Original Link: https://www.anandtech.com/show/201

Canopus Pure3D II Voodoo2

by Anand Lal Shimpi on August 2, 1998 9:16 PM EST


Like the current wave of BX motherboards, Voodoo2 based 3D Graphics Accelerators seem to all fall within a few percent of each other as far as performance goes.  There are no real performance trend setters in the Voodoo2 market, so it comes down to the bundle and features that one card offers over the competition. 

Following in the traditional footsteps of their past products, Canopus has given Voodoo2 hungry gamers every reason to pick their newly released Pure3D II over the rest of the Voodoo2 crowd. 

By winning the hearts of true gamers not by bloated performance numbers, not by a massive game bundle, but by releasing a truly excellent product.  Combining the features the Voodoo2 chipset offers with Canopus' own special touch which can be seen throughout the installation and use of the card. 

What makes the Pure3D II worthy of the Best Voodoo2 card title?  If it isn't the performance, there must be something else, let's find out just what that is as AnandTech takes a closer look at the 12MB monstrous, graphics blasting, Canopus Pure3D II.



3Dfx Voodoo2 Graphics chipset
  • Pixelfx graphics controller
  • 2 Texelfx texture processing unit
  • GENDAC 135 Mhz RAMDAC
  • PCI 2.1 compliant/3.3-5V slot

12 MB Memory

  • 25ns EDO DRAM
  • 4 MB frame buffer
  • 8 MB dedicated texture memory

Supported Refresh Rates (16bit Non Interlaced)

Canopus Pure3D II

-

Refresh Rate

Resolution

(Hz)
800x600 60, 70, 75, 85
640x480 60, 70, 75, 85, 120
640x400 70, 75, 85, 120
512x384 72, 75, 85, 120

TV-Out Features

  • High quality TV encoder
  • Automatic detection of TV presence
  • NTSC and PAL support
  • Simultaneous TV/monitor display
  • Composite and S-Video output
  • Pass-through for displaying DOS/Windows VGA on the TV (at 640x480 60 Hz)
  • Support 512x384,640x400,640x480,800x600 modes in NTSC and PAL

Connectors

  • DB-15 monitor connector (VESA DDC2B)
  • Mini Din 9-pin shielded for VGA pass-through
  • RCA Jack for Composite video
  • Mini Din 4-pin S-Video

Included Cables

  • VGA pass-through (Pure3D to VGA card)
  • Composite (Pure3D to TV)
  • S-Video (Pure3D to TV)

Warranty

  • 3 years parts and labor
Standard 3D Features
  • Perspective correct texture mapping
  • Bi-linear and tri-linear texture filtering
  • Z-buffer (16bpp, integer and floating point)
  • Level of detail (LOD) MIP mapping
  • Sub-pixel and sub-texel correction
  • Bump Mapping
  • Gourad shading and texture modulation
  • Full 24-bit rendering, dithered to 16-bit RGB
  • Full bi-linear blending of palletized and compressed textures

Additional 3D Features

  • Full hardware triangle setup
  • Anti-aliasing
  • Depth buffering (16-bit)
  • Alpha blending
  • Per-pixel special effects: fog, transparency, translucency
  • Linear frame buffer access
  • Single-pass tri-linear filtering
  • Single-pass dual textures per pixel

Software Features

  • Windows 95 based installation program
  • Windows 95 Control Panel utility
  • Application Launcher utility
  • Quick Control utility
  • DOS display utility

API Support

  • Direct3D
  • Glide
  • OpenGL

System Requirements

  • Pentium-class PCI 2.0-based system
  • 16 MB system memory
  • VGA display adapter
  • Available PCI slot
  • Microsoft Windows 95
  • CD-ROM drive


At a first glance, the attractive Pure3D II box doesn't seem big enough to hold a Voodoo2 card, since the Creative Labs and Diamond Multimedia Boxes just about twice the size in length.   In spite of its small size, the Pure3D II Box does hold much more than meets the eye.

Included in the Pure3D II package is the board itself, which is a full inch shorter than the reference Voodoo2 design making it a better fit for Baby AT motherboards as well as motherboards with cramped ATX layouts, an Installation Guide, RCA/S-Video TV-Out cables, audio cables, an external Pass Through Cable, a 6" Scan Line Interleave interface cable for connecting 2 Pure3D II's together, and a Pure3D II Drivers/Utilities CD-ROM.
For the most part, a package like that is fairly standard for a Voodoo2 card, however Canopus paid great attention to all facets of the overall experience users would have with the Pure3D II.

