Video card confusion. Which is best for CM?

[Dienekes]

Hi All,

Now with the price drop on the Voodoo 5 5500 it has motivated me to buy a new videocard. I currently have an Elsa TNT2 AGP video card my CPU is an Athlon 750 with 128MB Ram. I play CM at 1280 X 1024 the same as my windows desktop.

Here are my options based on the $ I want to spend:

1. Voodoo 5 5500 64MB

2. GEFORCE 2 GTS 32MB

3. GEFORCE 2 MX 32MB and 128MB more RAM.

Which solution whould be the best solution.

I am interested in #1 visual beauty ,#2 speed. Other game support doesn't matter. CM is my addiction.

Thanks for any responses.

[Schrullenhaft]

The biggest difference you will get with a new video card will be the FSAA features. The quality of FSAA between the various brands is a very subjective issue on this board, so you're bound to get answers for purchasing either card. Some of the default LOD settings for the Voodoo are a bit better (again, this is subjective) than the GeForce family. I'm not sure how much of a difference the LOD setting will make in the CM environment (it makes a noticeable difference in a number of FPS games). The FSAA performance may be a bit higher on the Voodoo5, but whether this is noticeable or not (when comparing to a GeForce) I'm not sure. When you have FSAA enabled the display will probably be slower than your current TNT2.

The GeForce2 GTS and the MX should be similar in visual quality, but the GTS should be faster (usually due to a slightly higher clock setting for the GPU and, even more importantly, faster video memory). One other note: the 64Mb of memory for the Voodoo5 5500 is effectively 32Mb when it comes to display memory (each video controller has its own 32Mb of memory).

More system RAM can help, but I'm not sure it will make a noticeable difference in CM when you already have 128Mb (except for the largest scenarios or possibly a large number of high-res mods). If you consistenly run other applications in the background then more system memory will definitely help.

[Bimmer]

There has been a lot of controversy over this lately, so I will preface this with the fact that the opinions contained herein are mine and mine alone - if anyone reads them and disagrees, fine, but you don't need to start a(nother) flame war over it.

I have a Voodoo 5 5500 in a P3 933 w/384 Mb RAM. I love it. I think FSAA is a wonderful thing and makes every game I've tried (both Glide and D3D based) look much better, ever at high resolutions. With the price drop, I can't see how you could go wrong with this card.

Another 128Mb RAM would be an excellent addition as well, though you indicate this is not a fiscally viable combination at this point.

[Spii]

Matrox G400 or G450 for crisp and colorful displays. I am a believer since i got one

[Sabrewolf]

The question you have to asked is what other games you are playing or what you gonna play in the near future and checked what graphic card they support. If you only play CM I suggest getting the voodoo 5 then. It has better image quality with its FSAA but less speed than geforce, but CM does not need that speed factor much unless you play lots of FPS games. It is still expensive though even after price cut.

If you want to get geforce, try not to get the MX version cause like most computer hardware stuff, its better to get the real deal (the normal Geforce), than spending less . Theres no 'more bang for the buck', its more of 'you get what you spend'. That 128mb extra memory is overkill for current games unless you are using your computer for 3d design works.

[Mord]

Here is my opinion based on the fact that I have had 3 different Video cards in the last month installed on my system then taken back because of one issue or another.

I started with the Voodoo 4500 32mb, the X2FSAA was very noticable and looked nice. I wasn't sure about FSAA because I had never used it. But at 1024x768 it is quite remarkable. But I had issues with the game leaving little blocks in my menu screens whenever I exited.

I took back the Voodooo 4500 and exchanged it for a Hercules Prophet2 MMXAGP 32mB. I didn't get the blocks with this one but the FSAA sucked. After having seen it in action I have to have it when I play. The card ran fine other than that. So I took it back.

And now I am using a Voodoo 5500AGP 64mb, it has 4XFSAA and trust me you can really tell the differents in high resolutions. But it is worse for me than the V4500 was. I get the blocks plus if I shrink out to the desk top and then go back into the game it screws up all the text and the unit info. really nasty looking, the only way to change it is to exit the game and restart.

