This question may sound a bit crazy but still I'm curious.
Are you guys actually using your V5 6k's or are they in some gloomy box in the corner of the room?

most Voodoo5 6000's are used as collectors items, and yes I keep mine neatly in display with the other Velocity 100, 200, Voodoo5 5000 AGP and 5500 AGP cards in my IKEA Glass Top Table as a Memorial to 3dfx and those cards are seen as favourite designs from 3dfx Interactive it's self and it creates a very nice Cliche to my room's Display and soon the new Home :)

There are some people that use thier Voodoo5 6000's but that is for them to decide, I would never do that for long term use since it's still a Prototype and Prototypes can fail like production cards have a much lesser chance for failure.

I only used mine in some games like X-Wing Alliance, Quake3, Call of Duty United Offensive, Descent3 and StarWars Jedi Knight Jedi Academy and Red Alert2.

just to see what it could do in 3D as 2D games and it performed quite well after that I took care of it and put it in the 3dfx Memorial IKEA Glass Top Table.
the difference is that productions cards are easy and cheap to get with prototypes it's the otherway around expensive and hard to get ;)

But everyone has thier own thing with thier cards ofcourse :)

I for example use it on a dayly basis. I only have one computer and that hosts my beloved 6000.The following might be true only for 3700A revision: The only reason why people were not using them for too long is because the cards used to burn some components in the VSA's power supply. This problem no longer exists on some cards. If you check under the feature connector, there is a diode removed from the two that were there. This diode is only removed on cards that passed through Hank's hand lately. (I checked the pictures of Obi's card and he has it removed  ::)) I know it from him that now the cards are safe to use for any extent.

I use mine when I have the time.

hm, it still remains a prototype so falure is always a threat I have seen much dead Voodoo5 6000's as well...  ::) Just because of extended use.

A friend of mine here in The Netherlands had a perfect working Rev.A 3700 as well also without those 2 Diodes and his Rev.A 3700 died without a reaso it's HiNT chip burned up so the Life span of some Rev.A 3700's can't be established that propperly, you never can be certain, like I said they remain to be prototypes so failure is always a risk that can take place.

I kind of find it hard to believe that 6000's just stop functioning for no reason. Anytime i've seen non-functional 6000 for sale, the owner ALWAYS said that he bought it that way, or bought it thinking it was functional because the seller said so. I have never seen a post like: "Oh, I was playing Quake3 on my 6000 and it just stopped working  :'(" Allthough the card is very "fragile", i don't think it burns out that easily. Oschar even benchmarked his 6000 with 68Mhz AGP frequency and it is still very much alive. As a conclusion: i think hint chip burnout is caused by massive FSB tunning (in order to det the max. out of a 6k), and extended use problems are rare, and can be avoided by removing one of the diodes. BUT I respect very much peoples decision not to use their 6k every day.
Regards. Alpar

most HiNT chips blow up when passing the 66Mhz PCI Bus speed. but just don't start complaining when you card dies while you have been warned. ;)

But hey feel free to use your 6000 hehe that ain't my dicision ofcourse. some Voodoo5 6000 have been doing it pretty well though Failure is always a possibillity and that is something I rather evade.

The Voodoo5 6000 I held in my hands also had a few Diodes burned out (was already repaired).

IMHO the V5-6k is indeed most sensitive to 'spontaneous combustion' simply due to its complex prototype nature.
The list of confirmed good (and bad) Motherboards doesn't exist for no reason ;)

Powering her up to take her out for a spin is therefor always very dangerous, you never know which of its hundreds of small parts fails next... even after months of apparently stable operations.

yes exactly that is what I was getting at hehe it's too beautifull to loose my friends and too fragile for use even if it works so well which counts for every Prototype based card.

Do you know how to use punctuation, Obi?. Pausing while typing doesn't count as a full-stop, we can't read your mind.

BUMP!

Thanks for the answers. I really had to know. I heard that there are people who are afraid to use their >1000$ cards; afraid that the cards might "die". If u ask me, a card that is no longer used is already "dead". That's why I still use both of my voodoo 2's and a voodoo 5 5500 and will continue to use them until there is no more PCI/AGP MB's.

