graphics cards again ;-))

Hmm, I wouldn't necessarily recommend this card, but the Viper2 using Metal in UT is as fast as a Voodoo3 and looks the best of anyother card, bar none using Glide, D3D, or other api.

The Viper2 is quirky(re: incomplete) though.

Quote<The bottom line, is that the GeForce 2 is a better card than the Voodoo's>Quote

Sorry, but NEVER in any of my systems Clayeth.

You can't flat out say that one card is definitively better than the other. It depends on what the person wants.

For me, I wanted the best UT and Duke Forever performance. I wanted full compatibility, without instance of trouble. I wanted FSAA on racing games and MDK2. The GTS doesn't work for me.

Look, you aren't going to be unhappy with either card in your system. As a matter of fact, I bet I can fire up Q3 at 1280x1024x32 and play it for an hour... Switch video cards in my PC and play it again. I'll bet I can't even tell the difference.


Wingznut [PEZ]
ICQ #29598363

Another reason to not buy a 3dfx card: company support. With 3dfx, as soon as their new card is out the old stuff is dropped like a bad habit and left in the dust. This happened to my 3dfx Banshee less than a year after it had been released. My Banshee runs UT at a constant 40 fps in 800x600, which is very playable. Still, 3dfx still refuses to fix obvious, annoying driver bugs and still hasn't given us a decent OpenGL ICD that we were promised over a year ago.

Now, on the other side. I've heard that nvidia still makes drivers for their old TNT 1 cards.

Because of all the crap I've had to put up with with 3dfx, I'm never buying one of their cards again.

Here's the way I see it. It's true that the GeForce 2 isn't the best choice for everyone. But as far as which card is the best, the GeForce 2 seems to be a stronger card. At first, I thought that the V5 and GF2 would be very close cards, but the more I see about them, the GF2 seems to be a better card. 3DFX doesn't even seem to be confident about their card, and continue to make me doubt it more with each article I read about delays and other problems. In fact, the only thing I've seen that the V5 has going for it, is stronger FSAA, and Unreal Tournament's pathetic use of any API other than Glide.

I'll admit, the V5 could in fact be as good a card as the GF2, but it seems less and less likely to me.

I've also never heard of anyone having trouble with not having good support from nVidia, but 3DFX is a different story.

Why do you keep saying that the GTS is better? Be specific... Better how? Because it can throw out a few more frames per second in Q3? The V5 will come out ahead in UT, Dues Ex, DNF, etc... On MDK2, they are very close. Well, until you enable FSAA.

Enable FSAA on both cards, in ANY game, and the V5 will trounce all over the GTS.

Don't sell FSAA short. It is absolutely beautiful. I was playing NFS5 the other day, and forgot to enable FSAA. I couldn't even finish one race, without going back and enabling FSAA.

Imho, FSAA is far more impacting than T&L, 32bit color, per pixel shading, motion blur, soft shadows, etc. FSAA is the most visual upgrade since the very first miniGL for Quake1.

If you haven't seen NFS5 or MDK2 in FSAA, you are missing out.


Wingznut [PEZ]
ICQ #29598363

Heh. The moral of this story (i.e. thread) is "it depends". I am also about to upgrade my video card, and am agonizing (REALLY REALLY AGONIZING!!!) over which card to buy. Right now, I am leaning towards V5, but primarily because most of the games I play/am planning to play are Unreal-engine based, and the GF2 from the benchmarks I have seen (here and on review sites) isn't that much faster than my G400Max in UT. I get between 35~40 fps at 800x600x32 high detail tex/models/volumetric lighting/etc on. Mind you the GF2 utterly destroys my G400Max in pretty much everything else (i.e. Q3). I also upgrade about twice a year (that will probably drop to once a year now that I have a few more expenses) so when/if other features (read: T&L) become widely supported it should be about time for me to get a GF3/V6/Whatever-the-heck. Thanks for the info, though, guys. This has been one of the more friendly/informative threads of GF2 vs V5. Most of those threads I have seen devolve into die-hard NVidia fans vs die-hard 3dfx fans warring. To me, its not about which company is better, its about which product is better suited to me (and those aren't always the same thing). I am the kind of consumer companys HATE!

Oh, just one more thing to throw out, aside from Unreal-engine performance, the other factor weighing against the GF2 with me is that I have heard so many people complain about having HELL trying to get the drivers installed and working (blue screens of death, lock ups, failures to boot, etc). I realize this may not be typical, but it does worry me a bit. For those of you that own GF2s, if you could maybe help me (and others with the same fear) out by telling a little about your installation experience and your system specs (what constitutes a GF2-friendly PC?).

Me:
K7-700
Epox 7KXA (Via kx133) mobo
128 megs PC133 RAM
SBLive Value
Matrox G400Max
Win98se/Win2k dual boot (mostly run 98).

[This message has been edited by The Toastman (edited 06-20-2000).]

[This message has been edited by The Toastman (edited 06-20-2000).]

Preach it, Toastman!!!

I can't stand those nVida vs 3dfx threads that get out of hand. I've seen enough of those to last a lifetime!

And yes, it DOES depend. Neither is "best." It just depends on your preferences, and what you are looking for.

Like I told a friend of mine last night... Personally, I don't give a rat's @ss what card anyone buys. I'm just trying to throw out my (V5 experienced) opinion, in hopes of some more reliable information. Because, I too, agonized over which card to buy. There was a point in which I would've bought a GTS, had it been in stock the day I was at the local computer store. Even if I had a GTS in my PC right now, somehow I doubt I'd be kicking myself.


Wingznut [PEZ]
ICQ #29598363

Well, here is how I see it. The Voodoo series of cards is the most compatible with other games. If you just want raw power go with the GeForce card.


[Ci]Matsumoto|PuF

"In nómine Patris, et Fílii, et Spíritus Sancti.
Dóminus vobíscum"

Well, I hadn't heard about people having trouble getting the GF2's to work. I haven't had any trouble at all with my GF, except when I overclocked it a little too high (the snowflakes were kinda pretty though =).

I suppose I could be a little biased toward the GF2, because I am so pleased with the GF that I have right now. It's only an SDR, and the GF2 can blow it out of the water.

But, as I said in an earlier thread, I'd be happy to own either card... and I suppose since I'm not actually researching them to buy one, I probably don't have as much info on it as some of you... So I'm going to let you guys fight this out.

Buy a Geforce 2, get two voodoo2's, problem solved, at least for now. UT players can play UT in glide with the voodoo2's and get about 40fps at 1024. And you still have your Geforce 2 for other(future) games. That's the setup I have now and it works great. Although I have an older Geforce not the Geforce 2.


You like that?

I've heard of people having trouble with both cards. I've also heard of people returning either card, because they were unsatisfied. It all depends on what you want.