rec.autos.simulators

by **Olly Greenfiel** » Sun, 15 Apr 2001 21:33:34

I bought a PCI version of the now defunct 3DFX VooDoo 5500 about a month ago
for $169, and I absolutely love this card. It allows me to run my old card
in the AGP slot and use two monitors simultaneously, which is cool when
browsing the internet or working with two programs at once. However, the
best thing about this card is the magnificent 2X and 4X antialiasing of
videogames. I have heard people say that antialising is only significant in
low resolutions, and that at hi rez you wont notice the jaggies or the
sparkling shimmering effect in a game. That is definately not true.
Antialiasing at 800X600 looks better than 1280X1024 without FSAA.
Everything just looks so much better and more realistic, especially at 4X
FSAA. However, 4X FSAA takes a substantial frame rate hit in most games on a
600 MHZ P3, which makes me want to upgrade my CPU, but 2X FSAA often has
only a minor degradation in frame rates in most games, and it still makes
games look much better.
My advice, buy a VooDoo 5500 PCI while you can if you can get one cheaply,
they are about as fast as the lower end Geforce 2 cards, and they produce
much nicer images with the FSAA. Even though I am not a GPL *** like some
of you in this group are, I find myself playing GPL far more often since I
got the VooDoo5 to bring out the games inner graphical beauty that I was
missing with my old card. Also, Mercedes Benz Truck racing with 4X FSAA
looks better than any PC racer I have ever played albeit the framerate sucks
on my system at anything above 800X600, and GP3 plays at smooth frame rates
with 4x FSAA at 1280X1024 and looks great too.

by **Scorpi** » Mon, 16 Apr 2001 01:00:27

Yes, Voodoo5 is the absolute winner when it comes to 4XFSAA. When used along
with a fast CPU (800MHz and up), it's also amazingly smooth and fast
especially on racing games. GPL and F1CS2K look soooo beautiful. : )

by **Tim Mise** » Mon, 16 Apr 2001 09:07:54

Agreed. I've tried N4 at 1600x1200 with no FSAA and 800x600 with 4XFSAA on
my 19" monitor and it is much better at 800x600 4XFSAA. Framerate is about
the same at either setting but visually, the pixelpopping, shimmering, and
jaggies at 16x12 are just terrible and 8x6 4xfsaa is just super smooth.
When 3dfx originally announced the V5 6000 for $600 I original thought no
way I would ever buy that card at that price and today I would happily shell
out that much for a V5 6K. :(

I really really hope that nvidia utilizes the V5's FSAA technology in their
next Geforce (4?) because their current FSAA in the GF3 truly sucks IMHO.

-Tim

by **Dave Henri** » Mon, 16 Apr 2001 12:06:29

I have seen one site that says it isn't any better than the V5. You may
get better
framerates tho. $600 for something I already have seems steep. Until some
games
come out that take advantage of the GF3 's programable graphics,...you are
just buying
a slightly faster GF2 Ultra.
dave henrie

by **Roger Squire** » Mon, 16 Apr 2001 20:33:48

Might be worth checking out the Kyro2. This card is twice as fast as the
g-mx with fsaa enabled. *twice as fast* for the same price, $150.

rms

by **Tim Mise** » Tue, 17 Apr 2001 09:23:03

John, the GF3 quincunx FSAA is much faster than the V5 or previous GF2/1
FSAA implementations, but I am talking about image quality. The quincunx
FSAA is a little less quality than the GF2/GF1 4XFSAA setting which most of
us know is nowhere near the V5's 4XFSAA quality.

So again to reiterate, the VISUAL quality of the GF3 FSAA is exactly equal
to the visual quality of the GF2 / GF1 FSAA. The advantage of the GF3 is
that it can do it faster, not better (visually).

I don't know what's in store for the GF4 and FSAA but when/if it ever comes
out, I hope the quality of the FSAA is improved up to the V5 level of
quality yet much faster.

-Tim

by **Glzm** » Wed, 18 Apr 2001 08:12:43

I am especially anxious to see how Kyro 2 does FSAA (quality-wise). I heard
it should be able to be a solid FSAA performer performance-wise. Imagin what
could be done with a multichip Kyro 2 (I herad it is capable of having a
multichip design).

> Might be worth checking out the Kyro2. This card is twice as fast as the
> g-mx with fsaa enabled. *twice as fast* for the same price, $150.

> rms

by **Shortfor** » Wed, 18 Apr 2001 20:29:07

On Sat, 14 Apr 2001 12:33:34 GMT, "Olly Greenfield"

> I have heard people say that antialising is only significant in
>low resolutions, and that at hi rez you wont notice the jaggies or the
>sparkling shimmering effect in a game. That is definately not true.

