What's faster: GeForce 2 MX or Voodoo 5?

[86plymouthcolt]

Need a new card. (I know 3dfx is going.)

 

[Bartman]

gone

 

[apacide]

Voodoo 5. I am pretty sure it is (if not I will be shocked). The Voodoo will also give you much better color and image quality, in 2D and 3D.

 

[Deeko]

Yea, Voodoo5 it is. The MX *might* edge it out in T&L situations, but probably not...so while the Voodoo5 is faster, it also looks better, has glide(which matters occasionally), and has the best FSAA around.

 

[Actaeon]

The Geforce 2 Chipset, GTS and MX, are MUCH MUCH MUCH Faster than the Voodoo 5 Chipset. But Thanks to the MX's Lack of Memory bandwith, at high resolutions, makes it slower and sluggish than its Bigger brother GTS.

So lets see, at 1024x768 the Geforce 2 MX and the V5 are almost the same, but the V5 pulls through, and beats the GF2MX.

Anything Lower than 1024x768, the Geforce 2 Pulls through and is faster than the V5 (because lower resolutions don't take as much bandwith).

Anything Higher than 1024x768, the V5 Pulls through, and is faster than the V5 (because V5 Doesn't lack bandwith).

I hoped this helped you rather than saying "Blah is faster than Blah". It all depends on what you Resolution you plan to play at.

Actaeon

 

[Actaeon]

Oh yes, V5 and Geforce 2's both have Full Screen/Scene Anti Aliasing (FSAA). But, V5 is capable of 4x FSAA, no nVidia Products that I know of can do this. Of course, at 4x, its blurry as hell, and sucks up your FPS, making it practially useless IMO.

V5 also has glide support.

So it really all depends on the applications/features/resolutions you plan on using it on.

 

[lsd]

<< But, V5 is capable of 4x FSAA, no nVidia Products that I know of can do this >>

 

[Vegito]

make sure if you do get a mx, it has at least 32mb ram.. friend got ripped on a 16mb model.. big difference at high -res..

for v5.. it's great now, but no future driver support but by then, you'll have a new computer.. so i wouldn't worry that much since v5 are really cheap now..

 

[romstar]

what about pci mx cards any good??? the leadtech winfast 32 has got good reviews but its hard to find in pci version... and in one review the pci version is slower then the agp but not by that much.... or is the voodoo 5 pci still the best pci 3d cards...?. and are the mx cards that unstable ??

 

[Bryan]

There will likely be NO driver updates for the V5 ever again, so it's no longer a worthy contender. However, how about a 32 MB DDR Radeon?

 

[Deeko]

<< The Geforce 2 Chipset, GTS and MX, are MUCH MUCH MUCH Faster than the Voodoo 5 Chipset >>


Don't forget that the MX has half of it's pixel pipelines disabled. I'm not sure what speed it runs at, but assuming it is 183, it's pixel fill rate is only 366, no where near the V5's 666. The MX has a slightly higher texel fill rate, due to it's dual texture units, but it doesn't have enough bandwidth to realize it anyway. So not only does the V5 have more bandwidth, it is a faster chipset.



<< Oh yes, V5 and Geforce 2's both have Full Screen/Scene Anti Aliasing (FSAA). But, V5 is capable of 4x FSAA, no nVidia Products that I know of can do this. Of course, at 4x, its blurry as hell, and sucks up your FPS, making it practially useless IMO. >>


I disagree with this statement. The FSAA on the V5 is FAR superior to the entire GF2 line. FSAA is NOT useless on the V5, I personally use 4x rather often. It may not be of use in FPS games, but it is simply AMAZING in simulations(flight/racing/sport). And I do not find 4x FSAA to be blurry. Even 2x FSAA is superior to the GF2's 2x2, IMO.



<< what about pci mx cards any good >>


The V5 owns the PCI domain, no contest.



<< There will likely be NO driver updates for the V5 ever again, so it's no longer a worthy contender >>


I disagree with this statement as well. There very well may be driver updates from x3dfx, and besides, are you planning on getting some completely incompatible, new OS by the time you get a new card anyway? The Voodoo5 is certainly still a contender.

