near newbie..help

[Jon]

I have a K62 300MHz with a lousy RagePro 2MB AGP onboard and only one PCI slot open (yes, the non-upgrade friendly IBM). To run Unreal well should I disable the AGP and get a new PCI 2D/3D or just get Voodoo2 to beef up my current video card? Thanx for the help!

 

[collinj]

If all that is important to you is playing unreal, then just get a voodoo2 card. Or better yet, get a voodoo banshee pci card and disable the onboard video. The pci banshee will be faster than you rage pro 2mb. Currently, the best speed with unreal is playing it in glide. Unreal supports power vr (power vr who???) 3dfx glide and software. There are beta direct 3d patches available, but unreal plays significantly slower in those beta patches than it does with glide. Another bonus of getting a banshee card is that is will run games at the same resolutions that sli dual voodoo2 cards are capable of (1024x768). The banshee will be slower than dual voodoo2's, but run unreal faster than a single voodoo2 card. Also the banshee is cheaper than a single voodoo2 card is (at least where I am in canada. A single voodoo2 8mb is 240, a 16mb banshee is 200)

 

[Jon]

Thanks collinj, I think that I will go with the Voodoo2, seems more versatile somehow. I'm in BC actually and you must just be shopping at the wrong place cause I found an 8MB Voodoo2 for !!!$129!!! at A&B Sound. Thanks for the help.

 

[collinj]

You found the 3d blaster voodoo2 from creative labs correct?? The one I was talking about was the Diamond Monster II and it was at future shop. The price was 240, but there was a $75 mail in rebate with it as well, so the price dropped down to 165 aprox. The same store also advertised the creative 3dblaster banshee for 199, with a $50 mail in rebate to goto 149. The 3d blaster voodoo2 is cheaper by about 40 bucks where I am, so that would bring it in line with what you were saying. I live in Alberta.

 

[Jon]

right collinj, the 3D Blaster Voodoo2, with the $75 rebate. I'm surprised that it's cheaper here with our economy the way it is. Well, thanks for the info; gotta go frag on the net. Have a good one!

 

[collinj]

I havent actually been looking around much for any of these cards. Im not interested in going to them, but I just mentioned the price I saw recently. Im sure if I looked around, I could find a much better deal, but I havnt had the time. I know when I bought my Canopus Pure3D voodoo1 card, I took a good look around and was able to find it for $30 less than most places were selling it for. I picked it up for 230, when all the other places I looked or phoned had it for 260. (I phoned/contacted/went to about 15 diff places that day looking for one).
Im starting to feel the call of the riva tnt, so im just starting to look around again.