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Date:      Wed, 2 Feb 2000 17:56:46 -0600 (CST)
From:      Chris Dillon <cdillon@wolves.k12.mo.us>
To:        Haikal Saadh <wyldephyre2@yahoo.com>
Cc:        hardware@FreeBSD.ORG
Subject:   Re: Choice of display cards under freebsd.
Message-ID:  <Pine.BSF.4.20.0002021735390.33530-100000@mail.wolves.k12.mo.us>
In-Reply-To: <000201bf6d9f$efeede60$71c101ca@summoner>

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On Wed, 2 Feb 2000, Haikal Saadh wrote:

> Hi, I'm planning to upgrade my box within a few months, and I was
> just wondering: As far as running games (such as halflife) under
> freebsd are concerned, does it make sense to by a D3D-based card,
> such as nVidia's card, as D3D only works under windows, right?
> 
> Or to rephrase the question, which one would provide the better 3D
> experience? The geForce or the Voodoo3? I know that the latest
> version of X supports both cards.
> 
> I'm looking at getting the stuff in time for 4.0 to be released.

I would avoid any of the 3DFX VooDoo cards.  I've got an "old" VooDoo2
myself, and it works pretty well (in Windows), but it has some serious
limitations.  The VooDoo3 boards have some limitations as well, such
as only a 16-bit Z-buffer and color depth in 3D mode as opposed to
32-bit which is available on just about any other modern card.  Not
even the new VooDoo4 or VooDoo5 boards are going to be able to compete
with NVidia's next-generation chipset (which should be out about the
same time as the VooDoo[4,5]) in terms of pure speed.  They may not
even be able to compete with the current GeForce 256!  Long-gone are
the days of 3DFX leading the speed arena like they did with the
VooDoo2, and they aren't likely to ever do it again at this rate.

If I were to buy a card right now, it would be either a NVidia GeForce
256 based card (probably the ASUS model), or a Matrox G400 MAX.  The
GeForce based cards will offer you pure, unparalleled 3D speed.  The
Matrox G400 MAX would offer you what Matrox has always offered --
excellent visual quality, great features, and solid drivers, but it
isn't nearly as fast as the GeForce in the 3D arena (not that you
couldn't play a mean game of Quake with it.. you can).  Your biggest
concern is which of these will be supported the best under XFree86,
and as far as I can tell they've all got quite a bit of support under
them.


-- Chris Dillon - cdillon@wolves.k12.mo.us - cdillon@inter-linc.net
   FreeBSD: The fastest and most stable server OS on the planet.
   For Intel x86 and Alpha architectures. ( http://www.freebsd.org )



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