Diamond Viper II - Did Diamond finally get the bugs out?

[Mac]

Have seen some really hot deals on this card (at least to me), under $80 delivered (after $20 rebate from Diamond). Recall reading how this card was always promising but had a whole lot of problems when it first came out due to poor drivers. Did Diamond finally get the drivers stable? Is it good for openGL and D3D games?

I like to play Q3, Unreal, Unreal Tournament, Rogue Spear..among others.

I am putting together a second system and don't want to put a whole lot of money into the video card. Don't care for 3dfx cards at all. Primary machine has a GeForce 2 card. Know about the new Geforce 2 MX cards but if seems like cheapest card is around $115 for a noname generic card. If the Diamond Viper II is now ready for prime time...hey the price seems right.

Would welcome knowledgeable opinions from users who have "hands-on" with this card.

Thanks...Mac "Watching the frames go by"

 

[RobertBurns]

I bought another Diamond Syealth 540 about 10 months ago because I had heard they were really going to get to work on improving their drivers. If I remember correctly they are no longer in the Video Card buisness except for OEM products, probably why you see good deals on their cards. Also there last driver update for the card I purchased was in May. I do play UT and the proprietary texture compression scheme does work quite well. I have noticed an occasional lock up and an ocassiional hang for a second or two while playing UT. Don't know how well it runs other games. I will probably be replacing my 540 in the next few months as the occasional lock up and hangs are starting to annoy me. By the way I am using the S3Metal driver, because the D3D and OpenGL drivers are unbearibly slow.

 

[Mac]

Robert,

Thank you for the reply, but I'm asking about the Viper II 2000, not the S540 card.

 

[Mac]

Robert,

Thank you for the reply, but I'm asking about the Viper II 2000, not the S540 card.

 

[bozack]

well I have two of them, one I have tried so far with the latest drivers and it liked to lock my system when dragging a folder or anything on the desktop. I am selling both for 20 bucks or each for 10, one is new but without drivers or manual or anything and the other is slightly used.

 

[silver24]

Ill take em for $20, email me...