which 3d graphics card?

Gerry

The Tnt has better image quality but 32bit colour by itself does not make much difference. However I consider fps to be important. I get more fps on my 3dfx voodoo banshee than when I tried a tnt2 ultra in the machine. This is with most of the detail turned down, of course. So for fps at medium low resolutions I would choose 3dfx. That said I would now reccomend the geforce as the new drivers really make use of its features. ie 20-30% fps boost in q3. I'm getting a geforce anyway.

Chubby

Errr, Gerry, are you saying the banshee is faster than the tnt2? Are you comparing the fps of a game running in 32bit on a tnt2 to the fps you get on a banshee at untra low resolution with most details turned off? Which game are you basing this on? The tnt2 is way faster than a voodoo3 and to say that the banshee is faster is just asking for it. If fps is important then you are recommending the wrong card.

The cpu speed in your system (whatever it is) is probably preventing your tnt2 from giving you a better fps score. Graphics card do not magically gives you faster fps in games if your cpu is slow. If that's the case then don't waste your money on a GeForce.

As for image quality. Yeah, 32bit don't make a big difference if the textures the game is rendered from were 16bit in the first place. That's why a lot of people don't think it makes a difference because most games until recently don't use big, 32bit textures. In newer games like Quake3, you will see a big difference.



[This message has been edited by Chubby (edited 22-03-2000).]

Chubby

Yes, voodoo3 gives UT better performance but that's only because Unreal was written and optimised for glide and the D3D and opengl code was always very bad. If all you want is to play UT then fine, buy yourself a brand new voodoo3. And does your dad and yourself have the exact same system, same cpu speed and everything apart from the graphics card?

Everyone knows at this stage which is the better card and will last you longer without me having to repeat myself. I'm not saying people should replace their voodoo3s with tnt2s or geforce. All I am saying is voodoo3s is a bad buy compared to tnt2s or other cards if you want to buy one now. Games are starting to support big textures and 32bit rendering and no one writes games just for glide anymore.


[This message has been edited by Chubby (edited 22-03-2000).]

Gerry

I said at the start of my post that tnt has much better image quality. What i was saying was that if you turn the detail down, in quake 3 the tnt/tnt2 gives lower fps. Also when playing q3, adding bots kills the fps on a tnt/tnt2/geforce (about halves with 6 bots)
I am comparing like with like i.e. identical detail settings 16bit on both cards.
I have seen this on other machines, not just my own. whereas on the banshee it does not affect fps as much. Do you perhaps think that I am making this up. Oh yes and I am running a p3 550 so tis not really the cpu

[This message has been edited by Gerry (edited 22-03-2000).]

Chubby

What? Are you saying if you turn the detail downs in Quake3 for both cards, you get a higher fps on a voodoo banshee? Or are you just turning the details down on the voodoo card? Are you confused between a voodoo3 and a voodoo banshee? A banshee is NOT a voodoo3 and it doesn't have the fillrate to even compete with a tnt2. And are you saying you don't get a fps hit when you run bots using the voodoo card?


[This message has been edited by Chubby (edited 22-03-2000).]

MiCr0

Right then:
in one word what card would you's recommend?

MiCr0(none the wiser)

Score So Far:

---

Geforce 1

[This message has been edited by MiCr0 (edited 22-03-2000).]

Chubby

Micro, it really depends on what you can afford and what overall system you are putting the card in. If you can afford it, get a GeForce (the DDR one). If you want somethin a little more affordable and that'd last you a while before you need to upgrade, get a tnt2 ultra or a tnt2 pro.

Excelsior

Chubby is a gombeen nerdlinger.
Gerry has a banshee. It doesnt have voodoo3 written on it. he is aware of the implications this has.
his card is not a voodoo 3.
wait! i'm writting it on a piece of paper and flashing it across the lab at him. do you think he'll need diagrams chubster?
It does have the awesome gloware.
Dont patronise him (chubster ) for he will strike down upon thy nerdiness with great vengeance and furious (veins in my head are popping im so angry at the travesty that has passed here) anger and you will know its name is Glondoor... basically BÍ CÍUIN!!!

