I'm looking for the best video card, that is ideal for 3D applications such as 3d Studio Max etc., but still want to use it for games as well.
Like others, I'm torn between V3 and TNT2, but I heard that V3 crashes in 3D Studio Max and is not very stable in Lightwave. I'm not sure about TNT2, though. Which one supports OpenGL the best? I'm aware of the Oxygen VX1 card but I'm owrried as to whether the VX1 can support games as well.
Can anyone advise me on this?
I would recomend you stick with a TNT2, video card because of it's sheer memory and the fact that it can support 32 bit colour.
A real issue for studio Max is your cpu's floating point as well, If you have a weker floating point eg AMD or Cyrix upgrade to the highest mghz intel cpu you can.
The TNT2 supports games just as good as the Voodoo 3 does and it is alround a quicker card, depending on the one you get. Just remember that that even though the drivers for the nividia chip are imature, when they sort out the bugs, they will kick the compettions arse and this is only a matter of short time.
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Over the lips and past the gums, look out stomach here it comes
Over the lips and past the gums, look out stomach here it comes
The only consumer level card worth a damn in 3d apps is a TnT based card. The Permedia 3 may change all that , but since it's not actually out yet, no telling. I just got a new workstation at work. ( I don't just read benchmarks, I have an animation degree and have been using max since, before it was max.) It shipped with a TNT2, (Dell doesn't offer the vx1, onlt the RPM and up.) S oi ordered a vx1 seperate, should have it in his week, I've used a VX1 before, and it is prettyfast, but didn't get to see if it ran games, I would guess it really doesn't do much, or 3dlabs would try to sell it to both markets. The TNT is limited in its featureset, but the OGL ICD is stable, and works in every app I've tried, 3dsmax, Lightwave, Truespace, Softimage(kind of quirky, but it worked)
I've downloaded and have played with all of these 3D Applications. My Diamond 16meg Viper 550 tied together with a 12meg Monster 3D II along with my PIII 450 O/clocked to 5?? seems to work just fine. (although I just play for a while then go back to my win98 games) I'm waiting for some high end 3D GFX stuff to come along for my Linux O\S.
How high-end winhat? SideFX is porting Houdini over to Linux I think this month. It's a little pricey, but at least now Linux has an alternative. I use a bunch of smaller 3d apps in linux, but still mainly use win2000 and 3dsmax. And, I called and e-mailed 3dlabs, and the man tells me" if he's not lying thru his teeth." that the VX1 will run games just fine, I would assume as long as it is compatible with directx and OGL games, it should be pretty damn fast. Well, I'll have mine hopefully by friday, so I can test it out .
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