|
The Cadillac of Voodoo3! The 3dfx Voodoo3-3500TV
|
||
|
First things first. We're not going to bring you the usual screen shots from this card. The image quality is exactly the same as the fabulous quality you saw in our V3-3000 Review. However, as usual, we are not going to just gloss over the great 3D capabilities of this card either. Instead, we fixed up our little V3-3500TV Speedster with a little Hot Sauce and then gave it a good shakin' and bakin'! Let's rock...
Our Test System Full Tower ATX Case w/ 300W PS, Pentium3 -450 Overclocked to 558 MHz. Abit BE6 DMA66 capable motherboard, 128MB of PC133 HSDRAM, WD 18G 7200RPM DMA66 Hard Drive, 3dfx Voodoo3-3500TV, Toshiba SDM1202 3rd. Gen. 4.8X DVD/32X CDROM, Win 98, DirectX 6.1, 3dfx Reference Drivers Included on the CD ROM that shipped with the board
|
||
|
A little more pre-qualification is in order here. We overclocked this card to 212MHz. with Entech's Perftune. This was the maximum achievable core speed without lock-ups, with the cased closed and with the stock installed 3dfx heatsink. Will you be able to get to this speed? I don't know, every card is different but I believe most come equipped with Hyundai 5.5ns SDRAM. This higher speed SDRAM, in addition to the higher speed bin V3 chip used on these boards, I feel allowed us to hit these heights. We also did a little modification to the cooling set up on the board. More on that later... :-) On to the benchmarks! Quake 2 Timedemo Results @ 212 MHz. Core Speed
Quake 2 "Crusher" Demo Results @ 212 MHz. Core Speed
Quake 3 Arena Timedemo Results @ 212MHz. Core Speed 16 Bit Color w/ 32 Bit Color In Game Setting
3DMark 99 MAX Results @ 212 MHz. Core Speed
|
||
| Need we show you more??? These numbers are nothing short of kick-ass! These are the fastest Timedemo and Crusher benchmarks I have seen to date and the 3DMark number is the fastest I have ever done in house. | ||
|
Now for a little fun... We're going to finish off this review of the Voodoo3-3500TV with a little extreme overclocking... :-) Remember a few months back, we did this to our Voodoo3-3000?
Well, we hooked the same Dual 5K RPM fan rig up to our V3-3500 and let her rip! I was able to get the board to overclock up to 218 MHz. with the PC Case closed and with full stability. Remember, if you try any of this kind of stuff at home, you'll void your warranty... And wait a minute here... What's this??? A little "FUD" (fear uncertainty and doubt) courtesy of 3dfx
I have never seen this before... This message popped up on my screen after rebooting once. The proverbial cover-thine-ass statement from 3dfx! That's OK guys we won't hold it against you... But what fun would that be if we didn't live on the edge?!!! :-)
Here is what we gained for our cooling efforts!
|
||
| Well I'll be... It looks as if the lowly P3-450@558MHz. starts to top out in the lower resolutions! The numbers for 640X480 and 800X600 are darn close to the 212MHz. V3 numbers. However, we seem much more of an improvement in the high end resolutions where the V3 benefits more from its higher core clock. This was a very interesting study for me but not worth the risk of cooking my sweet new multi-media power house. I backed it down to 210MHz . with the fans installed. Not too shabby either and a little more conservative. | ||
|
All together now... From this reviewer's perspective, the Voodoo3-3500TV is the fastest 3D accelerator on the market today. It also boasts really great features on the AV side of things. These new toys can breath new life into your computer and allow you to do more than you ever had before from a Multi-Media standpoint. All in all, I highly recommend the Voodoo3-3500TV for anyone who wants the "Cadillac of Voodoo3s" with all the bells and whistles! |
||
|
We give the 3dfx Voodoo3-3500TV a Hot Hardware Temp-O-Meter Rating of....
The V3-3500TV is a Hot Hardware Editor's Choice !
|
||
