what card?

[Briab Guy]

hi, i no this is an open ended question. i am building a pc and am not sure of which vid card to use. the 2 latest that catch my eye are voodoo5 or Gforce 2, and i an not even sure they are out yet. if anyone has any real serious reasons for a particular card, i'd be interested. money is not the biggest issue. (it will be a p3, above 700).
thanks and peace be with you

[theENiGMA]

Both of the cards you mentioned are damn good cards. There are some minute differences. The Voodoo5 is built for speed. If you play a lot of FPS games or something, this would be good. The difference only shows up noticably at higher resolutions (above 800x600). The Geforce2 cards are a very nice all around card. You don't get quite the framerates (marginally) that you get with the Voodoo5, but the pictures look much nicer (no jagged edges). In short both cards are awesome. If none of the above matters for you, go with whichever one you can get a better deal on. You won't be disappointed in either case.
-KEiTH


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Well, I'm off to go look for myself. If I should get back before I return, tell myself to wait for me.

[Xayd]

Well, if you're doing this stuff now, and those two high end cards were the choices, I'd go with the Geforce2 at the moment.

Voodoo5's are still hot, just released a couple weeks ago. I personally have a Voodoo 3000 and couldn't be more satisfied, but there are other issues. Even some reports that the Voodoo5's are too big to fit in some cases. Plus, other Voodoo cards (like mine) have had serious heat issues, which I'm not sure has been addressed completely with the Voodoo5's. Hell, from what I'm told the Voodoo5's have external power sources, so they have to be power hogging beasts.

If you were looking to spend 200 or less on video, I'd say Voodoo3 without a second guess. If you want to spend more, I'd go with the Geforce2, for now. It's a proven performer.

Xayd

[Tiretool]

I'd have to agree Xayd. The GeForce 2 GTS is the king of the hill for the moment. Just go to any of the major hardware review sites like Tom's Hardware (http://www.tomshardware.com) or Sharky Extreme (http://www.sharkyextreme.com) and you'll find reviews of the GTS edging out the V5 in most circumstances. The only apparent plus for the V5 is it's full screen anti-aliasing capability, which gives your game a "fuzzy" effect, supposedly making them seem more "real". I'd have to say that this is not on my list of wanted options since most of the games I play are fast paced and I get so into the game and finding someone to shoot, that I forget to look at all the eye candy.

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tiretool@pcmech.com

[cobra]

dude, i just put a geforce2 (annihilaotr) in my new athlon 750 box, and wow, what a difference from my monster fusion(banshee).

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Miami, flee it like a native.

[Tiretool]

Hey cobra, post some bench mark results when you get a chance. Especially 3d Mark 2000.

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tiretool@pcmech.com

[cobra]

I will as soon as I get things running decent. Now I have NO sound, Abit ka7/athlon 750/q3 does not like mx300 sound card, I am trying to get another sound card. Anybody want to trade? I will trade for decent pci sound card.

[padawan]

I also think the GF2 is the best choice. Test after test has shown the Voodoo5 to be slower, sometimes even slower than the original GeForce256...until FSAA is turned on. But if you play at or above 1024x768, the FSAA is not a big issue (unless you are a flight sim fanatic). I have seen the GF2 in the mid $200 range, well below the $299 asking price of the Voodoo5 5500. It pays to have several companies fighting for your business (like with the GF2), compared to single company (3dfx)...
I had a chance to play with the Hercules 64MB GeForce2 on my Athlon 850, fastest thing I have ever seen in my life. Getting Quake3 to run over 100fps in High Quality is a great thing.