3dfx Interactive is long gone, having entranced PC gamers in the 1990s with its Voodoo graphics cards and the Glide API before being utterly eclipsed by competitors that include NVIDIA and AMD, but the defunct GPU manufacturer is certainly alive and well in the minds of at least some enthusiasts. According to a listing on eBay, someone has agreed to pay $15,000 for the 3dfx Voodoo 5 6000, a prototype AGP card that never officially reached the market but remains fondly remembered by some as being the first 128 MB graphics card, featuring four 166 MHz VSA-100 processors. Its performance is said to be on par with the Radeon 9700, a graphics card that originally surfaced in 2002.
From an eBay listing:
Hello all, this has been a difficult desicion for me but after deep consideration I’ve decided to part ways with my Voodoo 5 6000 3700A
I wanted one of these cards for well over a decade and when I aquired this card it almost didn’t even seem real.
I have come to the conclusion that this card just isn’t the holy grail for me and that I have other pieces in my vintage hardware collection that simply mean more to me and will always mean more to me. This card has been considered to be the ultimate holy grail piece for most if not all 3DFX enthusiasts/collectors. Which is why I’m wanting to pass it on to someone that will truly view it as such and get that warm and special feeling for it. I wish to pass the card to someone that will care for it for years to come and preserve the history and significance this card holds in the world of 3D.
This card was personally reworked by the well known 3DFX engineer Hank Semenec for fully stable 8X FSAA (I have personally verified that this card is rock solid at 8X) Unlike a lot of other Voodoo 5 6000 prototypes, this one is from the later stages of the 6K prototype project where the vast majority of bugs have been ironed out. So if you’re looking for the ultimate Voodoo 5 6000 experience with an ACTUAL REAL PROTOTYPE, this is the card for you!
This card will come with a “Voodoo volts” style barrel connector to molex plug adapter.
I would also like to make it perfectly clear that I bought this card via a good friend of mine a while back and I have personally cleared the idea of auctioning the card with him previous to listing it out of respect.
Happy bidding! (:
