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Tried a few cards, here's my results.
These are personal opinions, based on observations from my machine only.
Called local pc dealer in Alberta, Canada last week, he mentioned OEM G400's had just arrived. I went down and picked one up. It was a G400 32 Meg OEM single head, came with a single install CD.
Here's my test system:
P3-450 o/c 580
256Megs PC125 Micron Ram
Abit Bx6r2
WD HD
Sony 20se2 Monitor
Here's my test results. I used the latest drivers for each that were on the net.
3D MARK Scores:
CARD 3D Mark 99 Max
G400SH (125/166) 5601
G400SH (???/175) 5632
V3-3000 (175) 5685
V770Ultra (170/195) 5714
CL TNT2U (180/205) 5793
Comments:
The G400 surprised me indeed, can't wait to see a Max in the machine, the plain single head is right up with the big boys! Used powerstrip to overclock its memory to 175, that's all that was adjustable. Any memory speed above caused lock ups.
2D Sharpness - G400 was good, but with all the hype I had hoped for more. The best in the group goes to the V770U and the G400, hard to tell the difference at 1152x864 and below. G400 wins out at higher resolutions. I prefer a very sharp image, and wouldn't use any of the cards at higher than 1152x864. V3-3000 was close to the top 2, and the CL TNT2U was poor even at 1152x864.
2D Color - Nothing close to the G400, TNT2's 2nd and V3 third. The G400's was very impressive to use with soft DVD and browsing the net.
3D Games -
FS98 FSBench
G400 66.7 Smooth, beautiful colors, no pauses
V3-3000 77.4 fastest, but pauses
TNT2U's both smooth speed similar to G400.
NFS3
No benchmark here I am aware of, just comments on color, the G400 really impressed, all cards are fast and smooth in the game. But color, the G400 knows how.
Combat Flight Sim - All cards run at similar speeds, V3 was fastest, G400 had again the best color.
Open GL - Sorry no testing here, not into 1st person shooters.
Driver Comments:
All drivers were stable in 2d and 3d. The only bugs I encountered were with the G400 set, but they were minor like the having the wrong refresh rate displayed, easily fixed my resetting it and when switching resoltions, the screen changes were not clean.
Cost Canadian Dollars:
G400SH32 OEM $249
V3-3000 Retail $249
CL TNT2U Retail $309
V770U Retail $349
Overall Comments:
All the cards are impressive compared to what was out just a short time ago. Seeing the G400 SH made me feel if the MAX was available or even a dual head regular G400, it would be my choice. The color, sharpness and speed combination beats all others. If you can wait, wait, but who knows what other choices will be by the time the wait is over.
If you are buying now and can't find the above..., either a G400SH or V770Ultra is a good bet.
You shouldn't be disappointed by any of the cards tested. Thanks for reading.
These are personal opinions, based on observations from my machine only.
Called local pc dealer in Alberta, Canada last week, he mentioned OEM G400's had just arrived. I went down and picked one up. It was a G400 32 Meg OEM single head, came with a single install CD.
Here's my test system:
P3-450 o/c 580
256Megs PC125 Micron Ram
Abit Bx6r2
WD HD
Sony 20se2 Monitor
Here's my test results. I used the latest drivers for each that were on the net.
3D MARK Scores:
CARD 3D Mark 99 Max
G400SH (125/166) 5601
G400SH (???/175) 5632
V3-3000 (175) 5685
V770Ultra (170/195) 5714
CL TNT2U (180/205) 5793
Comments:
The G400 surprised me indeed, can't wait to see a Max in the machine, the plain single head is right up with the big boys! Used powerstrip to overclock its memory to 175, that's all that was adjustable. Any memory speed above caused lock ups.
2D Sharpness - G400 was good, but with all the hype I had hoped for more. The best in the group goes to the V770U and the G400, hard to tell the difference at 1152x864 and below. G400 wins out at higher resolutions. I prefer a very sharp image, and wouldn't use any of the cards at higher than 1152x864. V3-3000 was close to the top 2, and the CL TNT2U was poor even at 1152x864.
2D Color - Nothing close to the G400, TNT2's 2nd and V3 third. The G400's was very impressive to use with soft DVD and browsing the net.
3D Games -
FS98 FSBench
G400 66.7 Smooth, beautiful colors, no pauses
V3-3000 77.4 fastest, but pauses
TNT2U's both smooth speed similar to G400.
NFS3
No benchmark here I am aware of, just comments on color, the G400 really impressed, all cards are fast and smooth in the game. But color, the G400 knows how.
Combat Flight Sim - All cards run at similar speeds, V3 was fastest, G400 had again the best color.
Open GL - Sorry no testing here, not into 1st person shooters.
Driver Comments:
All drivers were stable in 2d and 3d. The only bugs I encountered were with the G400 set, but they were minor like the having the wrong refresh rate displayed, easily fixed my resetting it and when switching resoltions, the screen changes were not clean.
Cost Canadian Dollars:
G400SH32 OEM $249
V3-3000 Retail $249
CL TNT2U Retail $309
V770U Retail $349
Overall Comments:
All the cards are impressive compared to what was out just a short time ago. Seeing the G400 SH made me feel if the MAX was available or even a dual head regular G400, it would be my choice. The color, sharpness and speed combination beats all others. If you can wait, wait, but who knows what other choices will be by the time the wait is over.
If you are buying now and can't find the above..., either a G400SH or V770Ultra is a good bet.
You shouldn't be disappointed by any of the cards tested. Thanks for reading.
) running in mine. I'm thinking about getting PC133 just so's I can try it out. The extra 4 x 4.5 or 18Mhz may not seem like much, but change the PCI Bus from 32.25 to 33.25 (1Million extra cycles a second), and the AGP Bus from 86Mhz ((129 / 3) * 2) to 89Mhz ((133 / 3) * 2) that's an extra 3Million cycles a second.
- as SteveC showed us a few weeks back..... 
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