A look at the Trident Blade 3D / 3D Image 9880

[@NoNant55]

The card was immortalized on many motherboards as integrated video solution, first used on VIA MVP4 chipset in that role

[@mashakos1]

Bought this card with my very first DIY PC for university at just $50. Was an incredible card that lasted me the whole four years of uni, a huge feat for the early 2000s!

[@JefersonPaivFerreira]

I still have a card like that, I keep it in a box right here, it used to run many games well at the time (640X380 res). When I ran Unreal 1 I had to turn off the detailed textures and the multi-textures though.

[@lGuileWilliamsl]

This card was on my first PC build. I used the regular driver that it came with and never really pushed the card. Thinking back I should have used "Sci Tech Display Doctor." It was a universal 3D driver that would probe any video card on its capabilities and make those abilities available for gaming. I think I used the Sci Tech driver on an old S3 card to get better compatibility with some games I was playing at the time.

[@swaaye]

Scitech Display Doctor is mostly about improving VESA VBE compatibility. This is for DOS gaming. So nothing to see there really unless you have problems with a DOS game not working properly.

[@kchalu]

I have the PCI version of the Trident Blade 3D. It might be AGP, I got it back in the mid 2000s for a Pentium II pc I had.

[@Vanessaira-Retro]

Nice. I've been building a ton of retro computers lately. Really glad you are doing these videos.

[@swaaye]

What sorts of builds have you thrown together?

[@Vanessaira-Retro]

@@swaaye I have just finished one of my retros. A 200mhz Pentium MMX with a Hercules S3 Virge DX, SB AWE32 CT3900 paired with a GUS Classic 2.4. And I will throw a PC MIDI in soon so I can connect any of my MIDI modules. (MT-32, CM-32L, SC-55, SC-88Pro, MU80, MU2000EX, NX5R, and GZ-59M) I have another one I am finishing. A Windows 98 build with a K6-2, Voodoo5, AWE64 Gold for DOS and Audigy 2 ZS Platinum for 98. Hope to finish it soon. Got some other builds too. I have to figure out something for the Aureal Vortex 2 I have. Have to really thank you for inspiring me a long time ago. You helped me 10+ years ago with trying to nail down MIDI and soundfonts for Tie Fighter.

[@swaaye]

That is an amazing collection of MIDI modules! TIE Fighter has such a great soundtrack. It is difficult to pick a favorite patch set for it. Sometimes just going with FM synth is nice too.

[@whoevertf]

Thanks for making this!

[@mashakos1]

regarding quake 3, I remember those slowdowns getting cleared up by an opengl ICD download. might want to try several versions of the card's driver

[@efpcvintageplanet3406]

Thanks my friend now I can test my card in OpenGL 😉

[@greggregson9687]

Impressive all things considered. I was looking for any videos that cover this, as I picked a PC up off the side of the road, and it has an old MSI motherboard in it, with no AGP slot, only internal AGP that is linked to an integrated Trident Blade3D on an MVP4 chip I believe. I wonder if that performs as well as this stand alone version. Guess I will find out once I get it back in order.

[@swaaye]

I've used that chipset / IGP combo ages ago. Performance won't be great. It's the K6 platform which is weak for 3D games in general. And because it's an IGP it doesn't have its own RAM. It's sharing system memory. This has a hit as well. It might do ok with some games at low resolution.

[@greggregson9687]

I picked up a cheap PCI Geforce FX5500, and will be testing it out shortly. After some reading, I can use the 45 series drivers by making the PC believe it is a FX5200 @@swaaye

[@autumn_rain]

Nice vid.

[@Voidsworn]

I just got this card today in a large lot of mixed vintage/modern computer parts. Should work well in the apparently unused Slot 1 Motherboard with 733MHz Pentium III also in the lot. :)

[@psychoticgiraffe]

incredible

[@SharpShoot3r_14]

Not bad for a card that is not even passively cooled.

[@swaaye]

Good point!

[@paulzibert9985]

Thank you for the video. What cpu was used in this rig?

[@swaaye]

Hi. This was an Athlon XP 2800+. I re-recorded the intro and forgot to go over the system specs.

[@con2botonesnadamas433]

I own a couple of 9750...which I never gave a chance (always thought they are trash). But this Blade 3D thing seems different. Do you happen to own any of the post-Trident era cards (the times when they merged with SIS) in order to review in your channel?

[@swaaye]

Oh yes the previous 3DImage chips were not particularly useful for 3D. I did play with those years back and there are some vids of them here. Unfortunately the only Trident treasure currently in the archive is the Blade3D.

[@janwitkowsky8787]

In some respects, it seems it could be compared to a Voodoo 1 or Voodoo Rush, by a cursory glance of course. I have one in my closet. But I'm running Radeon 9600XT, so... xD

[@swaaye]

Blade3D is pretty nice. The drivers would probably be the weakest link with it.

[@janwitkowsky8787]

@@swaaye Chances are that I am gonna use it for a DOS oriented build, should I ever be able to scrounce period correct parts.

[@michalzustak8846]

Did you try System Shock 2 on this?

[@swaaye]

Possibly...

[@michalzustak8846]

@@swaaye How did it work?

[@michalzustak8846]

@@swaaye sorry totally overlooked it in that vid back then xD

[@betalabs]

pc system setup?????.

[@swaaye]

Sorry I forgot to go into that in the video. Added to the text description.