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

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].

BTW - I received a Voodoo3 3000 PCI card - see my recent Mac 3D Card Roundup for how it compares to the Voodoo3 2000, Rage128 Orion, Formac Proformance 3 and VT MP960. 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).

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.

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.

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 (link to 3dfx.com removed after they went offline) 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.

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 2000 PCI Discontiued? [Update: 3Dfx later told me there are no plans to discontinue the Voodoo3 2000] A reader from Sweden says a distributor told him the Voodoo 3 3000 PCI will be replacing the 2000 as the low end card:

"Hello, I recently ordered a Voodoo3 2000 PCI from a distributor here in Sweden and received a notice today that 3Dfx has ceased manufactoring the 2000 PCI. Instead, there will be a PCI version of Voodoo3 3000, shipping around october 19.
Jacob Ehnmark"

The 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.

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.

As promised, I've added my PCPro/Voodoo3 with 480/240/60 G3 CPU upgrade game framerates to the FPS database.

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.

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

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.

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.

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:
-V3 2000/3000 vs R128/Prof.3/MP960
-Voodoo3 QT Perf.
-V2 Drvs Compared
-Rage128 vs Game Rocket
-Quake2 Performance
-Mac Q3Test
  (Screens/Perf)
-Falcon4: 3dfx/Rage128
  (Image Quality)
-Rage128 Revs
  (new faster card)

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
-Voodoo1 Tweaker
-How To Test FPS

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
-Obsidian X24
- More Reviews...

Controllers/Misc.:
-Cyborg 3D USB
-ORB Controller
-Voodoo2 Cooler

Software Updates:
Mirrored Here:
-Quake2 GL lib
-MesaQuake3.1b8
  (For Quake2)
-Mesa3DfxEngine3.1b6
  (For Q3test)