Voodoo Memory
An 8MB V2 has 2MB of texture memory on each TMU. That is not as general as the current 6MV V1 cards that have 4MB of texture memory…
An 8MB V2 has 2MB of texture memory on each TMU. That is not as general as the current 6MV V1 cards that have 4MB of texture memory on a single TMU. To use the multitexture capability, textures are restricted to being on one or the other TMU (simplifying a bit here). There is some benefit over only having 2MB of memory, but it isn't double. You will see more texture swapping in Quake on an 8MB Voodoo 2 than you would on a 6MB Voodoo 1. However, the texture swapping is several times faster, so it isn't necessarily all that bad.
If you use the 8-bit palletized textures, there will probably not be any noticeable speed improvement with a 12MB Voodoo 2 vs. an 8MB one. The situation that would most stress it would be an active deathmatch that had players using every skin. You might see a difference there. A game that uses multitexture and 16-bit textures for everything will stress a 4/2/2 Voodoo layout. Several of the Quake engine licensees are using full 16-bit textures, and should perform better on a 4/4/4 card.
The differences probably won't show as significant on timedemo numbers, but they will be felt as little one-frame hitches here and there.
(Source: Gamecenter)