GeForce3 and 2D quality...

[Technoid]

A link on the fori pointed to a page with instructions on how to remove a filter to gain quality on GF cards.

That page said that the board makers are using to strong filters.

Something about EMI output...

Don't remember all, it was'nt that interesting because I had a G400 then

[az]

http://www.geocities.com/porotuner/imagequality.html

AZ

[superfly]

Well I'm using a Geforce 3 right now(visiontek),and overall i'm pretty impressed with the 2d output...

I'll even go as far as saying that it very nearly matches the quality of the G400 in both color saturation and precision as well as text clarity,even at very high resolutions(1600*1200 32 bit).

I still have my G400 installed on another system using the same monitor as in my current system.

It's dvd decoding quality has also improved quite a lot too,compared to my previous Gf2 gts which wasn't that great anyways and compared to the G400 it's very hard to tell them apart.

It goes without saying that it's 3d performance is extremely impressive especially when i can now play Q3 at 1600*1200 32 bit at 80+ fps,as well as any other game on the market today at that resolution,including tribes 2(both single player and multiplayer).

Overall very good for 330$ shipping included.

BTW...it overclocks like nobody's business(240 core-550 memory)using just the stock cooling that comes with it.... .

[DuRaNgO]

Time for new glasses, eh?

edit: Don't suppose that $330 gets you video in or dualhead?

[This message has been edited by DuRaNgO (edited 11 May 2001).]

[EvilDonnyboy]

Hmmm. Very interesting. If superfly is right that the Visontek's GF3 has good 2D, I'm sold. No need to consider a slower G550 anymore.

I'll be getting a new tbird rig soon, so the GF3 now looks like a very attractive option. But I'd like some VIVO conntectors on the card, so I'll prolly be looking at the Asus cards. But Asus's cards traditionally have some of the worse image quality. So the jury is still out for me.

[superfly]

Well let put everything into perpective shall we???...

The best 3d gaming card,in which i can play every single game on the markey today at 1600*1200 32 at 60+ fps,even if it's called giants,sacrifice,tribes 2(even online with 40+ players),collin mcrae rally2,nascar 4,etc....

Full dx8 hardware with more features than i can even bothered to type(including Matrox environmental bump mapping),so that i can take advantage of any game that has it without the game becoming a slide show(unlike a G400).

Some of the best directx and opengl drivers around(in both win 98 and 2000)for both gaming and professional apps.

Gf1,Gf2 and now Gf3 are probably the best cards around(short of using 1500$+ cards like 3d labs,intergraph,firegl,etc...)for professional opengl apps.

Like said before,the 2d quality has improved quite a bit relative to previous nvidia cards and while i won't say that it quite matches that of a G400,the differences are very minor and i almost have to have both monitors side by side to notice the differences,even at high resolutions and color depths

dvd decoding has also taken a turn for the better,but that might be caused in part by improvements in powerdvd as well as the fact that the chip now supports ICDT(Motion compensation-just like ATI cards do).

Granted there's no dual head yet,but you can bet there will be later versions of the card (possibly the Geforce3 mx???)that will probably have it(second generation twin view???).

While there aren't even official drivers for it yet,the betas are performing pretty good as it is and i can only imagine how much more speed can be tweaked out of the card once those offcial drivers are released.

Overall for 330$,it's an awsome deal period.

[superfly]

And in a brave(or just plain dumb.. )attempt to see just how fast my gf3 can go,i added an extra card cooler in the pci card right next to it and really pushed the card as far as it would go without either visual artifacts or lockups.

How's this for an overclock...

250 mhz core(it runs at 200 by default)
540 mhz memory(460 mhz is the default speed)

At those settings,i'm running Q3 at 1600*1200 32bit(all other settings enabled,including sound set at HQ)at 91 fps in either timedemo 1 or 2.

In tribes 2 at that resolution and with all settings maxed out,i never go below 70 fps,even in 40+ player games.

Damn this card kicks major ass.... .

[xortam]

How can you tell if you're pushing the GF3 too far? Do the visual artifacts get even worse?

[superfly]

Haha funny xortam... .

But on a more serious note,whatever matrox releases after the G550 will have it's hands full if it's to beat a gf3 in both features and overall speed....

Cause i'll say it again...THIS CARD ROCKS!!!.

[Snake-Eyes]

Agreed Superfly. Bought a VisionTek on Monday, and it's 2D quality is extremely good compared to any other nVidia based card I've ever used, and nearly as good (if not as good) as that of my G400Max.

Being able to play UT at 1024x768x32bits with all the eye-candy on and Quincunx AA enabled rules! Quincunx slightly blurs, but you'll really be straining credibility to notice it at all while playing. On the other hand, the lack of jaggies is extremely noticable.

------------------
System specs:
AMD T-Bird 1.33 (o.c. to 1.5Ghz)
Asus A7M266
256MB Crucial PC2100 DDR RAM
Promise Fastrak 100 EIDE Raid controller running
2x IBM DTLA 60GB 7200 RPM UDMA 100 hdd, RAID 0 array

[superfly]

Hey durango...

Guess i don't need glasses after all... .

[superfly]

i'll settle for high resolutions myself(1600*1200 no AA)since it gives about the same performance as 1024*768 32bit AA enabled(4x)and it's hard to tell the difference between both anyways.

[superfly]

And check out this latest article where nvidia's CEO see's video cards going,in terms of 3d performance,within the next five years.

www.theregister.co.uk/content/2/19036.html

Video card chips with 300 million transistors by 2006(GF3 has 57 BTW)...

Holy s***... .

[superfly]

Just for kicks,i borrowed a friends 21"(sony E500)monitor and benched the card at super high resolutions.

These results are with the card o/c'd(250/540)

At 3d mark 2001 2048*1536 32bit i got 2730 3d marks.

Under Q3(same settings)i got 62 fps.

Very nice considering the resolutions it was running at.... .

Coudn't test anything else though since he needs this monitor back ASAP.

[Rags]

Picked up a VT GF3 at EB today, it's going back. According to Superfly and other nVidia users, this is supposed to have improved 2D, the 2D is still subpar. Better than my V7700, but about the same as the Elsa Gladiac I had....still not real great. ATI even has better 2D than this. Maybe I got a bad card. Stay tuned...

Rags