# 3dfx Voodoo

34 Hacker News commenters recommended 3dfx Voodoo and 5 criticized it, November 2025 to November 2026. It was recommended in 10 of 13 months. It meets the Hacker Approved badge rule.

**Verdict:** People recommend it for its fast, great-looking 3D gaming in Quake and Glide games, and drivers that worked. Critics note it needed a separate VGA card and was expensive.

## Why people recommend it

- Much faster, smoother 3D than earlier cards (7 comments): "The night and day difference of gaming on a Trident card vs a Voodoo card made grown men cry." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50253860)) "That was the the other big unlock of 3dfx voodoo, it could do 640x480 at 30 fps." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50120139)) "the early consumer cards(voodoo) could run rings around them" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47681392))
- Memorable experience when first played (6 comments): "When I played Quake (and ran the time test) the first time on that Voodoo, I knew computer gaming had changed." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49723419)) "The Christmas when I got my 3dfx Voodoo1 card was magical." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49363119)) "A year or so later - we then had 3dfx cards. Good times!" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49462222))
- Runs Glide games and Quake well (5 comments): "I really wanted a 3dfx Voodoo card for Christmas so I could play all the sweet 3D games that only supported Glide" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46561186)) "thanks to the Voodoo I could play Unreal Tournament without problems" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47672959)) "Whatever, Glide was amazing! So much so that Nvidia bought them." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=46561019))
- Good driver support, including Linux (3 comments): "I exhausted my teenage savings to buy the Voodoo 1 due to the Linux support." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47478711)) "It's was a 3D card with drivers that actually worked." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49443760)) "it had great driver support for ppc32/macos9" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47480226))

## What people warn about

- Needed a separate VGA card (2 comments): "The Voodoo was fast but also expensive, and you needed an additional VGA card." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=47489483)) "Voodoo 1 and 2 had the ugly VGA passthrough hack." ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50069451))
- Felt dated and disappointing (2 comments): "3dfx lost because it kept optimizing for yesterday" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49847996)) "still felt like a let down" ([source](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49850109))

## Alternatives hackers recommend

- [NVIDIA GeForce RTX 3090](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nvidia-geforce-rtx-3090.md): 116 recommend
- [NVIDIA GeForce RTX 5090](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nvidia-geforce-rtx-5090.md): 102 recommend
- [NVIDIA RTX PRO 6000](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nvidia-rtx-pro-6000.md): 77 recommend
- [Nvidia GPUs](https://hackerapproved.com/p/nvidia-gpus.md): 67 recommend
- [AMD Radeon GPU](https://hackerapproved.com/p/amd-gpus.md): 48 recommend

## Where to get it

- [See price on Amazon](https://www.amazon.com/s?k=3dfx+Voodoo+1+graphics+card&tag=hackerapprove-20) (affiliate link)

## Cite as

Hacker Approved, "3dfx Voodoo", https://hackerapproved.com/p/3dfx-voodoo-graphics-card/ (counts from 1,795,640 Hacker News comments, November 2025 to November 2026).