens - we think they want and deserve the same levels of performance available to users of other platforms, and that's really what we're dedicated to.

Whether we do that by going directly to the end-user with our own retail product or by selling our components to Mac specialists is something we continually reassess. In the end 3dfx is going to assure users that they will benefit from high performance graphics on their Macs - and that's what really matters. "

I know I and many thousands of Mac owners are thankful 3dfx released their drivers for Voodoo2 and Voodoo3 cards. This signalled the end of our platform behing held hostage literally by pricing and supply issues we've suffered in the past. Although I'm sad to see Mactell go, I'm still excited and very positive about the future of Mac 3dfx graphics cards.

Check the Game News and www.xlr8yourmac.com news page for updates on Mac voodoo3 cards, reader requests for game/card issues and OS 9 audio and game performance comments.

Gamecenter.com has new screenshots from the latest build of QuakeIII.

See the www.xlr8yourmac.com today for the latest info on Mactell Voodoo3 card backorders and VillageTronic's new Voodoo3 cards availability.

MacTell Closes Doors? I've been offline this morning but was just flooded with reader mail on web comments that Mactell has closed their doors [Update: Here's a link to the PR Newswire article]. Peter Cohen of MacGaming sent a note they have an article on Mactell calling it quits. I had heard these rumors last week from friends in Texas, but had hoped it was not true. I guess that means VillageTronic is our only hope for retail Voodoo3 cards. A friend says that a few guys from MacTell have formed Rantick Labs and have taken over the Firepower line of products, but it looks like there will be no Voodoo3 cards.

BTW - I received a Voodoo3 3000 PCI card to and will try to do some quick tests in the G4/450 to see the difference in PCI vs AGP card performance. Owners of Rage128 AGP cards that need higher performance while keeping the AGP Rage128 for DVD may find the Voodooo3 PCI attractive. 4:50 PM Update

Voodoo2 Tweaking Reminder: Voodoo2 ini/var file tweaks can add real performance boost in some games. As shown on my Voodoo2 Tweaking page I saw up to a 35% framerate boost in some games (Quake1 was the biggest gainer). Remember that with the 3dfx drivers the tweaking file must be named voodoo2.var (non-3dfx drivers use voodoo2.ini).

Update: I solved my G4/AGP Rage128 slowdown in Quake2 (anytime there was an explosion the framerate dropped to a slide show) by reinstalling the game. Just reverting/replacing the refgl.lib with the original one (to make sure it was not the multitexturing library) didn't help. I can only guess the config file was the reason for the slowdown with the Rage128 (I had run the Voodoo3 3000 with the game and MesaLibs). I've updated the Voodoo3 3000 AGP vs Rage128 AGP table below with the Q2 results.

First VT owner feedback on the new VillageTronic banshee drivers/ROM is hard to believe:

"Hi Mike,
I downloaded the drivers and - WOW! The frame rate boost was nearly 75%. The only bad thing about it is that the rom-patcher is a very ordinary app, but it works if you know your ram-type - ADS or ELITE. Carmageddon ran very jerky on my Machine (Umax Pulsar upgraded to G3/450 with 512MB Ram and 2x9,1GB IBM) but after this update i am able play every level at the highest detail settings fluently. Thanks for your great site!
Mendel Kucharzeck "

VillageTronic Banshee (MP850/750/MacMagic Pro) Rave/Glide/ROM updates! VT has just posted a RAVE driver as well as a ROM and Glide driver update for their banshee based cards. Get them via the links at http://www.villagetronic.com/mac/support/. Based on some insider info some time back, I suspect the ROM update may show significant boosts. I welcome feedback on the new drivers from card owners (compare the scores to those in my Game Rocket review)

Voodoo3 Beta5 Drivers Faster: The main site Game News page has a reader report the new drivers are 5-10% faster even at the same clock speed and a note on VillageTronic's new Voodoo3 cards (coming soon?). Thursday's news area there also lists tests of the Voodoo3 (early beta drivers) performance against the Proformance 3 OpenGL beta drivers.

