ALT-F13
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Ukraine / ModLabs.net
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I thought it could be interesting to people here to know what situation there is (and was) with 3dfx cards in ex-USSR (Russia and Ukraine, specifically). This report is based on my own knowledge and memory (working on IT field since 1999), old publications in local press and current study of market.
Few notes: 1. _Very_ hard to find any boxed cards. I.e. looks like V3 were sold here mostly OEM... I never even seen any original 3dfx box, only third-party (Canopus, Powercolor, Metabyte, etc.). 2. Almost impossible to see MAC products. Apple never had a good market here. 3. Even year ago I've seen 5 times more propositions of sales for 3dfx cards than now. 4. While there is a chance of finding something interesting (like Supergrace Banshee;)) due to loads of 'gray import' that days and wave of imported used PCs from Europe in 98-2k2, but typically each card was presented by only a few brands. I.e. Gainward didn't work on our market in that time yet. 5. Noted prices are average for bare cards.
Voodoo Graphics: Far most common brands are Diamond and A-Trend (different ATC-2465s). Viewtop (Vulcan), Guillemot, Inno3D, Miro and Canopus are more or less usual too. Typical price now is $5-7.
Voodoo Rush: Wasn't a big deal ever with A-Trend ATC-2475 and Jazz Adrenaline3D being the most usual cards here. Never seen/heard of Hercules here btw. Price is 8-10 bucks for card, but hard to find any.
Voodoo 2: Hehe, definitely a Creative/Diamond domain. What's pity me is that here is a plenty of slightly different ATC-2455 cards which are very tough to identify correctly without any docs/boxes - I have three of them and will post pics soon, maybe someone will help me... Vulcans, Canopus, Metabyte were also more or less popular. Strange but neither 3dfx original, nor STB approached in this region. Typical price for bare card is $10. And looks like X-24 is the only Q3D card which was more or less imported here as new.
Banshee: Highly advertised at the time it lost the battle for our market to Riva TNT completely therefore not so much cards were sold. Noticeable manufacturers are ASUS (definitely, V3200 is common card) and Creative (the only PCI Banshee in reasonable amounts) with Viewtop, Innovision, Diamond and Gigabyte following. Weird that Diamond Monster Fusion didn't became popular - Diamond was THE leader of SVGA market here that days...
Voodoo 3: The last popular Voodoo in ex-USSR. Voodoo 3 is about 80% of all current market propositions. Voodoo 3 2000 is much more rare than even V3-3500TV (European version with Samsung tuner), and V3-3000 AGP with TV-Out is definitely the most common 3dfx card now at all. Since V3, Powercolor approached to the market and we had plenty of EvilKings, both 166 MHz and 183 MHz versions, sold in 2000-2001. I do remember for sure ASUS Voodoo 3 propositions in 2000 but didn't saw any for last years... There are also a lot of Dell/Compaq cards from used brand PCs. Typical price for V3-3000 AGP is $15 but PCI versions are hard to find under $30-35 (!)...
Voodoo 4: Almost no original 3dfx cards at all, only Powercolors (both L-shaped and TV-Out versions). Imported in big quantities in 2001 as an alternative to GF2MX, but had very small market success. Price is $20.
Voodoo 5: Only AGP version is widely available. Sales were low but still noticeable. Current price is at least $40 for bare card.
I hope someone will find this piece of knowledge useful. Personally, I will be very glad to see something similar for US and Asia regions so if anyone will find my example inspiring - that's will be great to see other stories...
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