Super Rare 3dfx Voodoo 5 6000 Hits the Auction Block

(Photo: gtastuntcrew302 on eBay) It’s tempting to write the 3dfx Voodoo 5 6000 holds a special place in all of our hearts. However, most of us never got to actually buy one and game with it, as it never came to market. Instead, we all remember it as the embodiment of a dream unfulfilled. It represented 3dfx’s grandest ambitions, which were sadly a bit too great at the time. Its delay and other factors meant 3dfx’s assets were sold to Nvidia in 2002 before the card could launch. Since then a handful of them have popped up on the used market, but not very often as they are incredibly rare. Only 1,000 or so were reportedly ever created. Now a seemingly pristine late-model prototype is up for auction, and it’s already up to $1,4000 with several days left for bidding.

The card looks to be in superb condition, and the seller says it’s been “reworked” by a 3dfx engineer named Hank Semenec. The modifications it has allow it to be fully stable 8X FSAA. Not all of these cards allow this due to a PCI bug in how the four chips are connected. Therefore, this adds to the rare nature of this sample. Also, keep in mind these are prototypes, which are usually the opposite of stable. The card is also a revision 3700A model, a later version with fewer bugs.

The eBay seller says they are selling it as it’s no longer their “holy grail.” Therefore, they hope to pass it along to someone who sees it in that light, as it deserves a loving home. According to a forum post from what looks like the seller, it was originally purchased it in 2019 from a buyer in Spain. The only change aside from the PCI-rework mod is the addition of copper heatsinks to reduce temps.

The Voodoo 5 6000 in its native habitat. (Image: Nostalgic Hardware/Techpowerup forums)

The card features four VSA-100 GPUs on a single PCB, which was insane then. Each chip was built on a 250nm process and ran at 166MHz. Each chip also sports 32MB of 166Mhz SDRAM for a total of 128MB of memory, which was unheard of at the time. The competing Nvidia GeForce 2 Ultra had 64MB of DDR memory running at 230MHz. The card was so power-hungry it exceeded the output from the AGP slot. This required an additional power that was aptly named Voodoo Volts. Though some units featured an external power supply, this one has a barrel connector to molex adapter.

The price of these cards has risen steadily over the years. A former ExtremeTech writer named Joel Hruska [Never heard of him. -Ed.] bought one in 2003 for a mere $800. We imagine he is kicking himself right now for eventually selling it. For reference, the Voodoo 5 6000 was priced at $600 back in 2002, which would be over $1,000 in today’s money. The notion of spending that much money on a GPU at the time was simply ludicrous.

The Voodoo 5 6000’s outlandishness inspired this parody piece from Maximum PC magazine.

The auction ends on Sunday, so there’s still time to bid. These don’t come along very often, so this is a rare opportunity. At the time of this writing, there are already 62 bids, so it’ll probably be a sniping war at the end. Retro gaming is also making a comeback, even for 3DFX card owners. Recently a fan released a driver that allows widescreen gaming. You’ll have to run it at lower resolution, of course, but we’ll bet Unreal will still look pretty good, especially at 8X FSAA.

Now Read:

• The 3dfx Voodoo Could Ride Again, in Lego Form
• Ambitious Failure: Rendition and 3dfx
• 3dfx Voodoo Emulator In the Works

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