Yeah, I remember playing it on a P233MHz without a 3D graphics card... It was sort of playable, but any alpha-blended effects like muzzle flashes or explosions slowed it to single-digit FPS for a second :D Still, I played it through like that. Today's gamers complain if a game momentarily drops below 60fps or whatever.
Yeah, I get why people want it to be smooth but when you hear somethings I do wonder if folks could be a little more patient.
"My game froze for 100ms on a one time shader compilation dropping... totally unplayable!"
I get it, shader compilation is a little pain point but it isn't that bad. Some compilation times are less than the frame times we used to play at in the 80's/90's.
With a Voodoo I assume you could get it up to 30fps fairly comfortably but they still weren't the most common back then.
Still remember the concern when Quake 3 would require a GPU as they were not entirely ubiquitous then. It was the right more and it helped the industry forward but it was a little pain point at that time.