NVIDIA GeForce 2 GTS

Conclusion

The GeForce 2 GTS actually fits in the perfect spot between the Voodoo5 5500 and what we can expect from the Voodoo5 6000. With a price tag of around $349 at its launch, the GeForce 2 will obviously be more expensive than the sub $300 Voodoo5 5500 but it also outperforms the 5500. At the same time, the V5 6000, judging entirely by its clearly superior fill rate, will most likely offer a huge performance increase over the GeForce 2 but at the same time will carry a price tag close to $600. This leaves the GeForce 2 in the middle of the two as an expensive, yet powerful solution.

If you were counting on NVIDIA supporting FSAA with the GeForce 2 then you're in luck...sort of. Under OpenGL, the GeForce 2's FSAA looks perfectly fine, unfortunately the games that you'll want to use FSAA in are primarily Direct3D games which is where the GeForce 2's FSAA doesn't exactly work, for now at least. Future NVIDIA driver releases should enable FSAA for all Direct3D games, but this is definitely a work in progress.

As far as availability goes, you can expect to see GeForce 2 cards real soon. Depending on how companies play their cards (no pun intended), the GeForce 2 may end up hitting store shelves before the Voodoo5.

At close to $350 it will be a tough call, if you currently have a DDR GeForce, you'll probably want to hang on to your investment. If you have a SDR GeForce, TNT2, or Voodoo3 you may want to go for the cheaper Voodoo5 5500 solution which does offer FSAA in Direct3D in today's games. Then again if FSAA was never really your game, or you're mainly into first person shooters, the GeForce 2 is probably the card you'll want to get.

For now, NVIDIA has the fastest solution available, upon the release of the Voodoo5 6000 that will change but there are only so many people that are willing to spend $600 on a video card so the GeForce 2 may end up being a more practical solution.

There is always the option of waiting, in 6 months we'll see NV20 from NVIDIA and with any luck, ATI's Radeon 256 and then we'll be able to run through this whole video card competition all over again.

For another view on the GeForce 2 GTS be sure to check out SharkyExtreme's GeForce 2 GTS Review