Geforce 3 - alive and kicking

[merlocka]

I'm in the process of deciding on a full upgrade for this PC, and I was trying to determine if I'd go with a Radeon 9500 or 9700 video card as a replacement for my Gainward Geforce3.

As I was perusing the Radeon 9600 article, I was happy to see them include a Geforce3 in the benchmarks. My card overclocks to 240/550 so the Ti 500 numbers are a good representation.

Now, obvioulsy the GF3 can't come close to the new ATI cards with AF and AA turned on, but I was impressed by how well the GF3 did in some of the newer benchmarks. This thing is almost 2 years old (ancient in terms of video cards), and it tests without AF or AA it occasionally ousts both the Radeon 9500 and the GeForce FX 5600 Ultra.

I generally don't upgrade unless there is need (in this case, I'm fed up with the stability of the KT133 platform), but methinks me will be keeping this GF3 for a while longer... at least until we see what NV35 looks like.

Any other GeForce3 owners in a similar upgrade dilema?

 

[rogue1979]

If you don't use AA or AF, a good running GF3 will play all modern games decently. I miss my old Gainward Ti200 that runs 250/520. I gave it to my teenage son, and his is fragging bots in UT2003 with the best of them.

 

[Brian48]

Yeah, I still have my old Visiontek GF3 in one of my backups. Great card. Runs everything out there fairly well so long as I don't use AF or Aniso, which I think is overrated anyway. It even runs that (very) unoptimized Doom3 alpha without any problems.

 

[T9D]

..

 

[CJP]

I was getting a little dissatisfied with my Geforce 3 Ti500 and was considering a processor/video card upgrade. Then my monitor crapped out and I got into looking at getting a high quality monitor. I ended up getting a NEC monitor and it's improved the image so much that I'm going to hold off on getting a new video card until after Doom 3 is out. What's also good about it is that when I upgrade I can keep the monitor.

 

[Rogozhin]

Are you guys with the geforce 3s turning up all ingame options?

and what resolutions are you running?

rogo

 

[CJP]

Originally posted by: Rogozhin
Are you guys with the geforce 3s turning up all ingame options?

and what resolutions are you running?

rogo

No, for me it's not high quality settings with newer games. In UT2003 I run at 1280x960 with "normal" detail settings. Same goes for Battlefield 1942. Still looks ok though. Obviously no fsaa or af either.

 

[nRollo]

You guys have hit upon the secret of the universe- the FSAA, AF, etc. is mostly HYPE and pretty much not needed for gaming.
What is it needed for? To sell $400 VGAs, keep VGA reviewers reviewing, etc..
LOL

<waits for bleats of "you're blind! I have THIS system, and let me tell you, unless you run 16X perf aniso, it looks like a$$" etc.>

 

[Rogozhin]

Rollo

Try IL-2, FB or MSFS with NO AA and try to identify planes in the distance

You can't

rogo

 

[Rogozhin]

I HAVE to use AA in game, it helps SA and makes the game much prettier.

Don't start using logical fallacies again

Rogo

 

[merlocka]

Originally posted by: Rollo
You guys have hit upon the secret of the universe- the FSAA, AF, etc. is mostly HYPE and pretty much not needed for gaming.
What is it needed for? To sell $400 VGAs, keep VGA reviewers reviewing, etc..
LOL

<waits for bleats of "you're blind! I have THIS system, and let me tell you, unless you run 16X perf aniso, it looks like a$$" etc.>

OPEN YOUR EYES MAN.



Eye candy is nice, I won't argue that 1600x1200 + AF + AA is amazing... I'm just not gonna buy into a $250+ card right now to get it.

Then again, RTCW and WC3 are the "newest" games I'm currently playing.

I will be anxious to see how my GF3 "bottlenecks" a 2500 Barton + nForce2... perhaps then I'll change my tune.

 

[merlocka]

Originally posted by: Rogozhin
Rollo

Try IL-2, FB or MSFS with NO AA and try to identify planes in the distance

You can't

rogo

Err. I though FSAA would reduce clarity since it's basically interpolating?

 

[Rogozhin]

Nope

It makes the sillohette's (sp) of planes much easier to identify.

and if you use LOD to compensate for the tiny bit of blurrieness (or AF) then it's just as crisp as with NO aa.

And full scene AA from my readings doesn't burr much at all when it scales back to the appropriate resolution.