I hate to ask, but due to some corrupted files, can those that submitted site design samples for the contest please send a URL to their sample again? Some files were damaged and I want to make sure that I see all examples. Sorry for the delay, I feel like a firefighter with a squirtgun lately...

Request for G4Timedemo Scores: [Update: Althought some Voodoo card owners reported problems getting G4TimeDemo to work, some Voodoo2 or 3 owners have posted framerates in the FPS Database. Don't forget to note your resolution and quality setting. Thanks! ] I've added G4TimeDemo (get it at Andy Watter's mirror site - 4MB+ download) as a selection in my Mac Framerates Database.

Half-Life Petition and Poll: Jeffrey Gay sent a note that Gamespot has a Mac Half-Life poll and there is also a Mac Half-Life Petition started at demandmac. Please get out and vote!

Cooled Voodoo3 2000 running 166/166MHz: I've added about 30 more new entries (over 500 total now) into my Mac Game Framerates searchable database. Some of the latest entries include G4 Yikes systems and even includes scores for Nathan Taylor's cooled Voodoo3 2000 PCI running the Voodoo3 3000's 166/166MHz ROM. Nathan used a Tennmax Stealth Voodoo3 Cooler (reviewed by Randall Markarian here). To find Nathan's scores select Unreal as the game (optionally select a resolution) and 'Apple G4 AGP Slot' as the Mac system on the search page. I'd not suggest running the standard card at that speed, as the memory and heatsink may not be up to the task. Based on scores (if he used my Unreal.ini file), the faster clock speed only increased 1024x768 mode performance by less than 1 FPS, so it may not be worth the risk or extra cost of the cooler. (Other resolutions/games may show different results). Nathan wrote he saw a 5-10% increase on his system after the overclock:

"Mike,
After getting the latest b5 Mac drivers for the Voodoo3 cards, I decided I would try to flash the ROM of my Voodoo3 2000 PCI card with the Voodoo3 3000 166MHz ROM image. I've been running my V3 with the Tennmax V3 Fighter Cooler almost from day one, so I wasn't overly concerned with overclocking my V3. In the G4 with the Tennmax cooler, it should receive adequate heat dissipation. Well, it worked, and I saw Unreal framerates increase 5-10%. The results have been posted to your game database.
-Nathan Taylor "

I've asked Nathan if he used my Unreal.ini file during the tests (linked on the FPS entry page).

Voodoo3 Beta5 Drivers: 3Dfx has released a beta5 set of drivers for the Voodoo3 that include a Voodoo3 3000 ROM at 166MHz. (BTW - the Voodoo3 3000 AGP tests below were run at 166/166.) Changes/Fixes in Beta5:

• Added ROM support for Voodoo3 3000 PCI cards [166MHz Chip and Memory clock]
• Fixed hang when selecting newsgroups in Diiva
• Hopefully finally fixed problems with CLUT [Color Lookup table] entries being mis-programmed in very high refresh display modes.

Remember to always update the ROM when using updated drivers and check the readme files for more info.

The main www.xlr8yourmac.com news page today has results of tests with Apple's G4/AGP DVD software player and mixed video cards (including a Voodoo3 AGP/Rage128 PCI two monitor setup).

Voodoo 3000 AGP vs Rage128 AGP in Apple G4/450: I ran a few quick tests of an OEM Voodoo3 3000 AGP card in a new Apple G4/450 AGP system (128MB RAM, VM on, standard extension set as shipped). [Note: I had to install a PCI Rage128 Orion card to provide video until I flashed the Voodoo3 AGP card with the Mac ROM, since as noted in my Voodoo3 review you'll get no video from the card until rebooting with a Mac ROM in the card.] As I noted earlier yesterday and have shown in many video card reviews, the Rage128 chip is saturated even with a fast G3 CPU. Tests with the Voodoo3 show that the Rage128 is a significant bottleneck in 3D games with the G4 system as you'll see below in the table of results.

