• 3Dfx Tweaker
  This utility is a must for Power3D owners, allowing you to change refresh rates, clock speeds and the other performance tweaks that resulted in a 10fps boost on my card. Note: Running the card above 57mhz usually requires a fan to cool the card, as the FX chip runs very hot. Non-Apple Mac owners can bolt in a fan from www.3dfxcool.com ($16.00 + shipping). Apple Macs do not use a screw to retain the PCI card like most clones do (PowerComputing, etc.). The 3DfxCool fan uses this screw to mount.

• If you lost resolutions after connecting the Power3d card try using the multi-resolutions control-strip software at: http://hyperarchive.lcs.mit.edu/cgi-bin/NewSearch?key=multi-resolutions or at Techworks driver page (while there get the utility that toggles the screen from the Power3d to the 2D Mac desktop - handy in case of a hang in a game).

• Quake updates are usually posted at: http://www.wizworks.com/macsoft/mactech/quake.htm.

• PowerCenter/PowerCurve/PowerTower (not PowerTower Pro)/7200 owners with Sound problems should get the PCI Timing Update from Apple's Software Updates site.

• For Power3D owners who run serious 3D apps as well, moving the 3DFX Lib extension out of the extensions folder will prevent switching to the Power3d card (no reboot is necessary supposedly). Some suggest putting it in the folder of your 3dfx apps (Like Quake).

• The Liberty vga adapter solves the Apple monitor problem (missing resolutions) via adjustable "emulation" switches, and Techworks has a new cable that may help as well. Bottom Line has a Liberty VGA Adapter and Universal Adjustable VGA Adapter.

Introduction:

As an owner of a PC version 3Dfx Voodoo 3D Chipset card since it was introduced last fall, I was very excited about the card finally being made available in a Macintosh version. The 3Dfx Voodoo chipset is the gaming card king on the PC platform, and for good reason. The card boasts an extremely fast fill rate (40megapixels/sec), full 3d feature set, and the best game support (PC) of any currently available card.

The drawbacks to the original Voodoo chipset are the inability to do 3D in a window (full screen mode only) and a lack of 2D capability. 3Dfx later developed the Voodoo Rush chipset, which although lacking in any 2D capabilities, does allow 3D in a window, as is used on several 2d/3d single card solutions on the PC. Techworks uses the original chipset (full screen only) for the Power3D card.

On the positive side, the 3d only Voodoo chipset allows to you to run a fast 2d card of your choice (or your built-in video), does not require a IRQ/Busmastering PCI slot, and still enjoy superb 3d gaming as well. The downside is that the card's 4-megabyte memory limit practically limits the resolution to 640x480, due to 2mb of memory being allocated for textures. In some cases you may be able to run 800x600 resolution, but performance usually suffers, and some games do not support that mode due to texture storage requirements. Before you dismiss 640x480 gaming, you need to look at Quake at this resolution. I guarantee you will not be disappointed with the image quality.

Techworks Fumbles:
(Don't get me wrong - I'm very thankful that Techworks brought the card to the Mac! But I have to be honest - their execution is not what I expected of a Mac product, or a Mac company, so I'm not pulling any punches here.)

Unfortunately Techworks seems to have not done their homework on the Power3d card. Apparently it was never tested with Apple monitors that use autosensing, as these lines are not present in the supplied 2d passthru cable/adapter. That means if you have a Apple monitor, some resolutions will not be available after installing the Power3d (1152x870 for one). There are also gamma issues, and a loss of some 2d image sharpness as well. The amount of this detail loss depends on your video card/monitor scan and refresh rates, some find it more noticeable than others. Blind tests on my Apple 20" multiscan monitor do not show a large degree of degradation, but there will be some loss of sharpness.

