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Canopus Pure3D II

Canopus Corporation · 1998 · PCI 3D Accelerator (Voodoo2)
The Voodoo2 card that not only goes faster, but comes with every cable you'll ever need and a fan right out of the box.
5.0
Masterpiece
POCG VERDICT
The best Voodoo2 accelerator money can buy, with every cable, a fan, and performance that makes a P200 feel dangerous.
Canopus reengineered the Voodoo2 into a short, fan-cooled powerhouse that doubles frame rates and includes every cable you'll ever need. It's the most impressive piece of hardware I've ever tested.
About This Hardware

The Canopus Pure3D II is a PCI-based 3D game accelerator launched in 1998. It is an add-on card that uses pass-through technology to work alongside an existing 2D graphics card, and it is built around the 3DFX Voodoo2 chipset. Unlike many Voodoo2 cards that followed a reference design, Canopus redesigned the board to their own specifications, shaving off length (only 7 inches) and eking out extra performance. The card packs 12 MB of memory: 4 MB of frame buffer and 8 MB of texture memory. It supports Direct3D, OpenGL, and Glide APIs, and can output to a television via composite and S-Video (NTSC/PAL). A small fan sits over the main processor for cooling, and a bright green LED on the board illuminates whenever 3DFX acceleration is active. Canopus over-engineered the cooling to allow overclocking up to 100 MHz. In the box, Canopus included every cable a user might need: a VGA pass-through, a ribbon cable for linking two cards in SLI, composite and S-Video TV cables, and even a Y audio cable to connect a sound card to the TV. A 20-page printed manual covers hardware setup with clear diagrams, and software installation is handled by a setup program that adds a property tab to Windows 95's Display settings, plus the Quick Control system-tray utility for on-the-fly gamma adjustment and an Application Launcher. The MSRP at launch was $329, with a slightly cheaper LX model available without TV output for $279.

Specifications
Chipset3DFX Voodoo2
Memory12 MB (4 MB frame buffer + 8 MB texture)
InterfacePCI
APIsDirect3D · OpenGL · Glide
Max Resolution (z-buffered)800×600
Max Resolution (no z-buffer)1024×768
TV OutputComposite · S-Video (NTSC/PAL)
CoolingActive fan on board
Board Length7 inches
Included CablesVGA pass-through, ribbon (SLI), composite TV, S-Video, Y-audio
Hardware Info
ManufacturerCanopus
CategoryPCI 3D Accelerator (Voodoo2)
Released1998
MSRP$329
ReviewedJune 14, 2026
How to Get One Today
Price
MSRP: $329
Notes & Warnings
The uninstaller in early driver sets (board #56 era) left a file (pure3d2v.vxd) in the registry, requiring manual cleanup. Later driver revisions likely fixed this. For vintage builds, the card runs warm; the stock fan is adequate, but confirm it spins before installing. TV output requires setting the desktop to 640×480 at 60 Hz refresh for non-3D content.
Editor's Note
Restored from the POCG archive and rewritten in the Era-1 Maniac voice. The original review scored the Canopus Pure3D II at 9.85/10, which converts to 5.0/5 on POCG's scale.