Good PCI VideoCards

[Shadow_Caster]

hi. Quick question. im using an incredibly crappy intel 810e chipset w/ no agp port. which pci card should I invest in?

[Betamax]

I'd go for a geforce 2 mx.

[Shadow_Caster]

WHAT???? Geforce 2 mx is a PCI video card!?!?!?!?! Dude, are u serious!??!? I thought The geforce was strictly AGP

[Zephon]

I never heard about a geforce2 pci either. I would try a Voodoo5 PCI.

[rio]

yes, there is some GeForce/GeForce 2MX with PCI interface

[Demigod]

I'd go for the Voodoo 4 PCI. A Voodoo 5 on a PCI is a complete waste, I don't know why 3Dfx even made it.

[Shadow_Caster]

Thanx beta. actually there are some geforce2 pci cards, but they cost over 120us dollars, and thats too much for me. Ive decided on a tnt2m64 pci videocard. its a nice 32 bit video card, and my pc doesnt need much more for psx emulation. I have a PIII w/ 256RAM, all I needed was a decent video card, cos my stupid intel motherboard i stole from school dont have a agp slot. Damn school. cant spend good money on motherboards :)

[Kenshin]

Is there a significant difference between the voodoo 4 and the voodoo 5? I never hear anyone mention the voodoo 4. Also which of the following three video cards is best. Geforce 2 mx, ati radeon3D 32MB SDRAM or a voodoo 5?

[Demigod]

Originally posted by Kenshin
Is there a significant difference between the voodoo 4 and the voodoo 5? I never hear anyone mention the voodoo 4. Also which of the following three video cards is best. Geforce 2 mx, ati radeon3D 32MB SDRAM or a voodoo 5?
The Voodoo 4 is the value variant of the Voodoo 5. They both use the same VSA-100 chip but the Voodoo 5 has two of them, thereby, doubling its speed(and also doubling its memory requirements).

The fastest of the 3 cards would have to be the Voodoo 5. The GeForce 2 MX is a value card, about equal in speed to the Voodoo 4, and the Radeon card you mentioned only has SDRAM, which isn't very fast compared to the Voodoo 5 `SLI' memory.

[Demigod]

Originally posted by Shadow_Caster
hi. Quick question. im using an incredibly crappy intel 810e chipset w/ no agp port. which pci card should I invest in?
I just remembered something about the i810 chipset. I think it actually forces the computer to use the built-in video. I don't think it can use another video card or it will still use the built-in video even if another video card is available. I'm not entirely sure but I remember reading about this `feature' somewhere. I don't know how multi-monitor support would work on it though.

[404]

What Card is the best at the moment, compiled from gamers worldwide,

Graphic Card Hall of Fame - at MadOnion.com (http://gamershq.madonion.com/hardware/halloffame/)

[Shadow_Caster]

WTF???!?!?!?! How can that be possible! Im never gonna steal another motherboard from school again! Im emailing intel about this right away! i cant believe they would do such a thing though. If this is indeed true, im selling my machine and buying an athlon w a gigabyte chpset. Stupid intel crap...... good for nothing....... sigh....

[Demigod]

I don't know why they even put built-in video into motherboards. Most of them utterly suck and most people end up getting another video card of their choice anyways. I think they're built to be value boards or something. The upcoming Geforce-based chipsets may be interesting, but it's generally a good idea to stay away from such boards. The Intel i815 chipsets also have built-in video but on those boards you can disable it by plugging in another videocard.

[Phuzzi]

Originally posted by Demigod79
I'd go for the Voodoo 4 PCI. A Voodoo 5 on a PCI is a complete waste, I don't know why 3Dfx even made it.

V5 PCI is barely slower than the AGP varient, for reasons unique to the way it's implemented. Read up on your facts.

[Phuzzi]

Originally posted by Demigod79

The fastest of the 3 cards would have to be the Voodoo 5. The GeForce 2 MX is a value card, about equal in speed to the Voodoo 4, and the Radeon card you mentioned only has SDRAM, which isn't very fast compared to the Voodoo 5 `SLI' memory.

GF2MX owns V4 really quite badly. Radeon, even with SDRAM, beats out a V5 consistently. Also, the memory on the V5 isn't 'SLI'd as you like to put it. SLI is merely used to describe the way the two chips interact to render scenes (in fact, it's not quite accurate with the method v5 uses, but everyone remembers it from v2, so 3dfx stuck with it).

[n0estoy]

lol, how'd u manage to steal a motherboard. are the tech guys at your school absolute morons or something?

[fivefeet8]

A voodoo 5 isn't a waste.. I would love to get one even though I have a voodoo 5 5500 agp already.. The benchmarks show that the voodoo5 pci is only a small fraction slower than the voodoo 5 agp.. The v5 pci's are more expensive than the v5 agps too.. I would love to have the fastest glide video card on my pci, then get the fastest ogl and d3d card on my agp.. (geforce3)..

[sxamiga]

Thanks for the link 404. I checked out the "hall of fame" and was impressed, but not surprised, w/what I saw. This makes me even more happy to be the "proud" owner of an excellent GEForce 2 GTS card.
sincerely,
sx/amiga

[Shadow_Caster]

Hehehe. I stole the card at night. I was playing basketball w/some friends at school, and I decided to pay the tech room a visit. There was no one in the room, and a shpment o those boards was sitting on the floor. there were hundreds of em. I just took one and tucked it into my backpack. sneaky eh?

