How to Accelerate Spending Using 3D
This is a great time for the 3D gamer. nVidia has just unveiled it's new product, the GeForce 3, which appears to be one of the most powerful 3D accelerators the public has ever gotten it's hands on. I play 3D games like Quake 3 and Unreal Tournament, I should be eagerly anticipating getting one of these bad boys. Well, I'm not; I'm scared and I'm running away from the world of 3D acceleration. Why? Because the GeForce 3's hefty $550-$600 price tag is the most frightening thing I've seen for a while. I paid way less than that for my CPU!
So, what am I going to do about my video card dilemma? For starters, I just put my Voodoo5 and my TNT2 Ultra up for auction on eBay. I'm going to settle for a Matrox Millennium G450 because it has great 2D and dualhead capabilities. I do not suggest that everyone be as radical as I, but I do think one should take into consideration one's video card buying history before planning on buying a new card. To get an idea of how to go about making good purchasing decisions, let's look at my video card buying history and see where I went awry. Surely there is a lessoned to be learned somewhere in this.
Matrox Millennium II
I bought this card to upgrade the graphics on my Macintosh Performa 6400. I would have kept this card if it hadn't given me big problems
ATI XClaim 3D
This card was also bought for the Mac and is still chugging away inside it. I saw hardware accelerated 3D for the first time on this card, and perhaps this is when my buying habits started to go crazy.
3Dfx Voodoo Banshee
My new Gateway system came with this card, so I didn't really have much choice in this decision. The 3D wasn't spectacular, even at the time, but this card has served me well (in fact, I'm using it temporarily in my computer right now).
ATI Rage 128
I could write volumes on why I hate this card so much. This is the worst video card I've ever owned or ever seen. I have never gotten this card to work right. Aside from that, it wasn't even much faster than the Banshee.
3Dfx Voodoo 3 2000
The Voodoo 3 was perhaps my favorite video card. My computer finally had acceptable 3D speed as well as stability and high 2D/3D quality.
nVidia TNT2 Ultra
32-bit 3D was finally becoming a "necessity," so I bought the TNT2. It was a bit faster than the Voodoo3 and supported all the new features (32-bit 3D, large textures). This was a good card, although it was too expensive.
Matrox Millennium G200
I tried to stop playing 3D games, I really did! My plan would have been successful, too, if the G200 wasn't too slow in 2D. The 3D sucked really badly on this, but the 2D was really sharp. Too bad it wasn't fast enough to power my 19" monitor.
3dfx Voodoo 5 5500
When I finally plunged back into the world of 3D, I bought the Voodoo 5. This was a speedy card with great-looking 2D and 3D. It was also very, very stable. Unfortunately, 3dfx went out of business and the technology behind the Voodoo 5 is being phased out with the introduction of the GeForce 3 (some would argue with the introduction of the GeForce 2).
Just by looking at my own video card buying history, I can see the path I should have taken. My history should have been more like this: Matrox Millennium II >> ATI XClaim 3D >> 3Dfx Voodoo Banshee >> 3Dfx Voodoo 3. That weeds out half the cards I've purchased! The Millennium II didn't work right and there was no way I could have known this, so the XClaim 3D was a good purchase, especially since it's still in use. The Banshee came with my PC, so there was no way around getting it. I should never have bought the Rage 128, there was no need too (and it didn't work). The Voodoo 3 was great. It was cheap and much faster than the Banshee, which really did need to be replaced. The G200 was great, but too slow and too drastic of a move for me to make. The TNT2 and Voodoo 5 were overkill and way too expensive. Life would have been fine if I would have just stuck with the Voodoo 3.
What did I learn from this? There are two simple things that one can do to keep from making a foolish purchasing decision. First, research all of the video cards thoroughly. Make sure you know what the bottlenecks of the video card are (whether its the speed of the chip or memory bandwidth), because benchmarks aren't always the best indication of how well the card will perform. The second tip is to avoid buying a card just because it has a bunch of new features. It usually takes a while for games to start thoroughly using new features introduced in video cards. The GeForce 3 is a prime example of the latter because the first game to use it's new features won't be out for several years. By that time, it will be outdated because it won't be fast enough.
In the fast-changing world of 3D accelerators, it's difficult and expensive to keep up with the current technology. Looking back at my own history, I realize that I really don't want to try any longer. Either way, the only solid piece of advice I can give is for gamers to let the developers buy the GeForce 3's and stick to something less expensive.