Rogo

 

[Peter D]

i shipped out my geforce3 yesterday, kinda sad to see the thing go, for me it was my first.. 'higher end' card and up to when i took her outta my rig, it was a great card. but now my geforce 4 has taken the agp slot so i dont care! ^_<

 

[rbV5]

You guys have hit upon the secret of the universe- the FSAA, AF, etc. is mostly HYPE and pretty much not needed for gaming.
What is it needed for? To sell $400 VGAs, keep VGA reviewers reviewing, etc..
LOL

What secret? the GF3 launched at $399 in 2001 dollars.

 

[boyRacer]

Originally posted by: Vegetto
i shipped out my geforce3 yesterday, kinda sad to see the thing go, for me it was my first.. 'higher end' card and up to when i took her outta my rig, it was a great card. but now my geforce 4 has taken the agp slot so i dont care! ^_<

yah i used to get sentimental about that... sniff sniff... but after selling a GF2 Ultra... a GF3... and a GF3 Ti500... the only thing that makes me cry now is realizing why the hell was i buying high end video cards right when they come out... my wallet took a big hit.

 

[nRollo]

"OPEN YOUR EYES MAN.
Eye candy is nice, I won't argue that 1600x1200 + AF + AA is amazing... I'm just not gonna buy into a $250+ card right now to get it."

Err, I have a P4 2.53/9700Pro and a 1700+/Ti4200, if I want "eye candy", I get it. I'm saying for fps games it's largely irrelevant.

 

[bunnyfubbles]

Originally posted by: Rollo
You guys have hit upon the secret of the universe- the FSAA, AF, etc. is mostly HYPE and pretty much not needed for gaming.
What is it needed for? To sell $400 VGAs, keep VGA reviewers reviewing, etc..
LOL

<waits for bleats of "you're blind! I have THIS system, and let me tell you, unless you run 16X perf aniso, it looks like a$$" etc.>

That's a load of horse crap. Cards like the 8500 and GF3 work fine with lower resolutions or any other senario that doesn't include intensive memory bandwidth. The newer boards are not only faster and have higher memory bandwidths, they are more efficient with the bandwidth they have (that's why the 9500 Pro can be so successful with FSAA and AF despite having its bandwidth cut in half, ever think about that?). Cards are already fast enough for non eye candy situations, so now were getting the next best thing. Gamers who don't want to just get by will be able to run at a killer resolutions with details beyond their expectations.

 

[merlocka]

Originally posted by: Rollo
"OPEN YOUR EYES MAN.
Eye candy is nice, I won't argue that 1600x1200 + AF + AA is amazing... I'm just not gonna buy into a $250+ card right now to get it."

Err, I have a P4 2.53/9700Pro and a 1700+/Ti4200, if I want "eye candy", I get it. I'm saying for fps games it's largely irrelevant.

I was agreeing with you. Guess the sarcasm light wasn't blinking brightly enough.

 

[merlocka]

Originally posted by: Rogozhin
Nope

It makes the sillohette's (sp) of planes much easier to identify.

and if you use LOD to compensate for the tiny bit of blurrieness (or AF) then it's just as crisp as with NO aa.

And full scene AA from my readings doesn't burr much at all when it scales back to the appropriate resolution.

Rogo

Sounds cool. I'd be interesed in looking at the screenshots if you have any.

 

[Rogozhin]

Merlocka

I will try to put some up here within the next week

Rogo

 

[Jman13]

Yeah, my GF3 is still a great card. I pretty much run everything at 1280x960 or 1024x768 with full detail. None of my games need to reduce detail at those resolutions. Pretty cool. Maybe in 6 months or more, I'll get a new card, once I have trouble playing the newer games.

 

[nemesismk2]

I recently sold my Visiontek GF3 as well, it was a good video card and beats most budget video cards available today. Ofcourse when it was first released it wasn't a budget video card but I bought mine for less than my xfx fx5200 (before anyone asks yes the GF3 is faster than the fx5200 apart from fsaa performance!). The only problem with the Visiontek GF3 was the 2d quality which isn't that great, the 2d with my xfx fx5200 is the best I've seen on any of my nvidia video cards and that's why it's in the 2nd computer instead of the GF3.

 

[Priit]

Heh, I just recently upgraded to GF3 from GF2 Thought I rarely play anything, that Gainward's GF3 has much better IQ than my old Chaintech's GF2 Ti had...

 

[Mingon]

I have a geforce 3 in my sn41gs shuttle box. I just use it for gaming on my tele @ 800x600 and the output from it is amazing. I have tried about 5 different card from ati and nvdia and the tv out put on this card (not even sure what make looks like a gainward) is so clear. I use tv tool (well worth the $10) and I get large screen gaming at an acceptable screen rate.