TOCA/Graphics Card Advice needed

In the next month or so, I'm likely to fork out for a new graphics card. The two games that I'd like to benefit from this are International Rally Championship and TOCA. My machine is a non-MMX Pentium 200 w/ 32Mb RAM. I understand that most 3dFX stuff comes as a separate card but as I'm probably going to replace my current video card at the same time (Diamond Edge 3D = sh*t!), I was wondering if there's ONE card that I could buy which would give me plenty of ordinary performance plus 3d acceleration. Money isn't really an issue with this one - I just want to get it right. Incidentally, I downloaded the TOCA demo today and was disappointed. I think the sound is pretty good but on my machine it's jerko-matic. Has anyone got any better comments? Perhaps it's completely cool with 3dFX? John

Quoted text (14 lines)

> In the next month or so, I'm likely to fork out for a new graphics card. > The two games that I'd like to benefit from this are International Rally > Championship and TOCA. > My machine is a non-MMX Pentium 200 w/ 32Mb RAM. > I understand that most 3dFX stuff comes as a separate card but as I'm > probably going to replace my current video card at the same time (Diamond > Edge 3D = sh*t!), I was wondering if there's ONE card that I could buy > which would give me plenty of ordinary performance plus 3d acceleration. > Money isn't really an issue with this one - I just want to get it right. > Incidentally, I downloaded the TOCA demo today and was disappointed. I > think the sound is pretty good but on my machine it's jerko-matic. > Has anyone got any better comments? Perhaps it's completely cool with 3dFX? > John

Yes there is a "one card" solution that allows you to get 3dfx + 2d -- it's called Voodoo Rush ... and to date, it's been very maligned. Many complain the 3d part of RUSH cards are slower than it's 3d-only counterpart (plain voodoo). I wouldn't know, I have a 3d-only card, the Diamond Monster 3d (which I love...). If you can wait, the next-gen card is due out in the March time frame - the Voodoo-2 (again, 3d-only) and the Banshee (2d/3d). It'll definitely be faster, have more memory and be about twice the price or more of current cards (1st gen) but is looking sweet. My advice: If you can't wait or don't want to pay about $300 for the board, keep your 2d card and get a Canopus 3dfx card ... it has 6m and is puported to be a screamer. Good luck! Doug

It's jerky on my p200 also but you get a very smooth framerate when you use a 3dfx card (I have a Diamond Monster 3d and love it) cheers, matt

TOCA DEMO was choppy(10 fps or lower) at 320 x 240 on my K5-166 and ET6000 video card. I then dropped in a Diamond Monster 3D (3Dfx) and went to 640 x 480 with great graphics and a playable frame rate 15 fps or better I would guess. I would think that a iP200 with 3Dfx card would give around 20 fps at 640 x 480 resolution. I can't believe the performance gain from this 3Dfx card. Another option you might consider is the new Nvidia Riva 128 based cards like the Diamond Viper 330 as a 2D/3D all in one solution. Jerry

I am afriad so, I would go for a 3DFX, but the performance isnt bad on a P200MMX using PVR2 for D3D

Quoted text (14 lines)

>In the next month or so, I'm likely to fork out for a new graphics card. >The two games that I'd like to benefit from this are International Rally >Championship and TOCA. >My machine is a non-MMX Pentium 200 w/ 32Mb RAM. >I understand that most 3dFX stuff comes as a separate card but as I'm >probably going to replace my current video card at the same time (Diamond >Edge 3D = sh*t!), I was wondering if there's ONE card that I could buy >which would give me plenty of ordinary performance plus 3d acceleration. >Money isn't really an issue with this one - I just want to get it right. >Incidentally, I downloaded the TOCA demo today and was disappointed. I >think the sound is pretty good but on my machine it's jerko-matic. >Has anyone got any better comments? Perhaps it's completely cool with 3dFX? >John