V Good news I've had shares in IMG since 98 and its good to see them taking off once again, and this time due to their own strenght rather than on the back of a bubble.

PowerVR rings a bell - is this the same company that competed in the early 3D card wars with 3DFX (and lost spectacularly as I recall?).

Ah I remember the good old days - pass through cables from the separate 2D card to my 3D card that had a stonking 4Mb ram on it. The heartwarming click of the relay and the flicker of the screen as Quake 2 switched it on.

Looking at my old voodoo2, 4, and 5 cards none of them have clicky relays.

I think you are thinking of the monitor switching video modes rather than something happening on the graphics cards.

Nope, was definitely the card making a click. I remember specifically testing that by having the monitor switched off and trying it! Mine was an Orchid Righteous 3D which I later found out used a relay switching circuit - the design was deliberate since without it, the 2D image degrades by pushing it through the extra card. The relay by-passed the card when not in use (from what I understood).

Not sure if any voodoo 2 cards did this, but 4 and 5 weren't pass-thru's.

... of Orchid 3DFX cards, there's a link to a wav recording of it!

<shivers with nostalgia>

Click sound: http://www.thedodgegarage.com/3dfx/v1/v1_orchid_relay.wav