Super7 Video Accelerator Comparison - Part 2: Mid-Range Gaming Solutions (June 99)

Here's where things get interesting, pull away the power of the faster Super7 CPUs and see how well the bad boys really dominate. First, the 1600 x 1200 tests just for kicks.

At 1152 x 864, 3dfx does take a noticeable, albeit not massive lead over NVIDIA with both the overclocked Voodoo3 3000 and the regular 3000. The Hercules TNT2 Ultra is close behind, but keep in mind that the 175MHz clock of that particular chip is much higher than the standard TNT2 Ultra speed, whose 150MHz clock isn't enough to push the Voodoo3 2000 aside, although it comes quite close.

Now if you take 3dfx's precious MiniGL away, and arm the Voodoo3 with its OpenGL ICD, NVIDIA dominates with even the regular 125MHz TNT2 outpacing the overclocked Voodoo3. The Savage4 doesn't perform as well on the K6-2 400 as it is slightly outpaced by the ATI Rage 128, however it still manages to keep a small lead over the old TNT. At this point, the Rage 128, Savage4, TNT, and Permedia3 all perform basically alike. The only exception to the bottom of the list being the Matrox G200 which is noticeably slower than the rest of the bunch. Fortunately for Matrox, the G400MAX rests comfortably beneath the Voodoo3 3000 (ICD) in terms of performance on this particular test.

The stats don't change all too much here, however the addition of the Voodoo2 SLI makes things a bit interesting. For a user upgrading from a single Voodoo2, an often times overlooked upgrade path is another Voodoo2, and this graph is proof of the benefits. Outpacing the TNT2 Ultra, the Voodoo2 SLI is still a very viable solution, and a cost effective one at that, provided that you already have a Voodoo2 card. Once all 12MB V2 cards drop to below the $60 mark, the Voodoo2 SLI setup will probably become one of the more desired solutions for this particular market. If you want the absolute best performance however, look at the graphs and decide for yourself.