Oh no! Another "which graphics card" question!!

Okay, so heres my intended upgrade package, (especially for GPL and GP2!) so far: AMD K6-2 450 128Mb RAM PC-100 Aopen AX59Pro Fast 8.5 - 9 gig Hard Drive 17" .26 dot monitor Soundblaster Live! Microsoft FF wheel Which leaves, of course, the graphics card(s). So guys, which way do I go; Riva TNT, Voodoo Banshee or Voodoo 2? If I go for a 3D accelerator card, what 2D choice do I make? If I decide on Voodoo 2, Ill buy one now and maybe a second card at a later stage. Any advice would be much appreciated. Craig **** Posted from RemarQ - http://www.remarq.com - Discussions Start Here (tm) ****

Craig, Right now the Banshee as your primary card and you can add the Voodoo-II or whatever you want. But remember that the 3dfx Voodoo-III combos are coming soon....Good luck. Ed (tm) ****

The 2D/3D 16MB Voodoo III 3000's should be available in a week or so, and are selling at around $145 or so. Any more questions?:-) Steve B. remove "edy" from address for email

Why would you want to get a banshee and then addon a v2? The banshee card has a v2 chipset already built into it and there is no way you can SLI a banshee and a v2 together so I don't think that's what you are suggesting is it? Maybe you meant to say something else. -- Tony Wyss

Other than I must question your choice of processors, especially with the P3s availabe or even a P2450s at a much cheaper price AND the K6-3s around the corner (sorry a K6-2 doesn't come close to match up with a P2 450 nor a K6-3 450).... There are a couple things to consider. First, if you want a Voodoo2 realize its a 3d addon card and you MUST have a 2D or 2D/3D card in addition. Second, if you want SLI its best to get them of the same brand and of course they have to be the same amount of RAM, i.e. 8 and 8 or 12 and 12. Thirdly, its probably not a wise idea (if it even works..it doesn't with the VoodooRush cards) is to run a Banshee w/an addon Voodoo2 card. As someone noted, but not quite correctly, the Banshee cards are based on the Voodoo2 cards except they only have one texture unit as opposed to two texture units; generally its neither here nor there unless you are playing with some specially written Quake2 levels. Oh, and you won't be able to SLI a Banshee and a Voodoo2 together. Fourth, the Banshee comes in PCI and AGP models, but the AGP does NOT take advantage of any of the AGP benefits. About the only benefit an AGP Banshee has over a PCI is that the AGP bus is running at 66mhz rather than 33mhz so you might see it be slightly faster. Voodoo3s....junk. Don't waste the money on them. WHy? Very few games are really supporting Glide as the primary 3D API. Its mostly D3D anymore with Glide usually as a secondary along with OpenGL. That noted, the Voodoo3 will NOT be able to take advantage of all the DirectX6.1 or DX7.0 D3D specs which will leave it far behind other competitors. This is due to many of the limitations such as 256x256 textures (TNT2 has 2k x 2k textures), not supporting the AGP texture management and using their own, only 16bit color output, plus others. Ok, thats the 3dfx. As to the Riva TNT....why in the world buy this?!!? Next month or the first of April the Ultra TNT2s come out and right now in beta previews their stats match up with 2 Voodoo2s in SLI and Voodoo3s. Not to mention they support 32bit display as opposed to Voodoo3s 16bit, 2kby2k textures, full AGP2x and 4x unlike the Voodoo3. Makes no sense whatsoever, unless you are on a budget, to get a TNT or heck even a Banshee. However, be warned.....its probably best to also get a Voodoo2 for GPL. Not everyone has the best luck with the OpenGL rasterizer for the TNT and who knows how it might work on the Ultra TNT2. (FYI, this is NOT the next generation Nvidia card...its basically a TNT on .25 micron with some other enhancements...the next gen isn't due out till this fall). Oh, and supposedly these cards may be SLIable depending on what Megabyte does. My 3cents

Given your intended package, I suggest you take a close look at two very thorough articles at Tom's Hardware Guide ( http://www.tomshardware.com/ ). One reviews TNT2 cards, the other Voodoo 3 cards, but they run several comparisons against regular TNT, Voodoo 2 SLI, and even an ATI Rage thrown in for laughs. Both Intel and AMD systems are used for the benchmarks, and you may find the differences quite interesting. One thing to remember is that if you decide against Voodoo 2 you rule out any 3dfx only games, which may or may not be a factor to you. From personal experience, I run GPL on one machine with a Banshee, on the other with a Voodoo2 and a Mystique G200 for a base card, and am hard pressed to notice any difference. Regardless of which card you choose, one thing I have found which makes a huge difference, and in my opinion is often overlooked in the scramble to find the best video card, is the quality of your monitor. Spend as big as you can there, fine dot pitch is a must, you won't regret it. LOL. Zog

