|
 |
| HotHardware's
Test System |
| Intel
440BX based - AGP need not apply |
|
LiteOn
Mid Tower ATX Case w/ 300W PS, Pentium III
866EB, Abit
BX133-RAID i440BX Motherboard, 128MB of PC133
True CAS2 SDRAM from Corsair (thanks Outside
Loop), IBM 15Gig 7200 RPM ATA100 Hard Drive
(thanks again Outside
Loop), Voodoo5 5500 PCI Graphics Card
, Kenwood 72X CDROM,
Win 98SE,
DirectX 7.0a
 |
| Benchmarks
with the Voodoo5 5500 PCI |
| Who
needs AGP? Well, almost... |
|
Quake
3 Arena Time Demo No FSAA
These
are great scores for a PCI card. The test
shows the PCI version of the V5 5500 to be within
a few percentage points of the AGP version, a
testament to 3dfx's dual processor design and
extra wide 256 bit memory interface.
But
how does the V5 5500 PCI perform on a lower end
system? We're glad you asked.
Quake
3 Arena Time Demo
Pentium 3 600EB Performance
With
the exception of the lower resolutions, the P3-600
scores are basically on par with the P3-866.
Do you really need to spend all the extra dough on
a high end processor? That's your call.
Let's
over-clock shall we?
|
| Overclocking
The Voodoo 5 5500 PCI |
| Better
than the earlier versions |
|
Voodoo5
5500 PCI
The highest clock speed we achieved with stability
(click image)
Our
early release version of the V5 5500 AGP was only
able to over-clock to 180MHz. core speed.
However, yields back at the fab for 3dfx have
definitely improved because 190MHz. was easily
achieved with our PCI card. Let's see what
kind of performance gain that brought us.
Quake
3 Arena Time Demo V5 Over-clocked
Once
again, these are absolutely fantastic scores,
especially for a PCI card. We know of no
other PCI Graphics card today that can match this
kind of frame rate in either 16 or 32 bit color.
For
3dfx, the Voodoo5 5500 PCI is sure to be an
excellent seller. For people who
still have BX chipset based motherboards and want
to cross over to PC133 performance but don't want
to deal with flaky AGP performance, a PCI card may
be the only way for you to achieve your
goal. If you are one of those poor souls
with integrated graphics and no AGP slot in your
system, the V5 5500 PCI may help you hold out on
that major upgrade a while longer. Still for
some, AGP may be the only way to fly.
In any
event, we feel the 3dfx Voodoo5 5500 PCI is a
great card and worthy of a Hot Hardware Heat Meter
rating of...
Let
it all hang out in the HotHardware Conference
Room!
| 