I also have one legendary card from ATI, dating from 1989 (ATI VGA Wonder 512kb), a card that maches V5 5.5k in size and complexity and is in a working condition; but it's dead. It's ISA and there is no MB to plug it in.

So, if you do not use your V5 6k's now, you may never get a chance to use them again. That's was my point :)

Well, my V5-6K should arrive shortly (a pity I'll be in Emirates at the day it'll arrive, so cUsLs should handle it:)). I have plans of building the dedicated system for it with watercooling and modding stuff but I'm definitely sure that I'll use it once a year or so after the initial benchmarking period...

As for the danger of $1K+ card death... Well, 1900XTX CrossFire setup @ my current rig (I should get a Quad SLI 7900s in mid-April) costs more but there definitely won't be logical "not to use it because it may be broken".
And after a years of xtreme benchmarking with the latest stuff, about 5 cards dead due to overvolting (i.e. 5900XT core @ 2.1V), BGA memory chips and GPUs resoldering at home and other overclockers' routine  ;D - the only thing I'm a bit afraid in V5-6K is the possible sudden death of HiNT chip. Only because it will be PITA (if not impossible) to get one spare.

@ elfuego

sorry that is nonsens a card is dead when not functioning aka defect, my cards are plenty well allive, I'm not wealthy enough to obtain another, don't be so typical please or just don't curse at least see it that way. >:(

I still use a 3dfx Voodoo5 5500 PCI 64MB Rev.A1 2900

A. It is safer against Defection
B. If it defects it is cheaper to replace
C. It's easier to obtain also.

@ ALT-F13

yeaps getting a spare 6000 is something to be left alone, unless if you are that rich it won't matter lol.

Off Topic:

X1900XTX in CrossFire will out perform Quad SLI 7900GX2 with ease, the 96 Pixel Shader Processors are not even being fully potentially uused in 3D apps, as that the 7900 GX2 cards have only 24 Pipes with each pipe only 1 Pixel shader Processor per pipe, the X1900XTX has 16 Pipes with each pipe haveing 3 Pixel shader Processors per pipe so the ATi card shall benefit morely in future Applications it will be like a Super Laser from a DeathStar in comparrision :) 2 X1900XTX cards shall outperform QuadSLI 7900 with ease especially with MAX FSAA and AF.

On-Topic:

but anyways to get back to the point the Voodoo5 6000 is something hard to reobtain.

Indeed the card is far from being dead if unused. For the time being this is my best video card so i'm using it. Another reason is that I have just moded my case for the 6K to fit in and i have just been using it on a dayly basis for a week. I should get my "new" 5500 in a month or so(my "old" one is not functional), and than it will take the place of its "larger" brother.

wrote on 21.03.06 at 08:56:10:

@ elfuego sorry that is nonsens a card is dead when not functioning aka defect, my cards are plenty well allive, I'm not wealthy enough to obtain another, don't be so typical please or just don't curse at least see it that way. >:(

I lost you here  (I didn't understand what are u trying to say). Neither did I cursed, nor did I point a finger on someone. ??? If I did, I am sorry. Don't take my statement that much personal, because it's not.

Everyone has their own reasons for using/not using the V5  6k and I respect that. But I still find it much more valuable in a working condition in a computer, then hanged on a wall for a display. That for one simple reason: A burned card can also be hanged, but cannot be used in any other meaningful way (except for scrapping of spare parts).

Think about it this way: You have a Ferrari in your garage, but you still drive Lada around because you respect your Ferrari too much, or are afraid that someone would steal it :P

NHF!!!  8)

Well it's post's like this that can make V6K PWNers feel unpleasant


wrote on 21.03.06 at 03:06:13:

Thanks for the answers. I really had to know. I heard that there are people who are afraid to use their >1000$ cards; afraid that the cards might "die". If u ask me, a card that is no longer used is already "dead".

thereby I meant my post that it is nonsens that an unused card ain't a dead card that's pure Bollocks and it is like a curse in 3dfx land.

When a prototype is in perfect clean and unused condition it has a more value than a used one which may fail after a long term of use.

