Nvidia now, and apparently, Nvidia in the future as well
Apr 27 '00
In a recent Epinion, I stated that the choice for graphic cards should not be based on emotion, but on the best product. While I stand by that statement, as well as the recommendation that as of 4/27/2000, Geforce is the fastest shipping video card, I was wrong in my assertation that 3DFX was about to retake the lead in Video Card technology.
There are several recent developments that lead me to this conclusion. This Epinion will concentrate on the reasons why the Nvidia product is not only the best product at the time this review is being written, but also, in the near future as the next generation cards from both 3dfx and Nvidia are released.
Immediate Future
Recent announcements show that the Geforce 2 and Voodoo 5 5500 will be shipping approximately the same time. While the release date of the Geforce is still sketchy, it appears that the Voodoo 5 will be released on about May 12. The surprise announcement from Nvidia this week leads me to believe that the Geforce will be shipping around the same date.
Expect Creative Labs to be the first vendor to offer the Geforce. Think before you jump on the first Creative Labs card. The Annihilator Pro 2 will not feature TV out, or HDTV connectivity. If these features even might become attractive to you in the future, strongly consider waiting for vendors such as Asus to come out witht their products.
Although I don't intend to do a full review of the Voodoo 5 at this time, I will recommend that people thinking about the Voodoo 5 who don't want to shell out $600 for a 6000 to get a 5500 instead of a 5000. The Voodoo 4 and Voodoo 5 product lines are all based around the same processor - the VSA-100. The Voodoo 4 series only has a single processor. The Voodoo 5 series has either 2 or 4 processors. The 5000 and 5500 both have 2 processors, the 6000 has 4 processors. The difference between the 5000 and 5500 is amount of memory. The 5000 has 32MB while the 5500 has 64MB. While it may seem like 32MB is sufficient for a videocard, the VSA-100 uses a different type of SLI that people familiar with the Voodoo 2 are familiar with. Instead of dividing the image in half by odd-even lines, the entire image is stored in each processor. A 32MB card does not have enough memory to prevent slow downs during graphic intensive games.
Features
Since the Voodoo 5 5500 and the Geforce 2 will be coming out at approximately the same time, and will be priced with $50 of each other, it makes sense to compare the two. Since the Voodoo 5 6000 uses 4 processors, (and 128MB RAM) it will outperform the 5500, but the 6000 will not be available in June, and it is also in a radically different price class than the Geforce 2. It also must be noted that the speed numbers are from a beta card review taken off the web. Final speed numbers for shipping product from Nvidia or 3dfx may change. If they do, I will update this review.
Voodoo 5 5500
Integrated 128-bit 3D/2D
VSA-100 processor(x2)
2-way SLI scalability
64MB SDRAM
166MHz/166MHz core/memory clock
Dual pixel pipeline
667Mpixels/s fill rate
667Mtexels/s fill rate
1X/2X/4X AGP with full sideband support
32-bit rendering
32-bit textures
2Kx2K maximum texture size support
Single-cycle trilinear mipmapping
Up to 24-bit floating point depth buffer (Z and W)
8-bit stencil buffer
DirectX texture compression and 3dfx FXT1 texture compression
T-buffer technology
2X and 4X full-scene hardware anti-aliasing
Depth-of-field blur
Motion blur
128-bit Windows GUI accelerator
350MHz RAMDAC
Planar-to-packed-pixel digital video format conversion (DVD Hardware assist)
Geforce 2
0.18 micron manufacturing process
2nd generation T&L engine
25 million triangles/s
32MB DDR SDRAM
200MHz core clock
166MHz memory clock
Per-pixel shader
Per-pixel dot product 3 bump mapping
Per-pixel lighting and shading
Hypertexel architecture
Quad pixel pipeline
Two textures per pixel
800 Mpixels/s fill rate
1.6 Gtexels/s fill rate
1X/2X AGP, 4X AGP w/fast writes
32-bit rendering
32-bit textures
Z/Stencil buffer
DirectX texture compression
S3TC support
Cube Environment Mapping
Vertex Blending (2-matrix)
DX5, DX6, DX7, OpenGL 1.2 support
Hardware anti-aliasing
High definition video processor (HDVP)
Supports all 18 ATSC formats, including 720p and 1080i
350MHz RAMDAC
A few things stand out from the respective feature sets, they will be addressed in sections on performance, image quality, and bells and whistles.