 

[Actaeon]

<< I disagree with this statement. The FSAA on the V5 is FAR superior to the entire GF2 line. FSAA is NOT useless on the V5, I personally use 4x rather often. It may not be of use in FPS games, but it is simply AMAZING in simulations(flight/racing/sport). And I do not find 4x FSAA to be blurry. Even 2x FSAA is superior to the GF2's 2x2, IMO. >>



I somewhat agree and disagree, but you took my statement the wrong way.

I do agree that the V5 has the best FSAA (capiable of 4x on 5500, and 6x on 6000, but we'll never get those).

But Remember while it may look pretty, 4x FSAA Takes a Huge hit FPS wise, making it practally useless for &quot;High Speed gaming&quot;.

My TNT 1 can pump out some pretty high quality graphics on Quake, but its FPS are horrible. Of course, this is why we buy better videocards, to get the &quot;high quality&quot; picture, but manage to keep that 40-50+ FPS, I mean, after all, we do want high FPS, and pretty graphics.



<< Don't forget that the MX has half of it's pixel pipelines disabled. I'm not sure what speed it runs at, but assuming it is 183, it's pixel fill rate is only 366, no where near the V5's 666. The MX has a slightly higher texel fill rate, due to it's dual texture units, but it doesn't have enough bandwidth to realize it anyway. So not only does the V5 have more bandwidth, it is a faster chipset >>



Actually, the Geforce 2 Chipset, is faster than the V5 Chipset, but the MX is &quot;Slower&quot; because of its lack of memory bandwith in WHICH I SAID.

Compare a GTS, lets say, a 64MB DDR GTS to a V5 5500 64Meg DDR, which is faster? Of course, the GTS. Compare a 32meg DDR to a V5 5500 32MB DDR, which is faster? The GTS.

This is why a GTS is faster than the V5, It DOES NOT have the &quot;lack of memory bandwith&quot; problem (and the cheap ram problem) the MX has (as they both have the same chipset).

Actaeon

 

[maap]

Voodoo 5 is faster than the MX in resolutions higher then 640x480 and on processors faster then 550mhz. Here's a link to a review of the ATI AIW Radeon on a 1 gig Athlon T- bird done here at Anandtech (http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1302&amp;p=9). They list all types of cards for comparison. If your gonna get a Geforce, spend the extra money and get a full blown Geforce 2 GTS 32 meg DDR. I believe you can get one for about $200 now but the price will drop as soon as the NV 20 is out. If you buy the MX you'll end up upgrading pretty soon. I love my V5 and plan on keeping it until say maybe nVidia incorporates some of that 3DFX Intellectual property in the NV 25/30/35 or what ever number they'll use. The price on the Voodoo 5 is dropping ($160-170). Thats a good price for that card if you can do with out the tech support. The drivers are pretty solid right now. I'm hopping they drop below $100. I'll get a couple more.

 

[DaveB3D]

Actaeon,

I'm not sure where you got the idea, but the MX is not faster than the V5 even with more memory bandwidth...

 

[Deeko]

<< But Remember while it may look pretty, 4x FSAA Takes a Huge hit FPS wise, making it practally useless for &quot;High Speed gaming&quot;.

My TNT 1 can pump out some pretty high quality graphics on Quake, but its FPS are horrible. Of course, this is why we buy better videocards, to get the &quot;high quality&quot; picture, but manage to keep that 40-50+ FPS, I mean, after all, we do want high FPS, and pretty graphics. >>


Have you ever seen Madden 2001 with 4x FSAA? Or any flight/racing sim? There isn't a huge performance problem, and it looks AMAZING, and is well worth the speed drop.



<< Actually, the Geforce 2 Chipset, is faster than the V5 Chipset, but the MX is &quot;Slower&quot; because of its lack of memory bandwith in WHICH I SAID.

Compare a GTS, lets say, a 64MB DDR GTS to a V5 5500 64Meg DDR, which is faster? Of course, the GTS. Compare a 32meg DDR to a V5 5500 32MB DDR, which is faster? The GTS.