---

We are superfriends
Super friends are we

Gerry

I'm sorry for dragging this on but I have to finish what I started. First of all, if you read my post chubby, I said identical detail settings on both cards. Also, I think I know the difference between a voodoo3 and a banshee. If u turn the detail down, the fillrate of the banshee is able to produce fps of a minimum 80, average 100 max 200. Timedemo 1 100fps Timedemo using the EXACT same settings on a tnt 70fps on a tnt2, 80fps
The fps hit with 6 bots on the banshee is about 10-20%. On a tnt/tnt2 it goes anywhere from 40-60%. Thats all I have to say about that. I am buying a geforce and a coppermine cpu so that I can play q3 without it looking like shoih. And so I can hammer the keyboard faster, ie at the speed of thought. BTW that last sentence was a joke.

Chubby

Excelsior:
Are you just a bored trekkie who likes to annoy people and not add anything to an ongoing discussion because star trek is not on?

[This message has been edited by Chubby (edited 22-03-2000).]

Gerry

rofl

Gamblor

The V3 is your only man ( Card ?)
Anyway , it works on everything and it's seems well at least for me to run better on most games than my dads tnt2 !!!! esp on UT !!!!

---

***** Feel my Evil Neon Claws *****

Ex_hale

test, soz just checkin if im still regged on the new boards

Excelsior

I am a trekkie? Chubbster you must be a psychologist to make such a devastating analysis of my psyche. Boy you really can read people.
Janis Joplin was good wasn't she Chubster?
C++ is a fatally flawed language.
Bambiasaourous verifies the dinosaur->bird evolution.
Contrary to popular opinion, in the year 1,000, people believed the world to be round.
Chubster is an arrogant ijit.
Bye now.

---

We are superfriends
Super friends are we

Chubby

Okay I'm sorry. I thought you're a trekkie because star trek is the only think I can link your name to without looking it up. I guess you're just a repressed homosexual who is taking out his frustration on me. Afterall, what did I ever do to you. That star trek thing wasn't even remotely insulting unless you have a deep and illogical hatred of the series (pun intended) and the rest of the thread certainy doesn't concern you. Why are you even reading this thread anyway or are you just sad enough to read every thread on every board just to look for someone to start a flame war? Go download some gay pr0n and jerk off or something, leave me alone.



[This message has been edited by Chubby (edited 23-03-2000).]

Koopa

ok, i think an SDR GeForce is your best option, or else a TNT2 / TNT2ultra (not an m64, theyre roughly as bad as a tnt1 overall)

as for the tnt2 debate, the reason youre getting higher fps on the voodoo probably IS because of your p550, nvidia's drivers are more cpu-intensive than 3dfx's, a p550 is NOT fast enough in q3 so that you can totally disregard cpu clock speed with any current generation video card, unless youre running with the graphics on full or something (up to 800*600 resolution anyway)

what fps do you get on your voodoo banshee?
i used to get 115 fps in timedemo demo001 on my tnt2(800*600, p600 processor), clocked at 161/179 (a xentor ultra is 175/183), using my cfg, and if i turned down the details to minimum i got 119 fps

oh yeah, if you own a tnt2, the fastest drivers released by nvidia so far are detonator 2.08, dont use detonator 3.xx because theyre all ****e

Chubby

Lo Koopa:
Quick question. Why do you consider the SDR GeForce to be the better option then the DDR GeForce? Price? Just curious.

Gerry

If its price your worried about on the geforce, I can get you a creative ddr geforce for about 180.
sam: on my banshee in win98 using my config
(not terrible image quality)vertex lighting fancy graphics options off, 640 * 480, full texture detail, 100 fps. Now in win2k, the timdemo1 has gone down to 86. On lan or with no bots the fps seems nearly as high but whereas before I could comfortably play with 8 - 10 bots if i wanted,now putting more than 4 bots in drags the frame rate down by half. I'm putting win98 back on so I can have a constant 120 + fps and getting a coppermine 600 and a geforce so I can play it without it looking worse than glquakeworld(in my opinion , q3 on lowest detail with "high fps" configs looks worse than glqw)