Cheap and Cheerful
Written: Mar 22 '04 (Updated Jan 22 '09)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: CHEAP! (As in cost, not chicken sounds), easy installation
Cons: Poor performance by modern standards, needs 2D graphics processorto work in tandem with
The Bottom Line: Recommended only if you have an old computer, free PCI slot (or 2), and a limited budget.
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| captaind's Full Review: 3dfx Voodoo2 1000 (12 MB) PCI Video Card |
I’ll be honest with you right now, the only reason you’d be interested in buying a Voodoo 2 3D card these days is if you have an old computer and a very limited budget. I got mine second hand for £30 a couple of years back when I was in the aforementioned position, but nowadays I expect you’d be able to get hold of them for around $20 or less on ebay.
In its day, the 3 million triangles and 12mb Video Memory offered by the Voodoo 2 card was pretty phenomenal. Now, of course, it is extremely old-hat. However, there are 2 reasons why it is not completely obsolete – 1/ as mentioned, it is extremely cheap these days, and 2/ you can link two of them up to give you a 24mb 3D card, which for the money isn’t too bad.
The Voodoo 2 is a PCI card (meaning of course that if you did link up 2 of them – btw if you want to do his make sure the link interface comes with at least one of the cards if you’re buying second hand otherwise you’ll have real fun and games trying to get hold of one – you’ll be tying up 2 PCI slots) and is extremely easy to install (with one still hassle – but I’ll explain that later), although it is rather large in comparison with newer cards. The installation software is straightforward and worked without any problems whatsoever, which is more than I can say for some other cards I’ve tried since. I don’t think nVidia are still updating the drivers but I may be wrong – when I had to re-install once (my own fault not the card’s!) and thought I’d lost the drivers CD, it took me forever to find one on the web, so be warned. (So that’s another thing to make sure is in the box before you buy second-hand.)
As far as performance is concerned, there is obviously no comparison with modern cards like my lovely 64mb GeForce4 (or with any other AGP card), and you won’t realistically be able to run anything in more than 800*600 resolution. In most modern games, you’ll probably have to either use medium quality (or high if the game has a “Very High” detail setting) in order to get it to run smoothly. As far as I can remember, when I played FIFA2000 it was fine on the highest quality but I have to turn off the player shirt numbering or it wasn’t happy.
The other thing you may want to consider is, since this card was born soon after the genesis of the 3D hardware accelerator card, that’s all it is – a 3D card. It doesn’t do 2D. When you install it you have to also attach it to your existing 2D card, which is a little bothersome although no real problem. What this does mean, however, is if your computer is 3 years old or less and has a fairly decent Intel or whatever processor that has 3D capabilities, there’s a fair chance that you won’t gain much performance by adding a single Voodoo 2 card. So if you’re not sure, check your System Information (in Programs\Accessories\System Tools from your start menu) and see how much memory your existing graphics card has. If it’s 10m or over, and / or you’ve run 3D games on moderate detail levels without significant performance lags, the Voodoo 2 card will be of little benefit to you. If you can spare 2 PCI slots then the dual system might work well for you although that’s only really a good option if you can get 2 for cheaper than a 32mb PCI card. (If you have an unoccupied AGP slot then you shouldn’t really be considering a PCI card anyway.) One warning about 32mb PCI cards, however – I had a TNT-2 card and was unable to install it in my Packard Bell 433MHz Celeron with a Houston motherboard as the power line wasn’t up to the job. I was, however, able to run my old Voodoo 2 card along with a PCI modem. This may of course have been a freak occurrence and I never did get a replacement to find out for sure, but you have been warned, anyway!
Well I think that’s about all the useful information I can give you about the Voodoo 2 card. Thanks for reading!
CaptainD
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You did want a 3D card for games, right? So you might be in need of a good joystick…
Check out this joystick if you’re into flight sims and FPS games, or this one for sports sims and pretty much anything else!
** Update (22nd January 2009) **
If a powerful gaming PC is what you're after, a good choice is the Packard Bell iPower X9810 - much includes the powerful nVidia GeForce 9800GT graphics card.
Recommended:
No
Amount Paid (US$): 45-ish
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