April 17 - 23, 1999
Archive

Well as you can see I went berserk with the overclocking and made increments as big as 10MHz. The 155/160 you see last was unstable because I experienced video glitches in Windows but the game itself had absolutely no tearing or any problems. I prefer to stick with an overclock setting only if it has ZERO video glitches of any kind. I don't know if you'll see it but if you notice there is no real big change going from 140 ->150 core. The biggest jump was when I increased the memory speed. 160MHz seems to be the maximum the V3800's SGRAM can handle. So when I was increasing the core speed it was the memory speed that was the bottleneck. By the way I used Powerstrip to overclock the TNT2. You must download their latest beta to be able to overclock the TNT2 because older versions don't detect it. You can grab the latest beta here. I've also included the same results but for the demo1.dm2 map just for the heck of it.

 

Packing five platters each storing 5.1 gigs of data, the Deskstar 25GP once again allows Big Blue to weigh in with the biggest shipping ATA drive. Like the 22GXP, the drive features a 9.0 millisecond access time and a spacious 2 megs of buffer. Unlike the 22GXP, of course, the 25GP has a spindle speed of 5400rpm. A three-year warranty backs the drive.

 

So are these retail boards overclockable then? In a word YES. Do the boards get hot enough to frazzle the skin off of your fingers? Oh yes… Is it worth it? We certainly think so (overclocking and not burning your skin- we don't condone that). The benchmarks conducted on the Voodoo3 2000 certainly showed that even without cooling one can 'safely' (we say 'safely' because 3dfx does not condone or encourage the use of freeze spray or overclocking blah blah) overclock as high as 175MHz. And at the 166MHz frequency one could VERY easily mistake the board for a 3000 since the benchmarks were identical (using the same drivers of course). And when going as high as 175MHz, you one starts to realize that the board is not all that far away from the 183MHz proposed for the 3500. Most of all, the testing shows that if you're unwilling to pay for the pricier 166MHz version of the Voodoo3 (the 3000), then you don't necessarily have to spend the extra $50- here's a good excuse for you. That's if you don't really want a software bundle either… And if you're prepared to take a few risks.

 

With the fastest DVD data rates available, and CD data rates that match current drives, the Pioneer DVD-103S is an excellent choice for upgrading that aging 12x CD-ROM drive, and/or jumping into the world of DVD. As a third generation DVD-ROM drive with the kinks ironed out, it is now reasonable to use this as your only DVD/CD-ROM drive in a system, with no fears of compatibility problems. The Slot-in loading mechanism is like icing on the cake as a time-saver, and it is hard to go back to tray-load drives once you are spoiled by it. The 6x DVD transfer speeds allow for fast scanning of movies as well as improved performance of DVD-ROM titles. The only other challenger at this point is the upcoming TrueX DVD drives on the horizon.

In all for $187.00 shipped Priority (you should be able to get them cheaper now, I pre-ordered them), the FPS2000s are an excellent deal. Great, clean, LOUD sound (though any set-up could always use a teeny bit more power, I'm not saying they're weak, I just like it loud, my Home Theatre/Car Stereo could be a bit louder too :), low to no hiss (MUCH better than the FPS1000s and even better in 'Digital Mode' and I have yet to hear any radio signals), great reproduction on CDs, Games, WAVs, MP3s, you name it.

 

The 600-MHZ Pentium III, the first high-end Intel chip to be united with its secondary cache, will be priced at $761 in quantities of 10,000. Integrating the L2 cache onto the processor die tends to significantly increase processing power. Current Celeron processors with 128 KB of integrated L2 cache can closely match performance of a Pentium II with 512 KB of L2 cache on the Slot 1 module, for example.

 

• APK 3dfx Tuning Engine (Win9X/NT - version 2000++ SR-5 - 1.2 MB)

 

The second issue worth mentioning is what kind of performance difference there is between a K6-2 and the K6-III since, after all, the price difference is a large factor. For this reason I am trying to give a comparison between these two CPUs on an otherwise identical setup which was done by simply by swapping the CPU only. Since there were no other changes in the setup and neither in the software, the benchmarks obtained this way should reflect exactly the difference between the two CPUs, irrespective of other system particularities.

 

• ATi Rage 128 Driver (Win9X - version 6.11.1.a1p Beta 2)

 

The Asus-V3800 is certainly one of the fastest, best looking, feature-filled video cards in the pack, and will certainly not disappoint anyone. With support for stereoscopic glasses, TV tuning, Video input, and TV output, it is probably ahead of most of the video cards out there in terms of features. That, in combination with its impressive speed, and stunning visual quality makes the Asus-V3800 a card to watch out for.

