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We
decided to give the Voodoo3 3000 PCI a
hard work out here. We have more
Quake 3 benchmarks than you can shake a
rail gun at. First we ran the tests
with both the CPU and the Voodoo3 at
default speeds of 300MHz. for the Celeron
and 166MHz for the V3. We then
cranked both clocks up individually until
we hit top end with our particular set
up.
Here
are the results.
The
Voodoo3 3000 PCI still shows that it is
host processor hungry here.
So
we decided to feed the beast!
Well,
well... The Celeron pushes the polygons at
450MHz. That'll play now won't it?
Once
again we wanted to squeeze the juice a
little more and set the V3 3000 PCI at a
very stable 180MHz.
For
the total cost of this set up, maybe $125
for the V3-3000 (online pricing) and
$50-60 for the Celeron, how could you
complain about this performance?
With the Voodoo3 3000 PCI overclocked to
180MHz. there is about a 10-15%
performance gain in Quake 3. I know
a few AGP TNT2 cards that would run scared
of these numbers if hooked up to a Celeron.
:-)
True,
no 32 bit color but let's look at that
image quality once more for old time
sake....
16
bit color 1024X768 JPEG with no
compression
Click for full image - 285K
Not
too shabby at all. Some may be stuck
on 32 bit color but frankly if you are
taking that much time to look at the
scenery THAT closely, in Quake 3, then you
are most likely rocket bait! :-)
Making
the grade
The
Voodoo3 3000 PCI is an interesting
combination of high end 3D Graphics
Technology scaled to the mainstream
market. Hard core gaming enthusiast
may opt for AGP versions of the Voodoo3
line or other cards supporting 32 bit
color. Never the less, there are a
ton of PCI slots left out there and folks
who have no other option for a graphics
card, other than PCI. The Voodoo3
3000 does a nice job delivering good frame
rates and image quality on low to mid
range systems.
On
a side note, with a liitle tweaking and
some custom cooling on the card (think
attach fan to heatsink), measurable gains
in performance should be available.
All
told, the Voodoo3 3000 PCI is yet another
fine 3dfx product sure to please the
masses. We give the Voodoo3 3000 PCI
a Hot Hardware Heat Meter Rating of...
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