This is why a GTS is faster than the V5, It DOES NOT have the &quot;lack of memory bandwith&quot; problem (and the cheap ram problem) the MX has (as they both have the same chipset). >>


A couple things....the GTS does have a higher fillrate, you are correct. But the GTS IS still bandwidth limited, which is why it's score while multitexturing is not as much as the fillrate difference would make it seem. However, the MX *IS NOT* a GTS with slower memory. As I said before, it has half of it's pixel pipelines disabled, effectivly halving the fillrate.

 

[RoboTECH]

<sigh>

here's a link to my latest benchmarks with several recent games:

5500 benchmarks

The 5500 spanks the MX in every game out there, unless you're into low-res gaming. The 5500 should not be compared to the MX, it should be compared to the GTS.

As far as 4xFSAA is concerned, it's playable in the vast majority of games on the market. Only the recent OGL and D3d fill-rate limited games give it problems, and the vast majority of games aren't fillrate limited. Only first and 3rd person shooters are, anymore (tho Mercedes Benz is quite a beast...)

 

[EdipisReks]

the V5 is faster than a GeForce(1) DDR in most situations, and there is no debate that a GeForce DDR is much faster than the MX. Also, the Geforce GTS is VERY memory limited. the reason that the Ultra is so fast isn't because of the core speed, but the memory speed. the super fast ram unlocks the GeForce 2's core potential.

--jacob

 

[Actaeon]

Ok, seriously, when did you guys learn to compare, when you compare a 64meg V5 5500 to a 32Meg Geforce DDR, that does not work out, YOU KNOW THE V5 5500 would whoop a Geforce 1.

If you still want to benchmark, do a 64meg V5, compare it to a GTS 64meg.

Winner=Geforce 2

Thanks.

 

[sandorski]

HUH?

I don't play Q3(once everyother month..maybe), so, no, the Geforce2 64mb don't mean nothin' to me. IMO, the Voodoo5 is the superior card, but that's because speed ain't everything.

It's best that you don't try and convince me to buy a Nvida product and here is why: Last Feb I bought an Aureal SQ2500...6 months later they were out of business. In May I bought a Diamond Viper2(Savage2k)vidcard...3 months later they removed themselves from the market. In October I bought a Voodoo5 5500...a little over a month later they are out of business. If I bought a Geforce right now, Nvidia would leave the PC market next month, the next purchase(perhaps some Rdram) will kill the next company in a week. Soon I'd be so powerful that even the meer consideration of a company would crush it like an ant. ***Don't provoke me!!!!!***

 

[dougjnn]

Since people are talking about PCI versions of the Voodoo 5500 on this thread, let me ask this.

How will a Voodoo PCI card do in slot one, next to the AGP slot, with an AGP board plugged in?

I'm planning on upgrading to dual monitor, and considering going the two card route. But only if I can use all 6 PCI slots on an Abit K7VA raid board, when it comes out (with 133 FSB build in).

Probably put a Gefore2 card in the AGP slot in a bit, when they come down a bit more, probably on the NV20 introduction.

A related question is how is the Voodoo 5500 in 2D? How does it compare in 2D to the Geforce2 MX cards?

But then, there is no hacking the Voodoo 5500 up to Quadro for use with stuff like Adobe Photoshop and Pemiere, is there. Geeeze, this Video card choice business is complicated, isn't it???

 

[Deeko]

<< If you still want to benchmark, do a 64meg V5, compare it to a GTS 64meg. >>


Not in all cases. Also, speed isn't everything. How about quality, how about FSAA? I'd rather have something a little slower that looked better. And you said that you shouldn't compare the V5 to the GF1, guess what, the GF1 is what the V5 was supposed to compete with. So really, there is no problem with comparing them...In case you miss read it, EdipisReks was saying that the V5 is faster than the DDR, which is faster than the MX, therefore the V5 is faster than the MX. He wasn't just saying &quot;Well the V5 is faster than the GF1&quot;.



<< A related question is how is the Voodoo 5500 in 2D? How does it compare in 2D to the Geforce2 MX cards? >>


The Voodoo5 has EXCELLENT 2D quality, near that of Matrox. The MX is known to be poor in that sector, so the V5 is the clear winner there.