Rating: 
Summary: Worth the money
Review: First I would like to say lacking a true Mpeg-2 decoder for DVD play is surely missed. However After owning a Voodoo 2. This is definitely a big improvement in speed and vivid color(graphics). I did buy a nvdia GeForce GTS video card which was extremely fast, but only after continuously updating drivers. Installed the voodoo 5 5500 apg card, installed the drivers, and we I was on my way to video game heaven. It's not perfect by any means, but it runs well with every game I own. Playing Deus Ex with screen full of enemies surely brings slow frame rates. I feel thats to be expected. All in all it I'm totally impressed, I will be buying the voodoo5 6000 when it hits the shelves this later this year. I truly recommend this video card.
Rating:
Summary: Believe the hype.
Review: 3dfx's Voodoo5 5500 is a masterpiece of silicon engineering. This final iteration of the venerable Voodoo Graphics core has been reworked and retooled into the VSA-100 chip (Voodoo Scalable Architecture). The board uses two VSA-100 chips in SLI (Scanline Interleave Mode) and comes equipped with 64MB of SDRAM. The core clock speed runs at 166MHz while the RAMDAC refreshes at 350MHz. It can process two pixels per clock which means it has a maximum theoretical fill rate of 667 megatexels per second.The Voodoo5 5500 finally supports a full OpenGL driver as well 32-bit true color in 3D. Additionally it also supports 3dfx's exclusive T-Buffer technology, which allows for visual tricks such as softshadows, depth-of-field blur, motion blur, and soft reflections. The biggest feature touted is it's hardware-based full scene anti-aliasing. Anti-aliasing is a feature that smoothes out jagged lines in a 3D game scene, allowing for a much more realistic image. However, there's a performance hit when this feature is enabled; thus 3dfx gives the user the option of using 2X or 4X anti-aliasing. Basically this means that either two or four samples are jittered together to smooth out the scene. Games look magnificent with this feature enabled but flight sims, space combat sims, and racing sims seem to enjoy higher frame rates with it enabled also. Nvidia's GeForce2 GTS-based cards are faster in terms of raw performance and they even support anti-aliasing. The difference is that it's not supported in hardware (it's software based) and it doesn't work as well in Direct3D as it does in OpenGL; 3dfx's solution works well in OpenGL, Glide, and Direct3D and it works with nearly every game currently available. Moreover, the driver suite is quite stable and the image quality is much better than any video card on the market (with the possible exception of ATI or Matrox). As a plus, you can find the card for well under the suggested retail price or $300 dollars with a little searching on the Internet. The Voodoo5 5500 is your best bet for new video card. It's fast in 3D as well as 2D (Word, Excel), ships with stable drivers backed excellent tech support, and can be found for a cheaper price than some of the GeForce2-based cards currently out there. Get this card and begin to sing its praises!!
Rating:
Summary: VOODOO 5500 AGP "APU's TRUTH"
Review: 1 of the BEST Vid Crdz !!
10+ (FPS/SPEED)
10+ (OpenGL/D3D)
8 (QLTY/CLARITY..NOT 100% PERFECT)
3 (XP Pro HEADACHE)..was TRICKY
COMP SPECZ:
KT3 Ultra2 VIA KT333 Chip
AMD ATHLON XP 1900+ (1.6 GHz)
256 MB DDR
AC 97 (onboard)
MS XP PRO SP1
VOODOO 5500 AGP
(3rd PTY Drv..Voodoolizer 1.4 B6
MANY TYPES TRIED..MANY!!
Problem: installed @ 32MB, Guess
all other drivers tried, only
activated 1 VSA-100 Chip!)
I am 1st, a DIEHARD VOODOO USER ..FROMTHE BEGINING ..( & of course AMD/3DFX COMBO ROXZ FOR GAMING)
FACT 1: NVIDIA & ATI ARE CRAP COMPARED TO 3DFX .. KICK ASS TECH ARCH & DESIGN COST MONEY!! YOU WANT THE BEST BUY VOODOO..TELL ALL YOUR FRIENDS, DUMP THOSE OTHER CRDZ IN THE TRASH, & SPEND THE $!!
