3D Video card for K6-2 500Mhz on ASUS TXP4 with 256Mb?

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shewring
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3D Video card for K6-2 500Mhz on ASUS TXP4 with 256Mb?

Post by shewring »

<br>Hi I have a Matrox Millenium 2 PCI Video card and wish to beef up my video system to 3D.<br><br>What sort of video card should I get Voodoo 2 or gforce 2 mx?<br><br>Cheers<br><br>Marc<br> <p></p><i></i>
georgep1
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Re: 3D Video card for K6-2 500Mhz on ASUS TXP4 with 256Mb?

Post by georgep1 »

If you need a PCI card for gaming, and you're going to keep it for awhile, you have a few choices. I would recommend, in this order:<br><br>1. Voodoo5 5500 - probably getting too expensive for what they are worth though. And, of course, no new drivers. But if you can get one cheap...<br>2. Voodoo4 4500 - still around and not too expensive. Works well and performs well with low-end CPUs. 32 bit color and 2X antialiasing. Compatible with nearly all games. No new drivers though.<br>3. Radeon SDR - drivers are getting better and the color is great. Cost would likely be greater than a V4.<br>4. MX - Has decent OpenGL performance, but relatively poor D3D performance in most games. A driver issue that hasn't really been fixed in the 10 months since its release.<br>5. Voodoo3 3000 - Not easy to find, but a good card if you aren't concerned about 32 bit color. No new drivers.<br><br>If you were getting an AGP card, I would recommend the MX, but the performance deficit of the PCI MX relative to the AGP version is much greater than for the other cards mentioned and their AGP counterparts. <p></p><i></i>
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feizex
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Re: 3D Video card for K6-2 500Mhz on ASUS TXP4 with 256Mb?

Post by feizex »

Hey george,<br><br>I think you'll find that the 12.41 drivers are great with the GF2 PCI and D3d. <br><br>You can't honestly reccomend the radeon on a K6-2 system, can you?<br><br>I have a GF2 PCI (MX400) and it works great, but don't bother running 32bit.<br><br>At least these are still in wide scale production and drivers are getting updated.<br><br>I haven't owned a voodoo so I can't comment there... <p></p><i></i>
shewring
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Re: 3D Video card for K6-2 500Mhz on ASUS TXP4 with 256Mb?

Post by shewring »

<br>Thanks for the reply, unfortunately I only have PCI, no AGP :-(<br><br>I'm going to make this a Linux Box in about six - eight months.<br><br>So would a gforce 2 mx 200 pci be better than a Voodoo bases card?<br><br>Cheers <p></p><i></i>
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Re: 3D Video card for K6-2 500Mhz on ASUS TXP4 with 256Mb?

Post by feizex »

I suggest you avoid the MX200. Not just because of a lower clock speed (which can be altered with software), but also because it is hamstrung by half the memory bandwidth of the MX400 (similar to the TNT2 m64 vs the normal TNT2). <p></p><i></i>
shewring
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Re: 3D Video card for K6-2 500Mhz on ASUS TXP4 with 256Mb?

Post by shewring »

<br>So,<br><br>does anybody know where in Australia I can get a PCI based MX 400?<br><br>While were at it an Australian source for a AMD K6-III?<br><br>:-)<br><br>Cheers<br><br>Marc<br> <p></p><i></i>
deerhaven
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Re: 3D Video card for K6-2 500Mhz on ASUS TXP4 with 256Mb?

Post by deerhaven »

Welcome shewring,<br><br>I have a 3-3000 PCI card, I'd part with. You would be better off finding one locally. Shipping from USA to Austrailia would probably smart some. I like the card, but I have an AGP slot now. Just haven't replaced it yet.<br><br>dh <p></p><i></i>
georgep1
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Re: 3D Video card for K6-2 500Mhz on ASUS TXP4 with 256Mb?

Post by georgep1 »

feizex,<br><br>The 1x.xx series of drivers fixed the D3D hardware T&L problem (and thus greatly increased 3DMark scores), but the performance is still horrendous in some D3D games, particularly anything with the Unreal/UT engine in them. Absolutely frightening. My AGP MX would get over 40 fps in the UT Thunder demo at 800x600x32 while the PCI MX clocked at the same speed would do about 18. The Radeon SDR PCI was in the 40s as well. The only way I could get acceptable framerates in UT with the PCI MX was to greatly decrease the LOD, which made it look crappy.<br><br>I haven't tested them on a K6-2 yet, so I can't say how it would do against the Radeon SDR there. <p></p><i></i>
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feizex
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Re: 3D Video card for K6-2 500Mhz on ASUS TXP4 with 256Mb?

Post by feizex »

I run in 16bit, and average at least 30fps with my K6-2@550 in UT.<br><br>I've yet to see the "quality" of 32bit that everyone craps on about. So, it doesn't bother me to run 16bit.<br><br>BTW what is LOD?<br><br>Maybe the Radeon only sucks in 3Dmark? <p></p><i></i>
feizex
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Re: 3D Video card for K6-2 500Mhz on ASUS TXP4 with 256Mb?

Post by feizex »

<!--EZCODE AUTOLINK START--><a href="http://www.gamedude.com.au/video.html"> ... <!--EZCODE AUTOLINK END--> <p></p><i></i>
georgep1
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Re: 3D Video card for K6-2 500Mhz on ASUS TXP4 with 256Mb?

Post by georgep1 »

In the Direct3D tab of the nvidia display driver properties, the "Mipmap detail level" is the Level of Detail (LOD) adjustment. <br><br>From the help... "Allows you to adjust the LOD (Level of Detail) bias for mipmaps. <br>A lower bias will provide better image quality, while a higher bias will increase application performance. You can choose from five preset bias values, varying from "Best Image Quality" to "Best Performance"."<br><br>The poor performance in 32 bit color was with Best Image Quality, which is the default installation setting and works fine with the AGP MX. I had to adjust it to Best Performance to get 30 fps (barely) at 800x600x32.<br><br>While the GF2's/GF2 MX's do beat the Radeons with SS7 mobos in 3DMark, the performance is far from dismal. Since PCI cards are handicapped in this benchark anyway, the difference between the MX PCI and Radeon PCI is small. I maxed out the MX PCI at 3700 and the Radeon PCI at 3300. The difference is greater with the AGP cards because nvidia has a better AGP driver implementation, at least for SS7 systems.<br> <p></p><i></i>
E-Machines T6000 (AMD64 3200+) (Don't laugh! It absolutely rocks!)
GigaByte K7N400 Pro2, 3200+, 1 GB DDR, 80 GB WD SE
Epox MVPG5, K6-III+@550, 384 SDRAM, 80 GB WD SE
TX97-XE, K6-III+@400, 256 SDRAM, 40 GB WD HD
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