Diamond S540 32 MB VS. 3DFX Voodoo3 3000

[extra]

Okay, if you needed a cheap (say, <$75) card, and those were your choices, which would you pick, and why?

 

[hans007]

the voodoo3 3000 is much faster, of course you can get a savage2000 for around $50-60 now

 

[oldfart]

I have a friend that has the 540. Its <ok> at best. Nowhere near the speed of the V3. The drivers are buggy also. The only cool thing about it is the MeTal for UT. It works but is SLOW. Its even slower in D3D mode. Get the V3. Much faster and way better driver support.

 

[extra]

thanks that's what i thought..

 

[john433i]

I think the Viper II would be better than the s540 or voodoo3. Its got 32MB RAM on a 128-bit memory bus. It also supports S3TC and it has TV-out(composite and s-video). It looks and runs great in UT, and you can get it for around $40 after a $20 rebate.

 

[Gandalf90125]

I've had both cards and ended up chucking the Diamond board because:

1. The Voodoo3 was noticeably faster, which in and of itself is meaningless. However, the slowness of the S540 made me want to re-install the V3.

2. Driver problems with the S540 more than outweighed the benefit of 32-bit color.

3. The difference between 32-bit color and the &quot;22-bit&quot; color that the V3 displays was not very noticeable...certainly not worth the difference in speed and the problems the drivers caused.

I'd definitely go with the V3 over the Savage4.

 

[Cpt. Duke]

Features like AGP texturing, bump mapping, 32bit color, etc etc don't mean much, at least IMHO if they are on a (much) slower card. Go for the V3 in this case.

 

[novice]

I have to say that IMHO, the Voodoo 3 3000 is the best &quot;bang for the buck&quot; video card available for under $100. If you can go slightly over $100 and have an AGP slot, then a geforce 2 MX takes the crown. Just upgraded from my V3 3000 PCI to a Creative Annihilator 2 MX and the difference was amazing in quality of the display in Unreal Tournament. You should be able to find a V3 3000 PCI card for around $80 or so new, and around $70 or so used. For people with slower processors and/or no AGP slot, the V3 3000 rocks. I would not even consider the S540, I have heard far too many complaints about compatibilty problems and driver issues. The Voodoo 3 installs easily and has handled everything we have thrown at it. (It just doesn't look as pretty as the Geforce )
Chuck