Voodoo or TNT?

[Lambsy]

Gday im putting together a computer from old spare parts but it seems the old 3D card i had is dead, may it RIP. Since the system is old i thought i would keep the trend going, but i dont know what gfx card i should get, voodoo or TNT? just wondering what your opinions are on which i should get. thanx

[Borde]

It depends on how old the system is. A voodoo card is far better for computers slower than a Pentium 200Mhz as long as you can use the Glide API. For a faster computer (more than 300Mhz) you may consider getting a TNT2.

[Lambsy]

yeah its an old pentium 166 a the mo, it will most likely be getting a small upgrade to pentium 2 mmx. Its very heritage but i just want it to be able to play FF7  in hardware mode with no hiccups. so a voodoo and she'll be apples ya rekon aye??

[mirex]

I have old P200MMX with s3-trio graphic card and Voodoo2 16MB (or 12MB?) accelerator, with W95 and in the good old days FF7 was running on it smoothly. Sometimes fps has dropped for a moment but other than that it was running great.

[Lambsy]

thanx guys that helps a bucket load, looks like i'll be looking for a voodoo or voodoo2 card, should be good

[voodoo47]

make it voodoo2 .much more tweakable,better drivers,superior control panel,no pass-through cable IQ degradation etc..

[Killing Edge]

Because it is such an old computer, I would advise a voodoo card.  It will probably run better than a TNT.

[Goku7]

Actually, in this scenario it might be better to go for a Voodoo5 PCI instead.  Since the CPU will not be maxing out the card at all, you can get free FSAA on all your old 3D games.

[voodoo47]

Voodoo5 is an overkill.and the PCI version is not exactly cheap..take a voodoo2 if you want to keep your primary graphics card or a voodoo3 pci if you have a junky one with terrible image quality and you want to get rid of it.voodoo2 should be around 5-10$,voodoo3 10-15$..

btw Goku7,your avatar seems familiar.does the nick ps47 say something to you?

[Goku7]

Voodoo5 is an overkill.and the PCI version is not exactly cheap..take a voodoo2 if you want to keep your primary graphics card or a voodoo3 pci if you have a junky one with terrible image quality and you want to get rid of it.voodoo2 should be around 5-10$,voodoo3 10-15$..

The overkill is the whole point -- he can max out on FSAA on those games without affecting performance, as the rig would be CPU limited.  Essentially, he'd still have slowdowns in areas where the CPU can't keep up, but he'd get them in the same places and situations regardless of how much FSAA he's using, so it'd be like getting free AntiAliasing with no cost in speed.

However, if money is larger a concern, then a V2, V2 SLI, or a V3 will work just as well -- he just won't have any AA on those games.

btw Goku7,your avatar seems familiar.does the nick ps47 say something to you?

ps47?  It's vaguely familar.....is he from the 3dfxzone.it boards, or the x-3Dfx boards?

At any rate, I found the image while roaming around the internet, and thought, "hey, that'd be cool to use as my Avatar (at Qhimm's), it'd go along with the in-joke there of me being one of the only guys on the boards who are still using 3Dfx cards".

[voodoo47]

I have tried my voodoo5 on a slow CPU and it didnt run too well (with or without FSAA),and I doubt he wants to search ebay for a card that is quite rare and expensive (usually around 70$),especially when he can have a v2 or v3 almost for free.not mentioning the size of the card,if he has a small case,he will have a hard time fitting the card in there,and old pcs usually have small cases (at least around here).anyway,its his choice

and voodoo47=ps47 if you havent guessed.voodoofiles&3dfxzone,and couple of other places as well.3dfx is still my game

[Goku7]

I have tried my voodoo5 on a slow CPU and it didnt run too well (with or without FSAA),and I doubt he wants to search ebay for a card that is quite rare and expensive (usually around 70$),especially when he can have a v2 or v3 almost for free.not mentioning the size of the card,if he has a small case,he will have a hard time fitting the card in there,and old pcs usually have small cases (at least around here).anyway,its his choice

Well, being a software T/L card, peformance would be bad on a slower system, but the point was that in theory, adding FSAA shouldn't make it any worse than it already is -- and the performance, I'm guessing (I've never used a V5 on that old of a system) should still be at least a bit better than a top-of-the-line V3 could do.

On the other hand, you're right about the size.  I forgot that mine almost didn't fit (V5 5500 AGP, so it wasn't like I could simply move it to another slot).

[voodoo47]

I agree with the FSAA part,but other than that,voodoo5 in such an old system is not really worth the trouble..