Geforce MX not that much improvement over Voodoo 3 3000?

[taylor34]

Hello-

Just got in a geforce MX card--first nvidia card since the tnt. I mainly got it so I could crank the detail in NHL 2001 and Unreal Tournament--The voodoo 3 was good but I was looking for a little bit more (wanted 800x600 full detail). So today I finally got in my geforce MX--honestly I'm a little disappointed. I still can't turn on full detail in hockey (800 mhz processor), plus now it locks up occasionally. Has anyone else done this upgrade? I was using hercules drivers 6.35--I'll try the nvidia drivers before I give up hope. Just a little disappointed--the reason I got rid of the TNT card was lockups and other problems--I figured that nvidia had gotten rid of those problems by now (1 1/2 later). Guess not... I'll update my progress later. Thanks

Aaron Taylor
"Taylor34"

 

[taylor34]

Hello-

Well, I updated the drivers to nvidia 6.31--and the MX is actually slower than the voodoo 3 3000 at 800 x 600. Not exactly sure why, but I can definitely tell the difference. Pretty disappointing I guess. So the card goes to the fs/ft forum I guess--just sucks that I spent $149 on it last week (dualhead) and now I'll probably get about $30 to $40 less than that. Oh well. This is just a warning to others thinking about upgrading from a voodoo 3 3000--the mx is not worth it.

Aaron Taylor
"Taylor34"

 

[EdipisReks]

i don't know about NHL 2001, but Unreal engine that UT was written on was made for glide, which is 3dfx. with the MX, you have to run UT in D3D which is a lot slower than glide. there may be the same problem with NHL 2001.

--jacob

 

[Actaeon]

Whats your FPS with the V3 and GF2MX? and What kind of geforce2mx did you get?

 

[romstar]

are you sure the mx was not allowing you to play 800x600 full detales on fast... caz the card is pritty god with quake3 i would think easports games should run very well at any high setting???

 

[Eug]

For Unreal Tournament, the best budget card to have is the Voodoo 3, if you're going to stick to the lower resolutions and 16-bit colour. Take a look at these comparisons. The Voodoo 3 does VERY well, and as AFAIK they compared using D3D. If they had used Glide, the Voodoo 3 would be that much faster.

 

[taylor34]

Hello-

NHL 2001 runs in two modes--glide and d3d. With the voodoo 3 in glide it is a lot smoother than the mx at the same detail level. I do play other games, like soldier of fortune, UT, and baldurs gate---but not as often as hockey, nba live, or any other ea sports game.

--I just tried hockey in d3d with the voodoo 3--still runs it better than the MX. Anybody have any suggestions?

My system:
Celeron 533 oc to 800
bh6
sb live
192 megs ram
13 meg hard drive

I have no clues to why it's performing so poorly.

Aaron Taylor

 

[Actaeon]

13meg hard drive? I assume you mean 13gig

I really don't know what to say, MX outpreforms V3 by far (except in glide), espcially in D3D.

 

[Deeko]

Usually, if a games main API is glide, it will perform better on a Voodoo than other cards, even in D3D. That may be the case here. UT is no contest, a V3 can even beat a GTS there.

 

[Eug]

Hmmm... There are a LOT of Glide optimized sports games. They are probably going to run better with the Voodoo 3.


<< MX outpreforms V3 by far (except in glide), espcially in D3D. >>

Not quite true. What Deeko said.

 

[Deeko]

Electronic Arts traditionally used Glide as their main API. Madden 2001 is optimized for the GTS though....yet NHL 2001 is glide based?....I'm a little confused there, I thought they were changing fronts, but now it seems they are back to Glide....but anyway, that's why there are so many glide-based sports games.

 

[HappyGamer2]

lol, if you want a better card than a voodoo3 with the games you it appears as if a voodoo4/5 is the answer for you. but don't expect the v4/5 to be much faster at 800x600 than a v3, but above 800x600 the v5 and maybe the v4 will sure be faster with better graphics quality, i had a v3 now i have a v5

http://www.hardocp.com/

 

[HappyGamer2]

another note my voodoo5 out does my ati radeon 32 mb ddr in UT, this is using 16 bit or 32 bit D3D vs D3D, no glide needed.

 

[Deeko]

Like I said, games that are designed for Glide usually do better in D3D on a Voodoo, too.

 

[OZZIE2]

taylor34: I recently upgraded from a V3 2K O'ced to 166mhz (ie same as a V3 3k) to a Hercules MX card and although I haven't been able to test it on glide games, the overall image quality and speed in the games I do play (Q3, NOLF, IGI) in 32bit has really impressed me. I have heard around the net that Glide is on it's way to the grave especially seeing 3DFx is dead. Most games these days and into the future will be in D3D. The voodoo 3 cards are unfortunately by todays standards dated. On my C600 in Q3 I nearly get 20fps improvement over the V3 2K and that is in 32bit just as a small example. Yet if you really are sticking mostly to Glide optimised games and you have the cash get a V5. As far as I'm concerned the MX card is the best value v's performance vid card on the market bar none. Just one thing left to say on video cards and that is you get what you pay for!

Deeko:&quot;Like I said, games that are designed for Glide usually do better in D3D on a Voodoo, too.&quot; You should complete your sentance by adding a '5' after Voodoo, any other number under 5 would be completely incorrect especially when you don't compare it with anything...

 

[Degenerate]

why Voodoo??

I think a MX is better, simply that its faster

 

[Mem]

taylor34,if you use Nvidia drivers don`t forget to download coolbits so you can really overclock that card for real performance increase.