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> Okay, so heres my intended upgrade package, (especially for GPL and GP2!) > so far: > AMD K6-2 450 > 128Mb RAM PC-100 > Aopen AX59Pro > Fast 8.5 - 9 gig Hard Drive > 17" .26 dot monitor > Soundblaster Live! > Microsoft FF wheel > Which leaves, of course, the graphics card(s). So guys, which way do I go; > Riva TNT, Voodoo Banshee or Voodoo 2? If I go for a 3D accelerator card, > what 2D choice do I make? If I decide on Voodoo 2, Ill buy one now and > maybe a second card at a later stage. > Any advice would be much appreciated. > Craig > **** Posted from RemarQ - http://www.remarq.com - Discussions Start Here (tm) ****

-- Don't let the bastards grind you down. Doug Schneider Bedford, Nova Scotia Canada

I did the following. Hercules Thriller 3D (2d/3d combo) AGP card for the primary display and a Diamond Voodoo2 PCI add in. My choice was based on the desired to have the best possible Nascar Racing (2/1999) support and still have 3dfx support for DirectX. I have tried running Papy sims on both adapters (and both work fine) - and the Thriller 3D with a Verite 2200 is hands down better for that. However, other games such as EA's SuperBikes is much better on the Voodoo2 adapter. The combo works well. The Windows98 driver support for the Thriller is very good and the NT driver is functional - although does have some re-draw problems that I think are related to the SCSI adapter. During heavy disk i/o, lots of turds get left behind on the screen. But, I am running NT right now and it is useable. The combo is right around $200, the Thriller for about $100 and the Voodoo2 for $125 - so the investment is not too great - but we all know the investment in time can be. I have an ASUS P2B-S with a PII 400, 128m memory, a PCI modem, PCI 10mbps ethernet adapter. Is ok ! /TomH

hehe.....caught me Tony....:-)....I meant if he went with the TNT card. Fingers are outrunning my brain lately. Personally, I wouldn't buy any card until the TNT2 and Voodoo-3s hit the shelves. I will stay with my TNT-1 & Voodoo combo for some time anyway......too damn expensive to keep up with all these new cards. -- Regards, Ed Medlin www.flyairwest.com

On Tue, 23 Mar 1999 14:33:36 -0600, "Chris Schletter"

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>Other than I must question your choice of processors, especially with the >P3s availabe or even a P2450s at a much cheaper price AND the K6-3s around >the corner (sorry a K6-2 doesn't come close to match up with a P2 450 nor a >K6-3 450).... >There are a couple things to consider. First, if you want a Voodoo2 realize >its a 3d addon card and you MUST have a 2D or 2D/3D card in addition. >Second, if you want SLI its best to get them of the same brand and of course

You want a very strong processor to get the best out of them. A single V2 is fast enough for almost all gamers, except the *** and the *** rich :) Wrong, you can run a Voodoo1 or Voodoo2 in conjunction with a Voodoo Rush card. It takes a little setting up, but it can be done successfully. even if Glide isnt primary, the fact it will run better and look nicer than the D3D version means that having Glide capable graphics cards are still an advantage.... -- Nathan Wong http://www.nectar.com.au/~alfacors Alfa Romeo - Super Touring - Club Cars http://fullspeed.to/astc Australian Super Touring Championship News and Information

> even if Glide isnt primary, the fact it will run better and look nicer > than the D3D version means that having Glide capable graphics cards > are still an advantage.... > -- > Nathan Wong Glide should run faster, for now :-), however, Glide does not look nicer. I have both TNT and Voodoo2 and TNT is far better looking that Voodoo2 in every game I own.

Glide in F1RS and MGPRS looks better than the D3D version :) Even with TNT :) -- Nathan Wong http://www.nectar.com.au/~alfacors Alfa Romeo - Super Touring - Club Cars http://fullspeed.to/astc Australian Super Touring Championship News and Information

IMHO its a simple choice. The STB VooDoo 3 3000 (166mz) AGP can be had for under $150.00 at www.buycomp.com . This card will give you SLI'd V2 performance and includes a TV Out. For a single card D3D/3DFX solution you can't do better for the price.. G. Patricks