Whats the best Video Card for gaming in Win2k

[bigb 0]

I would like to here everyones opinion on what they think is the best freakin video card for gaming in Win2k and why? ,,,, i was told that the GEforce (or Creative Annialtor) is the best ,, was i told wrong?

[Igor 0]

It is the question for which u gonna hear different answers depending on what some1 personal preference is. My Friend gets 20 !!

More frame rates out of TNT then anothere guy out of TNT2 on almoust identical systems and same drivers. I was getting 15 less frames on GForce DDR then on TNT

 

Voodoo3 is very good option 2. Just find the amount of $$ you wanna blow on a card and go get one.

[Spree 0]

My friend owns a TNT2 and can only run UT at 800x600 and gets about 15 frames per second. Me on the otherhand I have a Voodoo3 2000 PCI which only cost me $100 and I can run UT at 1280x1024 with High Detail Textures and it runs smooth as hell. I believe it's about 30 fps (I don't know the console command). It depends I've never taken an average on my machine.

 

So my opinion is if you have atleast a PII 400MHz and 128MB RAM you'll love a Voodoo3

I've seen a lot of problems with the TNT2's the GeForces but not the regular TNT's

 

Good Luck,

Spree

 

[This message has been edited by Spree (edited 05 February 2000).]

[MarksmanX 0]

What game are you planning to play? For Quake based games get the GeForce DDR. For Unreal Tournament a 3DFX based card is best. Depends on what game you play the most

[EddiE314 0]

Personally for the best bang for the buck I would get a 3Dfx voodoo3 2000 agp or pci, you can't beat the performance for $100

[Hugo 0]

I've got a Xentor32 TNT2 Ultra and run UT at 1280x1024 at around 50 fps. Sometimes more sometimes less. This is on a dual 366-->550 celeron.

[YuppieScum 0]

Well, I've got a Voodoo2 SLI and I get 60FPS in UT with dual 300a @ 450Mhz...

 

 

 

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SuperMicro P6DBS (dual UW-SCSI) BIOS 2.2, 2*Celery 300a @ 450Mhz, 384MB PC100 RAM

SCSI-A=4.3Gb+9Gb, SCSI-B=Tosh32x CD-ROM, Yamaha4416 CD-RW, Iomega ZIP100, IDE1=4.3Gb

IBM EtherJet 10/100 NIC PCI + Nortel ADSL "modem"

CL TNT1 AGP + Quantum3D Voodoo2 SLI PCI

SoundBlaster Live PCI (not Value)

Win2K build 2195 120-day eval

[Seldzar 0]

The Issue at this point if your gonna buy is drivers, nvidia drivers suck serious ass right now for most people and run great for a small percentage. On the other hand voodoo3 drivers are quite solid and work great. It's a toss up, voodoo3 is cheap and good and depending on the games your gonna play probably your best bet, the geforce or tnt2 is good but with such lacking drivers it makes win2k life difficult. And btw I have q3 looking about as good as a tnt card on my voodoo3.

[MousePad 0]

Since this thread looks like the beginning of a mighty flame-war, I'll keep my post short - If you buy a Voodoo3, you will regret it. I'm sad to say it, but you will. The technology is too old to run new games for very much longer. The ideal system to spring for is likely a GeForce or a TNT2, and a Voodoo2 SLI. nvidia's driver support for Win2k may be immature now, but it will pick up. And fast, as there are many owners of nvidia boards out there.

 

And, I've never had a problem with my TNT1 under Win2000.

 

So, if you want great next-gen tech, and don't mind waiting a few months for better drivers to materialize, plunk down the green for a brand new GeForce. If you want it to run great now, get a Voodoo3. I'm completely unhappy with my V3 2000 pci, tho, so. *shrug* Your call.

 

 

- MousePad

 

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Just once, I'd like to see an elementary particle physicist use *ZOT* when referring to accelerator operations. Is that too much to ask?

[MarksmanX 0]

Egads Hugo! That is pretty good at that resolution. I am not a big UT So I stick with Quake and I am pretty happy with my GeForce Oh and don't get 3DFX card now because the technology is very OOOOOLLLLLD. Start looking around for a GeForce, it's money well spent I have not run into a game that isn't running choppy at all in 1024 x 768 If I jack up the resolution my refresh is at 85Hz and I don't like that I like 100+Hz for some odd reason. Don't know why I hate 85Hz.

