Blazingly fast, a bit unstable
Written: Nov 11 '00
|
Product Rating:
|
|
|
Pros: fast, compatible with games
Cons: slightly unstable
|
|
|
| Medazzaland's Full Review: Leadtek WinFast GeForce 2 GTS |
For your information, here is my computer set-up:
Athlon 900MHz
A7V Motherboard
SONY e400 19"
256 PC133 SDRAM
40Gig Maxtor HD
SoundBlaster Live! X-Gamer sound card
Cambridge Soundworks DTT2500 5.1 surround sound speakers
I really went all out on this bad boy. My old computer a was over four years old and was driving me mad. Fortunately, I was able to purchase this new one that I took many hours researching. See also my epinion opinion about the speakers and monitor.
This card is based on the nVidia GeForce GTS chipset, it's currently the best chipset out on the market as of today.
There are two main considerations that I wish to focus on with this card. One is its stability and compatibility and the other is its speed. First, it's incredibly fast. Considering that there is 64MB of RAM on the card, I have plenty of power to work with. But really, you won't see much of a difference between this card and a similar one with only 32MB of RAM. The RAM will make a difference in the future, but not for now.
I tried many games out and the consensus is that these games run smooth as silk:
Thief the dark project
Quake 2
Quake 3
Starcraft
Aliens vs. Predator
Blood 2 the chosen
Need for Speed High Stakes
Half-Life
Heroes of Might and Magic III
Unreal
These are basically the games that most people play, they are the best of the primary genres. Each runs great, but of course, you have to take into account my RAM and my processor speed.
Compatibility seems to be perfect for each game. All these games recognize the chipset and can set itself up with no problem. The one problem that I ran into was while attempting to play Blood 2 the chosen. For some reason, it doesn't like this video card. When you run the game, a small window pops up for you to specify gaming attributes. When I click the hardware renderer, it won't play the opening scenes, logos, or the menu. It flickers in and out making menu navigation virtually impossible unless you've memorized the "flowchart."
What I have to do is keep it on software renderer and then when I start the game, get it changed to the hardware renderer. Not fun. Pain in the you know what.
ALL other games recognized the card with zero problem.
Concerning the stability of the card, this is really the one flaw with my entire system. The card will often lose its settings and throw me into 640x480 resolution, 256 colors. I had originally specified 1024x768, 16bit colors. This instability often happens when starting Napster (weird), and when trying a new game that may not be stable (such as demos). Usually, everything is fine, but every now and then the image is thrust into Bad Resolution Land and I have to redo my settings.
Other than that, I think it's a great card. I compare this one to the Guillemot 3D Prophet II 64MB card. I'm not sure which one is better, but I wouldn't be surprised if the Prophet may be more stable than this one.
If you're looking for 3D gaming, this card is worthwhile. If you are sticking to 2D applications, don't buy this card.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): ?
|
|
|
|
Epinions.com ID:
Medazzaland
|
|
Location: Denver, CO
Reviews written: 29
Trusted by: 3 members
|
|
|
- Add to My Yahoo!: 
- Add to Google Homepage: 
© 1999-2009 Shopping.com, Inc.