3dfx Voodoo4 4500 & Voodoo5 5500 Preview

Driver limitations push the Voodoo 4/5 down below the previous generation Voodoo3. Once the final drivers are released, we expect performance to be at least on par with the SDR GeForce.

Both the Voodoo4 and Voodoo5 jump up in performance here, and are virtually identical in 16-bit color performance but the added memory bandwidth of the 64MB 5500 gives it more than a 33% improvement over the 32MB 4500 in 32-bit color.

The Voodoo5 5500 is struggling to keep up with the GeForce in 16-bit color, but because of its slight memory bandwidth advantage and greater fill rate, we see it pull ahead in 32-bit color which is what matters in the end.

The Rage Fury MAXX still seems to suffer from whatever problem plagued it in our initial review of the card at higher resolutions. Some rumors seem to point to a poorly implemented AGP interface of the card, whatever it is it didn't do well in our memory bandwidth intensive tests. If you consider Quaver to be the "crusher" of the Quake III benchmarks, then you'll want to stay away from the MAXX, at least if you plan on playing in 32-bit color mode (which is very desirable in Quake III Arena).