[Spree 0]

In reply to MarksmanX and some of the others, I spent $100 bucks on a Voodoo3 2000 PCI it runs Quake3 in 1024x768 with LightMap at 45 FPS, to me that's good enough. I run UT in 1280x1024 with High detail textures, if I knew the FPS command for the command console I'd tell you that one, but I can assure you it runs smooth as hell. If you're thinking about buying a video card, and are willing to wait a little while and shell out about $600 get a Voodoo5 6000, I've all ready got my money saved for this one. And MarksmanX glide technology is definitely not out of date. Besides it's constantly being improved.

 

In my editing of my message, I will state this, these are only my opinions. Do what you wish with your money. I myself may buy a GeForce and a Voodoo5 6000 just to test them out, 'could always write them off as business expenses, heh just kidding.

 

[This message has been edited by Spree (edited 05 February 2000).]

[JimmyK 0]

Look for reviews, we can only recommend so much.

 

I have 3 boxs in my room, a dual 550 my win2k box, a single 550 my win 98 box and a dual 233 another win2k box.

 

I got my tnt2ultra, from ValueAmerica for 75 dollars, and a old tnt1 (which are both in my dual 550), and I got my voodoo 3 3000 (which is in my single 550 98 box), and a 3dx banshee in my dual 233 box.

 

From personal experince, I like my tnt2ultra a lot more. After a while FPS just dont matter to me (who cares if I can get 200 fps in q2 at 64x480, u know??), I like visual quality, and 3dfx just cant provide it sadly . I always loved 3dfx, but they have not been up to par.

 

My ideal res is 1024x768 and getting 64+ fps. And the tnt2ultra just does a faster and much better looking job then my 3dfx card

 

I have tweaked q2 out totally visually for my ultra and my 3dfx based card, but man even in q2 the ultra just looks better, and whne it comes to quake3 with 32 bit color dont get me started .

 

look at any of the reviews man, comparing all the cards, 3dfx just kinda isnt up to par so far. The VSA-100 cards maybe good, BUT once again they seems to be based on high fill-rate and POSSIBLY nothing special in features. What good is 300 fps in 640x80 if u cant enjoy hi quality graphics. But so far the VAS-100 based 3d cards do look somewhat promising, nobody can turn away froma 1.5 gigapixels fill rate.....

[JimmyK 0]

Spree,

 

2 things first of all ur friend sounds like a total goof if he can only squeeze out 15 fps at 8x6 in UT with a tnt2.

 

Secondly on a P3 550, in q3a with NORMAL settings at 1024x768 (this is NOT highquality) a 3dfx voodoo 2000 gets 36.2 fps, Im not sure how u squeezed an extra 20+ percent out of it.

 

And you cant even run the thing on high quality cuz it doesnt support 32 bit color.

[MarksmanX 0]

I must admit I did do some 3dfx bashing in my post. But I have to turn you away from the dark side! I was a proud owner of a Voodoo 1 and Voodoo 2 and at this time the Riva 128 was out. I didn’t pay much attention to it because it lacked the bare essential FPS to maintain a good frame rate. Then enter the Riva TNT2; this was the card that was close to Voodoo 2 speeds (only 3 frames less than a Voodoo 2 in my time demos scores). Sure it was not faster than the Voodoo 2 but it has something that the Voodoo 2 lacked. That is visual quality. When my friend purchased a new computer he bought a TNT2 for 2D/3D needs. When I first saw Quake II on the TNT2, I was so amazed how good it looked. The models looked more detailed the whole game seemed new. No more blurry textures or those annoying banding lines. I made the switch to the TNT2 Ultra last summer and never regretted it since! I was happy to get rid of my Voodoo 2 The Voodoo 3 is pretty much a FAST Voodoo 2. No 32-bit color same blurry models and those annoying bandings on the screen. 3dfx made this statement when the TNT2 was out “ We do not need 32-bit colors in games. ” What fools Now in 2000 it’s “ We need 32-bit color, but no hardware T&L DAMN IT WE DON’T NEED IT! “ I don’t know what is 3dfx problem. But, hardware T&L is great because it saves you precious CPU time and thus adding more life to your system. I average 72 FPS in Demo001 in Quake III with 1024 x 768 everything maxed except that I have mine at 16-bit color instead of 32-bit color because I don’t like 52 FPS demo scores I have a SMP system if you’re wondering how I can do this. The new Voodoo 5 6000 does 1.33 Gigapixels per second. That is pretty impressive, but you need an external power source to power that baby! Plus it comes with 4 VSA-100 processors. If you know anything about processors and heat this sucker will make your case a portable oven to keep you warm on those cold winter nights and make some tombstone pizzas when just can’t leave when you’re in a heated death match

 

Bottom line is if you want the best for OpenGL and Direct 3D games get the GeForce DDR. If you play Glide based games ( This is a dying API. That’s why 3dfx made is open source. ) then 3dfx based cards it for you!

