We had to wait a little but finally California Graphics released there Voodoo 2 based line-up in 3D-cards.The line-up has been called the Wizard 3D and comes in a 8mb version and a 12mb version. The 8mb version has TV-Out, the 12mb version has TV-Out optional. We will be testing a 12 Mb Wizard 3D. For comparisation we will use a Diamond Monster II

I've decided to skip most 'allround' benchmark in this review, yes Winbench '98 will not be used anymore. Lately there is a new trend hitting the streets, manufacturers are 'optimising' there drivers especialy for programs like WinBench ect. The best method of determining wether a card is fast 'to my humble opinion' is by examining framerates in games and bootmarks.
 

You may have wondered why I never used 3D Winbench 98 for my 3D accelerator reviews. I found out pretty soon after 3D Winbench 98 was released, that the results scored in this benchmark did not show any conformity with frame rates scored in any real world 3D game. It also seemed pretty strange to me that some graphics card manufacturers were keen on equipping me with new drivers right after 3D Winbench 98 was available, sometimes even with the words 'these drivers will perform better in 3D Winbench 98'. Comments like that don't really enforce your believe in that benchmark, it rather sounds pretty much as if these new drivers were simply improved for this particular benchmark. Now whilst suspecting something like that I couldn't really be bothered doing any research about this unpleasant issue. Instead of this I started concentrating on finding new and good 3D games that included some decent frame counters. 'Turok' was one of the first, now the awesome game 'Incoming' and the latest playable demo version of the impressively looking 'Forsaken' as well as 'Quake II' complete my 3D benchmark suite for the time being. It was actually pretty annoying that I often had to explain to graphics card manufacturers why I wouldn't use 3D Winbench, because some were particularly keen on me using this benchmark. Others suggested Final Reality and although I really liked that benchmark when it was new, I really went off it latest since I saw the amusing posting of Mercury, where a Voodoo Rush card scored higher than a Voodoo2 card in Final Reality. I'd rather call that 'Final Irreality'.

Installation of any Voodoo 2 card is very simple, ofcourse if you've own(ed) a Voodoo1 make sure that you de-install it. Also make sure that you remove all Voodoo(1) information from your registry. (if you don't know what i'm talking about then please forget it & don't fool arround the the registry). After inserting your Voodoo2 card into an empty PCI slot you can reboot your system. As soon as windows starts it will begin its plug & pray sequence. An unknown device will be found & you have to direct/browse windows to the drivers directory on the Cd-Rom. Very easy installation indeed. After this proces of installing make sure that you install DirectX 5.x (can be found on the CGP Softwarepack thats included) & then you are set to go ...

A slight dissapointment is that the Wizard 3D does not include a gamepack. Probably the idea behind this is that CG wanted to deliver a product that can compete with other voodoo2 based products by keeping the retail price low. So it's all about the money.  However don't be dissapointed ! CG adds a driver-cd (CGP Softwarepack) wich includes many playable demo's of games,strandalone demos,drivers, benchmarks. It is obvious that Cg has put a lot of effort in compiling this cd because its the best included driver cd that i have ever seen. Thumbs up for that one CG ! 

Included are :

3Dfx - ATB demos, donut demo, trip demo
Benchmarks - Wizmark, Final Reality, 3D Winbench 98
Drivers - Win95, WindowsNT
DirectX 5.2
Game demos - Barrage, Commanche Gold, Croc, Descent, EvilCore, Forsaken, HexenII, Castrol racing, incoming, Monster Truck II, montezuma, Motorhead, Nuclear Strike, Plane crazy, Powerboat Racing, Quake II, Redline Racer, Toca Racing, Tombraider II, Ultimate racing, VirtualCop II
Utils - hypersnap, winrar, winzip,Dir3d , Cthugha, 3dcc, arj 2.60

Lovely ...
 

The Diamond Monster 3D II and the Wizard 3D, are almost 100% identical when it comes to board layout. Very few of the components are different (some small smd chips), and they are all in the very same locations. Ofcourse the the boards have been 'copied' to the upmost precision from 3Dfx's reference board. Thats why all voodoo2 board will look the same, only slightly differences in components will make very little difference. So if you want to buy a Voodoo2 card, go for the best price vs softwarepack. The hardware isn't the problem anymore, its almost all the same. Since the Wizard is a 12Mb version obvious there are some more Silicon Graphics chips on the backsite of the Wizard 3D.

Compared to the Diamond MII Manual (wich is NONE for the oem version, exept a Doc on the CD) the manual for the Wizard 3D is very good. CG has put a lot of time and effort in the layout and design. All is well written and very clear. Even the one with two left hands and an IQ of 50 (presumed that that person can read) can install the card from step to step without a problem. Everything is clear and accompanied by pictures. The manual is ofcourse in English and in italian. Comprende ?

Okay, please beware because this will get a bit confusing. Initionatly i expected all cards to have a TV-Output. Now somewhere in the developping fase Cg decided to put a halt to it en probably decided to make several options. The 12 Mb card that i have tested did not have a TV-Out. However there should be a Wizard 3D ultimate out witch does have TV-out. Same goes for the 8Mb version. So watch out when you order/buy a Wizard 3D that you'll get the right card.

