rec.autos.simulators

I am considering upgrading from a Monster 3D to the Monster 3D II with
12 MB memory.  I am wondering if the cost of the upgrade is worth it.
From what I have heard so far the only Voodoo2 card that Diamond has
released is the 8 MB version.

Could you guys please give me some insight.  Will I notice a performance
gain over my Monster 3D?  Even on games that were written for the first
version?  Are there any compatibility problems that are known as of
right now?  Any help that you can provide is appreciated.

Thank you
matt

I will simply point you to a very informative article on the subject.
http://www.tomshardware.com/Voodoo2.html
Enjoy
Ben

Matthew,
If your CPU is in the PII-266 and higher range then you may see some
improvement but it is extremely unlikely as the V2 will only really provide
a noticable speed improvement with faster processors.......PII-300 and
higher.

I'd save your money at this time, unless you are considering a major system
upgrade.

        Bruce, this is not correct! I am getting more than a double in frame rate
on both a 200mmx over clocked and a 233mmx overclocked. It all depends on
whether the game takes advantage of the card at this point. Once all the
drivers
are optimized I suspect even better performance.

        Pete

Mathew,
    It all depends on your system. On the high-end PII systems, it is worth
it. If you are using an MMX 233 or lower, the Voodoo I works just as well in
all the tests I have performed. All my tests are by the "seat of my pants"
and done on PII 300, and P166MMX systems. Voodoo II cards have no noticeable
improvement on "middle of the road systems" on any 3DFX apps I have tried.
But on the "high-end" systems it flys. Hope this helps ya. Have fun.

--
Regards, Ed Medlin

www.edmedlin.netminds.com
Columnist, Software Critics Unlimited
www.softwarecritic.com

        Ed, Quake 2 jumped from 26 fps to 49 on my over clocked 200mmx(225mmx)
I would think this is fairly large jump! I realize that the games are going
to have to be
optimized for the card. Plus I moved from 640x480 to 800x600 at the same
time.

        Pete

One other consideration is that there are a few compatibility problems with
some "old" Voodoo-1 games. Patches are available or are being developed for
some, but with others they may not bother. Example: I think that Motoracer
will not correctly install or detect the Voodoo-2 card.

--
Doug Gordon
(Remove "nospam." from e-mail address)

You have hit on something that alot of people seem to overlook...  the Voodoo2
will let you increase your resolution from 640x480 to 800x600 with no performance
hit.  In fact you can even go to 1024x768 without z-buffering.

If anybody in the U.S. is looking to get into Voodoo2, I'll have Jazz Renegade 3D
(12 Meg retail version) cards available for sale after the 15th (so says my
distributor) for $229.00 and you get a $30.00 Mail-In rebate so the final price is
just $199.00!!!  Check out the "Flight-Ware" link below.

John
--

++++++++++++++++++++
Western Wisconsin Scenery for FS6 & FS98:  http://www.concentric.net/~Jvoznak/
Check out Flight-Ware:  http://www.concentric.net/~Jvoznak/flight_ware.shtml

        Doug, the compatability problems are fast disappearing! The new gold
drivers
have fixed many of these. There are workarounds and patches coming for many
games
according to 3dfx(if you visit  their site they tell you which ones). With
patch 3.20 from
Delphine MotoRacer works just fine with the new gold drivers. There are
also ways to
turn your voodoo 2 into a voodoo 1 in worst case scenarios. See 3dfx web
site for commands!

        Pete

Joe

Bruce,
I have a P II 300 with 128 megs sdram at 10 ns Yesterday I picked up a
VooDOO 12 meg. and installed it the 4meg. Stealth II S220 running REND> out
ran the VOODOO2 12 meg. The voodoo2 was no faster and the colors were
washed out, so I took it back. I think you should wait until a real VER. of
3Dfx comes out. BoB Hawkins