GeForce3 on a PIII 500?

[Shooks]

Hello, i am a newb at these forums so bear with my idiotic questions. I have a Gateway PIII 500MHz system with 384Mb Ram, and a 19" monitor (VX920). I am currently using a Nvidia Riva TNT2 Ultra with 32MB Ram. My question is will I see a HUGE performance increase in gaming and other applications with the GeForce3? I want one really badly, but I am worried my CPU is too slow. I dont care about getting CRAZY FPS in a game, but I want them to run better than they are now. Is it worth getting one of these cards, or is my system too slow?

 

[PotNoodle]

Going from a TNT2U to a GF3 will certianly enable you to run much higher resolutions than you can at the moment - you will undoubtly be able to achieve better IQ through hi-res and/or FSAA, but not necessarily better game performance if you are geometry (CPU) limited (I don't know what res you run in).

Higher performance could be a game by game thing really - some will run better becuase they weren't CPU limited previously, some won't. You certianly should see an increase with titles that make effective use of T&L, as much of the work should be lifted from the CPU to the GF3.

1Ghz CPU's are really at bargain prices these days (half the price of a GF3?) have you considered buying one of them instead / as well?

Edit:

You might want to take a look at this page and this page to see how GF3 scales with different CPU's.