What was surprising was the Macbench 5 scripted application simulation test results. Due to using an LCD display, 1024x768 was the max resolution I could run but I'll followup later with higher resolution tests.

Game tests showed the Voodoo3 3000 was often more than twice as fast as the Rage128 AGP card. Since I've seen similar results in my past reviews, this was not really surprising. The Rage128 AGP scores used OS 9 with a fresh install of Quake2 from the CD. The Voodoo3 scores used the multitexturing refgl.lib update (not compatible with the Rage128).

All game settings were the same as posted on the entry page of my Mac Game Framerate database entry page. Unreal was run with my standard Rave or 3dfx Unreal.ini file (available for download on the entry page).

The Voodoo3 can't run Quake 1 3dfx due to code issues in the game and I didn't have the RAVE 3dfx voodoo2 extension installed at the time of the tests.

Voodoo3 3000 PCI The press release from 3Dfx just went out regarding a Voodoo3 3000 PCI card which runs at 166/166MHz (CPU/memory clock) vs the 143/143 of the 2000 card. The existing Voodoo3 mac drivers/rom should work fine, but the clock speed would still be 143/143, as a new ROM would be required to run the card at its faster speed (or some sort of tweaker app.) Watch for the press release to be posted at www.3dfxgamers.com or www.3dfx.com.

G4/450 AGP Game Scores: I've added Unreal, Quake1 Rave and Q3test 1.08 framerate scores to from a 'as shipped' Apple G4/450 AGP system to my Mac Game FPS searchable database. The Rage128 is obviously a bottleneck as shown in the scores which were somewhat disappointing. The system felt very responsive and I want to test with a Voodoo3 that is not as fill rate limited as the Rage128. The Quake1 and Unreal 1024x768 scores were less than 1 fps faster than a B&W G3/400 with a Rage128 in the 66MHz slot (an obvious sign the Rage128 was already saturated with the G3). To see my entries - select a game title and then select 'Apple G4 AGP Slot' as the mac system when you search.

Updated Voodoo3 Drivers: As noted on Friday, 3Dfx was to update the Voodoo3 drivers early this week to address the HRM extension bug. Bryan Speece notes other improvements:

"Mike,
We've already posted the 1.0b4 drivers that should fix the problems that some of the users were experiencing with the drivers we posted on Friday. And, while we were at it, we tweaked the 2D in a few apps and fixed a TypeStyler issue.
-Bryan "

Get the latest drivers at 3dfxgamers.com mac driver page.

Voodoo3 3000 PCI Coming: The V3 3000 card normally runs at 166/166MHz (Chip/Memory clock speeds), vs 143/143 in the 2000 model. Macs will require a new ROM version to run the higher clock speeds.

Voodoo3: Customizing Your Monitor Refresh Rates: Many readers reported after updating to the beta3 version of the Voodoo3 drivers they 'lost' some refresh rates (i.e. 85Hz no longer a selection in some modes, only 75Hz). I asked Ken Dyke of 3dfx about this and here are his comments:

"The previous versions (Beta1 and Beta2) of the ROM would essentially always have every single mode we supported marked as valid. This wasn't really a problem with Beta1 and Beta2 because the mode list was fairly small (only 28 modes or so). However, with Beta3 we now support over 60 display modes. If we were to mark every mode available by default then what would happen is that the "Recommended" resolutions would wind up being the highest refresh rate modes in every resolution we support, which would mean that the "default" 640x480 refresh rate would be 160Hz (probably not a good idea). The only way users would be able to run at a lower refresh rate would be to use the "All" popup button in Monitors & Sound to make the lower refresh rate modes show up. However, that would mean that they'd have to deal with seeing all 60+ display modes as well, which also isn't very user friendly.

