voodoo5 = 2 voodoo3??

[basara318]

I am finally getting a voodoo 5 and i am pretty excited! however i thought v5 are the equiv of 2 voodoo3. why is the performance still low?

 

[Pocatello]

Doubling the chips doesn't double the performance. But as an owner of a V5, I can tell you that it's fast enough and I'm happy with it. FSAA is decent at 2x, 4X is ok for older games.

 

[Soccerman]

yeah Pocatello is right. you dont' get double the performance most, if not all the time, but you do get damn near that, especially on games that require more video card speed. plus of course are it's extra features.. 2048X2048 textures, FXTC, FSAA, 32 megs per chip (effective 32 megs)..

 

[IamDavid]

Voodoo 5 is a waste of money. I have seen very little perfomance gain since switching from my V3. Save your money

 

[NFS4]

<< I have seen very little perfomance gain since switching from my V3. Save your money >>


Why even post that junk here? :|

 

[Eug]

Actually, according to AnandTech's benches, that's quite true. At lower resolutions the V3 can actually be FASTER than the V5 in Unreal Tournament. In fact, it's even faster than the Radeon and Geforce 2 GTS. :Q At higher resolutions the other cards will be faster, but in games like Unreal Tournament the speeds can slow down enough that you may want to play the faster lower resolutions anyway. On the other hand, the world doesn't revolve around Glide and the Unreal engine, so it depends on the games you play.

 

[Wingznut]

&quot;FSAA is decent at 2x, 4X is ok for older games.&quot;

Actually, I use 4xFSAA on quite a few newer games. Madden 2001 and NHL 2000 quickly come to mind.

If you are into sports games, RTS games, RPG's, Flight sims... You'll use 4xFSAA.

Personally, I can't live without FSAA. I'm spoiled. I started a game of NFS5, the other day, and forgot to enable FSAA. I couldn't even get myself to finish one track, without going back and enabling it.

IamDavid, if you didn't notice a difference between a V3 and a V5, then you are most certainly doing something wrong.

Eug, UT runs and looks a lot better on my V5. Benchmarks (especially with UT) suck. And besides, AnandTech uses D3D instead of Glide for all it's UT benchmarks, which I still think is kinda screwy.
Also that one particular benchmark shows a .8 fps advantage for the V3. Hell, somebody coulda sneezed at the wrong time, to show a .8 fps difference.

 

[Deeko]

Eug, UT isn't a very acurrate benchmark. IamDavid, I see alot of improvement going from a TNT2u - V5, soo.....

 

[IamDavid]

Sorry peoples, just wanted to share my opinion with everyone. When I upgraded from the V3 3500 to the V5 5500 I didn't see nearly enough performance gain to justify spending the $300.......Sorry again

 

[Wingznut]

Have you not sampled FSAA, IamDavid?

 

[FatAlbo]

<< Personally, I can't live without FSAA. I'm spoiled. I started a game of NFS5, the other day, and forgot to enable FSAA. I couldn't even get myself to finish one track, without going back and enabling it. >>


That's happened to me a few times after playing Q3A and I agree with your statement completely. I find it very funny that I used to drop my jaw at the NFS5 graphics when I had a TNT1 running it at 1024x768. I don't think I can ever go back to playing ANY driving game without FSAA.

 

[BFG10K]

in Unreal Tournament. In fact, it's even faster than the Radeon and Geforce 2 GTS.

Oh Eug, if only you'd posted a winky face instead of a shocked face at the end of this statement. That would have saved your ass!

I'll make this as simple as possible. Unreal/UT are based on Glide. Direct 3D was added on as an afterthought. Therefore any board which runs Glide will run the game better than any board that runs Direct 3D. Therefore it isn't a valid benchmark.

 

[hans007]

UT isn't a valid benchmark? If you run it in open GL mode on the v5 is still is very close to the glide numbers running just the v5's ICD. Of course UT is a valid benchmark. Its an engine that runs games PEOPLE PLAY! you run benchmarks to see how a game you play will run right? No, i supposed you just run benchmarks to get stupid numbers to measure your dick with. According to your logic q3a isn't a valid benchmakr either since it has T&amp;L which gives the geforce a unfair advantage over the v5, same thing with mdk2.

 

[hans007]

UT isn't a valid benchmark? If you run it in open GL mode on the v5 is still is very close to the glide numbers running just the v5's ICD. Of course UT is a valid benchmark. Its an engine that runs games PEOPLE PLAY! you run benchmarks to see how a game you play will run right? No, i supposed you just run benchmarks to get stupid numbers to measure your dick with. According to your logic q3a isn't a valid benchmakr either since it has T&amp;L which gives the geforce a unfair advantage over the v5, same thing with mdk2.

 

[Wingznut]

BFG10k, all of AnandTech's UT benchmarks are done in D3D. Even the 3dfx cards.

Don't ask me to explain, as it doesn't make sense. I guess they want an &quot;even&quot; platform for benching. Yet, 3dMark is hardly a level playing field.

 

[Eug]

Deeko, BFG10K

Well, considering that UT is one of the most popular FPS games EVER, as others of said, that makes it a valid benchmark. It turns out that I actually play the game, as opposed to other game benchmarks. Hey, I like watching the 3DMark2000 demo, but it does get tiresome after a while.

I am fully aware that game demo benchmarks do not tell the whole story. However, the fact that the V3 does so well in UT is very useful info. In fact, the tests are often done in D3D, which actually is holding the V3 back, since Glide is significantly faster than D3D. Now, I'll be the first to admit that the quality of the settings I play aren't the greatest, but I consider them what are necessary for good gameplay. Personally I would not even consider playing UT at 1024x768x32 (textures high) on a Geforce SDR because it is too slow, despite the fact that it costs twice as much. Using Glide isn't &quot;fair&quot;, but that's life.

Now, if I was a real Q3 junkie then I'd probably get a Geforce 2. If I was a flight sim freak, maybe I'd consider a V5 5500. However, because of Unreal 2, I will not even considering buying a new video card until that engine is available. I am no 3dfx zealot - I just want the best value for my money, for what I'm going to be using it for. The tests are ALL valid, but valid for different people.