Looking at the Pure3D II Board, the biggest difference, aside from the shorter length, is the presence of the Cooling Fan over the Voodoo2 chip on the card.  While it would have been more intelligent to place a Heatsink on the chip with a fan on top of that, Canopus chose to include a fan to help cool the chip which is prone to produce incredible amounts of heat, for a 3D Accelerator that is.  The fan is powered by a 2-pin Power Supply connector on the Pure3D II board, and spins up to nothing more than a quiet purr during normal operation.   Canopus claims that it helps enable users to overclock their boards to 100MHz from the normal 93MHz Memory Clock of the Voodoo2 chipset, however we have already proven that older cards, such as the Creative Labs Graphics Blaster Voodoo2, will make it up to 100MHz without the use of any cooling devices.  The fan is basically added security for overclockers, it is nice to know that Canopus had some insight to take the initiative to equip their Voodoo2 board with some sort of active cooling. 

Another unique little addition Canopus made to the reference design called for a Green LED Light which illuminates when the board it operational.  This feature is supposed to help diagnose problems with the card when troubleshooting, essentially telling you if the card is doing its duty or not.   However for the most part, it can be considered an extra 30 cents of difference between the Pure3D II and a Creative Labs Voodoo2 card. 

Due to the shorter length of the Pure3D II, the SLI Connector is centrally oriented on the left hand side of the card.  To compensate, Canopus has included a massive (compared to the 3Dfx recommended standard) 6" SLI cable for connecting two Pure3D II's together.  For those of you that aren't familiar with the term, Scan Line Interleave, is a special operation mode the Voodoo2 chipset supports allowing two Voodoo2 boards to operate in a process similar to a parallel processing environment.  In SLI Mode one Voodoo2 card would handle all of the odd scan lines (your screen is divided into a number of horizontal scan lines which are placed on the screen by your picture tube) while the other card handles all even scan lines. 

The Pure3D II is a 3D add-on card, which interfaces through your current AGP/PCI 2D or 2D/3D Video Card using an external Pass Through Cable.  Provided that you don't have a Total3D 128V from Canopus, in which case you can use an Internal Pass Through Cable to connect the two cards, you can make use of the extremely flexible external cable provided by Canopus.  Unlike other Voodoo2 boards, the Canopus Pure3D II's pass through cable isn't simply a VGA to VGA connector, to conserve space on the interface panel Canopus used a proprietary connector to connect your existing graphics card to the Pure3D II.  This supplied pass through cable is not only very flexible, as mentioned above, but it also doesn't seem to cause any image deterioration even at higher desktop resolutions. 

Why would Canopus be interested in conserving space on the interface panel of the Pure3D II?  In order to make room for the RCA and S-Video output jacks that they have chose to put on the card, making this Voodoo2 card a bit more than the competition can offer.  The quality of the Pure3D II's TV-Out is pretty much standard as far as Canopus is concerned, if you are feeling limited by the size of your 14 or 15" monitor then the ability to use a larger TV for your Quake-ing is a definite plus.  If you happened to be blessed by the presence of a 19" or larger monitor, then the TV-Out will probably serve you no good as the quality of your PC's monitor is clearly much more crisp and clear.  Either way, the Pure3D II allows you to achieve the previously unachievable with a Voodoo2 based 3D accelerator.  



The ASUS P2B Pentium II System that was used as the test bed for the Canopus Pure3D II was equipped with an AGP Matrox Millennium II as the 2D accelerator prior to the Pure3D II installation.  Finding and occupying a PCI slot that would hold the Pure3D II on the P2B wasn't a problem at all, the manageable size of the card also helped in finding a home for the new Voodoo2 accelerator. 

Upon the initial boot-up Windows 95's famous New Hardware dialog box popped up beckoning for the insertion of the provided Pure3D II drivers (updated files can be found on Canopus' website at: www.canopuscorp.com).  After installing the drivers from the CD-ROM (which was nothing more than a Sony CD-R disc bearing Canopus' label on the front cover) the Pure3D II was fully operational without any problems at all.  

Another advantage Canopus boasts over the competition is their highly configurable set of driver utilities.  Using pre-defined keystroke combinations you can change the gamma settings of your Pure3D II during game-play, in situations where every second counts this handy addition can be a life saver, in frag terms. 

