SuperTed Posted June 14, 2000 Share Posted June 14, 2000 1) Is there a way to get general information (i.e. memory, bus, etc.) without contacting the manufacturer? 2) Which cards are good and what are their approximate prices? I have not decided what I am willing to spend, so price may not matter. Thanks in advance for the help. SuperTed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thomasj Posted June 14, 2000 Share Posted June 14, 2000 For finding out information on individual cards, many gaming pages have hardware sections dedicated to talking about video cards alone. Good example would be the Adrenal Vault and Computer Gaming Magazine. Now as for the cards that are good. That is a tough one, because everyone and I mean everyone has their opinion and views on what is good. The bottom line is that every card out there has its major pluses and minuses. *Setting self up to draw fire.* I myself prefer 3DFX, I had the V3 3000 (16MB RAM)and loved it to death, runs all major 1st person shooters really well, supports both 3dfx glide and OpenGl. Ran the CM Demo with no hangs and cost about $150 last time I looked. Price should drop though since their new cards, V4 and V5 are now out. Just dropped some serious money and got my V5 5500(64MB RAM, 32 on each video processor), to me it's a very sweet card that has all of the support I listed for the V3 3000, and 2x & 4x FSAA"Full Scene Anti-Aliasing" in short smoothes blocky edges off redered graphics, but cost around $299. Keep in mind though that all cards have pluses and minuses and that in the end it's what you like and enjoy, I am more then sure that others here are going to talk to you about the RivaTNT series and the new GF(GeForce). I stick with 3DFX mainly because they seem to be the trend setters like sound blaster is for sound. Hope this helps & good luck. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Posted June 15, 2000 Share Posted June 15, 2000 I have researched both of the latest cards from 3dfx and Nvidia (Voodoo5 and GeForce2). I currently own a V3 and a TNT2 ultra. Both flavors of cards are excellent and both have their pluses and minuses. If you play older glide-based games like Red Baron and some other flight sims then the 3dfx card may be for you. If you play games like Quake, Homeworld et al then the Nvidia card may be a better choice. I really want to stress both are very good cards. Now for the latest generation of cards. After doing some intensive research on both, I decided to go with the V5 since I play a lot of flight sim type of games (F4 and EAW) which I feel would benefit more from the V5's features. I installed the V5 and the FSAA feature (gets rid of jagged edges) made my games look just wonderful. However, I had problems with my machine doing some serious hard crashes that required a full reboot. I think is a driver related issue. I know several people who have had no problems at all with the V5 so it may be just my machine. I took the V5 back and exchanged it for a Creative Annihilator 2 (Nvidia GTS2 chip). I have had no problems at all. The colors are more vibrant with the Nvidia based card but the FSAA looked better on the V5. Basically it comes down to what you like to play. Both 3dfx and Nvidia based cards are good products. Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperTed Posted June 15, 2000 Author Share Posted June 15, 2000 Thanks for the info so far. I should clarify my first question. I meant to ask if there is a way to get information on the card that is currently in my computer. Thanks again. SuperTed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MantaRay Posted June 15, 2000 Share Posted June 15, 2000 Yes, go with a GF2 based card if you have the $280-300 to spend. Will have better drivers than the V5, and it looks on most benchmarks to be a bit faster for the current technological fray. If not, get a TNT2 based card, like the Diamond Viper 770 ultra, works grat and is anywhere from $100-139 in most places. Ray ------------------ When asked, "How many moves do you see ahead?", CAPABLANCA replied: "One move - the best one." MantaRays 5 Pages Hardcore Gamers Daily Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Wolfe Posted June 15, 2000 Share Posted June 15, 2000 Assuming you have a PC, powerstrip can give info on your card: http://www.entechtaiwan.com/ps.htm You can also read out the first part of the card's BIOS string: http://www.pcguide.com/proc/id/index.htm - Chris Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SuperTed Posted June 15, 2000 Author Share Posted June 15, 2000 I have been able to identify my present card, and, as suspected, it's adequate at best. I am able to get my hands on a Diamond Stealth III S540 Xtreme for about $80. Is that a good card and/or a good deal? Thanks again for the feedback. SuperTed Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Allan Posted June 15, 2000 Share Posted June 15, 2000 <BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by SuperTed: I am able to get my hands on a Diamond Stealth III S540 Xtreme for about $80. Is that a good card and/or a good deal? Thanks again for the feedback. SuperTed<HR></BLOCKQUOTE> Bad card with bad drivers. I saw a Creative TNT2 for about $120 and a Voodoo3 for about $100. Put together a little more cash and go for one of these. I have heard bad stories about the S540. Just my $.02 Allan Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Schrullenhaft Posted June 15, 2000 Share Posted June 15, 2000 SuperTed - about the S540 Extreme: there are comments about it in the "asking for help with video question" thread posted today. Basically S3 (which owns Diamond now and makes the video chip on the card) does not do a very good job with their DirectX drivers (they quite often have minor bug glitches that can drive you nuts). Performance-wise I'm not sure exactly where it ranks. I would GUESS that it is probably slower than the NVidia TNT2 Ultras, GeForce series and the 32Mb Voodoo 3's. Since S3 hasn't been known for vigoursly updating their drivers I believe most people here would recommend against getting one. Depending on what bus type you have available (PCI or AGP) will determine what cards you can pick (and even then there is a possiblity of motherboard/power supply problems depending on which card you get). If you need help in finding out what buses you have on your board you will probably have to open up your computer (though there are some utilities that can give you some fairly accurate info on this instead - but I can't recall them). If you're limited to PCI then your best bet would be a 3dfx Voodoo 3 2000 PCI 16Mb. I've heard of, but not seen, TNT/TNT2 PCIs w/16Mb which may be a little better. If you have an AGP slot, then all the previous suggestions would probably work. If you're really concerned about graphic detail and and using high-res textures then you're going to want a card w/ 32Mb of RAM. Most of these cards are going to cost US$170+ for the better performers. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Dschugaschwili Posted June 15, 2000 Share Posted June 15, 2000 For hardware reviews (not only graphics card related) I recommend the following sites: www.anandtech.com and www.tomshardware.com . Dschugaschwili [This message has been edited by Dschugaschwili (edited 06-15-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest MantaRay Posted June 15, 2000 Share Posted June 15, 2000 Schrullenhaft, Actually VIA owns S3's Video Card market now, and not many ppl here would say not to buy a Diamond product because they update their drivers too much. We'd say go to NVidia.com and get the drivers from them. ------------------ When asked, "How many moves do you see ahead?", CAPABLANCA replied: "One move - the best one." MantaRays 5 Pages Hardcore Gamers Daily Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Sgt.Morgue Posted June 15, 2000 Share Posted June 15, 2000 i asked the video question in the other thread. And got some good advice , but on doing a long search on videio cards , i found where BTS (Steve) said CM was designed with ATI card in mind , so with my new computer i got a ATI Expert 2000 AGP 32mb priced at about $140us. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CoolColJ Posted June 15, 2000 Share Posted June 15, 2000 Sgt Morgue - ATI cards are more prevalent on MACs, cause that's what they get as standard in a mac. That's why BTS had them in mind. Now I'm not so sure about PC side of things. In my opinion, ATI drivers aren't that crash hot either. I wouldn't get anything less than a TNT 2 Ultra 32 meg card right now. But even a TNT2 ultra is a tad on the slow side now, compared to the Geforce and V5500 etc. My system (p3 550 non-coppermine) and a TNT2 (non ultra) really slows down a lot when the smokes start pouring on ccj Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
:USERNAME: Posted June 15, 2000 Share Posted June 15, 2000 As I posted in the other thread, I just bought the S540 Xtreme and they have new drivers from May2000. For 99 bux its a good deal and I have filled Valley with as much smoke from both sides (and a wreck and a cool forest fire) and the game plays without a hitch. Its a AGP4X so when I update my Mboard it will live on and hopefully give me more performance. BTW Anyone know how to determine the AGP 1X/2X/4X? Its not in my mboard documentation and most vid cards are backwards compatible but how do you know whats running? Lewis PS I just want to say again that I added a UDMA66 PCI Controller card for 40 bux and am floored by how much faster the hard drive is running. If you bought a ATA66 or UDMA66 hard drive make sure that you are pushing it to its limit. [This message has been edited by :USERNAME: (edited 06-15-2000).] Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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