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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.
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Not yet reviewed
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
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.