I don’t want this to turn into a GD, but, I am in the market for a new Graphics Card. Seeing as that 3Dfx is gone and their products are dropping in price, I was looking into a V5 5500.
I have others telling me to go with Nvidia.
Which graphics card is best for gaming? What makes it better?
(Do not limit suggestions to 3Dfx and Nvidia.)
Thanks for the help guys
I’m not really trying to limit this to 3Dfx and NVidia but these guys really are about the only game in town. Now that 3Dfx is gone that lives NVidia standing supreme.
The only other competition I can think of is the ATI Radeon card. It’s performance doesn’t live up to the best NVidia cards but it still does very well. It does well because of smart engineering and design choices where the NVidia card brute forces performance. If there is a significant price difference the Radeon card is definitely worth a look. You can absolutely forget the rest of ATI’s cards as till now (with the Radeon) they have produced nothing but low-end cards for OEM systems (although this has made ATI the biggest and wealthiest seller of video cards since that’s what most people get).
As for 3Dfx vs. NVidia I’d stick with NVidia. The 3Dfx cards are quite good but since NVidia bought them there will be no further support for these cards. NVidia managed to buy all the good stuff from 3Dfx and left the bad stuff (supporting their cards).
While this isn’t a problem right now the gap will widen over time till you will be forced to buy another video accelerator because of lack of support (new drivers, etc.) for your VooDoo card.
Hope that helps…
Thanks dude.
I just hope these new Nvidia cards do OpenGL (Or an equivalent to 3dfx_gl).
Both my bro’s have TNT2 cards and I still think my Voodoo3 blows them out of the water. (My older bro can only get UT to run in software mode…I know it is probably a driver issue, but I have run into so many problems like this with TNT2 cards.)
Sure the TNT2 cards may do 32 bit graphics and have more memory, be a little faster etc, but IMHO, they quality of graphics just doesn’t stack up to 3Dfx.
Here’s hoping Nvidia takes the best features from the Voodoo line and integrates them and doesn’t throw them into the scrap heap…
Thanks again.
Here are a couple of links you can use to get a little more info on what’s out there:
They put video cards through the wringer on a routine basis.
What it really boils down to, though, is how much you are willing to spend for that extra bit of performance. If you’re a true hard-core gamer you probably won’t mind plunking down $200+ for a new card.
A couple of things to consider before you buy:
If you are buying an AGP-type card (probably), make certain that your motherboard supports it. Doesn’t do much good to buy a 4X AGP card if your MB tops out at 2X.
High frame and fill rates at high resolutions are great if you have a high-end monitor, but if you are running with an average 15" or 17" monitor you won’t be getting your money’s worth out of it.
FWIW: ATI’s Radeon-based cards are getting pretty decent reviews. You might want to check them out. Cards that use nVidia’s Ge-Force(sp?) are also pretty highly regarded. Needless to say, both types are a little expensive for the budget-minded gamer.
Good luck!
nVidia’s GeForce cards already do OpenGL. They have since the third or fourth driver revision. It’s Glide that was exclusively 3Dfx and while quite good not many games used it. The GeForce card from Creative Labs actually had an unpublished support emulation for Glide on its version of the GeForce but most people didn’t know about it and it wasn’t all that great anyway.
Now that nVidia owns 3Dfx’s goodies they have free access to Glide, OpenGL, and anything else they want.
Also, I think not long before 3Dfx soldout the Glide specification was open sourced so it is actually available to any card manufacturer now (not 100% sure about that though).
Also, if you’re taking the plunge on a $250+ card you may want to wait. nVidia’s NV20 design will be coming out around March. This will lower prices on the GeForce card but what little people have learned about the NV20 promises a remarkable card. Basically the brute force approach of the GeForce card went as far as it could go. Now they have to get smarter like ATI did with the Radeon. As such, people are expecting anywhere from 3-8x the performance of a GeForce Ultra card (by using such things as hidden surface removal and other clever tricks).
Okay, hands down, the best card out there is the GeForce2 Ultra, which is a souped up version of the GeForce2. Unfortunately, it’s expensive as all hell, with $499 cards not being uncommon. Almost as good (overclocked it’s only 1-3 frames slower on all Q3 benchmarks compared to an un-OCed Ultra) is the GeForce2 Pro, which weighs in at a more modest $300 or so.
My personal favorite of these, the card I’m planning to get if I get a game that warrants the cash, is the Asus V7700 Pro ($300). I haven’t read any head to head reviews pitting these cards against the Radeons, though far as I know they blow all hell out of the Voodoos. And as far as those goes, 3dFX’s demise would mean no tech support and no updated drivers. And that could really suck…
Yes, without a doubt, the fastest video card on the market is the GeForce2 Ultra. If you’re looking for good performance at a good price, check out the GeForce2 MX based cards, which are plenty fast, and only cost between $110-$150. The Hercules Prophet II MX is the best MX based card out there…it uses faster memory, and thus is faster than the other MX based cards. In the same price range, the 32MB ATI Radeon is a great deal. It’s performance is at or slightly above that of the MX for $150. Great card. I have the Hercules MX, and I love it. If you want pure speed, though, go GeForce2 Ultra.
BTW, the TNT2 cards are almost 2 years old…of course they’re going to be slow!
Jman
Perfect…
Looks like I’ll hold off then =)
Thanks for the assistance Jeff and Jman!
(I’m willing to dish out about $350 Canadian for one. (That’s about $35 USD 
)