Big roger on that! Major difference in the look at high res... AMAZING
difference when playing something at 640x (UGH!) I grabbed an AGP
version of the card (no open PCI slots and needed to replace aging V3
anyway) and have been testing the upcoming Air Racing game by Victory
Sims, ( http://www.racesimcentral.net/ ) took this shot with it the other
day right after cleaning the drool off my keyboard from the e***ment
over the new "toy" in the test box... I'm about to fire up some of my
old stuff just to see what it might look like (NASCAR... the original
for instance) probably be a hoot..

http://www.racesimcentral.net/
"Shortfork"
All Aviation FlightLine OnLine
http://www.racesimcentral.net/

by **fistyc..** » Sat, 21 Apr 2001 19:22:23

i've heard a lot about the vodoo cards mostly all good .why in the
world did they sell out?from what i can tell they were alot better
than nvidia as far as fsaa and look alot better .i can't see why they
were not making money .i mean if they are that good if they held out
they would be in every oem box and home built machine out there .frame
rate is one thing but to get decent frame rate and a great 3d picture
well that would be to much to hope for from nvidia.if i try to run
fsaa on geforce 2 gts 32meg it just slows down so much it is
unplayable.i still might go buy one before they are all gone even with
the old drivers should still run all my old games just fine with out
any updates.ill stop here before i send nvida a dirty email lol

dw

>On Sat, 14 Apr 2001 12:33:34 GMT, "Olly Greenfield"

>> I have heard people say that antialising is only significant in
>>low resolutions, and that at hi rez you wont notice the jaggies or the
>>sparkling shimmering effect in a game. That is definately not true.

>Big roger on that! Major difference in the look at high res... AMAZING
>difference when playing something at 640x (UGH!) I grabbed an AGP
>version of the card (no open PCI slots and needed to replace aging V3
>anyway) and have been testing the upcoming Air Racing game by Victory
>Sims, ( http://www.racesimcentral.net/ ) took this shot with it the other
>day right after cleaning the drool off my keyboard from the e***ment
>over the new "toy" in the test box... I'm about to fire up some of my
>old stuff just to see what it might look like (NASCAR... the original
>for instance) probably be a hoot..

> http://www.racesimcentral.net/
>"Shortfork"
>All Aviation FlightLine OnLine
>http://www.racesimcentral.net/

by **Tim Mise** » Wed, 25 Apr 2001 08:58:24

3dfx was great at graphic cards but when it came down to running a business,
they made poor choices. Their biggest problems were their inability to get
their products out the door on time and keeping their costs down.

-Tim

> i've heard a lot about the vodoo cards mostly all good .why in the
> world did they sell out?from what i can tell they were alot better
> than nvidia as far as fsaa and look alot better .i can't see why they
> were not making money .i mean if they are that good if they held out
> they would be in every oem box and home built machine out there .frame
> rate is one thing but to get decent frame rate and a great 3d picture
> well that would be to much to hope for from nvidia.if i try to run
> fsaa on geforce 2 gts 32meg it just slows down so much it is
> unplayable.i still might go buy one before they are all gone even with
> the old drivers should still run all my old games just fine with out
> any updates.ill stop here before i send nvida a dirty email lol

> dw

> >On Sat, 14 Apr 2001 12:33:34 GMT, "Olly Greenfield"

> >> I have heard people say that antialising is only significant in
> >>low resolutions, and that at hi rez you wont notice the jaggies or the
> >>sparkling shimmering effect in a game. That is definately not true.

> >Big roger on that! Major difference in the look at high res... AMAZING
> >difference when playing something at 640x (UGH!) I grabbed an AGP
> >version of the card (no open PCI slots and needed to replace aging V3
> >anyway) and have been testing the upcoming Air Racing game by Victory
> >Sims, ( http://www.racesimcentral.net/ ) took this shot with it the other
> >day right after cleaning the drool off my keyboard from the e***ment
> >over the new "toy" in the test box... I'm about to fire up some of my
> >old stuff just to see what it might look like (NASCAR... the original
> >for instance) probably be a hoot..

> > http://www.racesimcentral.net/
> >"Shortfork"
> >All Aviation FlightLine OnLine
> >http://www.racesimcentral.net/

rec.autos.simulators

Love my Voodoo 5!!

Love my Voodoo 5!!

Love my Voodoo 5!!

Love my Voodoo 5!!

Love my Voodoo 5!!

Love my Voodoo 5!!

Love my Voodoo 5!!

Love my Voodoo 5!!

Love my Voodoo 5!!

Love my Voodoo 5!!

Love my Voodoo 5!!