The way that the Beta3 drivers work is that by default we chose a very "safe" set of modes that are always valid, which doesn't really include anything above 75Hz in most cases. If the user has a DDC compliant monitor, then other modes will be automatically enabled based on what information MacOS can figure out from the monitor's EDID information. However, this sortof hoses folks (like me) that have some monitors that don't support DDC. This also hoses most Apple monitors.

The way around this was to add support for user-definable mode lists via the Voodoo3ModePrefs file. Users may edit that file to completely customize which modes will be made available to the system. [Emphasis mine-Mike] In the future we'd like to have a nice GUI-based app that would let you modify this file in a more user friendly manner, but for now it can be edited with SimpleText.
Anyway, hope that helps.
-Ken"

Warning - consult your monitor specs to make sure it supports the modes that you are trying to run! Too high a refresh rate/resolution can damage your monitor.

Voodoo3 Drivers Feedback: Some readers are reporting crashes with the new Hardware Resource Manager extension. I contacted 3dfx and they are working on an update now which should be available early next week. In the meantime Ken says using the previous Hardware Resource Manager extension is a workaround.

"I finally got a MacsBug log from someone seeing the crash and I know where it's coming from. Why it isn't crashing everyone (including me) is beyond me, but it should be a simple fix. In the meantime it *should* be reasonably safe to run with the Beta2 Hardware Resource Manager as a workaround for the crash. The only functionality that users would lose is that the Voodoo3ModePrefs file will be ignored. I'll work on getting an updated driver archive out ASAP on Monday..."

BTW: Some people also forgot to flash the card with the new ROM - a must with all new driver updates so far.

New Voodoo3 Drivers!: Get them at the Mac Drivers page at their 3Dfxgamers.com site. Here's a summary of the updates:

• Greatly expanded 2D mode list
• Mode list is overridable by the user
• Bug fixes to 2D acceleration code

There might be some 2D boost in there as well, although the drivers have not really been optimized for 2D performance. I welcome feedback on the new drivers.

More Apple G4/AGP Performance: My Mac Game Framerates database has more proof of the 3dfx advantage. Compare the Apple G4/AGP (aka Sawtooth) game framerates from the stock Rage128 AGP to any of the 3Dfx cards in the same system. To see these comparisons select "Apple G4 AGP Slot" as the mac system then select a game title - then press search.

Logo Winners: Sorry this is late but I had a very hard time picking just two of the designs. There were at least 10 samples that were my favorites (and more than a dozen more I also liked). I finally took the names of my 10 favorites and had Kay draw them from a hat. The names drawn were: Dave Girard and Scott Gerenser.
In my next run of site t-shirts I'll be sending one each to the authors of the other finalists. Next up is to make time to review the site redesign entries. The prize for that is an XLR8 CarrierZIF card with 400MHz CPU module. I'm quitting my full time job soon to hopefully be able to better deal with the backlog of site work, email and reviews.

Apple G4/AGP Performance: My searchable Mac Game Framerates database has several entries from Apple G4/AGP systems, including tests with Rage128 (AGP) and Voodoo 2 (PCI) tests. I've still not recieved the G4/500MHz AGP system but when it arrives I'll be testing a Voodoo3 3000 AGP card and posting the results here. [9/28/99 Update]

iMac Voodoo2 Cards at OWC: Digging deeper in my mailbox backlog I see that OWC says they have iMac Voodoo2 cards in stock (may not last long):

"New and in stock, the original iMac 3DfX VoodooII 8mb GameWizard for Revision A/B iMac Computers. OWC P/N 'GWIMAC'. OWC Price - $169. Ground shipping free to continental US, Fed Ex 2-Day and overnight available.
Larry O'Connor Other World Computing, Inc. "

[9/17/99 Update]

My Mac Game Framerates database has new entries on the Yikes G4 (PCI) system with a Voodoo3 and stock Rage128. As I saw in my Voodoo3 review, the Rage128 is significantly slower due to the fill rate limits of the chip. To see the comparison select 'Apple G4 no AGP' as the Mac model and leave all other search options blank.