Techworks apparently cloned a PC model card, as the it has dual VGA connectors, and their supplied cable is obviously based on a PC one, with only the Apple 15pin connector being changed. The original cable and card do not allow functional monitor sensing which means that gamma and available resolutions you originally had with a direct connection may not be available with the Power3d cable/adapter. One user cited a $140 dual switchbox arrangement that bypassed the Power3d card, but due to the signal being run through two switch boxes even the direct 2d video showed some sharpness loss. I'd not recommend this setup, as it's expensive, convoluted, and lossy. The more you switch the video, the more the contacts will wear, degrading signal even more. The better solution is the *properly designed* cable/adapter, based on the post above. I was concerned at first that possibly the Techworks card did not have all 15pins connected in the pass-thru on the card.

Personally I think Techworks should *replace* all existing cables/adapters with the proper ones for Apple monitors. This would prevent a lot of bad will and upset customers, and ensure that the Voodoo doesn't die on the Vine so to speak. I hate to see such a potentially vital (to Mac gaming) product suffer such a black eye due to Techworks lack of attention to detail and follow-up. I have sent them mail on these issues, but to date have not received a response.

Should you buy one?
First of all realize that this card is for games only - it really has no other use given its full screen only 3d mode, and lack of higher resolutions. If you want something to speed up your 3d applications - this is not your card. Unlike the Rage Pro - it does not do 2d, and is really only suited for games. However it is shipping (unlike the SGram Rage Pro I have), and at $199 is a lot of game bang for the buck, if you can live with compromises and the "warts" that Techworks let slip through (read on). However make no mistake - this card is FAST and delivers the goods in the image quality department in spades. No other currently available (or likely to be soon) 3d card on the Mac will provide the kind of 3d game acceleration that this card delivers.

If you love Quake and have to have the best looking version - then buy the Power3d. The 3Dfx Quake version is the best overall version of the game. It also boasts a better framerate on slower processors (about 5fps faster), and is very smooth at 640x480 on the 8500/120. To be fair, the Rage Pro RAVE Quake ran 17fps on the 8500/120 (w/1 meg cache, speed doubler2), and detail was superb. At 200mhz CPU the framerates were literally identical. Details of framerate tests are below. (Rave Update: The latest version of Rave Quake with the new (beta) ATI Drivers looks VERY good. Given the darkness in most areas of Quake, it's a tougher call now on image quality, although some textures and bilinear filtering looks better on the 3Dfx version. QD3D RAVE and the Rage Pro are really beginning to impress me about what can be done in RAVE (with the right hardware of course). 3Dfx Quake still has an edge though.)

For games written for the 3Dfx chipset you will not be disappointed, if the developers do their part. There have been some reports (and I've seen this twice as well) that the full version Quake has exhibited some problems with lock-ups. What exactly is the cause remains to be determined. Full Quake needs 24megs of ram allocated to it preferably, so your Mac should have at least 32megs of ram. Since ram is cheap now and a good way to boost overall performance you should consider a ram upgrade if you plan on running games like Quake.

The quality of RAVE games can vary, at least based on the supplied Mechwarrior 2 Rave version. This game looked identical on the Power3d and the ATI Rage Pro I have. Both had nice textured sky and ground, but the explosions were much blockier (edges) than I expected (on both cards). Again framerate was very smooth on the Power3d, and it obviously has the horsepower to run RAVE games very well. However based on RAVE Mech2 you'd not notice any difference in RAVE games compared to a good 2d/3d card like the RagePro. It may not be fair to judge future RAVE games on the basis of Mechwarrior alone, and Techworks/3dfx may have enhancements to their RAVE drivers in the future as well. (ATI is very active in optimizing their RAVE drivers, as I've gotten 3 updates for the RagePro in the last few weeks). RAVE games can be impressive with the proper hardware support, as RAVE Quake shows very well running on the Rage Pro. However for best results with the Power3D, Glide games are preferred.