Entering your Display Properties Control Panel will reveal a new tab creatively named, Pure3D II, which allows you to select from and set the most popular tweaks for the Voodoo2 chipset.  These options include disabling Wait for V-Sync for both Glide and Direct3D games, and manually setting the Memory Clock to add a little more spice to your already sizzling gaming experience with the Pure3D II. 


Click to Enlarge

Much like the Microsoft Office 97 Shortcut bar, Canopus included an Application Launcher utility which quietly rests at the top of your screen by default.  Indicative of a Start Menu supplement, the Application Launcher is easily disabled, and happily so it remained disabled throughout the testing process.  While some may find it useful, it can often just add to the clutter on your desktop.  Those that have a strongly organized Windows 95 Desktop may want to take the initiative to disable the application at first sight.  Call this reviewer protective of his desktop, but nothing is more annoying than an application whose use becomes diluted in Pure looks.

The test suite for the Pure3D II was limited to idSoftware's Quake 2, Acclaim's Forsaken, and Turok.  There are still a few games out there that won't work with the Voodoo2 chipset however the most popular titles have either been complimented by patches or have programmers cooking one up this very moment.  The installation of all of the mentioned games went without a hitch as could be expected with such a well-made product. 



The performance of the Pure3D II, as with all Voodoo2 cards out today, falls within a few percent of the competition, eliminating the need to re-run an entire suite of benchmarks spreading across multiple processor platforms. 

How I Tested
  • Wait for VSYNC was disabled during the tests

  • Canopus' Supplied Pure3D II Drivers were used in conjunction with the Millennium II AGP Drivers

  • The Memory Clock was set at 100MHz

  • Quake 2 v3.14 was used; The full version of Turok was used, not the downloadable demo.

Test Configuration

Processor(s): AMD K6/300 AFR
Intel Celeron - 266
Intel Pentium II - 266
Motherboard(s): Socket-7: Epox MVP3C-M
MTech R581-A
Slot-1: ASUS P2B
RAM: 1 - 64MB Corsair PC100 SDRAM DIMM
Hard Drive(s): Western Digital Caviar AC21600H
Video Card(s): Canopus Pure3D II - Voodoo2 (12MB PCI)
Matrox Millennium II (4MB WRAM - AGP)
Bus Master Drivers: Intel 3.01
VIA 2.14
Video Drivers: MGA Millennium 4.03.00.3410
VIA Gart VxD
Operation System(s): Windows 95 Service Release 2.1

 

3D Gaming Performance - Frame Rates
266MHz (66 x 4.0)

Quake 2 Turok TMark

Processor

Demo 1
800 x 600
Demo 2
800 x 600
Glide
640 x 480
Direct3D
800 x 600
AMD K6 --- --- --- ---
Intel Celeron 54.5 49.3 103.3 67.3
Intel Pentium II 59.8 57.4 125.2 87.4

  

3D Gaming Performance - Frame Rates
300MHz (75 x 4.0)

Quake 2 Turok TMark

Processor

Demo 1
800 x 600
Demo 2
800 x 600
Glide
640 x 480
Direct3D
800 x 600
AMD K6 35.1 34.4 86.4 60.8
Intel Celeron 59.8 57.9 119.1 78.7
Intel Pentium II 63.3 61.5 141.8 99.7

 

3D Gaming Performance - Frame Rates
333MHz (83 x 4.0)

Quake 2 Turok TMark

Processor

Demo 1
800 x 600
Demo 2
800 x 600
Glide
640 x 480
Direct3D
800 x 600
AMD K6 37.2 36.0 93.5 67.4
Intel Celeron 63.1 61.1 123.4 88.9
Intel Pentium II 65.0 63.2 160.8 110.6


If you have the money, and are looking for a luxury add-on (notice the use of the word luxury) to your already incredible gaming system then the Pure3D II from Canopus is probably the current top of the line when it comes to Voodoo2 based 3D accelerators.  If you don't have a desire to experience the pleasure of playing Quake 2 on your 32" TV then you may want to consider the watered down bare Voodoo2 card offered by Canopus as well, the Pure3D II LX.


Canopus Pure3D II PCI Voodoo2 Accelerator
Price - $329 (12MB Pure3D II w/ TV-Out) $279 (12MB Pure3D II LX w/o TV-Out)
Website - http://www.canopuscorp.com

Overall Rating - 86%

Anand Tech - Video Card Rating

2D Performance: N/A
3D Performance: 95%
Price: 80%
Ease of Installation/Configuration: 90%
Drivers: 90%
Compatibility: 94%
Bundled Software: 65%
Overall Rating: 86%

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