Overclocking is a trend that we've all known & use since the first steps of Voodoo ... Diamond's monster II even has overclocking capabilities in its driver software. (with a slider you can choose your clockspeed) however, overclocking really isn't a necessety anymore. Only if you own a really HIGH-end pentium II (350 Mhz for example) overclocking will become interesting. Why, well it a bad case of the bottleneck problem. Your processor cannot proces anymore data upto a certain level. To put it in a simple words, your voodoo2 card is processing geometric data faster then your processor can handle. 
Look at it this way, blow 10 liter of oxygene thru a straw, now blow that same ammount thru a gardenhose of the same length, much easier eh ? You can compare the straw with a <233 Processor & the gardenhose with a >266 II processor.
In the case of the Voodoo2 you will require at least a Pentium II 266 to start seeing a significant difference in frame rate between Voodoo1 & Voodoo2 , in case of two boards in SLI configuration a Pentium II 333 isn't even fast enough showing a frame rate difference between 640x480 and 800x600. This shows that the frame rate could be a lot higher at 640x480 if the Voodoo2 would get enough data from the CPU. 800x600 and more is occupying the Voodoo2 more, so the time of waiting for the CPU is less.

* tested on a Asus P2B 350MMX Pentium II BX Chipset 64Mb PC100 SDram + 9 Gig Ultra DMA HD's, Windows '98, DirectX 5.2

The benchmarks are based upon these systems *



As you can see the benchmark comparisation between Voodoo2 based cards is nihil. The Wizard 3D came out slightly slower then the Monster II But be aware that any little multi-tasking program that is resident in your computers memory can cause that. Therefor i can safely say that the cards are equal in comparisation toward speed in Frames per second. Oh yes, you are right ! Forsaken does about 190 frames per second with v-sync Disabled. it has a little tearing though.

Voodoo2 Graphics 3D engineMulti-chip, 3D-only solutionOne Pixelfx with 4Mb frame buffer memoryTwo Texelfx each one with 2 or 4Mb texture buffer memory8 or 12 Mb total EDO memory amountScan Line Interleaving – allows to simoultaneously connect 2 boardsTV-out allowing direct connection to NTSC or PAL TV screen (optional)800x600 with z/buffer1024x768 with z/buffer (SLI mode)90 Mpixels/sec sustained fill rate (up to 180 Mpixels/sec SLI mode) with LOD MIP-mapping, Z-buffering, alpha-blending and fogging enabled3M triangle/sec for filtered, LOD MIP-mapped, Z-buffered, alpha-blended, fogged, textured trianglesMultiple textures per pixel in a single pass and special effects including fog, transparency, translucency, lighting maps, detail textures, morphingFull triangle setup in hardwareSupport for 2.1 PCI compliant busUp to 100FPS major games speed !Windows 95 and Windows NT4 Glide supportAPIs supported: Glide, Direct 3D, Renderware, Brender, GlQuake driverCompatible with all Voodoo family titles5-years Warranty

The Wizard 3D is a very solid and competative card. It is priced very well and works very reliable. California Graphics gives you a far more better support then DiamondMM does. Besides that there websupport is exelent. Always the latest info's, drivers & gadgets online. The Wizard 3D comes with a 5 Year warranty. The performance is exactly the same as Diamonds Monster 3D II But that was to be expected. All Voodoo 2 based pruducts are based upon the guidelines & reference cards from 3Dfx itself.
Thumbs up California Graphics for giving us such a good product.

The 8MB 3D Wizard is priced at $229 (£139) and the 12MB 3D Wizard at $275 (£169). The 12MB version with TV out, which is called the 3D Wizard ULTIMATE, is priced at $299 (£179) and will be shipping in a few days.

For a final conclusion in wether you should or shouldn't buy a Voodoo2 card i can say only this,

1) if you own a p233mmx or below with an 'old' Voodoo1 card then do not upgrade. Really your system will not benefit from it greatly.
2) if you own a Pentium II based system & you have Voodoo1 then is would be interesting for you to get a Voodoo2 based card.
3) if you have a system without a Voodoo card and you'd like to buy one ... then invest in the Voodoo2 card it'll be worth it !
 

California Graphics launches 3D Wizard second generation Voodoo2 boards
And first TV-out version
  
California Graphics, the 3D hardware company for games, has announced that it is the first company to be shipping second generation 3Dfx Voodoo 2 graphics boards. "Some of the initial designs from other companies for Voodoo2 boards had problems with overheating and failing after long use," explained Vincenzo Coccoli, Chairman and CEO of California Graphics. "We have worked closely with 3Dfx and are the first to have the new second generation design (Rev 03), which has been tested and approved by 3Dfx, and does not suffer from these problems. In addition, our tests show that our 3D Wizardä design has faster memory access giving a performance improvement or around 10%."
The 8MB 3D Wizard is priced at $229 (£139) and the 12MB 3D Wizard at $275 (£169) are shipping now. The 12MB version with TV out, which is called the 3D Wizard ULTIMATE, is priced at $299 (£179) and will be shipping in a few days. "The vast majority of our customers are excited about having TV-out so that they can enjoy the stunning graphics on the big screen of their TVs in the same way that they do with our popular 3D Emotion card," added Coccoli. "Our TV-out engineering skills, which were enhanced during the design of that board, will enabled us to be the first company in the world shipping a 12MB TV-out Voodoo2 design."