GeForce2 MX, ATI Radeon, or Voodoo5?

[immediate]

I've been banging my head off the desk over this dessicion. Here's what I got:
Dell L500c
500Mhz Celeron
128MB PC100 SDRAM
13.6 GB Maxtor ATA/66 hard drive
SoundBlaster Live! Value
Conexant cheap-o winmodem, soon to be replaced
40x CD-ROM
15" Dell E550 monitor
and the best for last, i810 AGP onboard video
So, no AGP card, but I do have two PCI avaible. 23fps in Quake3 doesn't sit to well for me, and the occasional drop to below 10fps is not nice in my driving games. Three cards that I'm looking at:

Inno Inn3D Tornado GeForce2 MX PCI with TV-out
ATI Radeon 32MB SDR PCI with TV-out
Voodoo5 5500 PCI

The GeForce and the Radeon does have 32MB of RAM, while the Voodoo5 has 64MB. I wouldn't mind the Voodoo, but this Dell case is pretty small, so heat might be a problem. I'm also thinking the Voodoo might be a little overkill for a PCI card and a Celeron (I'll be running most of my games at 800x600). I won't go into price difference's. (Voodoo about twice as much as others.) I don't plan to keep this computer forever, so top-of-the-line performance is not my top priority. I would be estatic if I could get 40fps, even for just once.

What are your opinions? Should I consider another card? TIA

[Dputiger]

If all you care about is Quake III and other FPS games, a GeForce2 MX from Inno3D is probably your best bet. They DO come in a PCI format, but the PCI is noticably slower than the AGP version, though only by about 10%.

If you play a lot of Unreal TOurnament or Diablo II, I'd say go Voodoo4 or 5. You lose nothing by moving to PCI (no speed difference) and UT loves Glide. Diablo II also looks great with 4X FSAA.

[camaro]

GTS can be had for $160 now. I would get that. Or if you can't afford that get the MX for under $100.

[AuraEdge]

The GTS doesnt come in PCI flavor..not that I know of anyways.

[Dputiger]

No, it doesn't. Since he needs a PCI card his choices are GeForce MX, Voodoo4, or Voodoo5.

The Radeon, I don't believe, is available in a PCI format.

Basically, the MX is a better card overall, especially in a slower system. The V4 and V5 are more specialty cards, which will benefit you if you use the specific games they perform quite well in.

[camaro]

ooops. I missed the PCI thing.

[Miki]

Get a PCI MX (under 150$); it has low power usage (max. 4W), great performance and is not full-lenght - as the Voodoo5 5500. Until recently, you could not really think about V5 5500 because of price/value, but now, at ~176$, is much better; it might be your better choice ONLY if you play a lot of Unreal Tournament and Glide-based games; but for those (and your processor), also a Voodoo3 3000 PCI (with TV-out) is huge leap forward, and you can have that for under 80$.

[Dputiger]

Really, it should boil down to this--what features are you looking for?

If you absolutely hate jagged lines, the Voodoo5 will do you best--it's FSAA works extremely well in both Quake 3 and driving games, and you won't be playing in the ultra-high resolutions that will strain the video card immensely. Plus, new beta drivers from 3Dfx are incorporating HSR technology that's boosting the V5 frame rate quite a bit. (running two sets of Alpha drivers I picked up a 30% frame rate increase).

So the V5 may shortly become a much better value as new HSR technology boosts performance.

For overall value, the MX and Radeon are better cards, with the Radeon squeezing out the MX at higher resolutions, assuming that's a 32 Meg DDR card.

But, personally, I love FSAA. I'm a big Unreal Tournament and Diablo II player as well. Ultimately its up to you. But Miki is VERY right--even an old Voodoo3 would double or triple your frame rate.

[Dputiger]

Ok. If you're looking at the Radeon SDR, the GeForce MX is the better value and has better driver support.

I've not heard that i810 boards don't like PCI cards. Since your board won't have an AGP slot, you're hardly goign to be buying an ISA card. http://sysopt.earthweb.com/forum/smile.gif

[immediate]

I pretty much sure I won't play any Glide games, and if I do it will be once and a while. I pretty much sure the Voodoo5 is out of the lineup. I heard once, on another forum, that the i810 chipset doesn't agree well with PCI video cards. He suggested changing the motherboard. I really don't want to do that on this computer, and I don't want to infringe on the warenty. Anyone know of this possible incompatiblity?

Radeon does come in PCI form, find some details about it here. <A HREF="http://www.ati.com/na/pages/products/pc/radeon32/index.html" TARGET=_blank>http://www.ati.com/na/pages/products/pc/radeon32/index.html</A>
Both the MX and Radeon have 32MB single data rate (SDR) memory. And Both the Radeon and the MX offer the features I want.

What about drivers? I know drivers are very essintal to a video card performance (you really learn this with onboard). Which company would provide better drivers? Thanks again.

[This message has been edited by immediate (edited 12-05-2000).]