This enthusiast-made retro graphics card features a Voodoo 3 and PowerVR GPU on a single...

[Shawn Knight]

Editor's take: Retro gaming enthusiasts have plenty of vintage hardware to run classic games on, but now there's a compelling modern solution that looks quite intriguing from a pure engineering standpoint. We don't yet know how it performs, but it certainly has our attention.

Multi-GPU video cards have been around for decades, but I’m betting you haven’t seen one quite like this.

YouTuber Michael Dale recently shared an unboxing of a custom-designed graphics card featuring both a 3Dfx Voodoo 3 “Avenger” GPU and a PowerVR PCX2 on the same PCB. The Frankenstein creation is the brainchild of Anthony Zxclxiv, who apparently sells the cards over Facebook.

This particular model is known as the Lost Joker 2. It’s a PCI-based card with a 16MB Voodoo 3 3500 clocked at 183MHz alongside the PCX2 ticking along at 66MHz with 4MB of RAM.

The package consists of an all-black PCB with two passive heatsinks accompanied by various components scattered around the board. Around back is a VGA pass-thru so you can install it alongside a primary graphics adapter. There’s even an on-board jumper that allows you to overclock the PCX2 to 80MHz.

Also read: 3Dfx Interactive: Gone But Not Forgotten

The board also has what looks to be a three-pin header, presumably for an optional cooling fan. Rigging up some sort of active cooling probably wouldn’t be a bad idea, especially if you plan to run the PCX2 overclocked.

Unfortunately, Dale's video is just an unboxing, although he promises to do a follow-up video with a build featuring the Lost Joker 2 in the future.

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https://www.techspot.com/news/90274-retro-graphics-cards-features-voodoo-3-powervr-gpu.html

 

[VitalyT]

This particular model is known as the Lost Joker

Evidently, it has been found.

Today you could fit 100 such cards into one, and call it Voodoo 300.

 

[Per Hansson]

He has also made replicas of the Voodoo 5 6000
Quite a bit more interesting I'd say (and expensive of course)

 

[amghwk]

Just use nGlide, a free 3dfx glide wrapper.
Painless, hassle free, no pass through or incompatibility problems when needed to install in "modern hardware" which need better card for newer games.

For actual use of real 3dfx hardware, it's much more appropriate to put them in actual vintage hardware. Period specific would be better on a Pentium to Pentium III.

I'm still maintaining a Pentium II 400Mhz system with two Voodoo 2 in SLI.

 

[scavengerspc]

Just use nGlide, a free 3dfx glide wrapper.
Painless, hassle free, no pass through or incompatibility problems when needed to install in "modern hardware" which need better card for newer games.

For actual use of real 3dfx hardware, it's much more appropriate to put them in actual vintage hardware. Period specific would be better on a Pentium to Pentium III.

I'm still maintaining a Pentium II 400Mhz system with two Voodoo 2 in SLI.

Great post man. I have a P2 300, V2 SLI Dos box I built 19 years ago. And get this, it still runs a 24-year-old Quantum Bigfoot I bought new. I just played Screamers 2 last week.

 

[defaultluser]

Just use nGlide, a free 3dfx glide wrapper.
Painless, hassle free, no pass through or incompatibility problems when needed to install in "modern hardware" which need better card for newer games.

For actual use of real 3dfx hardware, it's much more appropriate to put them in actual vintage hardware. Period specific would be better on a Pentium to Pentium III.

I'm still maintaining a Pentium II 400Mhz system with two Voodoo 2 in SLI.

Have to agree, this is a pointless modern take on an Voodoo 5 5500 - if you can find a motherboard with a pci slot compatible with whatever bridge chip they used, plus enough bandwidth to run the thing at AGP speeds, you have found the (non-existent, really) old-school gaming nirvana.

When you also add in the issues troubleshooting real hardware that is 30 years old, you will probably spend more time diagnosing broken hardware than actually running games under Dosbox hacks / windows 10 compatibility plus that Glide wrapper.,

Windows 10 can still be installed in 32-bit mode (with full 16-bit compatibility). just dual-boot 64 for your real-world needs!

 

[ZedRM]

First thing I'd do is mount a fan to that card.

 

[UncleMikeRetro]

What are we missing here? Someone makes the literally two coolest retro re-make video cards ever and the YouTube channel that posts about them has ~350 subscribers?
What?
Why not send it to LGR or any of the big guns?
Something odd here. Also, if it's the real McCoy, don't just post unboxings. Plug the darn thing in and run it.

 

[Danny101]

I'm so mad at myself for giving away my 486 built PC. My first build project. I had a 1999 eMachine with a 466 Mhz Celeron that I should had kept also. I really need to stop giving away my stuff. Too many times I've had 'givers remorse'. I have an ATI AIW graphics board that stopped working. I held on to it. I wonder if maybe I can get it fixed. I suspect a bad MOSFET or something of that nature. I've always wanted to get into electronic repair. Just haven't had a good workbench to set up projects.