2 Videos Cards... Which is better for my system?

[simontek]

2 questions...

Which video card would perform best on my system... - Voodoo 5 5500 AGP 64meg, or - Nvidia Radeon 32meg PCI (with tv out, but i dont use it).

Which resolution would be best to run it on.

Thanks.
Simon

My system is this..
Athlon Thunderbird 900 mhz
768 Megs of Ram PC133
45 Gig ATA 100 7200 RPM - Hosting Win2k
20 Gig ATA 100 7200 RPM - Hosting Win98SE
Yamaha 16x10x40
DVD 16x40x
Basic CDRom 52x
Sound Blaster PCI 512
Dual NIC Cards
-one for LAN, one for DSL

 

[Imaginer]

<< Nvidia Radeon 32meg PCI >>



Since when did Nvidia make Radeon cards?

Since the Radeon is a PCI card, it won't have benefits like an AGP card, V5 5500 is no longer supported yet still a good card. Use the V5 5500 for now.

 

[simontek]

Sorry about that, its ATI

 

[Helznicht]

Get the ATI GeForce 3 Ultra !

j/k


I say get the &quot;ATI&quot; Radeon. As 3dfx is defunct, the VooDoo card is really WYSIWYG!

my $0.02

 

[Scabilian]

i would benchmark both of the cards and pick the better performer... i think the Voodoo will be the winner. pci is icky :disgust:

 

[simontek]

How do i bench mark them... sorry, im new at this tech stuff, i just play games and download

 

[Scootin159]

I'd suggest looking elsewhere (unless you're getting REALLY good deals on those ones). PCI does create a major bandwidth bottleneck, and because it will hog the PCI bus it also will take bandwidth from all your other PCI devices (Sound card, NIC, HDD, ect). Also 3DFX (Voodoo 5) has gone out of business, so you will have no support from them. I would reccomend the Voodoo 5 though of those two choices because there is still a large amount of support you can get from the hardware enthusiest community (even if they can't spell).

 

[Shack70]

Sinontek, the Voodoo isn't being made anymore so, stay away from it. Get yourself a nice geforce if you want to game. ATI radeon is good too, but the geforce seems better in my opinion.

 

[simontek]

I already have these 2 cards
Got them both for under $75...
And wondering which one would be best to use..

 

[Scootin159]

2nd to any level of GeForce (shop by price).

 

[NeonFlak]

I would get the Radeon, but try to find an agp flavored one

 

[simontek]

I already have these 2 video cards...
Hehe, otherwise i would have got the GF3...
But i did get them BOTH for $75 (thats like $32.5 for each)...
Thats pretty cheap

 

[Scootin159]

hmm.... that does sound like a very nice dual-head setup

 

[bjc112]

Use the 5.. although they don't have drivers coming out.. the ones out, are rock solid.. and it should last you long enough until you get a new one and if you have a 17inch monitor.. use 1024x768..

 

[bot2600]

I would say use the voodoo5 if you have a fast cpu(over 1gig) and use the radeon if your cpu is <1gig.

Bot

 

[johneetrash]

ive never seen it but i hear the voodoo fsaa is sexy

 

[Sugadaddy]

I'd use the Voodoo5 because it's AGP. But if it were me, I'd sell both of them and pick up an AGP Radeon 64MB or an AGP Geforce 2 Pro or Ultra 64MB.

 

[nortexoid]

i'd doubt u'd notice a difference between AGP and PCI bus cards..

also, doesn't 3dfx, though their cards are agp factor, not actuallly use AGP texture swapping, etc.?...

yes it's true!

i'd go radeon 32mb LE (and hack it into a standard ddr)

 

[Scuzz]

Ignore the Nvidia fanclub, who don't read the post.

Use the V5, it has great drivers and fsaa. Use the ATI if you don't like yourself very much. Or spend $400 on a GF3 if you like benchmarks and &quot;beta&quot; drivers every week.

 

[simontek]

Thanks guys, im gonna stick with the voodoo 5 until GF3 drops

 

[acexg1]

I'd go with the ATI Voodoo GTS.

Sorry, I could'nt resist.

 

[Phobic9]

<< Ignore the Nvidia fanclub, who don't read the post.

Use the V5, it has great drivers and fsaa. Use the ATI if you don't like yourself very much. Or spend $400 on a GF3 if you like benchmarks and &quot;beta&quot; drivers every week. >>



So, you must be in the Voodoo fanclub since you sound like you know nothing about how well a Radeon performs these days. Oh well.

 

[Vidio]

I have an athlon 600 and voodoo 5 5500 AGP. FSAA 4X is totally sexy. I play everquest mainly, quake III, Unreal, and NFS3/4. I go for total immersion when I game. Quality graphics over raw Frames Per Second. Use the Voodoo 5 for a while, you'll love it

 

[Challenger]

Even though there will be no new drivers for the V5 it is still a very good card.I still use them 'cause they are cheap now and will still be very useable for a couple of years to come for most apps and games(no flames please this is just my opinion).Use the V5

 

[Noriaki]

Lol &quot;The Hemi&quot;, nice one &quot;Challenger&quot;



Is that PCI Radeon a 32MB DDR or SDR? I didn't think they made DDRs in PCI...

I had a Radeon sometime ago, and I had to get rid of it because of it's piss-poor drivers. Now that was a while ago, and I've been told the new drivers are better.....but ATi still hasn't released retail Win2000 drivers for my TV-wonder....hmmm beta for 15 months....that's a long beta test...WinXPs won't even have been that long when it's over. So with that in mind I don't know if I'm willing to trust ATI's drivers again.

But if that is a 32MB DDR Radeon it's probably the higher performing of the pair, and definately more fully featured.

3dfx is out of business true...but the 1.04 drivers for both Win98SE and Win2000 are very very good. In the future driver support will drop for it, but by the time it become a major issue I think you will have moved onto a new card.

Personally, having use a Radeon 64MB Vivo in the past and having a V5-5500 now there is no way I would ever torture myself with a Radeon again (Edit: well I shouldn't say no way ever there's always a possiblity, but it's extremely unlikely)....but most people say the new drivers are better, and (as long as it's DDR not SDR) it'll be the higher performing of the two. I'm holding onto my V5-5500 for a while. I'll go to the GeForce3 when it's successor comes out and price drops for it. Or maybe a GF3-MX if they make one.

Also keep in mind...the V5 has 64MB of memory on the card, but because it's split between the two chips it's really closer to a 32MB card in practice.