By Tom “FrameRate” Davies and Nathan Clarke
1. The Day the Frame Rate Changed
Tom:
It was late ’97. I’d just installed a brand-new 3dfx Voodoo Graphics card into my beige tower — a Frankenstein build powered by a Pentium 166MMX and a 2D S3 Trio64. The first time I loaded up Quake in 640×480 with Glide rendering, I didn’t just see the difference — I felt it. The fluidity, the lighting, the buttery 30+ frames per second — it was like gaming had finally grown up. For a moment, I wasn’t just a kid hunched over a CRT monitor — I was in the future.
This wasn’t just better graphics. This was the moment frame rates became an obsession.
Nathan:
And the Voodoo Graphics card was the catalyst. 3dfx Interactive didn’t invent 3D gaming — but they made it real. They launched in 1996 with a dedicated 3D-only accelerator, leaning on their custom Glide API and a model that relied on piggybacking existing 2D cards. And in doing so, they created not just a technical leap, but a cultural one.
2. Enter the Glide Zone
Nathan:
Before 3dfx, PC gamers were dealing with software rendering in Doom, Duke Nukem 3D, and early Windows games — pixel soup at 20 FPS if you were lucky. The Voodoo Graphics chipset (code-named SST1) was a revelation:
- Clock Speed: 50 MHz
- Memory: 4–6MB EDO RAM (split 2MB framebuffer + 2/4MB texture memory)
- Max Resolution: 640×480 (16-bit colour)
- API: Proprietary Glide
- 3D-only: Passed through your existing 2D VGA card
They didn’t try to do everything. They did one thing better than anyone: real-time 3D rendering. It felt magical — and developers noticed. Tomb Raider, Descent II, MechWarrior 2, and Carmageddon were transformed.
Tom:
If you were there, you remember it. The first time Lara Croft’s cave actually looked like a cave, not a blocky mess. And that was Glide — faster, smoother, leaner than Direct3D or OpenGL at the time. 3dfx made smoothness the feature. And suddenly, gamers started measuring fun in FPS.
3. Birth of the Frame Rate Obsession
Tom:
Let me show you what I mean. Here’s how GLQuake looked on my rig in 1997:
| Renderer | Avg FPS | Resolution | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| Software (CPU) | 18 FPS | 320×240 | Blurry, dark, jittery |
| Voodoo + Glide | 35 FPS | 640×480 | Crisp, smooth, jaw-dropping |
| dgVoodoo2 (2025) | 160 FPS | 1080p | Smooth, but lacks CRT magic |
What changed? Everything. Suddenly we were arguing over frame caps, tweaking AUTOEXEC.BAT for RAM, even shelling out for better cooling. The obsession was born.
Nathan:
And we can trace it back to Glide. It gave 3dfx a huge performance advantage — because it was proprietary and tightly integrated with their hardware. It was the Apple of graphics APIs: closed, but stunningly well-optimised.
3dfx helped pioneer a culture where benchmarking became a badge of honour. Forums exploded with users posting 3DMark scores in their signatures. LAN parties weren’t just about frag counts — they became showrooms for case mods, water cooling setups, and who had the fastest frame rate.
Tom:
People started running 3DMark just to see the number. For the first time, FPS became a bragging right. And that culture? It still drives every GPU review today.
4. From Glory to Gone: The Death of Glide
Nathan:
But it wasn’t built to last. Glide’s closed nature eventually turned against it. As Direct3D improved and OpenGL matured, developers began shifting to open standards.
3dfx’s next move — acquiring STB Systems to build their own cards — was a strategic misstep. They alienated partners like Creative and Diamond, lost market share, and stumbled with the Voodoo Rush and Banshee.
NVIDIA countered with the RIVA TNT, then detonated the market with the GeForce 256. By the time the Voodoo 5 hit shelves (too hot, too late, no hardware T&L), it was over.
In December 2000, NVIDIA bought 3dfx’s assets. Glide was officially dead.
Tom:
I still remember seeing that press release. It felt like a mate had died. 3dfx wasn’t just a brand — it was an era. And even now, part of me wishes they’d held on.
5. The Resurrection: Wrappers, FPGAs and Frame Purists
Tom:
Here’s the twist — Glide never really went away. Enthusiasts resurrected it:
- nGlide and dgVoodoo2 let you play old Glide games on modern RTX cards
- DOSBox SVN builds now include Glide emulation
- MiSTer FPGA cores replicate Voodoo-era GPUs with astonishing precision
I benchmarked Unreal Gold on an emulated Glide setup and a 3dfx Voodoo 3. The emulated setup hits 120FPS easily — but the latency and frame pacing still feel different. On the real hardware? There’s a unique analogue smoothness you just can’t fake.
Nathan:
That’s the irony. A 1996 card with 6MB of RAM still inspires more devotion than some £1,200 GPUs today. Because it changed how we felt about performance.
And if you visit forums like VOGONS or niche retro Discord servers, you’ll still find fans restoring AGP rigs, testing old drivers, and comparing original Voodoo cards to FPGA cores or wrappers. It’s a community built on preservation through obsession.
6. Legacy: The Frame Rate Fever Lives On
Nathan:
3dfx didn’t just push pixels. They changed the way we evaluate hardware. Before them, nobody cared if a game ran at 17FPS or 27FPS. After them, it was all that mattered.
Tom:
Now we’ve got DLSS 3 Frame Generation, NVIDIA Reflex, and 360Hz OLEDs. But deep down? We’re still chasing the same dragon — smoothness, speed, no stutter, no lag. It started with Voodoo.
Today’s gamers talk about response times in milliseconds. But it all started when we first saw Quake run smoothly on a CRT — and thought: “This is it.”
And original Voodoo cards today? They’ve become collector’s items — not just for nostalgia, but because they represent a turning point in how gaming felt. On eBay, prices for working cards continue to climb, while YouTube channels and streamers proudly showcase builds running on retro hardware — just to relive the magic.
7. Conclusion: A Glide Into History
Tom:
Maybe it wasn’t just the frame rate we were chasing. Maybe it was the feeling — that for once, your machine was ahead of the curve. That you weren’t just playing a game — you were experiencing it.
Nathan:
3dfx showed us that performance could be beautiful, and that smooth gameplay wasn’t a luxury — it was a necessity. It left behind more than Glide wrappers and dead cards.
It left us with standards.
Tom:
And those of us who lived through it? We’re still chasing those frames. We probably always will.
What was your first taste of real smoothness?
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