Voodoo 4 & 5

[batmeat]

The release date is when? I've heard Feb/Mar. Also Why go buy a new Geforce DDR When something better is on the horizon? It can't compete with the upper models. Granted if your going spen 600 bucks on a graphics card get real one, not the V 6000.

[OuTpaTienT]

I was gonna offer advice to anyone thinking of getting the new Voodoos, but looks like you already beat me to the punch...get a real video card.

[Plaster]

LOL, if you don't think the new Voodoos are real, well, um, you'll see. Sit GeForce sit, Good Dog. heheh

[OuTpaTienT]

They'll be real alright...real hot, real expensive, real crappy.

[Plaster]

We'll just have to wait and see. I'll lay down 2-1 odds that the 5500 will smoke current, and the sped up GeForce. And I want FSAA.

[OuTpaTienT]

FSAA does sound kinda sweet. But at high resolutions, 1600x1200 or more, it's hardly needed.

I think their motion blur technology is going to make or break the new Voodoos. I wasn't too excited about the news of them using motions blur. Mainly because I really hate the over-blurred effect I see in motion pictures. I think they use it mostly to compensate for inadequate FPS (24 fps just sucks!)

But OTOH, I recently got this new pinball game with fantastic graphics, ultra realistic. It also has a few options to adjust the motion blur of the ball. With no motion blur the game already looks awesome. With too much motion blur the ball looks way too blurry and unnatural. But with just touch of motion blur...and...WOW! You'd swear the monitor is just a clear glass frame and you're looking at a real pinball machine on the other side.

But like you say, we'll see.

[Snuffy!]

I think 3dfx are trying to stay at the top of the graphics card market by piling on heaps of memory and more than one chip, pretty lame.

[Plaster]

Outpatient, I can't play at 1600x1200. The highest my monitor supports(which I still like BTW) is 1280x1024, so I need FSAA. I play most games at 1024x768 anyway, so FSAA will be a great benefit.

Snuffy, I think the multi-chip approach is meant to relieve bandwidth constraints. The scaleable chip is a great way to do it. You'll see, that a few years from now, all chipsets from most every company will be scaleable.

[RobRich]

I might buy one of the new 3dfx cards if I can disable the FSAA. I need raw fill rate for 3d apps at 1600x1200 and above, and I don't need FSAA slowing it down by crippling my potential fill rate. I'm still wating for the nv15, Viper2+, and Matrox G450 or G800 before making a decision on my next vid card upgrade.

[tripweed]

The new voodoo ranges is something to watch. There cards will have 128mb ram and the fill rate will be incredible. I think it's a bit expensive and I still love me Riva but lets not be to hasty in decision.

[Szech]

That whole thing with the RAM just kills the Voodoo 5's for me (the fact that the data is just copied from one 32 Meg block to the other three). Just because they can't learn to share, they all have to have their own. As for fill rates, yes, they are amazing, but I'm still wating for Glaze 3d and Gigapixel (check my other post). As for the Voodoo 4's, don't they have about the same power as a TNT2? And the estimated price for the Voodoo 4's is quite a bit higher than the budget TNT2's right now. Voodoo 4 and 5 just won't have enough bang for the buck in my eyes.

[OuTpaTienT]

Yeah, very few people seem to comprehend that their not gonna be true 128mb cards. Come on. Wake up people. The 128mb card is going to be equivalent to a 32mb card.

So 128mb on a Voodoo is no big sh*t. Wake up.

[Wiz]

Lets not forget that the voodoo's are gaming cards. Outpatient, you are more of an artist, correct? THats why, non-gamers will love the G400 or 800, but us gamers think it is nothing. 2 different platforms of video cards

[Plaster]

Outpatient, the V5 5500 with 64MB of RAM will have more memory available for texturing than a 32MB card. I've done some calculations(Which I don't care to go into again) and it actually has upwards of 31MB of texture RAM because it shares the framebuffer. A 32 MB card will only have 28MB of RAM available for textures. This is 16bit. At 32bit depth, the V5 5500 will have around 20MBs of texture RAM, compared to the GeForces 8-10.

Please don't bring up AGP texturing, because it's ****.

[seti]

FSAA sounds great, but as I understand it, it cuts fill rate in half and won't be avalible on the v4 because of that. v5 will have it though.

Great interveiw

as for release date..."early q2"....sounds like april to me.


[This message has been edited by seti (edited 02-20-2000).]