Need help. Voodoo3 or Geforce 2 MX? "Building a retro rig."
#1 Posted 08 August 2013 - 04:28 PM
I want to play SiN badly. Badder than Obama's civil liberties record. So I ordered a P2-450 off eBay for like 8 bucks. I have all the other parts, but I don't know if they work yet.
I have prior experience with both these cards. A V3 3000 and a GF2 MX 400. Both are AGP. In my opinion, everything after the Voodoo2 was complete fucking garbage. 3Dfx made terrible products and there's a reason they're gone.
I know some games are Glide only. How much eye candy am I sacrificing with some older games? I've always heard the Glide renderers had better visual output. But then again, the Voodoo3 really is a pile of shit with no 32-bit support. Plus the image quality flat out sucks compared to Nvidia.
I know the GeForce 2 MX is faster but an overclocked Voodoo3 is still enough for shit like this. It basically boils down to compatibility and Glide.
Any takers?
This post has been edited by Viper The Rapper: 08 August 2013 - 04:30 PM
#2 Posted 08 August 2013 - 06:23 PM
Never had a good time with 3DFX, the all sucked. If you install one, good luck ever getting 3D to run after you remove it and that's if the 3DFX Uninstaller doesn't bork the windows install. I'm into the Demoscene and 3DFX stuff was laughed out of there, so it figures I wouldn't like them, I know of only a single demo that used their API and an MS-DOS demo from 3 years earlier in software did the same effects better at a higher resolution with lower system requirements. (To Be Continued for 3DFX, Dope for DOS)
My advice? Get a GeForce 4 MX440 (Or a Ti4200/Quadro equivalent) - will run fine in a Pentium II (I did it on a 300 with an MX4000 and an MX440, MX4000's should be cheap now) - then install a Glide Wrapper if you really want to use Glide software.
In case you are wondering, I only have one game around now that uses Glide; Interstate '76. It also has Direct3D (Not to mention Rendition, PowerVR and some other shit) and the 3DFX renderer runs like shit.
#3 Posted 08 August 2013 - 06:38 PM
Viper said "I want to play SiN badly". Then drink a sixpack or two before playing.
This post has been edited by Mark.: 08 August 2013 - 06:41 PM
#4 Posted 08 August 2013 - 08:28 PM
the GeForce2 MX 300 was a colossal piece of crap so i stayed away from the 400
if you're dedicated to get a voodoo card, go with 2. 1 was buggy(er) and 3 and later are garbage.
This post has been edited by Forge: 08 August 2013 - 08:29 PM
#5 Posted 09 August 2013 - 01:20 AM
Also, Geforce2s tend to have blurry image signal output - even compared to the Voodoo3. That's not the same to say for Voodoo3's filtering in 3d though. What you'll really compromise are 32-bit textures (banding in q3 will be visible) and high-res textures (you can't run CoD!!1!!!!!). And there's that lack of stencil buffer, S3TC/DXTC, cubemaps, hw t&l and dot3 bumpmapping thing you're missing, screwing you out of potential 2002+ gaming.
A GeforceFX 5200 Ultra + Voodoo2 retro rig doesn't sound too bad on paper though (FX is crisper and also still does some legacy features despite being completely suck at ps2_0 - they're easy to find, and try to avoid the 64-bit ones!). My p2 300 is currently in a FX+V2 configuration (used to be V3+PCX2 and Savage4+V2+PCX2). The only real annoyance is some games' insistence to keep preferring the Voodoo2 if they detect it (such as RTCW)
Also, how do you like your 16bpp dithered?
Voodoo Dither+Filter
Voodoo Dither
Geforce Dither
There's also differences in the TV-out support between the cards. Voodoo3 so far is the sharpest i've used with regard to 720x480 and does VGA well, however it goes bonkers with certain DOS games. Here's how a FX5200 mangles 320x240.
It really depends on what you're going to play on it. The games that actually do take advantage of the Geforce2's features won't run well on that CPU anyhow.
This post has been edited by leilei: 09 August 2013 - 02:58 AM
#6 Posted 09 August 2013 - 07:04 AM
#7 Posted 09 August 2013 - 11:02 AM
leilei, on 09 August 2013 - 01:20 AM, said:
I just can't stand the rendering quality of those cards. Grainy and nasty.
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I've been noticing the lousy output on those cards for years. Used to work in a shop and every machine with a GF2/TNT was blurry as shit.
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I recently gave away my Voodoo2 so this won't be an issue.
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I'd rather run 32-bit.
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Don't need TV out, plus my V3 lacks it.
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I'm aware of that. It would be nice to crank everything though.
I think I may just go Voodoo3 because I don't want to dick around with drivers and settings like crazy.
#8 Posted 09 August 2013 - 01:00 PM
Viper The Rapper, on 09 August 2013 - 11:02 AM, said:
Most older games don't give you that choice.
Viper The Rapper, on 09 August 2013 - 11:02 AM, said:
...
I think I may just go Voodoo3 because I don't want to dick around with drivers and settings like crazy.
If you value clean image output over anything else, you could go Matrox... they're overpriced for that. However that isn't without compromise - Commander Keen Goodbye Galaxy / Bio Menace will stutter like hell.
This post has been edited by leilei: 09 August 2013 - 01:05 PM
#10 Posted 10 August 2013 - 06:06 AM
I got a TNT 2 card at the time and never had any problems with it.
#11 Posted 10 August 2013 - 08:32 AM
A Pentium 2 with a gfoce seems dispair. Pentium 3 used to run with TNT2. I remember my last rig, prior to disconnecting from the wolrd for almost a decade, was a Pentium 3 700 with 128mb of ram and a TNT2. I could run RTCW with everything maxed out, let alone Sin which was three years older.. Sin ran alright in my previous Pentium 233 MMX, 64mb, S3 Virge and Voodoo1 4mb (I could even run NFS Porsche 2000).
The good old times!
This post has been edited by Gambini: 10 August 2013 - 08:34 AM
#13 Posted 10 August 2013 - 05:08 PM
leilei, on 09 August 2013 - 01:00 PM, said:
If you value clean image output over anything else, you could go Matrox... they're overpriced for that. However that isn't without compromise - Commander Keen Goodbye Galaxy / Bio Menace will stutter like hell.
I have a G400 lying around. I also have a TNT2 M64. This isn't going to be used for DOS games, I built a seperate rig for that years ago.
I found an MSI BX Master motherboard in my closet I totally forgot I had, hence why I'm doing this now.
I got the processor in the mail today. Holy shit! Look at the size of that motherfucker! I gotta go to the hardware store tomorrow and get an allen key so I can put some fresh gel on it. Something tells me I won't be needing a fan.
Oh, and that's not an erection. That's the denim scrap I use to sharpen my razors.
This post has been edited by Viper The Rapper: 10 August 2013 - 05:12 PM
#14 Posted 23 August 2013 - 07:21 AM
The ritual logo comes up, but the intro doesn't play. The I'm game lighting also seems so cause massive framerate drops. Any ideas?
#15 Posted 23 August 2013 - 05:21 PM
here's a page, maybe you can use the custom resolution patch (if it's still there)
http://pcgamingwiki.com/wiki/SiN
#16 Posted 25 August 2013 - 11:05 PM
The missing intro movie is because I have the censored rerelease distributed by Xplosiv. I ordered an original disc, Unreal, Tribes, and Theif in a lot for $6 off eBay.
Oh yeah, SIN FUCKING ROCKS.
This post has been edited by Viper The Rapper: 25 August 2013 - 11:07 PM