April 1999 Super7 3D Video Accelerator Comparison

The surprising winner here? The Voodoo2 SLI. The more mature 3DNow! drivers of the Voodoo2 give it the performance advantage of every other setup in the roundup, including 3dfx’s newly released Voodoo3. Just as AnandTech illustrated in the Voodoo3 Review, the Voodoo2 SLI and the Voodoo3 are virtually equal performers at 800 x 600. The Voodoo3 2000 was omitted due to the relatively small performance difference between the Voodoo3 2000 and the Voodoo3 3000 as well as the Voodoo2 SLI.

Super7 users that have already invested in a Voodoo2 SLI solution will definitely want to hang on to their Voodoo2 SLI cards until the next wave of graphics cards make their way into the market. There is no real benefit for the Voodoo3 right now in the Super7 arena, especially considering that the maturity of the drivers may end up giving you slower performance than what you’re used to in some situations.

If you don’t have a 3DNow! processor, the Voodoo3 will end up being the fastest overall performer, however it won’t keep that lead over the Voodoo2 SLI by a large margin as is illustrated by the K6-266 benchmarks.

The Voodoo2 is also performing quite well for a single card solution, for those users that are craving more performance out of their setup and are contemplating purchasing the Voodoo3, you’re probably better off adding a second Voodoo2 to your setup and running it in SLI as the cost of a Voodoo2 should be quite affordable by now.

One of the most affordable and well rounded 2D/3D accelerators happens to be one of the most commonly overlooked ones, the 3dfx Banshee. While its lack of single-pass multi-texturing keeps it below the performance of the other 3dfx cards in Quake 2 and games based on the same engine, its affordable price and single card nature make it ideal for an affordable Super7 setup. 3dfx’s latest Banshee drivers boast 3DNow! support, and using the trick to enable 3DNow! support with 3dfx’s MiniGL driver the Banshee easily outsteps the Riva TNT and ATI Rage 128 which ended up being the two worst choices for a Super7 system.

The Voodoo3 is limited too greatly in the Super7 arena, especially by its own current driver support. If you can live with decent 3D acceleration, you may want to consider a single Voodoo2 or a Banshee if you need a 2D/3D card for your Super7 setup for now, and then in a few months you can pick up a Voodoo3 when the prices drop a little lower in preparation for the next wave of graphics cards.

The only real benefit the Voodoo3 offers here is support for higher resolutions at playable frame rates. You can expect the Voodoo3 to rise to the top of the performance charts as soon as 3dfx finishes optimizing the drivers for the card. In a recent conversation with a few 3dfx representatives AnandTech was told that the company is committed to providing further 3DNow! enhancements in their future drivers. Let’s hope that nVidia and ATI can learn from 3dfx’s example in the future as they are simply lagging behind in this race for a champion.