Strahssis wrote:
I've had a look today at the system requirements for many games from about 1996-1999 (I have my Pentium 4 for 1999 and up.) and it looks to me like a Voodoo 1 won't hold me back. Most often it seems like the 32 MB RAM and/or my K6-2/266 is the limiting factor.
In early games -1997, and 1996 games (mostly were patched after release, V1 was launched late 96) - V1 will work fine, but in 1998 and (especially 1999) game it will hold you back. And it will hold you back hard. Of course it will run games, but playing Quake III and UT won't be a nice experience, even at 512x384 low details the framerate won't be great at all, in battles with a few bots I expect to go even bellow 10 fps. On ther other hand V2 in 800x600 at max details should offer a solid 40-60 fps, even on K6-2, I had V2 on a much slower Cyrix 233 and UT was very playable. V2 is roughly 3 times faster than V1 in games with multitexturing, sure, K6-2 will limit the card a little, but it will be much faster than V1.
V1 was a great card, but it wasn't as fast as some people might think. Yeah, when you went from software 2d cards to 3d Voodoo it was amazing. That's why a lot are thinking and even remembering that V1 was fast. But
3d hardware evolved very fast back then, and games evolved with the hardware. For Quake1, Forsaken, Motoracer, etc V1 is fine, go with it if you only want those kind of games. But not for Q3 and UT, trust me, it won't be an enjoyable experience, especially going back from today's hardware and games.
Strahssis wrote:
The reason that I'm leaning towards the Voodoo 1 is that I heard that the Voodoo 2 tends to overheat. Of course I can add heat sinks or a fan to the Voodoo 2, but that would increase the total cost by quiet a bit. Since there doesn't seem to be a point of that, why would I? 😕
I do not see as much documentation on the Voodoo 1 overheating and also I know there are some models from A-Trend and ColorMax out there that have heat sinks already installed onto them. I tend to go for the A-Trend one though, as I can hardly find any documentation on the ColorMax, so I have no idea whether that one is good or bad. 😕
V2, Banshee and even V3 will overheat, but on a modern cpu, it shouldn't overheat on a k6-2. V1 isn't a cool card, either, I'd say than on a K6-2 it will run hotter than a V2. A big 120 mm or 140 mm fan placed to blow air under the card will keep it cool, even a little airflow will have a huge impact on temperature. Heatsinks helps a little, but without airflow it won't help as much as you might think, I would go that route instead of searching a card with heatsink (or trying to attach heatsinks on other cards).
