Just remember, that this is only ONE manufacturer's version of the card. The TNT2's range from Pathetic, to Ungodly, depending on the manufacturer's implementation. Creative labs has been known for their marginal cards(thank god ATI is not makeing one). Wait a bit, and some one will put out a better Geforce card.
Take note that the drivers that were used on that card were the same ones that GameCenter used--alpha drivers. Creative said that the ones that they are using now for testing are a lot better.
YES, I agree, the geforce does seem lame. At the benchmarks I saw, on Quake3, it only had 3-4 frames per second higher. This card is a complete waste unless you have a voodoo2 or slower. Wait for the Glaze3d, they say its gonna have 200-300 fps on Q3. I know this is BS, but still I'm getting one.
Good:
1) A very good geomitry engine. As triangle count goes up this card will really shine. It can handle about 5 times more than Q3.
2) Good T&L. Again as more games take advantage of it. WOW, 8 lights per triangle!
3) Good fill rate. 480M is still about 50% faster than a TNT2 and the PRO model will have a fill rate of 600, much more respectable.
Bad:
1) No compression formats. S3 and 3dfx both have one and as games support this you will gain a hugh image quality without compermising speed or memory space. This lets the Voodoo4 display 1024x768x32 in the same space as 800x600x16.
2) Cost!!! The base card is $250 and the PRO model is $350 and this is with only 32MB memory.
3) Heat!!! This card runs VERY hot. You thaught the TNT2 ran hot. This thing will burn you if you touch it.
4) Power. With this much heat and 4 texture engines and built in fan, you are looking at alot of power. Some boards were already having problems with the power consumpion of the Voodoo3 3500 and TNT2 Ultras.
I am going to wait and see how many problems surface and how well the Savage 2000 works. The Savage 2000 is going to be used in the Dulphin System (Nintendo?, I foget). They are writing all their programs around S3's texture compression. When these games hit the PC's it will already support S3TC (along with UT and Q3).
The Savage 2000 should perform close to the GeForce with 166/183Mhz (for the base model) and Quad texture pipeline, enviromental Bump Mapping, T&L, Geomity engine and more for $50-$100 less. Even though the geomitry engine and T&L is not as advanced, most games will support diferant geomitry levels. With 166Mhz, you get 664M fill rate (higher than the GeForce PRO) and they are expecting to hit 250Mhz by Summer 2000, thats 1 Billion pixels. This could be a 266Mhz core and 64Mb of 266Mhz DDR RAM. I want one!
AMD Phenom II x4 945 3Ghz | ASUS M4A77TD | 2X WD 1TB SATA 2 hard drive | 2x2GB Corsair XMS3 | nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS | ATI TV Wonder Theater Pro 550 | Antec P-160 case | Antec 650w Earth Watts | LG Blu-ray Super Drive | LG DVD RW | Windows 7 Pro
Speculation is wonderful. But I recall a time not long ago when people questioned buying a 3D accelerator at all. I mean, what do you need 8mb on a video card for? Doesn't make any of the games run faster.
That was before the games started taking advantage of the power of these cards. I can easily see the same thing happening here. The GeForce seem somewhat useless overkill right now. Until games start using the features it provides.
How expensive were the TNT/TNT2 cards when they first arrived? The VooDoo? The price is unlikely to stay high. It'll have to drop to remain competitive.
Then, of course, there's the V5 and Gforce2 to contend with....
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A life? Where can I download that?
Where am I going? -- And why am I in this handbasket?
I am very disappointed with what I have read about GeForce. Even beeing alpha drivers and so. Only T&L and some increase in fill rate (everybody was expecting much more). I am curious about Savage 2000, it seems to be a much more balanced product. Or even Voodoo4, but it's early to talk about it.
Wait for the finished product. You people are making a lot of assumptions based on
alpha drivers. The management and engineers
at NVidia aren't stupid. Do you really think
they would release a product that was only
as good as a TNT2 but much more expensive?
As far as creative labs making marginal
products, check out toms hardware or anand
tech benchmarks. The CL unit holds up well
against the diamond card. It was only beaten
by the hercules (unfortunately defunct - great card) and the xentor 32.