Performance
A few numbers from the respective specs stand out. The Voodoo 5 follows the Voodoo 3 standard of synchronious clock and memory speeds. The beta samples shipping to hardware review sites are running 166MHz processor core speed and 166MHz memory speed. Meanwhile the Geforce 2 is set to 200MHz processor core speed, and 166MHz memory speed. The asynchronous nature of the Geforce is and advantage on Nvidias part. DDR memory faster than 166MHz is prohibitively expensive. Since fill rates are a derivative of graphics processor clock speed, running the Voodoo at 166 hurts overall potential fill rates. The 667 Megapixel fill rate the Voodoo 5 5500 derives is based on 2 processors X the 166MHz core clock speed X 2 for the dual pixel pipeline the VSA-100 architecture supports. Meanhile, the Geforce 2 pumps out an amazing 800 Megapixel fill rate compliments of its 4 pixel pipelines X the 200MHz core clock rate. The cost jump in memory prices for DDR faster than 166MHz is quite unfortunate. Preliminary tests of the Geforce 2 make it appear that the processor is limited by available memory bandwidth. Also of note is that the 667 texel fill rate of the Voodoo 5 5500 is about 40% of the speed of the 1.6Giga Texel fill rate of the Geforce 2. Performance reviews on the web show that the Voodoo 5 5500 is about as fast as the original Geforce in most benchmarks. (The Voodoo 5 does beat the original Geforce at high resolutions though)
Image Quality
3dfx finally got 32 bit color. All accounts are that the image quality is excellent. Similar accounts are made of the Geforce 2. Part of the difference in image quality between both the Voodoo 5 and Geforce 2 is related to a feature called FSAA - or Full Screen Anti Aliasing. If you look closely at the images in 3d games, you will see that what are supposed to be straight lines are comprised on "jaggy" edges. FSAA smoothes out the jaggies. Of course it doesn't do this without a performance hit, but from benchmarks I have seen, owners of higher end systems can play 3d FPS games with 1024x768 resolution with 2x FSAA and still get acceptable (39FPS Quake III Demo 1) playing rates. In addition to FSAA, both companies have the "bump mapping" religion (see my Matrox G400 Max review for an explanation), texture compression, and a host of other goodies. You will not be disappointed with either card, but in my opinion, 3dfx has a slight edge on Nvidia is this area.
Bells and Whistles
Each contender takes different tactics in this area. In addition to FSAA, 3dfx has come up with various "cinematic" effects. This are things like motion blur ( I have even read about a "drunk mode") that can be added to any game without software changes. In my opinion, while the idea of these features sounds intriguing, I don't think I would tend to use the majority of the features I have read about in everyday use.
While Nvidia lacks the special cinematic effects that 3dfx has created, they do have an advantage when it comes to connectivity outside the box. At this point in time, 3dfx will not be supporting TV out with their new line of cards. Nvidia will support TV, Digital Monitors, and HDTV. Companies like Asus are likely to bundle TV input and special AV software with their cards to stand out from the crowd. Use of this feature depends on personaly circumstances, but in my opinion, it is a strong reason to go with Nvidia.
So there you have it, performance and useful features are major benefits for the Geforce 2, while the Voodoo 5 appears to have a slight leg up on visual quality. In my opinion, the Geforce's strengths outweigh its' weaknesses. As an overclocker, I can never have enough speed, the extra performance of the Geforce 2 is appealing to me. Also, I like the benefits of connectivity outside the box. One of my computers is located very close to my home theater system. TV Out, and if enough people read this review, HDTV out is a very useful feature.
Future Developments
Although the time frame is not clear yet, 3dfx will soon release the Voodoo 5 6000. It is expected to outperform the Geforce 2, but it will also cost $599. For those of you who don't know, VSA-100 stands for Voodoo Scalable Architecture. Up to 32 processors can work together. The Voodoo 5 6000 will have 4 processors instead of the 2 the 5500 has, and 128MB of RAM instead of 64MB. To defend the top end, there are as of yet unconfirmed rumors that Nvidia will be implementing an SLI function to their Geforce 2 that lets you hook up a PCI based Geforce 2 to an AGP based Geforce 2. As things develop, I am sure to upgrade, and to keep you informed.
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stevelarrison
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Member: Steve Larrison
Location: Scottsdale, Az. USA
Reviews written: 171
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Beer, the answer to, and the cause of all life's problems.
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