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Now with 3DFX gone,which card is the best gamer in the $150 range?

3dfx being gone doesn't change a thing. Both ATI Radeon and GeForce2 GTS are priced at under $150 (if you smart shoppers look around), and the one that is best depends on the rest of your system.

19" or 17" monitor?
Win9x or Win 2k?
Sub 500mhz or 800mhz+?
Prefered gaming resolution?
Playing any non-32 bit games?

If you choose a GeForce2 GTS card, Visiontek is your best bet for picture quality and price, followed by Elsa, but at a higher cost. Other nVidia brands may have some image problems with certain monitors at high resolutions when usig 2d, but if you read the posts, you will find this discussed in 10%+ of them.
 
If you can wait a bit and dont mind still going with 3dfx you can wait and see if v5's will drop below 100$. a 100$ v5 is a good deal.
 
GeForce2 and Radeon are both excellent cards. You won't be sorry either way. The GeForce2 is faster (especially 16-bit), but the Radeon has great 32-bit performance, better 32-bit image quality, and many extra features. The Radeon's strength is really 32-bit gaming, visual quality, DX8 features, and DVD playback. The GeForce2's strength is pure speed across the board, and will give you significantly faster framerates in 16-bit.

Like RobsTV said, this topic is everywhere so just do a little browsing around the forums. 🙂

 
I just got an Elsa Erazor X (i think that is how u spell it) for my second machine. It was $119 here locally. It runs great in Windows 2000 (even had drivers on the CD didnt have to download). It runs every bit as well as my ASUS 6600 Ge-Force card.
 
While you can get a 3dfx card still, it could be very risky. Previous history shows us that when this happens, it's over. No more drivers, and very limited tech support. When companies like Canopus and Diamond stopped, you could still get reference drivers from the chipmaker. But, when the chipmaker is the boardmaker, you are pretty much screwed out of any future drivers, or future versions of DX support. When articles say driver support will stay with 3dfx, that is a bad thing, and is a way of nVidia saying they are not going to support the 3dfx cards. So, driver support will only last a few months, then 3dfx will be no more.

NOTE: nVidia is NOT buying 3dfx. They are only buying the companies assets, and once all is sold, and the loose ends are tied up, 3dfx will shut down on it's own.

Only get a 3dfx card if it meets all of your needs as it ships today, and only if you could care less about future needs or support. Also, don't be surprised to see the $150 card priced below $80 in the next couple months until all remaining stock is gone. All we have to do is look at history.

 
RobsTV, those are excellent points my bearded friend. 🙂 Ones that should definately be considered under the circumstances.
 
Pick up a GTS or a Radeon for cheaper than you would a Voodoo 5. Use buy.com & a $30 coupon and they all price in at about $135
 
As much as I hate to say it, 3Dfx has not done a damn thing in over a year. I have not considered any of their recent solutions a good buy. Voodoo4 is a complete waste, not much better than a Voodoo3. Voodoo5 is a bloated waste.

Now that 3Dfx is gone nothing has changed. ATI and nVidia are currently offering the best solutions for around $150.
 
<sigh>

Voodoo5 is not a bloated waste, but I'm losing my desire to b!tchslap the ignorant, misinformed asses who say such ridiculous things.

:disgust:
 
What Robotech said and where have you been Yoshi? 3dfx recently shocked the computing world by announcing selling it's assets to Nvidia! 😛

Bad joke, yes, but really the Voodoo5 is a great card now and will continue to be for awhile yet. Support or not.
 
I have read about the sell out to nVidia, they have not done anything in terms of technology in over a year.

And RoboTECH,

Yes 3Dfx used to be the cream-of-the-crop back in the days of the Voodoo and Voodoo2. The Voodoo5 is a sick joke. I was hoping for a more revolutionary product, but it was not. It came out far too late, is too expensive to manufacture, and can can hardle hold a candle to competition from nVidia and ATI in terms of performance.

WHY DO YOU THINK THEY ARE SELLING OUT!

Glad you are happy with your Voodoo5 and think it is an elegantly designed feature rich product.

BTW, I'm sick of having to bitch slap people like yourself. One has a right to state their opinion in relation to the subject, but it is plain immature to insult people for it. If you think I'm an ass, fine keep it to yourself. A lot of people read your reply and think your the ass.

Talk to you when you grow up,

Yoshi
 
Voodoo5 a sick joke? I think not, thou i never had a geforce GTS , but after have a Radeon 32Mb DDR in my pc for over a month I pulled it out and but the voodoo5 back in. I see no reason to go back to the radeon. The redeon was a nice card but the voodoo5 was a better all around gaming card. Note this include Quake 3, the voodoo5 averaged lower frame rates than the radeon, but it was smoother performed better under high load, heavy close combat when playing at high resultions with all the eye candy turned than the radeon
 
&quot;I'm losing my desire to b!tchslap the ignorant, misinformed asses who say such ridiculous things.&quot;

I couldn't have said it any better. 😛
 
Maybe it is just too late for me to try wading in here, but here goes 😛 For me and a lot of people like me (casual gamers, internet surfers, light word processing, etc.) the best $150 card has got to be the Geforce 2 MX for around $100. I cannot speak from experience of the more expensive cards because I won't spend the $150 to $200 or more to experience the extra 10 frames per second in Quake 3 at 1280 x 1024 resolution. But I can attest to the vast improvement of the $100 or so Geforce 2 MX compared to the old Voodoo 3 3000 and Voodoo Banshee cards that I previously enjoyed using. It is hard for me to justify spending 50% to 100% morefor a card that provides such a small improvement. Realistically, I am perfectly satisfied with my GF2MX cards for now, and will save the extra $50 to $100 to pay for the inevitable upgrade in the future. (Like maybe when the Geforce 2 GTS cards fall to $125 or so) I will still be behind the bleeding edge and will stay limited for the time being to 1024 x 762 resolution with 32 bit color, which is far superior to the old 1024 x 762 16 bit performance of the old Voodoo 3 3000 (which was a greatcard for $80 for its' time). Everything is relative, the Voodoo 2 was a great upgrade to the integrated on board video, the Voodoo 3 beat the old voodoo 2, the Geforce 2 MX is better than the old geforce 256 (and way cheaper, too!)and my new celeron 600@900 is way faster than the old P-233 MMX. Is it faster than a Duron @ 900? NO! But it is a huge improvement over what I had, so I am very happy with it. So it is with the geforce 2 MX. Slower than a Geforce DDR or GTS, or Radeon, but affordable. And by the time technology presents a new wave of capabilities, we will probably have to rebuild the entire system anyway. And the words that no manufacturer/vendor wants to hear: I kind of like my system the way it is. It is fast enough for what I do.
Chuck
P.S. this is not meant to be any kind of flame to the enthusiasts whose hobby is to push the envelope and choose to spend $500 for a new videocard to take full advantage of their 1.2 gig T-Bird systems. More power to them (which they like 😀) just don't look down on us mortals who cheerfully slog along in search of the best bang for the buck.
 
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