I'm curious as to what you guys have used for 3D cards. Don't put in any 2D Virge type stuff. What cards have you had, and what was the reason you got it? Was it to play a new game, or just to have something faster? I'll start.
Diamond Stealth II S220
My first 3D card. Based on the Rendition Verite 2100. Had fantastic image quality (best in its day). Not the fastest, but acceptable. I got it when I tried out the Quake 2 demo. Playing in SW mode on a Virge didn't cut it. Back then I was running a Pentium 200 with 64 meg ram.
Creative Labs TNT
Was still playing Quake 2 (full version) and wanted something faster. The TNT was twice as fast on the P200. Didn't look as good as the Rendition though.
Diamond Monster 3DII 3dfx Voodoo 2 SLI
Started playing Unreal, and the TNT was not cutting it any longer. Heard you needed a thing called "Glide" for this game to work well. Started with one V2 and got the 2nd one later on when the prices were low. Upgraded to a PII 333 @ 400 and 128 megs of ram. Unreal was "unreal" with this setup. Quake 2 was fast as all hell but looked again a little worse
3dfx Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Got tired of the 3 video card setup and heard the Voodoo 3 would do the same with one card. It did that and more. This card was $100 after the $30 rebate, and came with a coupon for a free copy of UT, which I would have bought anyway for $40. I later sold the card to a friend for $60. I had that card for quite awhile. Best value I ever got out of a video card. This card was in my PII 400, and moved to my PIII 550 @ 733.
ATI Radeon 64 VIVO
This is where I am today. I was playing UT and Q3 pretty well on the V3, @ 800 x 600 x 16, but wanted to do 1024 x 768 x 32 with max details. I finally have my video quality back from the Rendition days, and can play all game 1024 x 768 x 32 x max. Life is good until that next game comes out....
Diamond Stealth II S220
My first 3D card. Based on the Rendition Verite 2100. Had fantastic image quality (best in its day). Not the fastest, but acceptable. I got it when I tried out the Quake 2 demo. Playing in SW mode on a Virge didn't cut it. Back then I was running a Pentium 200 with 64 meg ram.
Creative Labs TNT
Was still playing Quake 2 (full version) and wanted something faster. The TNT was twice as fast on the P200. Didn't look as good as the Rendition though.
Diamond Monster 3DII 3dfx Voodoo 2 SLI
Started playing Unreal, and the TNT was not cutting it any longer. Heard you needed a thing called "Glide" for this game to work well. Started with one V2 and got the 2nd one later on when the prices were low. Upgraded to a PII 333 @ 400 and 128 megs of ram. Unreal was "unreal" with this setup. Quake 2 was fast as all hell but looked again a little worse
3dfx Voodoo 3 3000 AGP
Got tired of the 3 video card setup and heard the Voodoo 3 would do the same with one card. It did that and more. This card was $100 after the $30 rebate, and came with a coupon for a free copy of UT, which I would have bought anyway for $40. I later sold the card to a friend for $60. I had that card for quite awhile. Best value I ever got out of a video card. This card was in my PII 400, and moved to my PIII 550 @ 733.
ATI Radeon 64 VIVO
This is where I am today. I was playing UT and Q3 pretty well on the V3, @ 800 x 600 x 16, but wanted to do 1024 x 768 x 32 with max details. I finally have my video quality back from the Rendition days, and can play all game 1024 x 768 x 32 x max. Life is good until that next game comes out....