3dfx Voodoo Rush prototype

A word about the cards on these pages- To generalize they are boards that were manufactured by 3dfx direct and not yet available to the general public. The boards fall into a number of different categories and I'll try to explain each type as they come up.

Engineering sample (prototype)- First run hardware samples, proposed designs that were intended for sale but never released to market or engineering exercises. 

Perfect examples of first run hardware would be the brown PCB pre-1999 Voodoo 3 and Daytona 32 MB DDR. The V5-6000 is a good example of hardware that was a dropped (also falling into this category would be also the V5-5000 32 MB) The Voodoo 3 MCM was from an internal engineering exercise at 3dfx to see how small a PCB could be utilized, it is a very rare piece!

Voodoo Rush 4 MB prototype- Lower 2D PCB with Alliance AT3 chip dated 29-96, upper PCB with Voodoo Rush chipset dated 49-96. 2D portion works well, locks up when 3D operations are called for though. Don't know if it is a board issue or a problem with drivers as the Rush cards are notoriously finicky about driver revisions and PCB style. Hercules was pretty much the first company to release a Rush board with one or two other small companies joining in. The real "Rush" to market was when the single PCB version was released and then everyone had one for sale. The most common size were the 6MB boards by far with some 4MB and 8MB versions also being sold.

Voodoo Rush 6MB, these two boards are the only prototype dual plane Rush boards known to still exist.

Prototype single plane Rush board, dated 25-97, obtained from Field Applications Engineer.

Early sample MXIC Rush board dated 32-97, obtained from Field Applications Engineer.