3dfx Voodoo3 3500

The Voodoo3 3000 has a bigger brother, the Voodoo3 3500. The 3500 packs some extras not found in the 3000, namely a TV tuner and the ability to capture video clips. This is possible through the included “AV Pod,” a hefty blue hemispherical gadget that lets you connect a TV and other devices to your PC. The AV Pod takes up a chunk of room around your PC, but it works well. We think it’s a cool, if somewhat unusual, addition for a video card.

The video card itself has a Voodoo3 graphics chip and is AGP 2X compatible. The Voodoo3 3500 has 16MB of SDRAM. Its maximum resolution is 2,048 x 1,536, and the refresh rates range from 60Hz to 160Hz. The Voodoo3 3500 has a maximum 32-bit color depth in 2-D applications and 16-bit in 3-D. Like the 3000, the 3500 has a speedy 350MHz RAMDAC. The 3500 can use the GLide, Direct3D, and OpenGL APIs and works with the Win95B, Win98, and WinNT4.0 operating systems.

The Voodoo3 3500 wasn’t as strong in 2-D applications as the 3000. The card had an overall SYSMark 98 score of 184, five points lower than the 3000, and tied for fifth with the Diamond Multimedia Viper V770 Ultra among the video cards in this round up. The 3500’s office productivity and content creation scores were 182 and 186, respectively.

The 3500 did prove to be a stronger 3-D card than the 3000, however. The Voodoo3 3500 had a frame rate of 83.8fps at a resolution of 640 x 480. This was the fifth best overall but higher than the 3000. The 3500 did especially well at a resolution of 1,024 x 768, ringing up a frame rate of 68.2fps, good enough for second best.

The Voodoo3 3500 also did pretty well in the 3D Marks portion of our tests. It posted an overall score of 4,540, which placed it third overall. Clearly the Voodoo3 3500 is more 3-D oriented than the 3000.

The Voodoo3 3500 strikes a decent balance between 2-D acceleration and 3-D power. It’s not the best at either, but it performs well enough in both categories. Plus, it included the AV Pod. Then again, it also includes a bigger sticker price because of the AV Pod.
 

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By: Lacey