Is that a video adapter in your pants?
Written: Apr 27 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Speed, Visual Quality, Cost
Cons: Some OpenGL problems with older drivers
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| benerdin's Full Review: S3 Diamond Viper Ultra 770 |
First of all, I don't have the "Ultra" version of this card, and I'm not sure what the differences are, but I'm guessing it just has slight improvements or has TV-Out or something like that. But, just know I'm using my non-Ultra card as a reference here.
So, I'm running an IBM aptiva, 600 Mhz Athlon with 128 MB of RAM and this card runs BEAUTIFULLY! I originally had the card in an AMD K6-2 300 Mhz machine and it ran a little choppy at times, but a big improvement over my Diamond Monster 3D II (12 MB) addon card.
You can set the card's jumpers to work for AGP 4x or 2x. The card has 32 MB of RAM, can render color in 32 bits, and supports both Direct3D and OpenGL, so you'll be able to play any video game that offers 3D acceleration. I did run into some OpenGL problems originally, but I think the latest drivers -- which support DirectX 7.0 -- should fix that problem. It's based on nVidia's TNT2 chipset, which is not their most recent chipset, but it's very good at graphic processing. If you're looking for the most recent in graphic adapters, look for adapters based on nVidia's GeForce chipset -- the first GPU (Graphics Processing Unit). Also, the price for this card should be fairly reasonable now, I would say $150 or less.
The latest games I've played with this card that run very smoothly are:
-Nocturne -> this game requires a lot of processing power, and does run choppy while trying to render the flashlight halo or when bodies explode, but runs very nicely most of the time
-Unreal Tournament
-Rogue Spear
-Soldier of Fortune
-Messiah
-Evolva Demo.
If you have a fast machine with a poor video adapter, this card will do wonders and will be very cost-efficient for you. Even if you have a slower machine, this card will show definite improvements to the quality of your games. Just know that this card provides very nice 3D rendering but is not the best that is out there, so you need to decide whether you want the best out there or something that will provide better results in gameplay for now, because after all, all of the hardware out today will be out of date in 2 or 3 months ;)
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
benerdin
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Member: Brian Federici
Location: Orefield, Pennsylvania
Reviews written: 17
Trusted by: 9 members
About Me:
Interests: Gaming, Programming, and the combination of the two
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