My Voodoo5 5000 AGP, 6000 AGP and Vel200 AGP all work flawlessly but it doesn't make them more worthy in value when in use , when in use the value may shatter just because of failure.

anyways what others do with thier gear it's all up to them ofcourse, that is not my concern nor dicission.

about the ferarri I'd sell it keep the Lada and buy a better car aka Mitsubishi Lancer Evolution VIII FQ400 RS and use the EVO for the real stuff and use the Lada for fun stuff :) the EV0 does from 0-100 kph in 3.5 secs :) not bad for a 2.0 hay, the lada would do that in 17.6 secs lol 8)

Anyways like FalconFly said the Voodoo5 6000 has many small parts which can fail easily and most of those parts are extreemly difficult to replace.

wrote on 21.03.06 at 16:17:21:

thereby I meant my post that it is nonsens that an unuded card ain't a dead card that's pure Bollocks and it is like a curse in 3dfx land..

Actually to some degree I agree- What is good is a piece of hardware if it isn't used? This is my opinion of course and I can respect others who decide not to run their cards of course.

People & collectors are not a monolithic block and I applaud those who perserve, those who run daily and those mod.

Whoa, way too reply to my post Obi-Wan!

You posted BUMP 30 minutes after my post, wtf? :/. Also your signature is huge and annoying.

wrote on 20.03.06 at 16:13:25:

Do you know how to use punctuation, Obi?. Pausing while typing doesn't count as a full-stop, we can't read your mind.

rather obvious that I bumped ya lol

Did I ask you to read my mind, nope, so why get confused?

To question a Jedi Master is pointless in such a way, thou shall be ignored.

Need to calm down folks.

i agree with gary , collections depend on the collector
working - not working , boxed - not boxed

i used to collect vintage guitar effects pedals , my priority was to get working ones , though i got a dud one day , to my supprise years later i sold it $200 bucks
a perfectly functional one goes for $300

`dead if unused'  is wrong currently running a v5 only (have to put my v4 back in other pc) does that mean my other 3dfx cards are dead , i may never use them?

You got that right IG88 ;) perfectly said there :) Every collectior is different from each other and that is something nice to be proud of  8)


We all have our thing of doing :)

yep mine aren`t dead there just resting !

and my old banchee deserves its retirement !

That card really neads to rest. It's so old that I have never heard of it...  ;D Banchee...

well no ones perfect !


`That card really [glb]neads[/glb] to rest. It's so old that I have never heard of it...   Banchee... '

Now that was supposed to be a joke... But since you underlined my mistake so beautifully i will say, that I would rather make any other mistake then talk about my vudu...  :P

When you'll be writing in Romanian and Hungarian with as little mistakes, as I make writing in english, I`ll accept any criticism from you. Till then i thougt it was good to let you know that you own a Banshee. "Thanks for reminding me"  would have been more appropriate, I think.

wrote on 22.03.06 at 01:30:29:

rather obvious that I bumped ya lol Did I ask you to read my mind, nope, so why get confused? To question a Jedi Master is pointless in such a way, thou shall be ignored.

Bumping is used to bring threads back too life or to put them on the 1st page.

I don't really know what you mean, but it's hard too read paragraphs when there's no punctuation or full stops. I just assumed that you left out full stops because you stopped typing at the end of each sentence.

Eh, I don't care.

well your the language expert !

banchee is the english spelling
banshee american

mean the same thing

next you`ll have powercolor / powercolour

if i use either its just instinct ;D ;D

theres people from all over the world here so why get picky on language

the topics collectables usage / non usage eg: v56k

This is a brand name, spelled the same way anywhere in the world, as is Powercolor (and Couca Coula  :P ). I appologise if I insulted you by trying to correct you in a funny way. That was not my intension.

wrote on 23.03.06 at 11:39:50:

Bumping is used to bring threads back too life or to put them on the 1st page. I don't really know what you mean, but it's hard too read paragraphs when there's no punctuation or full stops. I just assumed that you left out full stops because you stopped typing at the end of each sentence. Eh, I don't care.

You must do what you feel is best ofcourse...

well its a good thread the concept of collecting

what u value as a collector

and i respect the finances and time these other people have put in to bring us information on various cards!

Mine are in the display cabinet,
not using