3D for Real! (nVidia Geforce2 gts/pro)

Member Name: one47

Product:	nVidia Geforce2 gts/pro
Date:	08/10/01 (572 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: fast, good price

Disadvantages: already dated somewhat

When I purchased this little toy of mine almost a year ago, it was leading edge technology, and it set me back over £250. Generally that would mean that I am looking at an obsolete piece of equipment worth about £50 by now. Well I'm pleased to say it isn't quite that bad!


>>> What is it?

It's a PC graphics card, designed for gamers. It is FAST! Specifications for those that care:

AGP 4x, 256-bit architecture
32Mb RAM (DDR version available) (Plenty!)
25 million triangles per second
800 million pixels per second
Texture compression
Hardware T&L (Transform and Lighting)
Bump maps
Light maps
... and many more ...

Now that list is becoming pretty standard these days. So nothing special. For comparison, for £250 today, you get a theoretical speed-up of perhaps 15% over the above details, and a slightly longer list of "built-in" features.


>>> Can I still get one?

Oh yes. They are now selling at £88 for a bare-bones card, or £150 for a fully packaged card with a pair of 3D specs (No, not just the red/green type either!)


>>> So is it any good?

Good question - The numbers on the box actually tell you very little.

This card is not good. It is SUPERB! When I installed it, I didn't even need to start running flashy games to feel the difference. Just starting windows, using a browser, moving windows about a bit and clicking menus becomes a pleasure as everything starts to respond that bit more snappily. Of course if you already have a reasonable video card, you wouldn't benefit quite as much as I did.

Starting up the games is also a pleasure. "Tomb Raider" and "Unreal Tournament" take on a whole new life, and are reborn unto your computer screen.

Now I confess that my PC is not as leading edge as they go, so I cannot go for the full max-resolution scr
eens and expect it to work properly, but given the choice at the time of a £1000 PC upgrade, or a £250 Graphics card upgrade, I think I did OK.


>>> What do the magazines say?

I read reviews comparing graphics cards quite often, and this card is usually shown for comparison. Generally speaking, there is no more that a 20% difference in performance between the GeForce2 GTS and the newest flashy card going for £300, even in the hardest of tests - A point which seems to escape most of the reviewers.

>>> Overall

You may have guessed that I like this video card - It is an all round winner. For 20% more performance, you need to pay almost 4 times the price of this card.

Why would you do that I wonder?


© Steve Davies, 2001

Summary: