essential files

cpu specific

CPU ID - a DOS utility by Allen Hansen from Cyrix that recognizes your CPU features. Among other things you can figure out if you are 3DNow! enabled or not, whether your FPU is pipelined and what speed you are running at.

PsYMark 2000 - a utility that will measure your FPU speed, including 3DNow! support. Provided by one of our supporting websites!

3DNow! sdk

The SDK for 3DNow! can be downloaded at AMD's site here. Make sure you are aware of the licensing conditions, you'll be asked to provide an email address and agree to it.

Also be aware that if you develop for K6-X and Athlon alike the 3DNow! instructions have different latencies and require slightly different hand-optimization to increase the Athlon performance over x87!

video drivers

3dfx Interactive - One of the first graphics board manufacturers to support 3DNow!, they now have 3DNow! optimized drivers for their fantastic Voodoo3, Voodoo2, and Voodoo Banshee based video cards.  The link below will take you to their generic driver download page, from there you will need to select your make of 3dfx hardware from the menu on the right.

Although the newer Quake3 compatible drivers do contain an OpenGL ICD and support 3DNow! as well, there are some compatibility issues with AMD processors.  For that reason, we suggest the latest reference drivers for your specific video card.

Go Download!

ATi Technologies - ATi is the market leader in graphics techologies. ATi is based in Canada and has sold millions of their Rage Series of 3D accelerators. Although not known for bringing the fastest products to market, they produce some competitive products and have a way with OEMs. ATi has recently released 3DNow! drivers for the Rage Pro and Rage 128 that are compatible with Quake III.

Go Download!

Matrox Graphics - Matrox is a leading edge graphics company known for its high quality and high speed 2D graphics. Matrox is another Canadian company which has suffered from the weaker 3D performance of its last few graphics chips. However, the company aims to take the lead with its G400, which will support 3DNow! In the mean time, the corporation has released some 3DNow! drivers for its G200 and G100 products.

Go Download!

NVIDIA Corporation -  NVIDIA has received much acclaim for their TNT family of video cards, and rightly so!  While not as fast as Voodoo hardware in it's native GLide, the TNT line has exceptional image quality, true color support, and blazing D3D and OpenGL acceleration.  Just recently, NVIDIA has released drivers with quality 3DNow! optimization.  If you have a TNT, TNT2, or TNT2 Ultra based video card, you need these drivers.

Go Download!

Rendition - Rendition was a pioneer of the 3D accelerator for the PC with its Verite V1100 but after a late entry with the V2x00, Rendition now finds itself behind the competition and has skipped itks V3300 to concentrate on V4400, rumored to be a "killer" chip. Rendition is now a division of Micron. Rendition has 3DNow!-enhanced V2x00 drivers.

Go Download!

S3 - S3 Corporation used to be at the top of the graphics world but its reputation was affected by its Virge series of graphic processors. S3 now aims to recapture lost market share and has tried to do that with its Savage line of acceleratros including the Savage3D and Savage4, both of which supports or will support 3DNow!. S3 has a beta 3DNow!-optimized MiniGL for the Savage3D.

Go Download!

3DNow!-enhanced game demos and patches

DirectX 6.1- Microsoft's DirectX supports the 3DNow! instructions of AMD, Cyrix and IDT CPUs.

ESPN XGames Pro Boarder - A demo of this 3DNow!-enhanced game

Quake II 3DNow! Patch - This is a patch created by AMD for optimal performance in Quake II with systems equipped with a Voodoo2 card. However, it will work with other video cards.

Desent Freespace Patch - This patch adds 3DNow! support to Descent Freespace.

NFL Blitz Patch - This patch adds 3DNow! support to NFL Blitz.

Sin Patch - This patch adds 3DNow! to Sin. You will need Sin 1.01 prior to upgrading

Speed Boad Attack Patch - This patch adds 3DNow! optimizations.

Subculture Patch - This patch adds 3DNow! support.

Unreal 2.25 Patch - This patch improves current 3DNow! support in Unreal.

Uprising2 patch - This patch adds 3DNow! optimizations.