Techworks 3DFX 8 MB Power 3D II PC PCI

[ironborn65]

With box and manuals.
Does someone know which Mac can receive this card?
thanks
View attachment 37553

 

[macjeffr]

Any PCI-based Power Mac will be able to run it, with drivers and the pass-through cable, of course. Stability suffers once you get into OS 8 and above, because the drivers never got updated after Techworks and 3DFX went under.

Are you sure that's an 8MB Power 3D II, though? That appears to be the original Power 3D, a 4MB Voodoo 1 card. The II was a Voodoo 2 card, and had three of the 3DFX-labelled chips on the front side.

 

[ironborn65]

4MB, you are right mate, I got the box and manuals:

 

[Nathan_A]

That's pretty cool. That's the original 3Dfx card for Macintoshes. It's the one that started it all. I had one in a Power Computing clone back in the day that saw a lot of Quake Team Fortress and Myth: The Fallen Lords.

That card gave hope to Mac users everywhere that they weren't going to be entirely left behind in the 3D acceleration wave that was building. Absolutely incredible that you've got the box and everything.

 

[CC_333]

And the box art is actually tasteful and interesting!

I don't wish to derail the topic much, but it's semi-relevant: I realized that the card I have in my PowerTower Pro is known as a TwinTurbo. Is it a good card? I've heard that they're somewhat sought after, but since virtually everything is sought after nowadays it seems, maybe that doesn't matter so much?

c

 

[demik]

I realized that the card I have in my PowerTower Pro is known as a TwinTurbo. Is it a good card? I've heard that they're somewhat sought after, but since virtually everything is sought after nowadays it seems, maybe that doesn't matter so much?

It's a good series of card for Beige and Clones. If I remember correctly, 3D wise, they quite don't match a Voodoo card, but they are good 2D cards. Apple used them in the 8600 and 9600 for example because it was more powerful than their usual video card.

The Voodoo based one was the ix3D Game Rocket from memory.

 

[macuserman]

I have one of these cards I wasn't sure what to do with it, I had no idea it was such a unique card history wise. Didn't seem to work super well but I didn't realize OS9 would be a problem for it, I'm going to go back to an older OS and see if that works. Super helpful thread here also that's a sweet box.

 

[Byrd]

You can use the generic beta 3DFX drivers and it’ll work fine in any version of Classic Mac OS with any supported game - I’m not sure where the incompatibility over OS 8 information comes from

 

[macjeffr]

You can use the generic beta 3DFX drivers and it’ll work fine in any version of Classic Mac OS with any supported game - I’m not sure where the incompatibility over OS 8 information comes from

I think that's only for Voodoo 2 cards, though.

 

[Unknown_K]

Anything 3dfx is very collectable, go look on ebay. Then rare mac edition (with DVI) 5500's are pricey (so are any 5500's actually).

 

[Byrd]

I think that's only for Voodoo 2 cards, though.

The generic drivers are largely the same (with the same glide2 extension); I’ve had no issues using the Voodoo driver pack on Macintosh Garden with Voodoo 1,2,3 cards

 

[macjeffr]

The generic drivers are largely the same (with the same glide2 extension); I’ve had no issues using the Voodoo driver pack on Macintosh Garden with Voodoo 1,2,3 cards

Oh, I wasn't aware that they all worked. Good to know!

 

[Dandu]

For Voodoo 1 and Voodoo 2, you can use generic driver and PC card. Fun think, you can even use a Voodoo with VirtualPC or RealPC and use the 3D acceleration.

For Voodoo 3/4/5 (and Banshee), you must use a card with a Macintosh ROM, for the 2D parts.