Buying new PCI card...Voodoo 3 or TNT2?? (Please read)

[dahurldog]

Hi,

I need some advice about buying a new 3d card. I need PCI because my m/board doesn't have an AGP slot.

I have 128 meg ram, AMD K6/2 ~550, and a 60 gig Hdd.

I dont need the absolute best graphics (i don't want to spend that much money) but i want it to be smooth. My present Voodoo 2 has had its day and ready to be put away in the cupboard. There are heaps of TNT2 cards, i am living in Australia, and my local computer shop has an 'Apollo TNT2 32meg' at a price i can afford. Also, is it worth getting an

ULTRA??

OR

PRO??

OR

M64??

M64 are a bit cheaper, is there much of a performance difference between the M64 and the pro or ultra??

Or should i scrap the whole idea or buying a TNT2 (which are a hell of a lot cheaper than the voodoo 3) and buy a voodoo 3 3000 pci

ANT THOUGHTS

Thanks for you help

Have a great new year.

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Lord Dragoon

[JM]

Ok.. since i'm in the mood to post even though this topic is somewhat like a multiple deja vu for me, I'll give a quick choice. Since your slot would be pci, GET THE VOODOO 3...... why? some simple reasons:

1. compatibility!
2. price
3. performs like the voodoo 3 agp
4. good overclockability
5. voodoo 3's work well with k6-2's (happen to have one)
6. if you play ut, glide rocks
7. even match with tnt2's and sometimes faster

get the voodoo 3 2000 and save some money. I'm quite satisfied with the k6-2/v3 setup here in the house and I'm sure you'll quite like the v3's performance

[dahurldog]

What about Windows 2000, is it compatible??

And i have a crap, on board 4meg video card, and is the Voodoo 3 standalone, or does it need the on board video??

Thanks

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Lord Dragoon

[Oliy]

the m64 has half the memory bandwidth of the normal tnt2. the pro and ultra have improved memory clocks and higher fill rates than the normal tnt2.
tnt2s overclock well also, mine went from a stock of 125/150 (core/mem) to 160/190 no problems.
also bear in mind the recent take over of 3dfx by nvidia - support will no longer be avaiablre for 3dfx cards. although u might be able to pick them up dirt cheap because of this

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Everyone makes mistakes.
I create disasters

[JM]

well I tried win2k once with the voodoo3 and it worked well with the new drivers.... i switched back to winME coz win2k runs like hell in k6-2's

I think support will still be around long enought for you to enjoy the v3 and the important thing are the drivers which i think would still be updated by nvidia.

[JM]

ummmm going back to your other question..... yes the voodoo 3 is a standalone card.

[miha76]

Yup Voodoo 3 becouse it needs less CPU power to perfrom good.

For TNT2 to get good perfromances you need 450 CPU in class of Intel PII and onestly K6-2-550 is more like PII 366. maybe 400 in games, becouse of very pour memory bandwith on socket 7 MBs, onboard slow L2 cache and very slow FPU unit compareing to Intel PII series.

anyhow get the Voodoo 3 it while be great choice, just make sure that you imediatly install extra ventilator on the Voodoo cooler, specialy becouse you live in Australia.

And one more tip overclocking of Voodoo 3 is alvase helpful no mather what CPU you have, and 2000 model while go to minimum 166Mhz with absolutly no problems.

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The worst system is not the one that has slowest QIII frame rate, but one that not works corectly.