VESA connector, what is it actually used for?

  • Hey all :)


    After reviewing some 3dfx VGA cards production as well as Engineering Samples , they all seem to be having a VESA connector on them, is there any use for this connector interface?

    Or has anyone actually ever tried using it, if so how, what does it actually do?
    Here my V3 3500 TV AGP & V5 5500 PCI Mac showing their VESA Connectors:

    My V3 3500 & V5 5500 PCI Mac both have it, like many Banshee, Avenger, Naplam & Daytona cards have.

    Here my old V5 6000 with it and a V4-2 4200 PCI DVI Daytona card which also has it:


    it's a strange 26 pin connector which is placed at P4 on the Napalm cards for the least I know.

  • Gold Leader 21. Juni 2021 um 20:34

    Hat den Titel des Themas von „VESA connector, what i sit actually used for?“ zu „VESA connector, what is it actually used for?“ geändert.
  • As far as I know (and that is only second-hand info), it's been used for certain DVD video acceleration cards and very early VR HMDs, whereas modern ones use HDMI or DP externally. It's been used only rarely and mostly in the OEM context I presume, which likely means the connectors on 3dfx cards remained unused in most (if not all) cases. Especially since DVD acceleration wasn't neccessary for systems based on faster CPUs (like Pentium II or later K6), and the initial VR craze died off pretty quickly.

    But as said, that's just second-hand knowledge.

    1-6000-banner-88x31-jpg

    Stolzer Besitzer eines 3dfx Voodoo5 6000 AGP Prototypen:

    • 3dfx Voodoo5 6000 AGP HiNT Rev.A-3700

    [//wp.xin.at] - No RISC, no fun!

    QotY: Girls Love, BEST Love; 2018 - Lo and behold, for it is the third Coming; The third great Year of Yuri, citric as it may be! Edit: 2019 wasn't too bad either... Edit: 2020... holy crap, we're on a roll here~♡!

    Quote Bier.jpg@IRC 2020: "Je schlimmer der Fetisch, desto besser!"

  • But would they work just for the fun of it, heck I am wondering if anyone actually had tried them out, just to see.

    Always curious in to such things :)


    Does seem interesting to just have a go at it :)

  • It's called the VESA feature connector.

    It's not really powerful and technically only digitally transmits the picture data from the DAC.

    The 26pin version shown is also limited to 8-bit colour depth, meaning that it can only deliver 256 colours.

    There might be versions where manufacturers modified the pinout (I think Canopus did with the Whichdoctor cards), but the baseline standard is actually quite poor and not really useful.

  • Actually, there is a surprising lot of games which support the Forte VFX1 (which uses that connector). Like Hexen II, Mechwarrior 2, Comanche 3, Dark Forces 1 & 2, Magic Carpet 1 & 2, Quake I & II, System Shock and many more, heck, that's not even that bad, software-wise.

    And at its resolution of 263×230 pixels per eye it probably didn't matter that it could display only 256 colors. I mean... At that resolution you won't be able to see anything anyway... :spitze: Mind you, VR resolution is a whole different thing from 2D resolution, because your eye will only be able to focus on a small part of the panels, because they look so wide in VR.

    But I kinda still wanna try that headset now. Considering that something like 1440×1600 is barely passable in VR (unlike in 2D), 263×230 must make for one... "interesting" experience. ;)

    Mh, Mechwarrior 2 with HOTAS setup and that VFX1 hooked up to a Voodoo 5's VESA feature connector. Makes me curious.

    1-6000-banner-88x31-jpg

    Stolzer Besitzer eines 3dfx Voodoo5 6000 AGP Prototypen:

    • 3dfx Voodoo5 6000 AGP HiNT Rev.A-3700

    [//wp.xin.at] - No RISC, no fun!

    QotY: Girls Love, BEST Love; 2018 - Lo and behold, for it is the third Coming; The third great Year of Yuri, citric as it may be! Edit: 2019 wasn't too bad either... Edit: 2020... holy crap, we're on a roll here~♡!

    Quote Bier.jpg@IRC 2020: "Je schlimmer der Fetisch, desto besser!"

  • Would be cool to see some through-the-lens footage instead of just the desktop (lol "desktop" in DOS...) viewport though. But still cool to see it in action. :)

    Also, I've already checked out eBay in the afternoon, and... well. Prices are... what they are for rare retro stuff. ;) In theory I could buy it, but it's not worth that much to me. Not if it's just for fooling around a little bit. ;)

    1-6000-banner-88x31-jpg

    Stolzer Besitzer eines 3dfx Voodoo5 6000 AGP Prototypen:

    • 3dfx Voodoo5 6000 AGP HiNT Rev.A-3700

    [//wp.xin.at] - No RISC, no fun!

    QotY: Girls Love, BEST Love; 2018 - Lo and behold, for it is the third Coming; The third great Year of Yuri, citric as it may be! Edit: 2019 wasn't too bad either... Edit: 2020... holy crap, we're on a roll here~♡!

    Quote Bier.jpg@IRC 2020: "Je schlimmer der Fetisch, desto besser!"

  • Well Ebay is always overrated I would suggest trying AMI_Bay instead or some more common Marktzplatz like sites .
    Strange device that Forte VFX1 tho damn,VR is kind of useless for me I can't see 3D myself no Depth precision and VR like 3D Glasses gives me migraines.

    But anyhow good to know what the VESA connector was for, 3dfx could f saved time not putting them on their later gen cards like Voodoo 3, 4 & 5, that Voodoo Banshee had it was kind of obvious maybe, but the later ones, they should not of bothered, then again Matrox, NVIDA, ATi, S3, SiS and other vendors also used them even around 2000, even it never caught on.

  • You can't really save time by not putting it on, you could maybe only save a few cents for the connector.

    This is due to the fact, that you'll get all the signals neccessary out of the DAC for free anyway, they were designed for that back in those days.