Budget Video Comparison - November 1999

As far as 2D image quality goes, the Voodoo3 and Velocity 100 cards are both top notch. For the TNT2 M64 and the Savage 4 line, 2D image quality is a little harder to determine as it depends greatly on the individual manufacturers greatly. The TNT2 M64 cards are generally done quite well, while the Savage 4 Pro + is a bit below for resolutions in the 1600x1200 range. Diamond has generally been known for producing cards with excellent 2D image quality, and their Savage 4 Xtreme card is no different. However, be sure to check out individual card reviews to get full details on a specific card’s 2D image quality.

When it comes to 3D, things are a little more clear cut. 3dfx has yet to produce a chip that supports 32-bit rendering or texture sizes greater than 256x256. Granted, 3dfx has arguably the best 16-bit rendering out there using the latest set of drivers, but it’s still not as good as other cards’ 32-bit. The TNT2 M64 and Savage 4 line of course have full support for 32-bit rendering and 2048x2048 textures. Further, the Savage 4 also features S3 Texture Compression, which is finally becoming a reality in a number of games coming this holiday season. S3TC encourages the use of high resolution textures by minimizing the storage requirements for these textures.

Feature Comparison

AnandTech Video Chipset Feature Comparison Chart
-	-
	3Dfx			NVIDIA TNT2 M64	S3 Savage 4
	Voodoo3 2000	Velocity 100	Voodoo2		Pro+	Xtreme
Type
Standalone 3D	-	-		-	-	-
2D/3D			-
Interface Support
PCI 2.1		-		-		-
AGP 2X			-
AGP 4X	-	-	-
Rendering
16bpp Color
32bpp Color	-	-	-
Single Pass Multi-Texturing		*
Texture Compression	-	-	-	-
Maximum Texture Size	256x256	256x256	256x256	2048x2048	2048x2048	2048x2048
Clock Speed (core/memory)	143/143	143/143	90/100	125/150	125/143	166/166
Fillrate (Mtexels/s)	286	286*	180	250	250	333
API Support
Direct3D
OpenGL ICD
Glide				-	-	-

* with 2nd TMU enabled via registry - see 3dfx Velocity 100 Review for details