3Dfx has opened a new gamer's site at www.3dfxgamers.com. They have a new survey form when you register online for their new site that asks about your video card and CPU use. Mac Gamers should fill this out to let them know we're interested in new products. [9/16/99 Update]

Voodoo4 Texture Compression: 3Dfx has an article on their FXT1^tm Advanced Texture Compression scheme that will allow higher quality textures to be used without sacrificing performance. FXT1 claims a 8:1 compression ratio, twice that of the schemes like S3's S3TC compression. By reducing the size of textures, higher data rates (and framerates) can be achieved. According to the article "cross platform 3D API (Glide(tm), OpenGL(r), and Direct3D(tm)) support for FXT1 allows developers to use it on Windows, Macintosh and Linux platforms without any additional coding by the developer. Finally, 3dfx provides free tools, and the associated source code, to encode and decode compressed textures to allow the user community to create newer and better encoding algorithms. These tools include command line utilities (Mac version included) and a Photoshop(r) plug-in (currently PC only) and are currently available for download.

I forgot to mention there that Monday's xlr8yourmac.com news had a reader comment on seeing German magazine ads for Voodoo3 cards from Villagetronic (prices and models similar to Mactell's but perhaps with addon video module capability). No info at Villagetronic's web site last I checked but I've inquired for more info. [9/14/99 Update]

MythII Patch for Voodoo3 Coming: Charles Holt sent a note that the Bungie web site has a news item (down the page) that they are working on a patch to Mac MythII to address the Voodoo3 issues.

The Game News page today has a Voodoo3 owner report of running Connectix Virtual Game Station. [9/11/99 Update]

MacGaming has comments from Game Developers on the G4's impact on development and performance (interesting comment on Altivec optimized OpenGL). As I have mentioned here in several articles (most recently yesterday), notice ID's John Carmack comments that the Rage128 fill rate is already a bottleneck with previous systems. This is clearly shown in my Voodoo3 review which delivered twice the framerate at 1024x768 in Quake2 as the Rage128. As noted here recently, the good news for AGP G4 owners is that a 3Dfx Voodoo3 3000 AGP card should run fine in the G4's AGP slot with the existing beta2 ROM drivers. In fact, I have one confirmation that this setup does indeed work! [9/10/99 Update]

Thresh's Firing Squad has an interesting interview with 3Dfx that discusses their future graphics technology against nVidia's recently announced G3Force 256 card. There are also comments on the Apple G4 in later pages of the article. Note that according to a recent interview, nVidia has stated they have no plans for any Mac graphics cards as they are focusing on the PC platform. [9/7/99 Update]

Voodoo3 AGP in Sawtooth G4: I wrote Ken Dyke of 3Dfx to ask if it would be possible to use PC Voodoo3 AGP cards in the new AGP Slot G4 Macs. Although nobody has tested this yet his reply sounds good:

"Actually, the existing ROM image can be flashed into a V3 AGP card and everything should just work. This is a side benefit of AGP1X/2X being a proper superset of 66Mhz PCI.
-Ken "

[9/6/99 Update]

First G4 CPU Tests: Although without software that uses the Altivec extensions performance was often on par with a same speed G3, games did show an appx. 10% boost with the G4 CPU. Note that I used a Voodoo3 for the tests as the other Mac cards are already a bottleneck for today's fast G3 CPUs. Check out my G4 First Look article for more details.

nVidia: No Mac Cards Planned: Thresh's web site has a quote from nVidia saying there are no plans for a Mac version of their cards (as I mentioned here before). I saw the quote and link in my new G4 forum. = 9/3/99 9AM Update =

3Dfx Voodoo4 + Apple G4 = Awesome! Jeff Tickner wrote that News.com has a story on 3Dfx's support for the new Apple G4's announced today (see the front page news or apple store for details on G4 configurations - all but the low end model have an AGP slot). The 'T-Buffer' is mentioned so this has be the Voodoo4. There's even a comment from an Phil Schiller, Apple's vice president of worldwide product marketing. Outstanding! 8/31/99 Update

