Is it time to upgrade my Voodoo Banshee?

[Mathias]

Athlon 650mhz
128 Megs PC100 Ram
20 Gig 7200 rpm Diamond HD
MSI 6195 Motherboard (Old Irongate)
Diamon Monster Fusion PCI
44x Cd Rom
SB Live! Value
Scsi port
Old School external Scsi Yamaha 4x cd burner
Labtec 3 set speakers
16" Sony Trinitron

As you can see, my pc aint too old, but some of my stuff is. I am still using my 2 year old PCI Voodoo Banshee in the system. I have yet to use the AGP port, and I want to. I recently fixed my old 350mhz K6-2 system and all it needs is a new modem, decent video card, and an extra 32 megs of ram to be a good system.

My video card has never given me problems, but its startin to get old. I really dont play anything more graphical than half-life, maybe some Deus Ex sometimes. I know the video card will work in my old pc cause it used to be in there. Right now its using the integrated video SIS 530(Which really sucks big time). It has no AGP slots, so it has to use PCI Video Cards. I figure that I will go ahead and sell my Diamond Monster Fusion to my brother (He has the pc now) and buy myself a new video card. What should I buy? And how much should I sell him the Fusion for, 50$? I do not want to spend more than 150$ on a new card.

 

[acroig]

Well, then try to get a V5 5500 for around that price. Even if there is no further driver support the V5 will do nicely for you (since you mentioned Deus Ex). Or for a little more you could get a GeForce 2 GTS (around $160).

$50 for a Banshee!!?? Too much if you ask me

 

[duragezic]

If you check my system in my sig, I'm also packing a voodoo banshee still. I'm getting a ATI Radeon 64, hopefully will have it by Friday this week. I mostly play Half-life also though do play other first person shooters.

I'm not sure about the price for the Fusion. I'd say $40 though. I bought my voodoo banshee from buy.com for $63 about a year and a half ago so I think $50 is a tad too much.

For $150 you could snag a ATI Radeon 32mb DDR. The cheapest Geforce2 GTS is a little over $150 and I like the Radeon better. It is faster in high resolutions/32-bit color, which is where I intend to be playing at.

 

[Mday]

i'd keep that banshee around if you want dual monitor some day. but there are better options. ;-)

it's time to upgrade, at least to a TNT2.

 

[Taz4158]

Definitely chech the Radeon out. It won't disappoint.

 

[Zeppy]

Well, I don't have one yet, but plan on getting the Hercules Prophet II GeForce2 MX. I currently have an AGP Giga-byte GA-630 Banshee. It's a good card, but it's time to upgrade. If you have a 4x port, then I might suggest the GeForceII MX if cost is a factor. If not, go for it with a Voodoo5. Or better yet one of the $300 GeForce boards that everyone swears by.

 

[Mathias]

I am not going for a voodoo 5. I like my banshee, but I have heard enough bad stuff about 3dfx to not go any further into the voodoo territory. The raedon seems cool, but I like the price on the Geforce MX better. Its under a 100$! I only have a 2x AGP port, would this affect my performance alot?

 

[Dark4ng3l]

you get like .4 fps increase when you use agp4x so it's not usefull at all.

 

[Taz4158]

You might want to look at spending $50 more for something as important as a video card.

 

[WhiteMouse]

I've upgraded my Banshee (monster fusion also) to GeForce 256. But the banchmark shows some (like 16bit OpenGL and etc) in GF256 are slower than my Banshee, is that normal?

I am using latest driver from nvidia, and driver from 3dfx (Diamond never update its driver).

 

[acroig]

An MX is not a bad choice, but don't ignore the V5 just because 3dfx is not around anymore, for what you said you play it's not bad. Now, I don't have a Radeon, but it's got a more complete DX8 feature set than the GeForces and the price is not bad. GeForce GTS is still speed king though.

 

[duragezic]

Yes I know the MX is cheaper, but it is slower. I guess it's how much you want your games to run at. Like I said, if it was me I would spend the extra money and get the Radeon 32ddr. The 2d quality is better and it is faster.

 

[BFG10K]

Athlon 650mhz

Yes, it's definitely time for an upgrade. The Banshee is a very slow video card because it doesn't support multitexturing.

 

[Mathias]

Ok, put this in consideration. My monitor is not that big, only 16", but it is a sony trinitron and the quality is awesome. I play most of my games at 800x600, but I have not really tried the next step in resolution cause my old school banshee slows down too much, much more of a hit than between 640x480 to 800x600. Another thing I have never really done is play in 32 bit color, its always been in 16 bit color. How much better is 32 bit color anyways? I will probably never watch DVD's on computer (I dont see why people do, ah well).

Anyways Im saying this cause the Radeon 32meg DDR is down to 130$ with free shippin'. So I have some questions before I make any final decesions and sell off my old buddy here for a better card. 1. Is the image quality in both 2d and 3d games better? 2. How stable is it, and do people have many problems with it? 3. How easy is it to overclock the radeon card? 4. How much faster is the Radeon when compared to an overclocked Diamond Monster Fusion PCI (136/136)?

 

[BFG10K]

Mathias:

How much better is 32 bit color anyways?

It's a lot better.

Is the image quality in both 2d and 3d games better?

Better than what? Your Banshee?
The 3D image quality will be much better and the Radeon has excellent 2D image quality. I don't know how good the Banshee is in 2D so I can't comment on a direct comparison. But the Radeon will have at least as good 2D image quality as the Banshee.

How stable is it, and do people have many problems with it?

From what I've read, most people are happy with the drivers.

How easy is it to overclock the radeon card?

I don't know that one.

How much faster is the Radeon when compared to an overclocked Diamond Monster Fusion PCI (136/136)?

A *lot* faster.

 

[Jethro Bodine]

Don't listen to these guys, your Banshee card is still MORE than powerful enough! The only things you would gain by buying a more modern video card:
-the ability to process textured pixels in a single pass (almost doubles speed in FPS games)
-higher fill rate
-larger framebuffer to accomodate for less calls to system memory for textures, etc.
-32 bit color
-texture sizes 256X256k>
-more advanced filtering (anisotropic, etc)
-higher resolutions
-hardware T/L acceleration
-EBM and/or dot 3
-per pixel shading
-vertex skinning
-keyframe interpolation
-3d textures
-true AGP
etc.

Why the heck would anyone want this crap? You GOTS to be having a Voodoo card to run dem 3dfx......

 

[BFG10K]

Don't listen to these guys, your Banshee card is still MORE than powerful enough!

No it isn't.

The only things you would gain by buying a more modern video card:

Don't forget multitexturing, which is esentially why the Banshee is such a crippled video card.

Face it, the Banshee sucks.