This little number is clocked higher (greater fill rates) and has a faster RAMDAC and is some $50 dearer than its slower 2000 counterpart.

We're pretty sure that you already know full well what 3dfx's Voodoo3 entails and if so feel free to skip this little extract taken for our Voodoo3 2000 review. Newbies can just press on.

"For those of you that are either new to the Web, 3D cards, or just fallen into a state of amnesia let us briefly explain what the Voodoo3 is and where it came from (in true Blind Date fashion). Last year 3dfx came out with the Voodoo Banshee chip, which combined both 2D and 3D architecture on to one single chip. The only problem was that 3dfx (then 3Dfx) aimed a little low by 'limiting' the Voodoo Banshee's 3D architecture. They failed to include single pass multi texturing capabilities, which in turn meant that Quake 2-style games that run markedly better under multi texturing (e.g. the Voodoo2), were not performing as well with a Banshee. It left gamers and 3dfx loyalists dissatisfied (although it did do rather well for 3dfx's OEM reputation). The low clock speeds (usually around the 90-100MHz mark) and the failure at that point to shrink the die from .35micron to .25micron didn't help matters either. Alas, with the 128-bit Voodoo3, 3dfx has 'corrected' some of the criticisms that were directed at them. The Voodoo3 chip (sometimes dubbed the Banshee2) has a markedly similar architecture but has been shrunk from .35micron down to .25micron and as a result its clock speeds can also be set far higher. It only took FAB 4 of the TSMC (Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Company) 19 days to mask and fabricate the first round of .25micron five-metal layer processed Voodoo3 silicon (with its 8.2million transistors). More importantly though, Quake 2 loyalists will be happy in the knowledge that single pass multi-texturing was once again given the go ahead by the marketing bods at 3dfx. The benefits are clear- faster clock speeds and multitexturing has meant that the Voodoo3 architecture is fairly close to being a Voodoo2 SLI performer (it's actually slightly faster at the 166MHz and 183MHz speeds)."