My hope is that the tons of excellent PC 3Dfx games (Tomb Raider, MotoGP, Descent II 3DFx, etc.) will be ported over, as they say it's very easy to port a Glide game to MacGlide. Many new games appearing on the PC now require a 3dfx card (but for the Mac currently RAVE will be the most popular, due to card independence). It has the largest industry support of any 3d card on the market. However with the shrinking Mac overall market, and if sales of the Power3D are low, then I doubt we'll see many more (if any) 3Dfx titles (unless 3Dfx or Techworks funds them). However if sales are high, that will be motivation (and market) that may spur developers to port more games.

Can't I just buy a PC Voodoo card?
You can (see my FAQ Question #27), as many Mac owners report that a Diamond Monster 3d, Pure3D, and Orchid R3D runs fine in the Mac. However you get no drivers, no Mac game bundles and most importantly ** It doesn't count as a Mac Voodoo card sale **. The Gaming companies will surely look at shipped units of Techworks cards to determine the Mac market. The upside of the PC cards is that they seem to be able to drive a 2nd monitor with no 2d passthrough (eliminating the issues cited with the Techworks cable/adapter), whereas one reader posted at my forum that the Power3d card did not work this way (makes no sense).

Other Notes:
Some other issues to be aware of are that current 3Dfx games seem to run at 60hz vertical refresh. I did not notice any flicker, but Techworks/3dfx needs to supply some sort of utility for the Mac to allow adjustment of the card (as Tweek does on the PC, or as you can do in batch files on the PC). Heat is another issue. The 3Dfx chipset is comprised of two chips - a FX engine and a Texture engine. The FX engine runs hot - but then all fast Chips run hot. On the PC side there are actually fan attachments - which are generally used for those that overclock the card (I run my PC Orchid card at 57mhz, up from 48mhz stock setting, via a SET batch file statement). I have not used a fan in my PC, and I've run the Orchid for over a year. Others with the Monster 3d have noted that a fan is needed when overclocking the card, based on temperatures taken off the FX chip with a thermocouple). With the 8500 case's lack of airflow, I'd not want to overclock the card. After about 2 hours of running in my 8500 (case off), the FX chip was very hot to the touch, but no hotter than some of the 250mhz RamDac's on high end video cards I've seen. I mention this mainly to make owners aware that its normal for the chip to get hot - as many have expressed surprise at this. I intend to use some thermal conductive adhesive tape (3M) and a 486 heatsink attached to the FX chip as an experiment. Again, it has not proven to be a problem, but with the 8500 case closed, and after many hours of gameplay the chip temperature is certain to rise beyond what I've seen.

Inside the Techworks box is the Power3d card (which differs from the box pix, which is a 3Dfx Obsidian card), a 2D video passthru cable (vga connector that mates with the Power3d card, and the other end has a Apple 15pin connector to connect to your 2d video output connector), a Mac/VGA adapter (needed to connect Apple wide 15pin monitor connectors to the Power3d VGA output connector), a simple printed sheet installation "manual" (cd has online manual), and several CD's containing 3DFx Quake (Episode 1 only), VR Soccer, Mechwarrior 2 RAVE (not 3Dfx) version, Weekend Warrior (3Dfx native), and the Power3d drivers and demos.

The card uses 35ns ISSI EDO dram, faster than the normal Silicon Magic 40ns Drams used on many other cards (but Silicon Magic is a very respected brand name). Memory quality is critical with the Voodoo, as one lot of Orchid cards (PC version) were shipped with SEC substandard (but labelled 40ns speed) Drams. These cards would lock up after running intense games for about 15 minutes. Memory quality is especially crucial if you are overclocking the card (which is a moot point on the Mac currently as there are no utils for this). The card appears of good quality, with no patch wires or other reworks. Some solder joints did not look as good as I'd like, especially at the vga connector pads (they were somewhat dull, which can be a sign of a "cold" solder joint). However overall quality is very good - and performance is excellent.

