The GTS Pro Rocks The Casbah
Written: Dec 23 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: GTS Pro can be overclocked to Ultra speeds sometimes, reasonable price, incredible speeds and picture quality
Cons: Possibly faster offerings by nVIDIA early next year, and of course the fact that these cards can cost more than most people's computers
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| eparker's Full Review: Hercules 3D Prophet II GTS 64MB |
This review is referring to the Guillemot GTS Pro card, not the GTS or Ultra chipsets.
It seems as if no one has heard of the GTS Pro. Every store I go to denies the existence of this wonderful chipset. Let me lay it out for you this way:
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nVIDIA's GeForce2 Lineup
GeForce2 MX - The "work and play" card, also the most inexpensive. It can be found at retail outlets for less than $129 and lower online. Slowest of the GeForce2 chipsets.
GeForce2 GTS - The de facto standard of many higher-end games today, with very good framerates. A big step up in performance from the MX, but a big step up in price, too.
GeForce2 Pro - The dark horse in this race. Slower than the Ultra, faster than the GTS. Basically, it's a tweaked version of the GTS (or a "detweaked" version of the Ultra). The cards are starting to get very expensive here, hardcore gamers only need apply.
GeForce2 Ultra - The fastest chipset available to the consumer marketplace, bar none. Can process 1 megapixel/sec (very, very fast). Insanely expensive. These cards run in excess of $485 at retail outlets, and the Guillemot Ultra offering runs over $525.
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$525!?!? For a video card? Isn't that insane?
Yep!
Here are the reason's why I like the GTS Pro offerings:
1. Faster than GTS.
2. Less expensive than the Ultra.
3. It has been documented many places (http://www.sharkyextreme.com/,http://www.anandtech.com/) that it is very possible to overclock the GTS Pros to Ultra speed levels!!!
These cards are hard to find though, and you may end up having to buy online (it's cheaper anyway).
Here is an interesting thing to consider: nVIDIA will be coming out with a new line of cards, dubbed the NV20 sometime next year, which will supposedly crush all GeForce2 cards (even the Ultra) in performance. This is another reason to get the GTS or GTS Pro: Awesome speed now, but a little money saved over the Ultra to save up for the new nVIDIA chipset.
If you aren't a hardcore gamer, forget these cards, all of course except the MX. This is an excellent value card, and you can play all of today's 3D games with this card at an acceptable resolution on a faster computer. Of course, some of us just have that unsatiable need for speed, so the GTS, GTS Pro or even the (gasp) Ultra would be better choices.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 400
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Epinions.com ID:
eparker
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Member: Evan Parker
Location: Westerville, OH
Reviews written: 32
Trusted by: 13 members
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