Best 3dfx card on the Market?

I'm getting a new computer and I am getting a 3dfx card, I want the best I can buy so I won't have to update it too soon and aswell that I want optimum performance. I don't want one that has great graphics but other bits suck like the speed or vise versa. Just what is the best one as I total package? TIA.

Pair of Voodoo 2's in SLI mode. Dunno if one brand is better than the other. When in doubt go with a big name for support and drivers.

Assuming you are going to buy a Pentium 2 and are looking at a 3Dfx Voodoo2 card. Almost ALL the cards are the same reference design that 3Dfx developed the card with. If you look at them side by side, they are almost all identical. The things that differ might be the brand of memory they use and various logos etc. The only ones which are really different are the Canopus cards, which are shorter, and feature things like onboard fans for the chips and TV-Out capability. If you're not fussed with all the extra bits like TVOut etc, just find a cheap Voodoo2, and use the 3Dfx reference drivers (which all the manufacturers use for their drivers too). If you benchmark all the Voodoo2 cards, you will find almost no performance difference between them, and when you do find a difference, you would never see it in normal game play. -- Nathan Wong http://www.nectar.com.au/~alfacors - Super Touring - Alfa Romeo - - V8Supercars - CART -

>>I'm getting a new computer and I am getting a 3dfx card, I want the best I >>can buy so I won't have to update it too soon and aswell that I want optimum >>performance. >>I don't want one that has great graphics but other bits suck like the speed

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>>or vise versa. >>Just what is the best one as I total package? >>TIA. >Assuming you are going to buy a Pentium 2 and are looking at a 3Dfx >Voodoo2 card. >Almost ALL the cards are the same reference design that 3Dfx developed >the card with. If you look at them side by side, they are almost all >identical. The things that differ might be the brand of memory they >use and various logos etc. >The only ones which are really different are the Canopus cards, which >are shorter, and feature things like onboard fans for the chips and >TV-Out capability.

The Canopus cards are the CADILLACS of 3DFX. Of course they cost about as much, too. They really are about the best built cards. www.pure3d.com you may even be able to find some refurb boards there! You won't find any bundles, but they're still worth it (I've had a V1 for quite a while!). Don Hancock "Gunner" ICQ 24045680

> The Canopus cards are the CADILLACS of 3DFX. Of course they cost about >as much, too. They really are about the best built cards. www.pure3d.com >you may even be able to find some refurb boards there! > You won't find any bundles, but they're still worth it (I've had a V1 >for quite a while!). As in overpriced, and laughed at by the majority of people? 8) You may wish to consider the Obsidan X-24. Single slot PCI SLI solution. But in reality, unless you want TV out, get the cheapest reference card you can find. Z.

Thanks everyone, I'm actually 14 and its my dad who is getting the computer, but he got good reports about the 16mb Voodoo Banshee. How would you guys rate that?

The Banshee is a good single-card solution, but it will be a bit slower than the Voodoo2 (10%?), and quite a bit slower than a pair of Voodoo2's (20%?). It simply depends on your budget and how much more you're willing to pay for maximum performance. The Banshee should do you good up to 800x600 in GPL with most details on but if you want 1024x768 at similar or better FPS -- or if you want _everything_ on at 800x600 -- then the V2's in SLI are the way to go. For what it's worth, the 1024x768 resolution may not be worth the extra cost if you're only considering GPL, considering name-brand Banshee's go for $90 U.S. after rebate and a pair of 12MB V2's will probably run at least a couple hundred. Back to the bang-for-the-buck conundrum ;-)

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> I'm getting a new computer and I am getting a 3dfx card, I want the best I > can buy so I won't have to update it too soon and aswell that I want optimum > performance. > I don't want one that has great graphics but other bits suck like the speed > or vise versa. > Just what is the best one as I total package? > TIA.

Go and get a Guillmot maxigamer 3d2 i have 2 of them for 200 dollars after 2 30$ rebates it's www.guillmot.com rdracer

Canopus cards are the Cadillacs of vid card. A Subaru of an opinion, Z. :-) I've got both Cads. The card and the auto. Speaking of overpriced, why not? Not to mention underclocked and overheated. This is a good way to learn all about downloading and installing new drivers every night for every new game you buy everytime you play. Everytime. All the time. Just buy a Canopus and go racing and go shooting them dang aliens happily ever after. :-)

Why do you need 2 Voodoo2 cards? (or am I being stupid) do you have 2 PCs?

>Why do you need 2 Voodoo2 cards? (or am I being stupid) >do you have 2 PCs? They can be combined in what is called Scan Line Interleaving (SLI) to share duties, resulting in faster performance. Only Voodoo2's do this. Sometimes the diff is small (CPU-limited games), sometimes large. It also doubles the video RAM which allows higher resolution than a single V2 (if game supported).

Sorry Ian, but in the true Usenet tradition, you asked for it, and bound by tradition I am bound to give it <g>. The reply is affirmative to your second question (the one in parnethesis). Modifying what my carpenter friends advise me -- think twice, post once ;-) Rgds, Mark R. On Thu, 10 Dec 1998 08:11:34 +0000, Ian Wright >Why do you need 2 Voodoo2 cards? (or am I being stupid) >do you have 2 PCs? >> Go and get a Guillmot maxigamer 3d2 i have 2 of them for 200 dollars >> after 2 30$ rebates it's www.guillmot.com >> rdracer

If money is no object, then Quantum3D's Obsidian2 X-24 is the best card you can buy. It's the Hyperstim of the graphics accelerator market. http://www.quantum3d.com/ -Bill

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>I'm getting a new computer and I am getting a 3dfx card, I want the best I >can buy so I won't have to update it too soon and aswell that I want optimum >performance. >I don't want one that has great graphics but other bits suck like the speed >or vise versa. >Just what is the best one as I total package?

-- Bill Mette | "A person is smart. People are dumb." MCSNet, Chicago | - K MiB

> Why do you need 2 Voodoo2 cards? (or am I being stupid) > do you have 2 PCs? > > Go and get a Guillmot maxigamer 3d2 i have 2 of them for 200 dollars > > after 2 30$ rebates it's www.guillmot.com > > rdracer Maybe if you do they might work!!!!!! I have a machine with two 450 Pentium II's 512mb ram with a Matrox G200 AGP and two Diamond Monster II's. All the video cards were bought just to use GPL. So far, in six weeks, I can manage half a lap of Monza before the machine/game freezes. I have tried drivers 201, 203 and 205. Also drivers from 3DFX. They all have very much the same effect ,some freeze up the whole machine some just the sim and CAD gets one back to the desktop. I have also tried various other suggestions posted on this newsgroup with no luck, how many combinations of 8 buttons are there? Sierra say it is a Diamond driver problem. Yes, the game does run with no enhanced 3D cards. I have enough horsepower to get about 20 fps but only at 640x480, so "it don't look too good" but it does run. I am composing a plea to Diamond to try to get them to fix their problem on my $260.00 worth of video cards. I may be wrong but isn't about time that PC programmers and hardware people got together and sold products that work with one another rather than have their customers paying them to do beta research. It is most frustrating having the sim writer, they do state that their sim runs under Voodoo II, saying its the board manufacturers fault and vice versa, and all the while expecting us to pay for defective product. Sorry for the rant but I am getting pissed off whith the whole deal. I changed fron an Alpha platform, and know firsthand of their incompatabilities, to an Intel one and have now found that they are not much better there's just more stuff that doesn't work. Cheers, David Morton