Voodoo4

[SithLord075]

Anyone own a Voodoo4 4500 AGP? How does it perform with your favorite games? Any significant differences from the Voodoo3? I've noticed that they are pretty cheap these days and was wondering it was worth the money. Or should I start looking at the GeForce series?

[This message has been edited by SithLord075 (edited 02-27-2001).]

[skuz]

I have this card and it performs very well on my system.

I had a V3 3000 AGP before, a friend offered me a deal I couldn't refuse and I sold him my V3 and got a brand new V4 (V5 was too expensive).

Differences from V3 ?
Well, since most of my games are at least a year old, they already were set to their highest quality, therefore the V4 cannot help them much.
Slightly better in Porsche Unleashed and some improvement in DVD playback. My system (K6-III 450) cannot use the full potential of the V4, so gain is minimal.

Oh and for the V4 forget FSAA. It's available alright, but not only does it slow down the system, it also looks really ugly. It's only 2x FSAA. I heard V5's 4x FSAA looks really good.

[Wilan Wong]

To my opinion, any FSAA should look better than no FSAA! Using a GeForce2 MX so quality could change for the FSAA settings.

[drizzle]

My main system at home has a Voodoo5 5500 in it. I can't see what you mean by FSAA not looking good, however I will agree that it does tax the system slightly more than if you were playing games without it.

Games look great running without it on the V5, such as Unreal Tournament and I find that using FSAA makes it look that much better.

[skuz]

Wilan - I tried playing some games with my V4's FSAA on (2x). I removed it because it really didn't look good.

Drizzle - You're talking about the V5's 4x FSAA here. Ever tried 2x ? The V4 cannot do 4x, only 2x. With it enabled, games look like you're looking at the monitor through a glass of water. You can hardly play and you can't read text.

[Joel Kleppinger]

I have a Voodoo5, and I play most of my games in FSAA 2x. Sure, it isn't as sharp as 4x, but it's much better than normal (and isn't as slow as 4x). I don't what you're talking about with statements like: "games look like you're looking at the monitor through a glass of water."

[drizzle]

skuz, I run my Voodoo5 on 2x FSAA. I don't use the 4x because I find it isn't worth the drop in FPS, at least not with the current processor I have (Classic Athlon 700).

Looking through a glass of water? I don't see how it could look that way unless you had problems elsewhere. Could you maybe post a screenshot, as I'd be interested in seeing it?

[skuz]

Well, I have to confess I hadn't tried it since drivers around 1.02. I notice there's been some improvement.

Instead of the glass of water, I'll use this example, which is quite what I see now:
I'm shortsighted, so I wear glasses to correct this.
Playing a game with FSAA on and wearing my glasses is exactly like FSAA off and not wearing my glasses.

So I prefer playing with my glasses on and FSAA off.

[This message has been edited by skuz (edited 03-01-2001).]

[SithLord075]

In other words, you're saying it's blurry?

[Dputiger]

On some games (for some reason) 2X FSAA looks worse than 4X or normal. Exceptions to this appear to be most 3D-shooters and D3D games--I've noticed no problems with 2X FSAA in the following games:

Starfleet Command
Star Trek Armada
Unreal Tournament
Quake 3
Star Trek Voyager: Elite Force
Wing Commander Prophecy
No One Lives Forever

[skuz]

Blurry ? Oh yes it is. I know that's the point of FSAA, but it's TOO blurred.

[SithLord075]

Thanks a ton for the info guys. A buddy from school is selling his dirt cheap. I just might go for it.

[skuz]

You won't regret your buy.

Who knows, maybe I'm unlucky and I play the games that have a problem with antialiasing.

Well anyway, I'm happy with my card and I'm sure you will be too.