CL has far superior support then diamond
and xentor. It is a slightly above average
tnt2 ultra card.
Well call me an idiot...call me a moron...call me Slappy and make me wear a snorkel!!! I just plopped down the $ for a CL geFORCE card!! I'm supposed to get it by next friday...so I'll repost and let you all naysayers know just what this damn thing does on a typical home system in REAL GAMES.....not just the benchmark programs.
I'm really looking forward to it....I have an Asus 3400 TNT card now...so the jump won't be light-years, but when I first got the Asus card the drivers that came with the card were really crappy. The latest driver release from Asus gave me an almost 18% performance gain over the original drivers. My take is that as the drivers for the geFORCE become more mature, and the game industry take advantage of what this chip can do....we will start to see a marked improvement over the TNT/TNT2/G400/Voodoowhatever. Thats just my humble opinion....
Just playing the devil's advocate here-- but instead of paying the highest price now for a card in anticipation of some future games that may benefit from it, why not wait until those games that would showcase it's abilities are on the shelves, and then buy it when the price has dropped considerably, or even see if something even better had since come out?
If you have a decent card now, I don't quite see the point of rushing out and buying a card that won't really do that much today, but will someday...
ATI has just added one to the mix...Rage Fury MAXX (Araura)? So that makes GeForce 256 in October, Rage Fury MAXX in November, Savage2000 in December, and Voodoo4 in February. Anybody left for January?
By the way if few games support the GeForces capabilities now but will in the future why worry. Every card manufacturer is targetting the next generation cards to be around 6 months apart. By the time most of the features are becoming widely supported, the next generation will be out. Look at the Voodoo3, no 32bit color support, but how many games really use it and how many systems can handle the performance hit? Now systems are hitting 700+Mhz and cards are hitting 450+ Mpixil fill rates, 32bit is looking worth will. The games will start supporting in mass.
AMD Phenom II x4 945 3Ghz | ASUS M4A77TD | 2X WD 1TB SATA 2 hard drive | 2x2GB Corsair XMS3 | nVidia GeForce 8800 GTS | ATI TV Wonder Theater Pro 550 | Antec P-160 case | Antec 650w Earth Watts | LG Blu-ray Super Drive | LG DVD RW | Windows 7 Pro
In January the Glaze 3D enters the market for card-manufacturers (this estimated release is about as truthful as the upcoming releases of the other competitors).
This is what I'd go for now: ATI 128.
...hmmm...did I really put that down in text?...
Anyway, my point being that you should get a cheap card for now, wait one or two years,and then get the Glaze 3D 4800. It shouldn't be too expensive by New Year 2002! (Or if you're really thirsty, go out and get yourself a Prophet GeForce card)
My way or the highway, baby...
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"Expect my visit when darkness falls upon you"
Well some of what you said Todda I have never heard before, and I got some information that changes some of the things you said.
My friend at software etc. got some specs of the new Diamond Viper II (which is the GeForce by the way ). It is coming in 2 versions a standard at 250 and a Pro version at 350. The standard version has standard SGRAM as far as I know and has fill rates under the 480 that nVidia is saying. The Pro version has new DDR RAM and is capable of reaching that 480, without the DDR RAM the card couldnt reach that fill rate. Also the advertisements of the card in the current gaming magazines, state that it is coming with S3 Texture compression, so it is going to have that built in. Other than that, I agree with the most of you, besides the Geometry engine on the card, its not that great of an improvement. Plus i hate having to wait for games to use what I bought the card for!!!! The TNT2 has quite a long life ahead of it in my opinion, since nothing uses 32 bit right now its still kicking pretty good, and with 32 megs on board its gonna be playing a lot for quite a while.
The way you do stuff is like this: Wait for the next gen card to come out and buy the one before it for real cheap, I mean come on the Voodoo2 is still kicking pretty good and can almost play everything thats out there. Why have the latest greatest technology when you have to wait for it to be adapted by all the software makers???? Just buy the generation before and it will work great for a much longer time than is expected.
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Vidfreek:
I have gone to look for myself, If I get back before I return.....Keep me here
Vidfreek:
I have gone to look for myself, If I get back before I return.....Keep me here
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