Installation is very quick and easy. Here's the process:

1. Power Off the Mac and Monitor.
2. Open the Mac case to have access to the PCI slots
3. Locate a available PCI slot, and insert the card.
4. Make sure the card is fully seated!
5. Disconnect your monitor cable from your current video card
6. Connect the Techworks cable to your current video card output connector.
7. Connect the other end of the cable to the input of the Power3d card
   (the connector sex is different, so you can't connect to the wrong port)
8. Connect your monitor to the Power3d card
   (using the supplied adapter if your monitor has a Apple 15pin connector)
9. Boot the Mac - open the cd and install the software and games.
10. Reboot and play Quake right away.

Note: A user sent the following tip - which may prevent the hesitation I occasionally see in full Quake (even on the Rave version).
Holding down the option key when starting Quake will give you a command line, to boost framerates if you don't need any Network or Internet play, enter "-nolan" at the command line (without quotes). This disables all networking.

Observations:
Installation was easy, but as I mentioned previously if you have a Apple monitor you will notice a loss of some resolutions (1152x870 is one), and the gamma may be different. Also some off-centering of the display when the Power3d is active (running games) may be seen depending on your monitor type (due to the Power3d card running 60hz, and a different horiz. scan rate than the 2d video). In Quake on my Apple monitor this was not a problem, but RAVE Mech2 did have the screen shifted about 1" or so to the right. Not a big deal, but noticeable. Also mentioned previously is the fact you may notice some loss of 2d sharpness due to the video passing through the Power3d card. I wish Techworks had chosen to use a Relay switching circuit like the Orchid Righteous 3D, as that method seems to lose less detail than their design (which is similar to the Monster 3d as far as 2d switching). Some do not like the relay clicking sound (one click) when the video initially switches, but I think that's a trivial tradeoff to deliver better 2d quality, especially at higher 2d resolutions and refresh rates.

3DFx Quake:
3Dfx Quake is stunning, and runs very smoothly, even when I set my 8500 to 120mhz cpu speed (40mhz bus). Framerates were in the 20's even then (note: 1 meg L2 cache installed). At 200mhz cpu speeds (50mhz bus), the RagePro card I have literally equalled the framerate of the Power3d card however. Still Quake looked better on the Power3d card, without a doubt. The RAVE Quake was very detailed and sharp (I was surprised at the detail in the Rave version to be honest) but the 3dfx Quake just looks better due to the atmospheric effects (you'd have to play it to fully understand). (There is a update to RAVE Quake coming that will improve the gamma (brightness) of that version, which seemed too bright and brassy compared to the 3Dfx version. The new version does improve coloring from initial impressions - and gamma/brightness works now on at least on the RagePro card.) Many users reported very dark screens on the 3Dfx version, but the latest Quake update seems to have addressed that for the most part.

Framerate determines smoothness of play, and generally 13fps is the absolute minimum needed (IMHO) to provide a smooth play experience. That speed was easily delivered at 640x480 by the Power3d even at the 120mhz cpu speed. (Surprisingly, even the Rage Pro delivered good framerates at 640x480 as well - even with flames on). I'll admit to also being surprised at the amount of detail in the Rave version - other than what I can only call "atmospherics" the detail levels were identical. This makes me hopeful of the quality of future RAVE games.
Below is a frame rate comparison test with the Power3d vs ATI Rage Pro SGram prototype, installed on a 8500 with OS7.6.1, Quickdraw 3D 1.5.1, running Quake with flames on, 640x480:

120mhz 604E CPU Framerates:

• Rage Pro (Rave): 17.4
• Power3D (3Dfx): 21.8

200mhz 604E CPU Framerates:

• Rage Pro (Rave): 23.4
• Power3D (3Dfx): 23.8

220mhz 604E CPU Framerates:

• Rage Pro (Rave): 24.4
• Power3D (3Dfx): Locked up on demo.