I have heard people say on here that you don't need the FSAA if you play in HiResolutions. Don't believe that. The Voodoo 4 and 5 have update drivers that come with a test so you can turn FSAA on and off in game so you can see the differents yourself while you are playing. There is a BIG differents.

I'd say try the V5 the x4FSAA is beautiful and maybe you will be luckier than I with the rest of it. you can always return it if you don't like it.

Mord

[This message has been edited by Mord (edited 11-27-2000).]

[eba]

I've played CM quite a bit on both A Voodoo 5500 and a GeForce 2 GTS Pro. I've got a PIII 800 with 256MB RAM. My observations:

The GeForce is quite a bit faster. You can roam the battlefield with no stuttering, even through heavy smoke. The image quality is very good.

The Voodoo 5500, though slower, is still plenty fast. I only noticed any real slowdown when scrolling across large maps with a lot of smoke. The V5500 has better image quality, I think, especially with 4X FSAA enabled -- the image is nearly perfect.

One note, though. My V5500 handled gameplay great, but produced text artifacts in the setup screens. When clicking a text box -- say to set up a QB -- the box would leave a ghost on the screen until I clicked the next box (which then left its own ghost). These artifacts made the interface a little clumsy, but they only appeared (for me, at least) in the setup screens. Gameplay was fine, so long as FSAA is enabled. I tried lots of things to try to get rid of them -- including the latest drivers -- but they persisted. More of a nusance than anything else.

Overall, the GeForce is faster but I think the V5500 has better in-game image quality with 4x FSAA enabled. Good luck.

[eba]

Mord hit the nail on the head. I'm using the GeForce now, after using the V5500 and I really miss the V5500 FSAA -- I think it more than makes up for the slightly slower speed and the annoying menu artifacts. I'll probably switch back.

[Maximus]

Well, my take on this situation is this:

If you are accustomed to using 3Dfx products and then you get a Voodoo 5500 with 4x FSAA, then yeah, you're totally blown away since earlier Voodoo graphics were jagged and pixellated. But if you are accustomed to using Nvidia products, then the FSAA doesn't make a whole lot of difference because Nvidia's graphics were always sharper than 3Dfx's. I see screen shots of 4x FSAA and to be honest wit ya, I don't see a whole lot of difference between them and my TNT2 Ultra.

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[Jeff Heidman]

Coming from someone who LOVES his GeForce 2 GTS 64MB, I would recommend geetting the Voodoo.

The GeForce 2 GTS has been rather conclusively shown by any number of non-partisan reviews to be superior in the vast majority of objective cases.

However, right now you just cannot beat the fire sale prices on those Voodoos. You can get a Voodoo 5500 for over $100 less than a GeForce 2 GTS, and that can not be beat. Some might claim that purchasing the card form the company who lost as badly as 3dFx did is bad news, but there are more factors in the crushing of 3dFx than the basic quality of their cards.

Of course, I wouldn't hold my breath on continued driver support from 3dFx, but from all reports the current set of drivers is decent, as long as you are not using Windows 2000.

Jeff Heidman

[FlyMolo]

Actually... for the money the GF2mx is the best choice.

As for the extra RAM, unless you're running Windows NT you won't see any extra performance. W9x and Me don't know how to use more than 128MB of ram.

[Mord]

Are you talking ram on the MotherBoard or ram on the 3D card? Or all together?

Mord.

P.S the 4xFSAA changes everything doesn't it eba?

[This message has been edited by Mord (edited 11-27-2000).]

[Renaud]

Note that V5 FSAA seen in screenshots is not particularly amazing. To tell whether you really like it, you have to see animation, like roaming around a map and using the hotkey to switch between FSAA and non-FSAA. All the little jaggies and sparkling thingies that appear during movement go away with FSAA, etc etc.

Has anyone tried V5-5500 with windows millenium yet? Work ok?

thx

-Ren

[Renaud]

Note that V5 FSAA seen in screenshots is not particularly amazing. To tell whether you really like it, you have to see animation, like roaming around a map and using the hotkey to switch between FSAA and non-FSAA. All the little jaggies and sparkling thingies that appear during movement go away with FSAA, etc etc.

Has anyone tried V5-5500 with windows millenium yet? Work ok?

thx

-Ren