For Speed Demons Only.
Written: Mar 20 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: 32bit graphics are sweet
Cons: price, tv-out is useless
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| EasyTarget's Full Review: Hercules 3D Prophet |
The GeForce 256 chipset has set a new level of graphic performance that has not been matched by any other competitor. 3dFX has their work cut out for them. Nvidia will soon release a new chipset NV10 that will outperform the GeForce, but until then it is KING.
The chip can push 6-7 million triangles with effects turned on, irregardless of what CPU you own. Granted you will need at least a PII, with an AGP slot. Hey, if your a speed demon this is NOT an issue. The real benefit the chipset offers is removing the burden of the floating point math, off of the CPU. The CPU is then left to its own devices to keep hacking into those oh so precious Swiss bank accounts, while your busy shooting the hell out of bad guys in Quake 3.
There are lots of web sites that can give you the hard numbers on the GeForce vs 3dFX's voodoo 3, suffice it to say it wins hands down every time. In my personal experience I upgraded from the voodoo 3 and I noticed a 20-25% increase in speed. I have the added benefit of playing everything in 32bit graphics mode, instead of the voodoo 3's stingy 16bit. The added color depth can be noticed in some games, ie Quake 3 but since most games are still at 16bit color depth, (for speed) this does not make much off a difference. In the future more games will run at 24bit or 32bit (in order to take advantage of alpha channels) and being able to see the games in full color will make a huge difference. You may not be able to put your finger on it, but you will appreciate it.
The Guillemot card comes with the added benefit(?) of a TV-Out adapter. I connected this to my 32" TV via the S-VHS cable. While the resolution may not be as bad as broadcast TV but the clarity was. It is just too difficult to rez down a great looking image on your monitor, and make it look nice on your TV screen. Someday when HDTV is out it will be an option but till then, forget about it.
The included DVD playback software made everything look very dark. I do not know why and was hard pressed to fix the problem without totally saturating out my desktop view.
Installation of the graphics card was entirely painless, as always ensure you have the latest drivers from Guillemot's web site.
Cost vs Performance: I would think that you may find Creative Labs card a little more attractive in this area, but Creative Labs has foregone the TV-OUT option. (for good reasons)
Overall I do recommend this card for the following reasons, Nvidia's chipset is unmatched in performance, and Guillemot seems to make a very good effort of constantly updating the video drivers.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
EasyTarget
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Member: Michael Mooney
Location: Boston, MA
Reviews written: 20
Trusted by: 1 member
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