3dfx Voodoo4 4500AGP

Video Features & Playback

The VSA-100 features no Hardware Motion Compensation or other unique video playback features, and in some of our DVD quality tests the image quality of the Voodoo4 4500 seemed a bit more washed out than the competition. For more information on the Voodoo4/5's video playback quality and performance visit our October 2000 Video Card Roundup entitled: DVD Quality, Features & Performance.

Just like the Voodoo5 5500, the Voodoo4 4500 has no video input or output features.

FSAA Performance and Image Quality

While we have come to the conclusion before that 3dfx's 2-sample FSAA was the best overall FSAA setting to choose, the Voodoo4 4500 simply doesn't have the fill rate to cope with the 50% fill rate decrease associated with enabling 2-sample FSAA. While it may be bearable for some, in most situations you will probably opt to leave it turned off; not to say that there aren't situations where it may come in handy, it's just that those that do are few and far between.

As far as performance is concerned, you can realistically expect to lose very close to half your performance by enabling FSAA on the Voodoo4 4500.

For more information on 3dfx's FSAA quality and performance, as well as how it stacks up to competing offerings from ATI and NVIDIA please read our FSAA Comparison.

Overclocking

3dfx's Overclocking Tool, which can be downloaded from their website, is nothing more than a manipulated registry key that enables the "tool" in the drivers. This allows you to adjust your core/memory clock speed (since they are dependent on one another you can't set them independently), however 3dfx clearly states in the utility that they don't recommend overclocking more than 10% higher than the default clock.

Considering that the highest we could reach was 175MHz, we didn't even get a chance to push 3dfx's suggested limit of 10%. At 183MHz there was already corrupted data present on the screen, and it wasn't until we backed down to 175MHz did things become stable. For more information on how to check your video card for stability while overclocked, including what to look for, read our quick one-page guide on how to overclock your video card.

The performance improvement was pretty much what we expected. Since the Voodoo4 is fill rate limited in many cases, it desperately needs the extra clock speed. And at 1024 x 768 the 5% increase in clock speed yields a 5% increase in performance. It is unfortunate that we could not go any higher, however there is a possibility that other cards will be able to push the envelope even further.