 

Oh and for the Bitboys Glaze3D, I’ll believe it when I see it

[MarksmanX 0]

Oops I got my "is" and "it's" mixed up

[Skywise 0]

Since this will basically turn into a flame war I thought I'd add my stick to the fire:

 

Don't buy a card now cause tomorrow you'll be able to buy a Voodoo5 or a glaze3d. Maybe even a NV15.

 

All cards available today are fillrate limited at 1024x768x32bit in Q3. That means you can have a Pentium3 4000 Mhz and you wouldn't get a frame more.

 

There are a couple of times of the year that buying a certain piece of hardware is very advantageous. If you look at the market prices and watch how they change you'll eventually come to a point where the technology will last long enough compared to the price. The new graphics cards are so far above in performance compared to todays cards that there is no sense in buying one today. If you need one today get the cheapast working one you can find. Then trash it when the next-gen cards hit that magic price/performance spot. I'm not saying that you should wait forever and never buy anything. I'm saying that the experienced price watcher _will know_ when the time has come to upgrade.

 

 

--

"First there was Zen cracking - now there's Zen Price Watching"

[Guest]

My opinion... DIAMOND VIPER V770 ULTRA. That's what I have and I am using the Detonator 3.75 drivers. I am getting 60 fps in quake2@ 1152/864 and about 50 fps on quake3 at 1024/768 both in 16 bit. Direct 3d works great (not perfect, but great. I am not a millionaire so i can't go out and buy a ton of video cards to test them, but the one I have is runnin like a charm under win2k

 

pII 450@504

128RAM

DIAMOND VIPER V770 ULTRA 32MB

SbLive! Value

Viewsonic PS790

26Gigs 7200 ATA/66

 

Chow

--Sandoval

[NascarFool 0]

P3 500 , Asus P2B98-XV motherboard , 160 meg ram , 2 - 27 gig HDs, SBLive X-gamers, VOODOO3 2000 PCI, DVD drive, CD-RW drive, Scanjet 5P scanner on an Adaptec 2940AU SCSI card. I run Quake 3 for an hour or two with no problems at all. If you don't have the right drivers it won't work right. 3DFX is a hell of alot better card than a TNT card. Try Nascar3 in Win98 with both cards.(Nascar3 will work in 2K also)I installed a TNT in my sons comp and a Voodoo3 2000 in mine. Two weeks later I pulled the TNT out, sold it cheap and installed a Voodoo3 2000. That is my opinion. thanks.

[Avalance 0]

Well.. I just bouth an ASUS GeForce Deluxe, and I'm very satisfied with it's performance. In Quake3 I get about 70-90 FPS in 1152x864x32 (with everything at high quality). I've got a PII 400, 128 RAM and Win2K Final with the nVIDIA's 3.75 reference drivers.

So if you buy a GeForce or GeForce DDR, you definately get the best card on the market right now.

 

 

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//Albin Rangefelt (aka Lord Avalance) - albin@torget.se

[Spree 0]

JimmyK my quake runs a 1024x768 with 16 bit, I never said quake runs at high detail only UT. Quake runs okay, it's on LiteMap and the detail slider is at like second to last notch. Just thought I'd clear that up.

[christophe 0]

WAIT !!! 2 or 3 month

for you and your money!!!

and the next 3d chip generation not a "semi"

or old good but old 3d chip...

regards

christophe

 

patience et mere de tout les plasirs...

(christophe maffre)

[Greggy 0]

I have to agree with most of what I have read on this topic so far. Both the nvidia and 3DFx cards have pros and cons depending on what games you want to run.

 

A good point brought up is image quality... I don't care that my GeForce SDR card is not as fast as a Voodoo3 playing UT or whatever. What I do care about is that my GeForce SDR plays UT very well and the image quality is excellent. I cannot believe it when I hear some 3DFx users say they cannot see any visual difference when using a TNT2/GeForce compared to Voodoo3 etc. I mean, you people must be blind!

 

So my advice is go with the GeForce until something better comes out.