Graphics Card Advice needed

[[ITV]Lacutis]

Been asked by many people before, but I'm hoping someone can give me a definitive answer based on requirements

I'm going upgraded my graphics card. Got a V3 3000 AGP atm, in a P2-333. I'm upgrading the whole system, so the new card will be for a :

Athlon T-Bird 1Ghz
Micron CAS 2 PC133 128mb Ram
Abit KT7 Mobo

Now, everyones going on about the V5 and Geforce Cards, and I'm not sure what is best suited to my needs.

I play mostly HL, q3 and UT so the games I mostly play utilise both opengl and d3d. I'm also an eye-candy person and want a damn good framerate to boot, I also don't want any compatibility problems, for this reason i'm swaying towards a V5

So, to summarise, I want :
A card thats good with opengl/d3d
Good FPS (i.e 45+)
Compatibility
Will run well at 800x600 or 1024x768 at 32bit Colour


Any help would be appreciated
Thanks

[Edited by [ITV]Lacutis on 22-11-2000 at 11:57 AM]

[Clipper]

Depends on what you wanna spend

GF2 MX is about 100 quid ish and is fast

GF2 32mb is 200 and is seriously good

GF2 64mb as above but can run insanely high resolutions

GF2 ultra 430 quid ish and its insanely fast but overpriced...

ANd as for V5 ... leave it well alone unless you defo want FSAA cos otherwise almost any GF2 kicks it all over the shop..

I have GF2 32mb and it works with all games you mentioned giving 45fps + easily in my Tbird 1 gig. Q3 timedemo is 85 @ 1024x768 32bit with everything on, 130 fps in 16 bit 640x480 with most things off.

D3D performance is good unless the game has rubbish D3d support like Deus Ex (altho with oatch it runs very smooth).

Quite honestly given all benchmarks V5 is overpriced and underperforms if you are after raw speed

[CDBlue]

Well if you're looking for opinions, then here's one ...

Get the Voodoo5-5500 AGP. While it's true the GF2 does beat the Voodoo5 in OpenGL games (only be a little I might add), with the speed of processor you will have, the Voodoo5 will probably run just as fast, plus give you super visuals (ie. hardware 4xFSAA).

IMO 3dfx still cannot be beaten for rock-solid performance in ANY game and any API (OpenGL, D3D, and Glide - it's not a dead API just look at the amount of games that are still being released that have Glide support). While, I have nothing against the Geforce cards, they are very nice, I think in your new system a Voodoo5 would outshine a Geforce.

My 2-cents,
CDBlue

[PADDYBOY]

I'm not really going to get into this one, but I just want to point out that playing any game at x4 FAA with a v5500 is totally unfeasable - even they dont have the power for that. x2 is the best you can expect and even then FPS drop to less than 40 ...

[CDBlue]

hmmm I play some (yes not all though you are correct) with quite good frame rates (40+ is super smooth for me considering what I'm using) at 800x600x32, 4xFSAA on my poor little Celeron 300A@450 ... imagine what it can do with a 1Ghz CPU ;)

[Edited by CDBlue on 23-11-2000 at 07:58 PM]

[Faking]

If you check out any of the recent preview/state of the graphic card analysis you'll see that everyone thinks the voodoo5 is a poor card. Check http://www.anandtech.com for one such summary. If you can hang on I'd wait for the dx 8.0 compliant graphic cards, other than that get a geforce 2 GTS as it has the bandwidth for what you want (or an Ultra if you don't have a budget).

[[ITV]Lacutis]

I'm tempted to go for the Ultra, although it's expensive, that will not be much of an issue, id just have to wait a little longer to get the funds for it. Anyone got one of these?

[Evil The Cat]

Iv got the 64Mb GTS and it flys like sh*t of a shovel on my 866 P3 with 128Mb 133RAM. I get over 6500 on 3Dmark2000 and it makes everything ever so pretty. I strongly recomend this card or the Ultra. Iv seen alot of bad V5 revews but if u really want to try it out, u can always take it back!!

[[SEX] Screamer]

>> If you check out any of the recent preview/state of the graphic card analysis you'll see that everyone thinks the voodoo5 is a poor card <<

LOL it's not poor at all - especially on a 1GHz machine! Infact a friend of mine has just been through a similar situation. He tried both a V5 and a GeForce GTS on a 1GHz CPU. They both gave about the same fps in Q3A, but the V5 looked so much better. All his other games also ran great and looked great with the V5 - some games wouldn't work at all with the GTS without patches and driver changes. You do need a super fast CPU to get the most out of a V5, but if you have then go gor it!
I agree that you would really be better off waiting though - the DX8 cards will move things on again. I think you would be slightly mad to splash out on an GeForce Ultra when things are going to change again in a few months.

[Silent Bro]

[ITV]Lacutis

>>I'm tempted to go for the Ultra-Anyone got one of these?<<

yes, what do want to know mate?

[SEX] Screamer

>>They both gave about the same fps in Q3A, but the V5 looked so much better.<<

That sounds about right, but nVidia are churning out beta drivers like there is no tomorrow, (I was trying out some of the v7x ones the other day which have DX8 in mind, poor O GL support at the mo and a bit too crashy :( )

>>I think you would be slightly mad to splash out on an GeForce Ultra when things are going to change again in a few months.<<

That’s me, but I want it now! not next year <g>

Still after reading some of the P4 reviews I thought unless I got one of those CPU’s then I’d not be really using any next generation cards to their full potential, because if the Ultra is thought to be a bottleneck in some tests then it would make more sense to have a nextgen graphic card in a nextgen cpu?

As for the V5’s, prices are dropping stateside so maybe they will do here in the UK too? But don’t hold your breath on that, as we know how “ripped off” we are on prices over here compared to the US :(

[Randell]

V5 prices have dropped and 3dfx have just released Beta drivers which can do Hidden Surface Removal (i.e. it doesn't draw what you can't see). They are beta and have some issues, mainly on slower systems, but people are claiming 20-30fps increases at high resolutions with 2xFSAA or 4xFSAA. At the moment they only work on OGL games, but V5 is now faster than GTS2 in Q3A :) (apparently). Check out 3dfx.com message boards for latest developments.

[Silent Bro]

Having just seen some "cooked" scores doing 100+ fps on a V5 I'm weary of all these magical high scores.

But the V5 is a good card all the same!

[e102gamma]

look here for the lowdown on HSR(hidden surface removal), it doesn't sound to hot to me.you'll have to scroll down a bit.
http://www.rivastation.com/index_e.htm
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[Edited by e102gamma on 30-11-2000 at 10:27 PM]

[ACCIDENT]

ive never been a fan of 3dfx cards.
but at least they work in nearly all systems.
they are supported by most game makers.
the drivers arent bad.
i tried a gf and a gf2
i now use a v5 cos it worked

[Randell]

If you want the low-down on the HSR drivers see here;

http://www.3dfxgamers.com/boards.asp?BOID=5&THID=96493&boardsort=lastpost&boardpage=1

I've been testing them tonight. They do work as that thread says. I've seen massive jumps in my FPS on Demo001, but you need to play around with settings to make them playable, BUT they are BETA, i.e. not finished.

I agree there is a suspicion of dropped frames, but again, playing around with vsync and capping frame-rates does work.