DOS SET statements I use on the PC/Win95 Versions

SET SST_GAMMA=1.30 (Gamma settings)
SET SST_RGAMMA=1.30
SET SST_GGAMMA=1.30
SET SST_BGAMMA=1.30
SET SST_SCREENREFRESH=75 (set refresh to 75hz vs 60)
SET FX_GLIDE_NO_SPLASH=1 (disable 3Dfx rotating logo at game start)
SET SST_FASTMEM=1 (use fast EDO Dram timing
SET SST_GRXCLK=57 (Overclock card to 57mhz! w/fan, I've seen 61mhz!)
SET SST_FASTPCIRD=1 (set Fast PCI mode)
SET SST_VIDEO_24BPP=1 (24bit mode-but Quake still says 8-bit?)
SET FX_GLIDE_SWAPINTERVAL=0 (0 to swap backbuffer/frontbuffer asap, 1 to swap on vsync,2 to swap every two vsyncs.)
SET SST_SWAP_EN_WAIT_ON_VSYNC=0 (Don't wait on Vertical Sync)
SET GL_FLASHBLEND=0 (from voodoo listserv, doesn't seem to do anything)
SET SST_DUALHEAD=1 (Dual Monitor support - Fix for Power3d??)
(just read about this one, wonder if it fixes the no 2d pass-thru problem with Power3D)

RAVE Games:
Mechwarrior 2 Rave (RagePro vs Power3D Rave):
I've run both the Power3D and ATI Rage Pro (SGRAM, low cost version) cards with the Mechwarrior 2 RAVE edition game (bundled with the Power3d card), and was a little disappointed in the graphics quality of the game (to be honest, compared to 3Dfx Quake most anything would be disappointing). Explosions were not very well done (the card can do a lot better than this - the explosions I've seen in 3dfx PC games are stunning, like a movie literally - so the hardware can do them very well). Although the framerate may have been a little better at the slower cpu speed on the Power3d, the RagePro ran the game as well and it looked identical.

Overall I was underwhelmed by Mech2 Rave as the graphics were not that impressive, but I'm not a big fan of Mech2. Maybe if I had not seen the PC versions (3Dfx native) or Mech Mercenaries I would have been more impressed. Both cards ran it smoothly and I did not see any advantage to either card, other than a little faster framerate on the Power3d card.

This brings up the question of how many games will be available (or patches produced) for 3Dfx MacGlide (API). Although the card runs RAVE games very well, it really shines with Glide games. After running the 3Dfx patch for Descent II (PC version) and Tomb Raider I know how much this can add to a game. If the Power3d does not sell well, then there will probably be little Glide game support obviously. That's why I URGE Techworks to address (replace) the cable/adapter asap, otherwise sales may suffer.

The issue of RAVE (works on all video cards) vs 3DFx also comes up. Currently it's safe to say there will be many more RAVE games than 3Dfx games - since the Power3d card is so new and total installed units are low. Compounding the problem of game development in general is the low Mac market share (total Mac's) and then consider how many Mac owners are game buyers. That's where we need to let game developers know we are ready to buy - and do buy (not copy) the games that are produced. Sales of Duke Nukem 3d and Quake have been very, very good. That really helps show the developers that there is profit to be made in Mac games.

Maybe game companies will realize that a BIG chuck of the Mac market is better than a TINY chunk of the PC market, where the game selection is huge. It's easier for them to stand out in the Mac game selection, and Mac owners are ready to buy a quality game (not rip it off as is popular in the PC world). I really hope that the many PC 3dfx games do get ported over, which is easy they say, to the MacGlide platform. That's why I'm keeping the Power3d card. I see it as doing my part in helping to bring more games to the Mac. (And Quake is one of the few games I take time to play - which makes keeping the Power3d an easy choice).

Forgive the large file sizes, but I tried to preserve the look (otherwise what good are they?) of 3Dfx Quake. These images still don't relay the feeling and atmosphere inside the game, but will give you some idea of what to expect. (Note these images look much darker on a PC monitor/browser). If there is enough demand, I'll include more in the future. (Just Ask)