I've searched the forum for dedicated topics regarding this video card, found none and so here I am:

I found on ebay two pieces of Voodoo 3 - 1000 (8MB). One is here.

From what I remember regarding the sales history, I can't recall any official numbers about the selling of this version. I thought that only V3 2000 and up were released on the market.
Was it economically efficient to manufacture an 8MB underclocked version with all the ongoing hype about the rising of nVidia & Ati at the time ?

Pardon me, but I really can't remember any 1000's in computerstores  at the time. All they were selling (in my country to say the least) were 16MB Vantas, some outrageous 32MB Ati rage and V3-2000 to 3500.

Are you saying that the triple-core versions of the CPU's in the market are chips that most probably have failed electronics in the disabled core ?
I've heared this rumour one time only, and I didn't believe a word then. Now it's begining to make sense.

Although... come to think about it... I know a few people that bought themselves X3 Phenoms and successfully unlocked the 4th core, without experiencing any problems.

Makes me wonder 

Considering the price at the time, and the fact that when Phenom emerged there weren't many apps optimised for 4 cores... I guess it was quite a good investment (in my country the price of a tricore was with minumum 30% cheaper than a quad).

Glad you managed to make it work.

Ontopic : I remember reading a story somewhere about someone who said he had been able to mount 32 megs of memory on a Voodoo3.
I recall reading here on the forum that the Avenger core can address only 16 megs.

Guess it was a hoax.

The Voodoo3 1000 was indeed an OEM part. There are two versions; the 8MiB 143MHz version and the 16MiB 125MHz version (without a heatsink).

Though the 8MiB version uses the Velocity 100 layout, it is just a V3 2000 with only 8MiB of memory. Both TMU's are enabled on both cards.

The 8MiB version had less memory chips and thus a less complicated PCB, which made the card cheaper to make.

The 125MHz version; I've never seen any statements about it, but the graphics chip on these cards probably wasn't stable at 143MHz or higher.

Read up about "Binning" in chip manufacturing..

the Voodoo3 1000 was most likely a heavily binned chip.

A quick run down of Binning.

Your design is full speed.. in 3dfx case

Voodoo3 3500

you produce the 3500 chip then you test..  chips that run at full speed are binned into 3500's.. then you test for lower speed.. chips that pass that are binned into 3000's..

test lower still - those are 2000's and even lower still are 1000's

binning makes it so you can still makemoney off 90% of your chips rather than only 30%

Dexter wrote on 19.12.12 at 09:27:50:


what rumours you talking about?? the binning?? that's no rumour, that's fact, almost every company that produces this kinda stuff does that.