3Dfx Banshee          07 Jul 1998

3Dfx Banshee. 3Dfx has not said anything about it other than it is a 2D/3D single chip, and should have 3D performance similar to the Voodoo2. Late 1998 release.

From the NextGen 3D accelerator FAQ: "According to developers who attended 3Dfx's Immersion program just before the GDC, 3Dfx is claiming that the Banshee is about $25 percent faster than a single Voodoo 2 while costing considerably less, running 3D in a window and handling 2D operations. As such, it's going to be a tight race in Q3/Q4 when 3Dfx and PowerVR (and even Matrox) go head to head for the sub $100 integrated solution market."

Today's the day: 3Dfx Banshee info! It's a mid-range chip, targeted to the OEM and casual gamer market.  It'll probably do well, because, while it's not as fast as the Voodoo2, TnT, PVRSG, Glaze3D, Savage3D, etc., it's compatible with a lot more games.

-128 bit 2D engine
-230 or 250 Mhz RAMDAC option
-Interfaces to SGRAM & SDRAM
-AGP 1x only, no AGP texturing
-16-big floating-point Z-Buffer
-Chip runs at 100Mhz delivering 100mpps (initially)
-No single pass multitexturing (this means only one Texel engine; Voodoo2 has two)
-3.3V 0.35 micron 352-pin PBGA
-Initially 0.35 micron, will be 0.25 micron -- at which time chip will run at 125MHz
-Should go for $125 (4 MB), $150 (8 MB), $225 (16 MB) in August or so
-Will have 2D a little faster than the G200
-Slightly faster than the Voodoo2 under Direct3D (v5.2)

• Voodoo Banshee
  - Designed for today's games written for Voodoo Graphics architecture
  - Banshee will be slightly faster on  fill-rate intensive games and 3D Winbench.
• VoodooČ
  - Designed for next generation games which use multi-texturing
  - Nothing comes close to VoodooČ SLI

Banshee articles available on TechWeb,   VE's Banshee FAQ, bunches of info at Jeremy's site, 3D Central (due to the break up at Op3Dfx): Banshee Press Release, Banshee Introduction, 2D Features, 2D Performance, 3D Features, 3D Performance, Banshee FAQ. And straight from 3Dfx: Voodoo Banshee Features, Voodoo Banshee FAQ, Voodoo Banshee GameGauge Results, Voodoo Banshee Benchmarking.

OGR has a Teck Talk column, where two guys are discussing the banshee.  Here's an appropriate snippit:

PB: Unless you're running advanced CAD packages at 1600x1200x32bit, you ain't gunna notice a thing about 2D performance of just about any card these days. But, I disagree that people care that much about 3D support either. 3D is really only of any value to gamers, and hardcore gamers at that. The people who want the cutting edge performance will buy a "real" accelerator chip anyway, but for your average joe who's buying a PC and wants to play Flight Sim 98 at maximum resolution -- he sees the 3Dfx name and he'll think "I know that name! They make great 3D cards! This must be a great PC!" that's a strong reason for OEMs to adopt.

JG: Again, a sad and depressing but valid point. I suppose only time will tell whether you or I was correct.

Mike Fleming has another editorial, this one about Banshee, at 3D Overtime.

Well, 3Dfx has announced thier next project, the Rampage.