(Photograph: gtastuntcrew302 on eBay)It’s tempting to put in writing the 3dfx Voodoo 5 6000 holds a particular place in all of our hearts. Nonetheless, most of us by no means obtained to really purchase one and recreation with it, because it by no means got here to market. As an alternative, all of us keep in mind it because the embodiment of a dream unfulfilled. It represented 3dfx’s grandest ambitions, which had been sadly a bit too nice on the time. Its delay and different elements meant 3dfx’s belongings had been offered to Nvidia in 2002 earlier than the cardboard might launch. Since then a handful of them have popped up on the used market, however not fairly often as they’re extremely uncommon. Just one,000 or so had been reportedly ever created. Now a seemingly pristine late-model prototype is up for public sale, and it’s already as much as $1,4000 with a number of days left for bidding.

The cardboard seems to be in very good situation, and the vendor says it’s been “reworked” by a 3dfx engineer named Hank Semenec. The modifications it has enable it to be totally steady 8X FSAA. Not all of those playing cards enable this attributable to a PCI bug in how the 4 chips are related. Subsequently, this provides to the uncommon nature of this pattern. Additionally, consider these are prototypes, that are often the alternative of steady. The cardboard can be a revision 3700A mannequin, a later model with fewer bugs.

The eBay vendor says they’re promoting it because it’s now not their “holy grail.” Subsequently, they hope to move it alongside to somebody who sees it in that mild, because it deserves a loving dwelling. According to a forum post from what looks like the seller, it was initially bought it in 2019 from a purchaser in Spain. The one change apart from the PCI-rework mod is the addition of copper heatsinks to cut back temps.

The Voodoo 5 6000 in its native habitat. (Picture: Nostalgic {Hardware}/Techpowerup boards)

The cardboard options 4 VSA-100 GPUs on a single PCB, which was insane then. Every chip was constructed on a 250nm course of and ran at 166MHz. Every chip additionally sports activities 32MB of 166Mhz SDRAM for a complete of 128MB of reminiscence, which was unparalleled on the time. The competing Nvidia GeForce 2 Extremely had 64MB of DDR reminiscence operating at 230MHz. The cardboard was so power-hungry it exceeded the output from the AGP slot. This required a further energy that was aptly named Voodoo Volts. Although some models featured an exterior energy provide, this one has a barrel connector to molex adapter.

The worth of those playing cards has risen steadily over time. A former ExtremeTech writer named Joel Hruska [Never heard of him. -Ed.] purchased one in 2003 for a mere $800. We think about he’s kicking himself proper now for finally promoting it. For reference, the Voodoo 5 6000 was priced at $600 again in 2002, which might be over $1,000 in as we speak’s cash. The notion of spending that a lot cash on a GPU on the time was merely ludicrous.

The Voodoo 5 6000’s outlandishness impressed this parody piece from Most PC journal.

The public sale ends on Sunday, so there’s nonetheless time to bid. These don’t come alongside fairly often, so this can be a uncommon alternative. On the time of this writing, there are already 62 bids, so it’ll in all probability be a sniping struggle on the finish. Retro gaming can be making a comeback, even for 3DFX card house owners. Just lately a fan released a driver that allows widescreen gaming. You’ll should run it at decrease decision, in fact, however we’ll guess Unreal will nonetheless look fairly good, particularly at 8X FSAA.

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