 

To begin this section, this wheel could easily whip anyone’s ass if it had fists. It’s easily the strongest force feedback wheel that I’ve had a go at and delivers undoubtedly sufficient force feedback in all the titles I’ve tried it with. Thanks to the serial port connection, as opposed to a Sound Blaster game port one, the signals have a lot more bandwidth to their disposal, and therefore get through immediately, eliminating annoying lags. As an effect, the whole experience turns out to something quite realistic, even my mom had a go at it and actually liked it (first time for anything computer related). As for vibrations and sound effects they are just as vibrant (heh) as the actual force feedback of the wheel and give riding offroad and engine noise that extra push past the reality barrier. I found myself driving offroad quite a lot just for the effects’ sake. Wonderful!

 

For the "speed at any expense" crowd, we have the 3dfx Voodoo 3 3500 leading the pack, followed very closely by the nVIDIA TNT2 (assuming the Ultra is pushed to 175MHz or more by card manufacturers). If you want better image quality and maybe a card whose feature set isn't already showing signs of age, the TNT2 leads here.

If you're willing to compromise a wee bit on the performance, the Matrox G400 MAX brings in some very nice environment bump mapping effects and very good performance. At the same level of performance sits the Voodoo 3 3000, though it still lacks features. The TNT2 Ultra at around 150MHz also belongs here.

 

• MSI 6147 Micro-ATX Motherboard Review
• Kenwood TrueX 52X CD-ROM Drive Review

 

Voodoo 3 looks good, is extremely fast, and supports Glide. That's a lot to recommend it. We're concerned, however, about its longevity; within the next year, we should see games that take advantage of features Voodoo 3 doesn't support. Those who already have a Voodoo 2 or RIVA TNT card would probably be better off waiting for next-generation products this fall. For people currently struggling with little or no 3D acceleration, though, Voodoo 3 delivers a compelling solution.

 

The All-in-Wonder 128 is the best convergence unit I have ever seen. In the past, convergence units typically offered mediocre performance and a great price. ATI has changed the rules of the game. They are now offering top-of-the-line 2D, 3D, DVD, TV, and Video Capture performance while still keeping the price low. For anyone looking to use their computer for more than games and word-processing this is an excellent product.

 

• APK 3dfx Tuning Engine (Win9X/NT - 2000++ - 1.6 MB)

 

Microsoft IntelliEye technology employs a tiny chip with a sensor and digital signal processor (DSP). The sensor's glowing red light captures "snapshots" of the work surface at a rate of 1,500 images per second. The DSP translates changes between the images into on-screen pointer movements. This technique, image correlation processing, executes 18 million instructions per second (MIPS) and results in smooth, precise pointer movement.

Currently available mice execute only about 1.5 MIPS, making a mouse with Microsoft IntelliEye about 12 times faster than ordinary mice.

Changes/updates to Sound Blaster 16/32/AWE32/AWE64 Drivers:

• This update provides better support for ALL the above Sound Blaster cards. This update corrects sound distortion problems in certain cases.

• Sound Blaster 16/32/AWE32/64 Driver (WinNT4 - Revision 10 - 966 KB)

Changes/updates to Sound Blaster PCI 128 Drivers:

• Improves on the 8-bit recording quality
• Provides better support for DirectSound capture
• Solves certain audio problems in popular games such as FIFA99, Red Line Racer, Half-Life

• Sound Blaster PCI 128 Driver (Win9X - Revision 2 - 766 KB)
• Sound Blaster PCI 128 Driver (WinNT4 - Revision 1 - 392 KB)

 

"I have found the fix for the ABIT BX6-2 not displaying CPU temp from the chip's thermal diode. I happen to have one of them. There is an existing connection from diode to winbond chip - the missing link is a biasing resistor and a filter capacitor; the location # are R266 and C241 located near W82372 Hw chip. The value for the resistor is 30K ohms and the cap is 3300 pf; this was found in data sheet for Winbond chip. I have since installed these components and have a functional reading for CPU temp using MBM4."

 

Still, if we now look under the covers, the situation changes, in that without any doubt, the P2B is the most stable mainboard that money can buy if one allows for the exception of the MSI6163. No matter what system configuration was tried, e.g, moving the memory into different slots, even using lower grade memory, there has not been one hint of a problem. All of this is accomplished without raising the voltage above the 2.0V standard or changing the V I/O. The best indication may be that, out of approximately one hundred Celerons tested, all reached their maximum stable clock speed at stock settings without modification or pin taping on the P2B, whereas the same CPUs required 2.2 or 2.3v on the BH6 or BX6 and, even then, often failed to reach the clock speed expected from their performance on the P2B.

 

Diamond Monster or Monster II / Vooodoo-Voodoo² or STB/3dFx Voodoo III Video Accelerator Board using Gamers, want more speed and performance from your 3dfx based games like Quake II, Hexen II, or GLQuake to name a few? Try this program! It gets you that speed by as much as 5-25 fps more! Get more 3dFx gaming speed with APK 3dFx Tuning Engine 2000++ now with Voodoo III Tuning Capabilities included! A testimony file is available in the download file itself from users showing MASSIVE increases (up to 40%) in speed! Now with faster code, higher speed yields, and more control of all areas of tuning! Now allows direct edits and view of Voodoo².ini file also! NOW WITH FULL INSTALLSHIELD INSTALL AND VOODOO III Tuning Capable (PLUS, High Quality Mode Enable/Disable and 30% code speed increase!)

