pci video card better than voodoo3 agp?

[CanOWorms]

Are there any PCI video cards better than a Voodoo3 AGP? What's the best? No Voodoo 4 or 5's... preferably a video card that's currently supported. I'd like for it to be supported in Win98/2000/XP and possibly Linux.

 

[Rand]

The V5 is far and away the fastest PCi card available, but if it can't be 3dfx then their are PCI GF2 MX 400's and ATi Radeon32MB SDR PCI cards available. The Radeon and GF2 cores rely tremendously on AGP's advanced features set though, so their little faster then a V3 3500 in performance.

 

[MrElusive]

Well there's nothing wrong with a Voodoo5 PCI in my opinion, I have one right now and it has yet to let me down. FSAA is great but the only problem is that 3dfx merged leaving me out in the cold with a $200 video card and no support. But it's all good.

 

[chizow]

Yep I agree with Rand here, but to add a bit to his post, it also depends a bit on your CPU. If you are running like a P3/Athlon 500 or less you may want to consider a mobo/cpu overhaul before investing more into a dead-end PCI solution. I have a V5 5000 PCI (currently replaced by a GF3 ti200) and it performed extremely well when paired with a faster processor. It was significantly better on my low-end (P3 500) system I replaced b/c it allowed me to enable FSAA with no penalty. A slower CPU won't allow you to run in higher resolutions in 32-bit color even with those newer generation cards. Also, I didn't have a problem running *ANY* games with my V5 up until a few weeks ago (BB Turkey-Day sale). The newest release by x3dfx seems to have Voodoo's running in D3D and OGL in WinXP. I can't say I'd recommend going to a V4 or V5 right now unless you get it cheap, but its definitely the best PCI card around. Otherwise stick with your V3 AGP and OC the bejeezus out of it (by the way, if you have an AGP slot, get yourself one of the above mentioned cards in the AGP flavor, nice improvement there, but again limited by CPU bottle-neck if you got a slow CPU.)

Chiz

 

[CanOWorms]

Well, the thing is that I'm thinking about making a tiny computer using the FV24 motherboard that only has 1 PCI slot for expansion. I have a Voodoo3 AGP in my current system and I can actually play all games that I've tried so far so I wanted something that could perform like it in that computer. Can't go for a Voodoo5 because I'm going to make my own tiny case for it and the Voodoo5 is kind of large!

 

[chizow]

I'd try and find a V3 3000 PCI for cheap (under $30, try FS/FT forum or Egay) and overclock the bejeezus out of it. I have a V3 2k PCI that OCs extremely well and runs nicely on my secondary P3 500 system. And yes, the V5 is huge, and also takes a lotta power.

Chiz