As promised, I've added my PCPro/Voodoo3 with 480/240/60 G3 CPU upgrade game framerates to the FPS database. 8/30/99 10:00 AM

I finally got the PowerCenter Pro running OpenGL again and have posted my Voodoo3 scores (Unreal 224b7, Quake2, Q3test 1.08) with the stock 210MHz 604e CPU card (60MHz bus speed) with 1MB Cache in the FPS database. I'm testing now with a 480/240/60 G3 CPU MAChCarrier 450 card and will post those scores tomorrow. 8/30/99 12:45AM

3Dfx Future Plans: Matt sent a note on an interview with 3Dfx's Greg Ballard (CEO) and Jim Hopkins (senior VP of finance/strategic planning) which includes notes on their future plans in the Apple and Linux markets. The also note better support for the Mac in their 'future part' which I assume is Napalm aka Voodoo4. (BTW - I'm ending the 3Dfx Petition to Apple on Sunday so if you've not entered please do so now.)

The xlr8yourmac.com Friday news has an update from Mactell on the Evileye card status. Bottom Line has pre-order special pricing for Mac3dfx.com readers on these two cards. Also on the front page news are comments on PowerCenter Pro game performance, interleaved ram and my recent sudden problems with OpenGL games on my PowerCenter Pro.8/27/99 8AM Update

I spoke with 3Dfx about the recent problems downloading from their site. They say they are working on the problem.

Voodoo2/Apple Monitors: Paul Belanger said his problems getting a 'Evilking' Voodoo2 card to work with his Apple multiscan 15" monitor (with a Mac/VGA adapter) were solved by replacing the card with a STB/3Dfx brand Voodoo2 1000 card. As I commented on before at www.xlr8yourmac.com, I had no luck getting my Apple LCD display to work with a Game Wizard or Wicked3D or Creative Labs V2 card despite using several different adapters. I didn't try the trick one reader mentioned however (using back to back adapters). Only my Apple monitor had the problem - Sony, Hitachi, IBM, etc. monitors worked fine. [Update - owners of the dark blue original Apple LCD say Game Wizard cards work fine] 8/26/99 Noon Update

Fullon3d has an interesting article on the facts and hype surrounding 16bit vs 32bit color with today's graphics cards. Note on the Mac you'll need a browser like iCab to see the PNG files used in this article.

Voodoo3/Myth II: Ken Dyke of 3Dfx sent a reply to my question on the cursor issue noting there might be an update to address this soon:

" Actually, the missing cursor was just a side effect of an interaction between a bug in the Beta1 Voodoo3 driver release and a bug in MythII. The real problem really has nothing to do with hardware cursor support. [A reader's mail from Bungie talked about this as one possibility-Mike] Supposedly Bungie has already fixed this internally and last I heard they were putting the patch through their QA.
-Ken "

Larry Kearl wrote that Word Perfect 3.0a had a conflict (freeze) with the Voodoo3 drivers (Conflict Catcher verified). He later reported that the free WordPerfect 3.5 enhanced from Corel (see the xlr8yourmac.com weekend news) solved the problem. Larry also noted a conflict with ColorSwitch Pro 1.2.2 from Ambrosia Software.

The Voodoo3 is still the king of game framerates as noted in the FPS Database. Thanks to all that have entered their framerate scores (about 300 so far). For info on how to test game framerates, see the link to my FAQ Games section on the FPS Entry page. 8/24/99 2:45 AM Update

Voodoo3/Beige G3 Int. Modem: There was a report in my 3dfx forum of a Beige G3 owner having problems with his internal modem after installing a Voodoo3. Tonight I installed the Voodoo3 in my Beige G3 (rev 2) with internal modem and I repeatedly connected at 41K to 43K, as high as I ever have with that modem. (Several Voodoo3 owners replied to this post saying they've had no problems with their internal modems as well.)[8/23/99 7:30 PM Update]

A 9600MP system owner reported that his errors at loading extensions with a Voodoo3 card (code fragment errors) were due to a conflict with the 'Beos OS Chooser' extension.

