3dfx Voodoo3

Shogo RevShogo Performance Conclusions

Shogo is an excellent representation of a Direct3D based game, where the Voodoo3 barely offers an investment-worthy performance improvement over the Voodoo2 SLI solution. The main benefit of the Voodoo3 here, other than its support for higher resolutions at extremely playable frame rates, is the fact that it only occupies a single slot, whereas a Voodoo2 SLI solution would end up taking a total of three expansion slots including one for your 2D accelerator. A single card vs three separate cards is a definite winner for the Voodoo3, and with the 2000 model offering virtually identical performance to the 3000, there doesn't seem to be too much of a reason to opt for the more expensive 3000 model here.

The version of Shogo used in the comparison, 2.2, supposedly takes advantage of single pass multi-texturing; theoretically, the Voodoo2 should have outperformed the Banshee. However, because of the increased clock speed of the Banshee, and the fact that the Banshee used was the Diamond Fusion which used higher speed SGRAM, coupled with the somewhat weak implementation of multi-texturing in the Shogo 2.2 patch give the Banshee the edge over the Voodoo2 in some cases.

For users that already have a single Voodoo2, it may be cheaper to add a second Voodoo2 on to your current setup instead of shelling out for a new Voodoo3. That is, however, assuming that you don't mind occupying three slots for your video card configuration. Once again, for those users with slower CPU's, you'll want to hang on to your current video card, provided you already have a Banshee, Voodoo2, or a TNT, and invest your money in a processor upgrade rather than a faster video card that will end up being limited by your processor.