INTRODUCTION
As many of you know, I have suffered from video card issues. My Dell PIII 850 has never liked having an Nvidia-based card inside, and I have tried several times in the past two years to keep up with the trends. The hot cards from two years ago were the TNT2-based cards, then a year ago the GeFORCE lineup. Well, starting with the TNT and then two other GeFORCEs last year, all that I got was a nightmare series of hard lockups on my computer, that at the time was totally happy with the Voodoo 3. After weeks of hardware returns and installs, I had given up on Nvidia, GeFORCES and even one ATI Radeon. They all locked up FS, or never worked at all. In fact, my hardware guide piece caused me a lot of controversy, as so many of you responded how much you enjoyed your cards and that I was mistaken, for calling them junk. Well, I stuck to my guns and still hated them, and after much research still found out the number one complaint from people running Nvidia-based cards was indeed lockups. Amazing! Yet those with Voodoos, had no problems with that type of horrific problem.
A nice box, yields a nice install CD and a nice manual, and a nice card...it's all NICE!
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Well now time has passed. I have since gone to an ATI Rage Fury Maxx, which was a good card, but had that "floating runway lights in the sky" bug, so after time, got rid of that for the Voodoo 5500. The big, 64 meg Voodoo 5500 was supposed to be the best in its class and offered some of the best frame rates out of any cards available. Yet, the Voodoo cards went out of business and that card quickly fell to the bottom of the list, as no support was continued for them, and any help or driver updates would cease to exist. What then? Well, after tiring of all the hoopla, I decided it's time to give the GeFORCE another look. A contact at Microsoft told me that maybe some newer drivers would be better than a year ago, and maybe now things have changed. I have not seen many complaints from GeFORCE2 and 3 owners, so went out to expect another flightsim moment, risked an entire weekend, and installed the new card!
I was up and running in 20 minutes. What went wrong? Gosh. I don't know! It can't be that easy. This was supposed to be an all-nighter. Hmmmmm...Well, here I am now one month later, and it is running beautifully! Hip hip hooray. I have had not one problem, and FS2000 and Train Sim run just dandy. I have not had one problem, really. Not one.
The installation is very easy, right off the CD. I went to the Visiontek site, and grabbed the latest drivers for updating. There are many options available under the Advanced Properties tab, but honestly, I have not tinkered with anything and am very happy with the results. So, what is the difference I got when going from the Voodoo 5500 to this card? Well, frame rates are exactly the same. No better. No worse. However, there is a BIG difference in the loading time it takes cockpit art to get into view when looking around. My Voodoo took at least 2 seconds for first load, and this one NONE! I was flabbergasted and thought no cards would load cockpit art quickly. After all, the Voodoo was 64 meg too... but maybe it not being a "real" AGP had something to do with it. At least that's what people have told me. Also, stutters are less noticeable in turns with the 2D panels loaded...another great find! Finally, graphics are slightly sharper, especially in Train Sim, and coloring seems richer, as well. Psychological? Maybe, but I really think there is something better here.
So for many many hours of FS testing, leaving the FS program running for 30 hours straight once, and weeks of daily use after that, I have had NO lockups. Finally, after 30 days, I can rest easy. All the other GeFORCES locked within one hour. I just don't get it, why this one works so good on my computer that I began to worry about. But, it does.
Anyone needing to upgrade, should really consider the Visiontek.
The card goes for around $150.
So far, the support via the web, and its reliability has me very pleased. Without another month of testing to be sure, I can be pretty sure a grade of 97 out of 100 will be here to stay. I brand this card the best videocard I have ever used.
Visit VisionTek:
Click Here.
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