Which is Better???

[scanner80]

Hello,
I have an onboard video card that I can designate up to 32 MB of RAM of
video from my system memory.
I have a VOODOO3 16MB PCI video card I can install
instead of using the onboard. (I don't have a AGP).
I have a 1000MHZ, with 384 MG of ram, W2000 system.
Would the Voodoo3 card give me better performance
overall with my system? I don't game , I just want the best performance out
of my system.
Thank you very much!
Jeff

 

[Mac Cool]

I have an onboard video card that I can designate up to 32 MB of RAM
of video from my system memory.
I have a VOODOO3 16MB PCI video card I can install
instead of using the onboard. (I don't have a AGP).
I have a 1000MHZ, with 384 MG of ram, W2000 system.
Would the Voodoo3 card give me better performance
overall with my system? I don't game

I doubt you will see any significant performance boost. The onboard system
is using a bit of system memory, but otherwise is powerful enough for 2D
apps. The Voodoo will definitely not hurt performance, you may want to try
it.

 

[Roy Coorne]

I doubt you will see any significant performance boost. The onboard system
is using a bit of system memory, but otherwise is powerful enough for 2D
apps. The Voodoo will definitely not hurt performance, you may want to try
it.

Well, depends on the quality of the onboard video chip.

I have a Voodoo3 2000 16MB PCI, too, and it produces a sharp picture
(not as good as that one by a Matrox, of course;-).
As 3dfx no longer exists, there are no official drivers for WinXP. But
there are 3rd party drivers, even brand-new, available via
www.voodoofiles.com.

Whereas other legacy display adapters like the Riva TNT are forgotten,
the Voodoo cards enjoy kind of cult status with newsgroups and
discussion forums, e.g.
http://www.3dfxzone.it/enboard/ (in English).

So, whatever you do, keep your Voodoo card...

HTH - Roy

 

[David Maynard]

Hello,
I have an onboard video card that I can designate up to 32 MB of RAM of
video from my system memory.
I have a VOODOO3 16MB PCI video card I can install
instead of using the onboard. (I don't have a AGP).
I have a 1000MHZ, with 384 MG of ram, W2000 system.
Would the Voodoo3 card give me better performance
overall with my system? I don't game , I just want the best performance out
of my system.
Thank you very much!
Jeff

It depends on how the motherboard video is designed and you didn't say what
either were.

However, a 'common' means is by sharing (system) memory (which isn't the 32
meg APG aperture size you mention) with the processor and while that's not
much memory by today's standards it means the display is constantly using
up memory bandwidth on each display refresh cycle (whether the display data
has changed or not).

If yours operates that way then you should see improved processor
performance by using an AGP or PCI card with it's on-board memory (as they
all are) since it refreshes from there. Whether you'd notice it in general
use is problematic but processor and/or memory benchmarks should show an
improvement.

If the on-board video has it's OWN memory, and there are some which do,
then you probably won't see any processor improvement. Any improvement
would be the voodoo vs whatever your motherboard display chip is.