rec.autos.simulators

TNT2 is, supposedly, the better card - I haven't seen side by side
comparisons so can't speak from experience.  What I do know is that
after 'tossing up' like you did I'm going V3 3000.  I can't imaging
there's going to be -that- much difference, and by the time games come
out that -really- need the sort of horsepower that pushes these things
there'll be something even better on sale.  For now, the most important
sim for me is GPL - and that has native Glide.  Decision made.
People can brag that their TNT2 is better than my V3, but I buy to play
the software that matters to me (Papy sims), not to score fantastical
frames/sec scores in Q2/Q3A.

Mark

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TNT2 has support for 32 bit textures.  Great if you have a 32 bit game.  The
screens do look slightly better.

3dfx will play all 3d games.  3dfx games are their own stuff, and not
supported by other cards.

I just kept my Voodoo 2, and left it at that.

cp2

I haven't seen ANY benchmarks that show the TNT2 to be a *LOT* faster ( to
me a lot would be like 25%+) in anything, and in most both cards are fairly
even or the V3 comes out ahead.

For flight and racing sims, anyone who plays many of these will probably
have better luck with the Voodoo3 and their older (pre-1999) games.  If they
don't have many old games and are interested in newer stuff, the cards are
pretty even.  Best thing to do is check which games you like to play, see
what they support, and make sure you get a card that actually RUNS them.  If
you like GPL for example, you're more likely to enjoy the V3, as it is
directly supported by GPL.  Some people get it running acceptable to them on
a TNT/ TNT2, etc, using a beta OpenGL patch,  but some don't have much luck
with it.

--
Ken's Sig 3.0

"Who is the more foolish?  The fool, or the fool who follows him?" - Obi-Wan
Kenobi

Go #43 and #44!

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The TNT2 is great, looks better, runs faster then the V3 (well the games I
owned and benchmarked it did). I use the TNT2 on all my games Like,
falcon4,halflife, Q3, TOca2,fighter squadron etc. But...........

If your playing games that are mainly Glide supported (GPL) then go with the
the V3. You'll need to patch the V3 for GPL, as there are a few problems
with the graphics.

I use the V3 for GPL,Nascar99,indycar and anyother game that looks like
crap, or has running in OpenGL, or Direct3d.

If your really into GPL, I would go with the V3....less hassles and the GPL
1.1 patch doesn't look like it's going to have better support for
OpenGL/Direct3d.

that's my 2cents worth.

As some further info..I just got my Hercules Dynamite TNT2 Ultra over the
weekend and installed it.  Didn't do much benchmarking simply because I had
a LAN session going on, but I'll give you my impressions. For reference, the
machine is a P2-400 with 192megs of RAM on an Abit BH6 BX chipset
motherboard with a MX300 soundcard, the TNT2 Ultra and 2 Voodoo2 12 megs in
SLI.  Oh, running all the latest drivers on hardware from their respective
companies (i.e. Diamond for the Voodoo2s and MX300), but running Detonator
drivers 1.88 from Nvidia for the TNT2

Onto the games I've had it running on so far:
Quake3:Arena - What can I say? Absolutely brilliant, period.  1024x768
resolution, 32bit color depth, 32bit textures, highest texture resolution,
etc....and it plays flawlessly without a hitch.  The texture mapping is
absolutely breathtaking, the embossing is quite good, though not quite up to
what the G400 can do with true hardware bumpmapping.  Played excellently....

MechWarrior3 - Slight problems.  Ran fine with Hercules drivers (dated
5/21), but it would not shift out of 640x480 mode.  Use it with the
reference Detonator drivers (which loses the ability to "overclock" the
TNT2...oh well, its still running at 175/200 speeds anyways) and the 640x480
clears up and runs just fine at 1024x768.  Not quite as breathtaking as
Quake3, but the game's depth of play is a bit deeper.

Midtown Madness - Same problem as MW3.  However, Detonator 1.88 drivers
don't correct the 640x480 bug.....but it does look better than with the
Voodoo2s.

High Heat 2000 - Runs just fine, however it doesn't appear to look quite as
good under the TNT2 as the 2 Voodoo2s.  However, they both run at 1024x768
so I can get by.

And of course...what you have all really been waiting for, GPL.
Ok, OpenGL beta patch, Detonator 1.88 NVidia reference drivers.  Mipmapping
turned on to level 4, mirrors set to ever 2 frames.  All options turned on
(except in mirrors) and detail slider a bit over 1/2.  Whats the experience?
At 1024x768 it flat out runs with 36fps in both in-car and F10 views with a
field of 10.  Didn't try it with more because I didn't have a chance.
Colors seem to be a bit less drab with the TNT2 than with the 2 Voodoo2s.
However, the fps are quite good, obviously, at least offline.  Will be
interesting to see how it preforms online though.  The only hitch I ran into
was getting the game to not recognize the 3dfx rasterizer.  At first I had
disconnected the Voodoo2s, but when trying to run it with software mode all
I got was a blank screen.  So the easiest solution was to hook the Voodoo2s
back into the mix through the pass-through cable, and then boot up GPL and
switch from 3dfx to OpenGl, shut down GPL and undo the Voodoo2s and start
GPL back up and ran flawlessly.