Voodoo2 or not Voodoo2, that is the question

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.

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> 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

-- Bruce. (At home)

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 > 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.

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 >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

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) >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

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> 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 > > 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.

Pete: 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

> 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. it depends more on the specific game engine. If the game is fill rate limited (i.e., your CPU can calculate all the polygons fast but not do the actual graphics texture filling) then a V2 will help. If, on the other hand, the game is CPU-limited (i.e., the computer can't caclulate 3d polygons and supply them to the graphics card fast enough) then the V2 will not help much at all, except it will generally allow use of higher resolution with no frame rate penalty. 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