[Demigod]

Originally posted by Phuzzi


V5 PCI is barely slower than the AGP varient, for reasons unique to the way it's implemented. Read up on your facts.
Heh, looks like there's still lots of room left on the PCI bus. I wonder when AGP will finally show its edge. I just think they marketed the product wrong. The Voodoo 5 was targeted at the high-end gamer's market but most gamers I know won't even look at PCI videocards, but I guess it's a good solution for the very few minority of gamers who don't have an AGP slot. I dunno, I just don't get 3Dfx's strategy there.

Some interesting benchmarks between the Voodoo 4 and the Geforce 2 MX. http://firingsquad.gamers.com/hardware/v44500/default.asp
The GeForce 2 MX pulls ahead in almost all the normal tests, but takes a back seat for the FSAA tests. The Voodoo 4, the perfect low-end solution for FSAA?

[Phuzzi]

'Heh, looks like there's still lots of room left on the PCI bus. I wonder when AGP will finally show its edge'

No, the reason you seem to be thinking is not the correct one. The answer lies in the fact that the AGP version of the V5 doesn't utilise the bandwith afforded by AGP by nature of having multiple devices on board. The AGP spec does not support this, and so higher transfer rates cannot be reached.

[Shadow_Caster]

Whats so bad about PCI? I mean, of course, agp 4x is quite fast and better suited for video cards, but pci is not so bad. Its a good alternative to people like me who dont have AGP

[Betamax]

Originally posted by Shadow_Caster
Its a good alternative to people like me who dont have AGP

yep the only other alternative one would be to find an old isa vga card:D (j/k)

[Demigod]

Originally posted by Phuzzi
'Heh, looks like there's still lots of room left on the PCI bus. I wonder when AGP will finally show its edge'

No, the reason you seem to be thinking is not the correct one. The answer lies in the fact that the AGP version of the V5 doesn't utilise the bandwith afforded by AGP by nature of having multiple devices on board. The AGP spec does not support this, and so higher transfer rates cannot be reached.
Well, the AGP 3Dfx cards were just PCI cards sitting on an AGP bus. They weren't the most innovative company around(at least in the later half of the company's existence). Still, I find it funny how people criticized the Voodoo 3 for its lack of AGP 4X support. Like the V3 actually needed that much bandwidth. Even now AGP 4X offers no speed benefits, even with Quake 3 running at the highest resolution and color depth. Maybe with the next generation of 3D accelerated games...

[Hairybudda]

Originally posted by Demigod79

I just remembered something about the i810 chipset. I think it actually forces the computer to use the built-in video. I don't think it can use another video card or it will still use the built-in video even if another video card is available. I'm not entirely sure but I remember reading about this `feature' somewhere. I don't know how multi-monitor support would work on it though.
Go to the intel website and then to the messageboards.... You'll get told there how to disable the onboard graphics, the only problem is that its _always_ snatches about 1-4MB's of your main memory...

And apart from that, Voodoo5 better than GeForce2? Kiss my ass, Voodoo5(non value, more performance based card) against GF2MX? GF2 might lose, but put a GF2 ultra up against a V5, and the voodoo5 will piss itself horribly....:dead:

I'm not meaning any offence by this, so dont flame me...

By the way, i'm interested in OCing my Duron800, an i've got a big ass heatsink and fan for it 'cos i was gonna OC it, just never got round to it, but gimme some pointers 'cause i'm really new to OCing...

[Shadow_Caster]

Yep, I just confirmed it. One of my friends which uses that stupid chipset informed me that is needs to be disabled in the bios, and disabled in software mode in windows. I have had enough with this crappy intel technology. Im buying an athlon and an asus mobo.

[n0estoy]

ALRIGHT, my good ol' Geforce DDR is still competition enuff for the Radeon DDR, and it beats out the Radeon SDR on 99% of the tests. That's just what i needed to hear, to rekindle the sexual attraction to my computer. :p

[roofa]

okay the best PCI vid card depends greatly on what type of Operating System your running ...
win 98/ME = 1st. Voodoo 5500 PCI :D
2nd. ATI Radeon SDR PCI
3rd. Nvidia Geforce 2 MX PCI

win2000/XP = 1st. Nvidia Geforce 2 MX PCI
2nd. ATI Radeon SDR PCI
3rd. Voodoo 5500 PCI

regular windows 98/ ME is where the voodoo 5 would really shine .. yet for win 2000/xp that have very bad drivers (and we don't know if they will have updated drivers for XP .. hopefully it will but for right now it isn't even plausible) ...the ATI and Nvidia are next in line .. ATI makes okay drivers in the win 98/me area and so does Nvidia

windows 2000/XP is where the nvidia geforce 2 mx or any nvidia card really shines because of their really good win 2000/xp drivers... then it's ati but their drivers aren't really par with the nvidia drivers yet ati radeon 7500 and 8500 drivers will "supposely" be compatible with older generation radeon cards and will perform better than the nvidia cards.. last it's the voodoo 5 ... since lack of drivers update on this old but very good card.. the voodoo 5 loses ..

so it really depends on the operating system unless you will dual boot ... i use win2000 and i have the ATI radeon sdr PCI .. and it's great i get good ass frames rates even in higher resolution and also has a tv-out ... and the price is only 75 bucks if u look around compare to the other cards... best price, good performer in both areas and tv-out to boot .. but if i was using win98/me i would probably gotten the v5 pci .. well there u go .. hahahah take it from a newbie... hee hee