BX-133 Video Guide

The Results- 3dfx

3dfx's Voodoo line remains a popular video card solution for many people, including BX motherboard owners. To 3dfx's advantage, the Voodoo line has never fully implemented AGP texturing and thus has never been extremely dependent on the AGP bus. As a result of this, we found that each Voodoo card tested performed flawlessly in the 133 MHz FSB systems. Attempting to run the cards in the 148 MHz front side bus systems did not equate to the same success.

The Voodoo cards experienced problems running in the 98 MHz AGP slot. Disabling SBA, a procedure that solved some of the problems experienced on other systems, was not met with the same success as in previous systems. The Voodoo cards produced strange errors when at this AGP bus speed, usually not resulting in complete system failure as in previous cards but rather an unexpected break form the Quake III loop test. This might not be enough to stop the hard core overclocker from attempting high FSB settings, but it may deter those worried about system stability.

On a positive note, the Voodoo cards had no problem working at the 133 MHz FSB settings even with SBA enabled. While we have shown that SBA does not result in any performance increase, leaving it enabled prevents having to disable SBA at each system boot to ensure stability. Please note that the results in this test as well as the others performed are not necessarily indicative of all Voodoo cards out there. As with all overclocking ventures, your results may vary.