3dfx Voodoo4 4500 & Voodoo5 5500 Preview

Conclusion

Only so much can be said about a prerelease product, but considering that the Voodoo5 is due out in stores in the next 3 - 5 weeks, it is safe to say that at least some of the performance numbers you've seen here today (those above 800 x 600) are indicative of the performance of the shipping Voodoo4 4500 and Voodoo5 5500.

To some that may seem pretty disappointing, it all depends on what you were expecting from the card. In most cases, the Voodoo5 5500 manages to outperform a DDR GeForce, but not by an incredible amount and the Voodoo4 4500 is having quite a bit of difficulty keeping up with an SDR GeForce.

The FSAA effects are up to the individual gamer to decide on, if all you play are first person shooters, then you probably won't get any real benefit from the FSAA support of the Voodoo5. On the other hand, if you're really into racing games or flight simulators then FSAA may come in handy.

Although the Voodoo4 will support 2 sample FSAA, the performance of the solution isn't high enough for you to truly enjoy the experience with 2 sample FSAA enabled so you probably want to stay away from that unless you don't mind playing at performance levels lower than that of a Voodoo3 3000.

The argument that running a game at 1280 x 1024 or 1600 x 1200 looks just as good as 2 or 4 sample FSAA is not entirely true. While a game running at 800 x 600 with 2 sample FSAA may remove just as many jagged edges as running it at 1600 x 1200, there is a clear difference between running at 1600 x 1200 without FSAA enabled and at 800 x 600 with 4 sample FSAA enabled. It is really a subjective question but the difference is noticeable, whether it is worth the performance penalty is another question.

Unfortunately for 3dfx, more than one manufacturer will be offering a form of FSAA in their next-generation product and the GeForce already offers a software driven FSAA using the 5.xx drivers. Later this week, we'll compare 3dfx's T-Buffer solution to other competing solutions and find out if 3dfx really has something all that unique with the Voodoo5. Until then, eat up that eye candy.