FACT 2: READ CARD SPEC,DESIGN OF THE CARD & IT's ABILITIES .. ENOUGH SAID !!
FACT 3: CS 1.5 (All VERY HIGH POLY MODELS!)
OpenGL 1024x768 w/ 3DFX Glide/Mini Drvz
.. 100 FPS FLAT!! LUV'n IT !! P.S. Regretfully, Consumers R tight wads, and most of U spend your money on inferior & BUG/CLITCH & UPDATE HEADACHES > NO THNX
If U R going to buy a Vid Crd for any kinda 3D/2D, buy THIS 1 (or better) .. QUALITY, SPEED, CLARITY, FLAWLESS GAME USAGE..so far about 20-25 3D & 2D games tested, ERROR FREE !! Sorry to see Voodoo 3DFX close up. U will be missed !! PUBLIC: DONT THROW YOUR MONEY AWAY ON EITHER NVIDIA or ATI ... VOODOO 5500 FOR AROUND $100.00 NOW ~ DEAL OF THE CENTURY ~ .. APU
Rating:
Summary: Damn fine piece of hardware.
Review: ...you really can't go wrong with this card. You may find it difficult to get acceptable frame rates with 4x FSAA in some of the most punishing games, but when you can use it the results are mind boggling. It even lets you force ANY Glide games to run in 32 bit color. Anybody up for some Unreal Tournament in 32 bit color with ultra smooth "Glide" framerates? I thought so. As far as raw speed goes, the Voodoo 5 is technically just a hair behind the GeForce2 cards, yet does it really matter? With the Voodoo 5 you get REAL FSAA and 32 bit Glide support at a slightly cheaper price. Finally, the hardware DVD assist does a fine job. I'm watching movies in 1152x864 with no frame dropping. Previously I had a TNT(1) running DVD's at 800x600 and the Software decoder relied entirely on my P III 450. It was really sad to see the Matrix with severe frame dropping. As a test, I rented it again and it plays perfectly with the Voodoo 5. You've seen the benchmarks, you've seen the hype, now see it for yourself. You can't go wrong with this card. Naturally, better cards are always on the way, but you have to choose to buy sometime or you will be waiting forever.
Rating: 
Summary: 3dfx Voodoos vs. nVidia GeForces
Review: The Voodoo 5 5500 is a nice card, but most of the features, you may not be using. The power behiend it may be good for a while, and yes the card does support glide, D3d, and OpenGL, but the just doesn't have as much 'horsepower' behiend it as most nVidia cards do. If you really want top of the line, you might as well get a GeForce. Acutally if you go to some sites ... , you will see a drastic difference in frame rate at higher resolutions in higher demanding games. Plus nVidia licences out their chips to other companies, so you will actually find a better selection of cards, helping you to find one that will suit your needs better. I would well recomend a GeForce GTS 2 32 meg RAM (or 64 if you wanna be HARDCORE!) over any voodoo card out on the market now, or any card they could put out over the next 6 months.
Rating:
Summary: You'll See a Difference in Almost Everything
Review: Even though I'm a big fan of PC gaming, I never considered myself a hardcore player until I bought the VooDoo 5 5500. Having left the security of a great VooDoo 3 3000 card, I'm still a little nervous about the newness of this one. I'm confident that, as with the VooDoo 3, 3Dfx will stay on top of the hardware drivers, but as it is, the VooDoo 5 is a terrific card that really does show considerable improvement over the 3000. The beauty of this card is that you see a difference on almost every game: Rogue Squadron, for example, looks like a brand new game with some of the smoothest graphics I've ever seen. My low frame rates with Mobil 1 Rally Championship are completely improved (the game has replaced Porsche Unleashed as my new favorite). Other games where I've noticed a big difference are Fallout 2, Star Wars: Racer (FSAA works great here), and even Force Commander has gone from being rough in motion to playing smoothly. Vampire: The Masquerade is beautiful, though I have had to drop resolution down to 900x750 to get the frame rate that I wanted. Nocturne is the only game I have that crashes to the desktop. On a PIII/500 I've been running 2x FSAA versus 4x, which gives a good balance between high frame rates, high resolutions (about 1000x800 on average), great color (32 bit) and the noticeable difference of FSAA. Don't underestimate FSAA on movies, either. Game cut-scenes, some opening title shots, and any dowloaded QuickTime movie all look smoother and play without the jerkiness I saw on the VooDoo 3. Overall, if you don't have a 3D card, this is definitely the one to buy. If you're already using the VooDoo 3, however, I don't think it would hurt to wait...the price may drop, or the drivers might improve, and the VooDoo 6000 is still to come. I'm pretty happy with the VooDoo 5500, and I trust 3Dfx to maintain support for their product. It was the brand name that convinced me to go with this one, and my very mild disappointment may stem from unrealistic expectations of wanting all of the goodies running all of the time. In the end, however, I'm very satisfied with it. I'd recommend it.