8/23/99 8AM Update

Voodoo3 Quicktime Playback See the movie tests page of my Formac Proformance 3 review for comparisons of the Voodoo3 to that card and a Rage128 in playback tests. 8/22/99 9PM Update =

Thomas Andre reported he is running Starcraft fine with his Voodoo3:

"Mike, I just bought a Voodoo 3 2000 and tried it in my B&W G3/450. I also just read in your compatibility list for this card that some people seem to have trouble with Starcraft. I have Starcraft and Starcraft expansion set (1.05) and both work on my Mac and the 3dfx card.
Thomas"

I've asked him for more details on his setup.

Today's xlr8yourmac.com front page has news of OS X server running on a 7300/G3 Upgrade with Voodoo3 (!).

I want to personally thank 3Dfx for supporting the Mac with Voodoo3 and Voodoo2 drivers. I hope they do the same with their next generation products as well.

In my opinion, having 3Dfx provide Mac drivers is the best thing for the Mac market and 3Dfx. For too long the Mac consumer and marketplace has been strangled by companies offering 3Dfx cards at prices as much as 3 times higher than the PC version. Adding insult to injury, there were often extended periods of time where the cards were not available even to those willing to pay the price.

In my opinion some companies didn't seem to have the resources to properly develop, market or support the product. Thankfully that era looks to be coming to an end and the future of Mac gaming looks brighter than ever.

Feedback: I welcome comments, reader tips and articles regarding 3dfx on the Mac.

Mac 3D Card Shootout!

UT Mutators

Mac Game Performance
(By CPU/Video Card)

Voodoo3 Cooler

Head to Head:
-Voodoo3 QT Perf.
-V2 Drvs Compared
-Voodoo3 vs The Rest
-Rage128 vs Game Rocket
-Quake2 Performance
-Mac Q3Test
  (Screens/Perf)
-Falcon4: 3dfx/Rage128
  (Image Quality)
-Rage128 Revs
  (new faster card)
-Rage128 vs Voodoo2
  (Game tests)
-V1 vs V2 Perf.
-Unreal 3D card boost
-G3 vs 604e Boost
-Timedemo FPS Rates

Tips/Guides:
-3DFX Card FAQ
-Mac Action Quake!
-Voodoo2 Tweaks!
-Shade Tree Gamer 1
-Shade Tree Gamer 2
-Quake Lan Tutorial
-Quakeworld How-To
-Quake Skins How-To
-3Dfx Tweaker
-List of Tutorials

Game Reviews:
-Skydive!
-Quake 2
  (by Randall)
-Quake 2
  (by Ruffin)
-Quake 2
  (by Mike)
-Kingpin Screens
-SF 2000
-RR Myth II
-Virt. GameStation
-The Untouchables
-EV: Overide

Video Card Reviews:
-Voodoo3 2000
-Rage128 vs Game Rocket
-Game Wizard Review
-MacMagic Review
-ATI RagePro 3D & VR
-Power3D Review
-MP540/3DO Review
-IX3D MacRocket
-Obsidian X24
- More Reviews...

Controllers/Misc.:
-State of Mac Gaming
  (Editorial)
-Cyborg 3D USB
-ORB Controller
-Voodoo2 Cooler

Software Updates:
- Quake2 GL lib
-MesaQuake2
- Mesa3DfxEngine
  (For Apple OpenGL)
ATI Video Update 1.0
OpenGL 1.0
PPC Checker
MP850/750 Glide
GlideHack
GameSprockets
Virtual PC 2.1.3
3DfxChecker Util
USB 1.3 DDK
USB Overdrive

Game Updates:
Joyport Update
(InputSprocket fix)
Myth Updates
Unreal Updates
MacMame(emulator)

FutureCop 101A
CVGS v1.2
T.Raider2 Update