3dfx is Back… In MXM Form! Testing the Voodoo4 M4800 (64MB)

The legendary 3dfx Voodoo4 has been resurrected in MXM form. Thanks to Daniel Simionescu at SDZ-Mods, this custom card brings 2000’s-era Glide gaming to modern(ish) laptops like the Dell M4800.

Inside is a VSA-100 GPU running at 166 MHz with 64 MB of SDRAM, paired with a Spartan-7 FPGA and a PCIe-to-PCI bridge to make it all work. We’ll look at how it handles Quake III, Unreal, and even Half-Life 2, plus some deeper details like why DVI output was broken on Voodoo cards and how FPGA fixes it.

We also explore features like FSAA, paletted textures, DirectX 6 hardware support, and the quirks of getting Windows 98 running on a modern laptop BIOS—with Coreboot as the solution. And yes, there are other MXM Voodoo cards too, including a compact Voodoo 3 and a dual-chip Voodoo 5 5500.

Timestamps:

0:00 Intro & What We’re Testing
0:38 Voodoo MXM Family
1:39 Inside the Voodoo 4
3:58 Memory & Display Output
4:40 Back in the Year 2000
5:21 Benchmarks on Modern Hardware
6:29 Testing Challenges
7:04 Image Quality Perks
8:04 Paletted Textures 101
9:17 DirectX & Game Compatibility
10:04 Windows 98 Limitations
12:07 Other Voodoo MXM Cards
13:21 Wrap-Up & Where to Learn More

Highlights:

Voodoo 4 teardown: VSA-100, PCIe bridge, FPGA, and SDRAM explained

Why DVI output was buggy and how FPGA fixes it

Benchmarks compared: year 2000 CPUs vs. modern i7 laptop

Coreboot unlocking Windows 98 compatibility on Dell M4800

Voodoo 3 and Voodoo 5 MXM cards revealed

Tech details:

MXM Type-A card (82 x 70 mm) for Dell M4800

VSA-100 GPU @ 166 MHz, 64 MB SDRAM

Spartan-7 FPGA converts DVI to LVDS/eDP

TI XIO2001 PCIe-to-PCI bridge

FSAA, paletted textures, and Glide support tested

Big thanks to Daniel at SDZ-Mods for making this possible:
sdz-mods.com

#3dfx #Windows98 #RetroGaming #MXM #GPU #PCMods