Rating: 
Summary: It's a little late, but...
Review: This video card is terrible. Okay, so 3dfx don't exist any more, but let this be a lesson to you to always research before you buy. The Voodoo 5 was such a bad card that it is used as the standard against which bad products are held in the gaming community right now. The positive reviews were from people who loved 3dfx back when they were a good company that did good things. There is a reason they went out of business after releasing this card.
Rating: 
Summary: Voodoo5 5500 AGP - Good in its time...
Review: let me start off just by saying that you should NOT GET THIS CARD. Whatever you do, there is absolutely no reason to purchase this graphics card at this point in time... The Geforce3 Ti 200 is cheaper, yet performs much, much better. A radeon 8500 64MB wouldn't be a bad choice, either, as that is also much better. or even a geforce4 MX or geforce2 ultra might be better options than this one. They are all cheaper or the same price, yet they have much higher performance!
Also, 3DFX, in case you didn't know, is out of business. That means if you are running on WinXP, then you will have to resort to unstable, risky 3rd Party drivers. Most of which don't support a lot of games as well.
Finally, the game devlopers of today, and tomorrow do not and will not continue to test with this card. Most new games (i.e., Renegades, MoHAA, Freedom Force, SoF2, etc.) do not fully support this piece of hardware. If you want a card that will work well with the newer games, then get something more stable from nVidia (ATI's drivers are also bad, nVidia seems to be the best choice right now.)
This card was the really great one back...what?...4 years ago? But now that its creator is out of business, you can't find any good drivers, and games will not be supporting it fully in the future. If the game supports it, then you can usually run it with decent settings with a decent framerate. I can run CS at the max resolution (no AA) with a perfectly fine framerate.
Voodoo 5 - best of its time, but now is not at all worth the [money]- stick with nVidia is what i say.
Rating: 
Summary: The time for 3dfx has come and gone
Review: In its day the Voodoo 5 5500 video card was a great card. But times have changed since 3DFX went under and was bought out by Nvidia. As of Dec 2000, there is no official driver support for the 3DFX line to include the 5500 AGP. The graphics are still outstanding today Jan 2002 but the card is showing it's age and is nowhere near as fast as the Nvidia Geforce line-up. The un-official driver support is terrible and will cause more problems with your graphics card than you care to deal with ( I know!). If you still decide to use this card be warned.....there is NO drivers that work well with windows XP! Still, it is a good card that runs well on any windows operating systems before Win XP. As long as you don't mind cutting edge tech and blazing speeds on newer games.
Rating:
Summary: This card sucks
Review: When I looked at this card back in feburary of 2001 i thought it was a good card. I installed it to windows ME and it worked great. BUT Try installing it to any windows NT platform and nothing but trouble. I did not expect for thier crummy software to work with NT but at least the driver so I could have a decent resolution, and that did not work. The worst thing is that 3dfx is NO longer a company. That means NO support in any way. I screwed up my computer numoruos times because of that stupid driver (that does not work). I STRONGLY recommend NOT considering this card. ATI, pny technologies and Radeon are the best. Voodoo used to be a great card but their time of fame has gone and they need to go out silently.
|
