These days, it's all in the chipset
May 03 '00
Buying a graphics card these days can be very confusing. With terms like Full Screen Anti Aliasing, Fill Rate, Mega Pixels, Mega Texels, 32 bit color, bump-mapping, ad infinitum, the average consumer can quickly become confused when shopping for a graphics card. For purposes of this review, I will concentrate on common chipsets in current video cards that are consumer oriented with an explanation of their strengths, weaknesses, and intended audiences. This review will ignore all professional level cards used for CAD and other graphics intensive applications. A separate review will be written about business level chipsets at a later time.
The Basic Question
Are you a gamer, or not? This is a simple, yet important question that must be answered before selecting any video card. By gamer, I mean a person that is into 3d graphic enhanced games that are common in FPS and RTS games. Someone who play an occassional game of solataire, or some other 2d game does not qualify as a gamer. Before you get to upset about this explanation, let me explain - gamers (my definition) are going to want the highest end graphics card possible, whereas non-gamers are better off saving a few dollars on the graphics card they choose. Until you have build/upgraded your own machines, you simply can not believe what a difference a high level graphics card makes to the performance of a system. (This review is being written on a Geforce 2 video card installed 2 hours ago)
Gamer Cards
Really, there are only two good choices at the moment, 3dfx and Nvidia. (For practical purposes, I am counting the Voodoo 4 & 5 as shipping even though they are not available quite yet at the writing of this review) The Geforce 2 and the Voodoo 5 5500 are the best choices for the gamer today. Other "acceptable" cards include the original Geforce, the ATI Rage Fury Maxx, and the Matrox G400 Max. I will also cover cards that will not be a good choice for the gamer.
Geforce 2 - Even though it just started shipping, this card owns the market. At stock speed of 200 MHz clock, and 166 MHz DDR Ram (effective speed 333MHz), the 800 Megapixels and 1.4 Megatexels the Geforce 2 pump out give it the distinction of being the most powerful graphics processor available to the consumer market. The initial shipping Geforce 2's contain 32mb of DDR RAM. No SDR RAM Geforce 2's have been produced yet. By the end of June, 64MB DDR Geforce 2 cards will be available, but, if their performance increase is anything like the original Geforce 64MB cards, it will not be worth waiting, and spending the extra money on the card. This cards main strengths are its' speed (fastest on the market), excellent graphics quality. (The image is superior. It would have the best graphics available to the consumer if it weren't for the superior FSAA and cinematic effects of the Voodoo 5 cards) The only weakness this card has are its' price (I just paid $350 for mine), and the power of the Geforce 2 is somewhat limited by the "slow" 166 MHz DDR RAM. If you are concerned about Frames Per Second over all else, look no further, this is your card.
Geforce - The original Geforce is still a very viable gaming solution. It comes in 2 different memory sizes 32MB and 64MB. Go for the 32MB card, the performance is virtually identical. In addition to having different memory sizes, there are different memory types available as well. Geforces are available with Single Data Rate RAM and Double Data Rate RAM. As its' name impleis, DDR RAM is faster than SDR RAM. In all probability, you will want to go with a DDR card over SDR. The faster RAM will make a major difference in playing games with high resolutions using 32 bit color. Now that the Geforce 2's and Voodoo 5's are available, look for the price of original Geforce cards to fall rapidly. As far as performance is concerned, the only video card faster than a Geforce is a Geforce 2. In most benchmarks, the Geforce is actually faster than a pre-release Voodoo 5 5500 running at 166MHz clock for core and memory. This is THE solution for the gamer on a budget.
Voodoo 5 . The Voodoo 5 product line comes in 3 different grades. the 5000 series, the 5500 series, and the 6000 series. All Voodooo 4 & 5 graphics cards use the same graphics chip, the VSA-100. VSA stands for Voodoo Scalable Archetecture. The Voodoo 5 5000 and 5500 uses 2 VSA 100 processors. The 6000 series uses 4 VSA 100 processors. The 5000 has 32MB of 166MHz RAM, the 5500 has 64MB of 166MHz RAM. Unlike the Geforce series cards, the upgrade from 32MB to 64MB of RAM for a Voodoo 5 IS worth the extra money. Remember, these are SMP machines. Each processor in a Voodoo 5 5000 only has 16MB of RAM available. For modern games, this will result in "texture trashing", and reduce performance. Prices at $299, the 5500 is in the same price class as the Geforce 2 ($350). The decision between a 5500 and a Geforce 2 should come down to a preference for certain effects, versus speed. The FSAA and cinematic effects that the Voodoo 5 offers is superior to anything that Nvidia has to counter with. Type of people who would be likely to choose a Voodoo 5 over a Geforce 2 are people into Flight Simulators and Racing Games as opposed to people into First Person Shooters, and Real Time Simulation games, which are more graphically taxing on a system. The 5000 is prices at about $229, but if a 5500 or Geforce 2 is out of your budget, you really should consider an original Geforce instead. The 6000 series is undoubtedly the fastest video card on the market. The fill rate of this card is awesome. Nothing like 4 processors to turn up the juice. This thing even requires it's own separate power source. However, priced at $600, it is beyond the budget of most people. If you have the money, and want nothing but the best, the Voodoo 5 6000 is your card.
ATI Rage Fury Maxx - Not much to talk about here folks. Although they get a decent fill rate, this is really just 2 ATI Rage Fury's built onto the same card. The only real reason to consider this card is if you have an early model Athlon motherboard. (They were notorious for compatibility problems with Geforce video cards)
Matrox G400 - An interesting card. Certainly not for the hard core gamer, but for someone who appreciates good image quality, and tons of bells and whistles. These things are even equipped with a dual head monitor feature. The performance of the G400 Mzx is nothing to get excited about midway through 2000. It is hard for me to recommend that anyone buy this card.
Diamond Stealth III - The sad result of changes in the multi media component manufacturer market place. Because of the merger between S3 and Diamond, Diamond no longer makes cutting edge Nvidia products. The Stealth III has the distinction of being the only shipping card that INCLUDES hardware support for Texture and Lighting acceleration, but DOESN'T INCLUDE software driver support fot the same feature. So although technically Geforce and Geforce 2 aren't the only cards that HAVE hardware based Texture and Lighting acceleration, they ARE the only cards that actually USE hardware based Texture and Lighting acceleration. Buy this card as a present for someone you don't really like, or else as a joke. There really is no other reason to buy one.
Non Gamers
The non gamer has an advantage over the gamer when it comes to video cards. Not only will the non gamer save money on initial purchase, but they won't have to replace their video cards every 6 months. If you are a non gamer, and you don't use a graphically intensive application like CAD/CAM, graphic rendering, ..., then this guid is for you. If you are into heavy duty applications, your needs may actually exceed those of todays gamers. The following are things to consider:
Speed
Almost anything will do. Unless you need features like video out, our dual monitor support, for people with an AGP port, I recommend a cheap card like a Voodoo Banshee. You can pick these things up for about $30. They give all the 2d performance you will ever need, and offer good image quality as well. For people who still have PCI based cards, the Voodo Banshee was also available in PCI form. If you can find one, grab it.
Bells and Whistles
Since any video card made in the last 3 years will offer acceptable performance for the non-gamer, the only other thing to consider is bells and whistles. A good card with a lot of features is the Matrox G400. They include video out and dual monitor support. For a non-gamer, the $160 purchase price is probably a little steep though, but if you need those features (especially dual monitors), it is a good solution.
In summary, before you purchase a video card, think about your needs. You not only can save some money, but also, some frustration.
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Member: Steve Larrison
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