Moment of Truth is at Hand.....

[Liquid]

Im running a Matrox Millenium G-200 <2D/3D> with a AMD K6-2 350 and 64 Megs o'ram. I'm 3 days away from buying either an add-on or a new 2D/3D card. I NEED ADVICE BADLY!!! Should I keep the Matrox and buy an add-on <such as a Voodoo2> or get rid of it and buy a Voodoo3. I love the performance of the G200 and wouldn't want to part with it, if at all possible.

 

[Liquid]

At the risk of prolonging the V3 vs.TNT2 debate, I need some further advice. I have heard that TNT2 is on the verge of supporting OpenGL and 3DNow! If this is true, would the TNT2 be a better choice?

 

[Kuzia]

wait til final drivers for TNT2 come out and compare the new benchmarks of it performing on AMD systems to those of V3......

 

[(Chanse)]

The TnT does support OpenGl, it has the best opengl of all the comsumer cards(ICd has been out for liek a year), and support for 3dnow is just about out. But with your machine, you may want to save money and buy a Tnt, the tnt 2 is really pretty much the same card ,just with a higher fill rate, which your machine , although pretty fast, will not really max out

 

[reiters]

I agree with chance 100%

you need a use v550(TNT)

 

[simonf]

see my topic on the matrox g400... what a card!

 

[Vidfreek]

excuse me but how many morons do we have in here? TNT is not the card of choice for amd gamers where have you been, the 3dnow support still isnt out yet, well actually it was out at fullon3d.com but nVidia asked them to remove it. fullon3d did complete tests with the TNT and the TNT2 with these drivers and they did not help with 3dnow hardly at all. maybe a 6 fps jump or something like that, if the review is still up go check it out. But Liquid if you like your matrox and want to keep it, go grab a voodoo2 they are down to like 70 bucks now or maybe 100 for a 12 meg, this will give you much better performance than a crappy TNT would on your system. I had a TNT for my k6-2 system and it blew ass, I sold it about a week later cause I was so disappointed and went and bought a v3 2000, man best card I have seen to date, runs wonderfully on the k6 systems and looks great too, in 2d and 3d. Never my friend buy an nVidia product for an amd system.

 

[simonf]

agreed.. voodoo is only the right choice for the welfare chip..(amd).

 

[(Chanse)]

Why recommend a voodoo card with a bastard stepchild featureset. 40fps or 200fps. Doesn't matter, you can't see it, but you can see nice clean colors, higher color depth. Now, I had a voodoo car dand it was geat , for it's time, and when the voodoo2 first came out, there was nothing near it, but now with pretty much all cards fast enough to play with, why sacrifice features for frames you can't even see. I'm not anti-3dfx, or pro-TnT. Just seems a waste to me.
And if it ran that bad Vid, methinks you r system may be crap. so don't go blaming the card. Or maybe if you consider the AMD a welfare chipset, then you should go with 3dfx, the welfare featureset.

 

[HC Goober]

I'm running a similar system to yours now: K6-2 300 with G200. I added a V2 12Meg (BestData Voodoo FX II - a reference board) and saw a great increase in game speed.
Buycomp has it for 80 bucks after rebate, but look around.
I'm sure it's not as fast as some new stuff, but you'll see a difference and be happy for a while anyway for less than 100 bucks.

 

[Splatt]

There are also several other things that need to be taken into consideration. TNT1/2 use processor time, and unless you have a fast one, it can be a problem - your's is probably borderline. Cost - the V3-2000 is $100ish, 3k is $130 and the TNT2 is over $200. So cost is another big factor. As well as - do you have agp? you didn't mention - TNT2 and the V3-3k are only agp, only tnt1 and V3-2k come in pci...


Good luck

 

[Liquid]

Splatt, I do have an AGP system. The system is pretty fast, but I'm still worried about the TNT/3DNow! conflict. As you can tell, I'm getting alot of conflicting opinions about the issue. By the way, hook me up with the $130 V3 3000. Thats a hell of a buy!

 

[lavajumper]

liquid, vidfreek is right about the tnt and v3 amd issues. the tnt does not support the 3dnow, and the v3 does. that's the difference on your system. also, the tnt chipsets are very cpu dependent, and the amd's just can't handle it. nothing against them, they just can't. i bought vidfreek's tnt, and it runs awesome on my system (o/c celeryto 472 with 128 mb, abit zm6- all the celery accessories). it just didn't utilize the 3dnow, so it didn't run good on his system. on mine it does however, and his v3 2000 outperforms my (now) tnt. go with the voodoo series chipset (not the value chipset, but who isn't looking for a good cheap setup?) because it's the best for your chip. i'm sure you have an awesome setup like vid, and it will make it run even better (and it's not a bastard stepchild you renob chanse, but you may be!) have fun with whatever selection you make, and if you don't like it, return it! good luck. later ;-j

 

[DEANRIL]

This should clearly tell you what card to buy.Proof is better then anything.And I might add the V3 will give you hardware acceleration up to whatever your monitors highest reolution.ie 1600x1200,the v2 sli will only go up to 1024x768.



[This message has been edited by DEANRIL (edited 05-23-99).]

 

[Splatt]

I saw the V3-3k for ~$130 at pricewatch.com - great place to shop

- well, comparison shop at least

 

[Griffin]

I have a V550 card, and used it with very pleasing results with my K6-2 350. Only this week have I upgraded to a P2 450 and WOW. The TNT is very good on the AMD chip, but it is no-where near as fast as it can be on a Pentium system.
I appreciate that I have also had a significant increase in clock speed, but its true what they say
Pentium = TNT
AMD = VooDoo

I have ran a Q2 test with the new processor, and at 1200x768 have almost doubled my frames per second. This is not too noticeable during normal play, but when the action hots up, the K6 used to suffer from delays and skippy frame rates, so far the P2 has been silky smooth.

I would seriously recommend any AMD user out there to upgrade to a P2 if they are using a TNT card.
I know it looks good, but it is capable of so much more.

 

[Cfour]

I agree w/ Griffin.
Amd = Voodoo
Pentium 400+ = TNT2

At pricewatch, you can find a Diamond V770 TNT2 for about $150