Good PCI card

[tuttle]

I want to upgrade the video card in one of my old workstations so it could be used for running games. The workstation is a dual pentium pro 200, 256MB EDO ram, 2 x SCSI 2.1 GB HD, Win2K, etc.. The current video card is a VERY buggy #9 32mb Revolution IV.

There are a couple of options for PCI cards that I know of, including Voodoo 3 3000, V4 4500 and TNT2. This PC will be used for basic office stuff (word, excel, etc), surfing (IE) and casual gaming (MS Combat Flight Simulator II, HalfLife) on a 17" monitor at 1280x1024. My budget for a video card is 150.00 - $200.00.

Any suggestions?

 

[Babrone]

I would try to find a good bargain on a voodoo 3 3000. The only advantage to the 4500 is the 32 bit color and anti-aliasing, but that system is too slow to take advantage of those features anyways. I don't think that most games will even take advantage of the dual processors. If I had that system I would set it up as a game server (Counterstrike), especially if you have a really good connection like a T3 or something.

 

[Brian23]

There are some companys out there making PCI GF2MXs.

 

[novice]

I don't believe a Geforce 2 MX pci would perform very well with a P200 processor. OTOH, I ran a Voodoo 3 3000 for a while on my P233 MMX and it worked pretty well, although the Voodoo Banshee card seemed almost as good. I would still go for a Voodoo 3, either a 2000 or 3000. I think you will be pleased with the 2D performance as well.
Chuck

 

[oldfart]

There aren't many good PCI cards these days. The Voodoo's are about the best you can do. Here are a few options:

1) Dirt cheap: Voodoo3 2000 PCI. Buy.com has it for $86. Techbargains has a $10 coupon. 3dfx has a $30 rebate. Total, $50 or so.

2) Next step up, V3 3000. Can find it for $85 or so.

3) Next (this is what I would do). Go to the fs/trade forum. There is a guy there selling Voodoo cards at some good prices here.. He has the 4500 PCI for $103, and the 5500 for $165.

Since your budget was $150 to $200, the 5500 would be a killer card. I don't think the dual Ppro will do it justice, but at least you could later on move the card to a more powerful system, and make good use of the card.

 

[Petro89]

I would definately agree. The V3 would be your best bet. The 3d image quality isn't great, but 2d is. It's fast, inexpensive, and you get the best glide support for UT or any other games. In addition, they are extremely trouble-free, and work with any configuration.

A 4500 would be somewhat pointless, since a V3 is just as fast in 16 bit, and you would not be able to really push it to the limits (32 bit and antialiasing would be wasted).

A 5500 really is overkill. True, you could get it and use it for a while, and then transfer it to a better machine. But by the time you get a better machine, it may end up being the bottleneck. I just don't think it would be worth it.

A banshee would be pretty good. I have had 3 of them, and they perform well on machines with 200-500 mhz processors. They are very trouble-free, and give you glide support. You can get one of these for about $30.

A TNT would be OK also, but I think I'd go with the V3 first, or a banshee before a TNT.

Good luck!