Need suggestions on old Video Cards

[Cougar]

Hey Everyone,

I'm building a computer for a friend and I'm kind of stumped as to which video card I should get. Every penny counts here so I (rather he) can't afford to buy a newer video card like the Geforce/Geforce 2mx so I was thinking of getting him either a Voodoo 3 3000 or a tnt2-pro card. Which one would be better for gaming. I know that the tnt2 can support 32-bit color and it has 32mb of ram, but frankly that doesn't really matter to him. He's not an insane gamer so 16-bit color will be fine with him. So which video card is faster?

 

[Rifter]

He will be more happy with the V3, its just as fast as the TNT pro and has Glide support(very important if he likes any older games or playes UT or Deus EX, Plus it will most likely overclock nicely and be even faster.

 

[Cougar]

Cool....thanks for the input. I know that glide is pretty much dead now that 3dfx is gone but I'm sure that he has some glide games that he'll be playing. You'd figure with the company gone I could buy a voodoo card for dirt cheap but apparently not.

 

[Borg20001]

I am trying to fix an old Cyrix 686 200 MHz pc running Windows 95 with a Diamond Stealth 220 2D card and a Monster 4MB PCI 3D accelerator. I have reason to suspect that the Monster card just died (ex. I can only boot up in Safe Mode of Win95 - when I go to boot up in Normal Mode of Win95 the monitor goes dark). There for I am trying to fix the cheapest thing first.

Which leads me to my question, given the current state of Voodoo, should I go for an older Voodoo card like the Voodoo 3 3000 PCI or go even cheaper with I/O Magic Corps DRDP500 which is an 8 MB PCI 2D/3D video card (I think).

Can anyone offer any guidance. I want to keep this pc going for older software and edutainment software.

Thanks.

 

[oldfart]

For that Cyrix, why dont you use the S220 as the 3D card? Its actually a pretty good 3D card (Rendition Verite 2100). It supports DirectX and even has a miniGL for Quake1,2 and Half-Life.

 

[Borg20001]

Thanks for the response,

I did not know that the S220 could be used as a 3D card. So all I need to do is disconnect the Monster 3D accelerator and just leave the S220 in place and it will run the lower end 3D graphics?

 

[oldfart]

That S220 is a better card than you think. It has excellant image quality, and is good for low end systems. Use the 110 drivers. So, yes, take out the Monster card and use the S220. If you were using any Glide based games, you will have to switch to D3D or OpenGL. If you have Quake 1 or 2, there is a miniGL available. Get the 116k "Gold" version.