• APK 3dfx Tuning Engine (Win9X/NT - version 2000++  - 1.5 MB)

 

• HANDS-ON V3!
• E3 TOUR
• X-WING ALLIANCE
• REQUIEM
• VOODOO3 ITEMS
• TNT2 REVISITED
• ...and other kewl stuff

 

Current owners of a SLI'd Voodoo2 with 24Mb ram will probably want to stick with the Voodoo2 combination. The only reason you would want to switch to a Voodoo3 is to get rid of a crappy 2D card, to get the better visuals of the Voodoo3, or to free up 2 PCI slots. The performance increase of the Voodoo3 isn't enough to warrant the $194 for this card unless you want the above features badly. Owners of the TNT, Rage 128, G200, and owners of a single Voodoo2 will find that this is probably the best video card on the market right now to buy. As I stated earlier, I can't comment on the TNT2 as we just don't know what it will do. It might be in your best interest to wait a month until we can get a retail version of the TNT2 to test and see what happens. One strong thing to consider is Glide too. You can't play Glide games on anything but a Voodoo board, and that's something which isn't to be taken lightly. The soon-to-be-released Voodoo3 3500 might also be the better choice for super-power users as it will undoubtedly provide better performance ratings.

The 3D features of the TNT2 are simply put: incredible. NVIDIA did a great job with the original TNT, and because they did such a superb job, they did not need to change much. The only major difference between the TNT and the TNT2 is the clock speed. The TNT ran at 90 MHz core / 110 MHz memory, while the TNT2 runs at 150 MHz core / 183 MHz memory. For those a little slow at math, that's a 66% speed increase. The features that truly distinguish the TNT2 from other cards are the 32-bit rendering support, stencil buffering, AGP 4x/2x/1x and sideband support. With the TNT2, gamers can now play at resolutions as high as 2048x1536. Also, the TNT2 has an onboard fan, to ensure solid performance with no heat related problems.

 

So where does this leave us? Well the 2000 is pretty cheap for the latest card, and this costs £99 ($160) retail. Shopping around and it can be had much cheaper, so its not going to break the bank. And it is FAST. Very. However speed is really not the issue, most games run smooth enough now on all the latest cards and once you get past 60 frames a second, any speed after that becomes moot. What really worries me is the way games development is going. AGP is becoming the way of the world, and games are starting to use larger textures. And when these textures get bigger than the 16 megabytes on this card, things are going to get choppy. So while the Voodoo3 is the performance leader to date, it has the smell of obsolescence about it. 3dfx need to get back to the drawing board - increasing clock speed can only go so far, and Voodoo technology is beginning to show this. 3dfx need to give AGP support and 32-bit rendering. If they can do this, and give us the speed they always seem to deliver new chipsets from 3dfx will once again deliver the excitement they once used to.

All in all, the Gravis Gamepad Pro USB is an excellent gamepad, and its small (we stress small) faults are negligible. We feel that for its price, it is a worthwhile purchase, and will provide accurate, comfortable gaming for a long time.

 

Oh, so close to the Gold Award, you can almost taste it.  The only thing that kept this monitor from winning our award was the lack of a USB hub, and the lack of a higher supported resolution.  The display on this model was by far the best we saw, shaming even the Viewsonic we looked at.  If you don't need the USB hub, or support for 1800x1440, then please do yourself a favor and buy this monitor.

 

Enough about the fluff, let's get down to the nitty gritty about the drive.   The Cheetah 18LP is a 9.1GB drive that supports UW, U2W, LVD, and U3 SCSI standards.  The drive boasts a 10,000+ RPM  motor speed, a 5.0ms seek time (yes, I said 5.0 =), and a 1MB cache.

What is new to the Cheetah is what Seagate calls Just-In-Time (JIT) seek feature.  According to Seagate, this provides for lower power consumption and acoustical noise associated with head movement, making drive activity faster, quieter and consuming less power.  According to Seagate, the 3rd generation Cheetah 18LP is up to 32% faster than the original 10k drives, and it is even faster than

 

Rev. 4.0 adds a PCI slot, and bus speeds of 105,110,115,120,125,130,135 and 140MHz.  Even though there is still the tired old 512kb onboard cache, those bus speeds are impressive.  One of my main problems with the 5AX was that I couldn't try the K6-2 266 at 3X105, or 3X110, which were the sweet spot for the same chip on the P5A.  This new revision adds even higher bus speeds than the P5A, which topped out at 133 MHz.  Make sure if you order a GA-5AX that you are getting Rev 4, and not Rev 3.

• Riva TNT WHQL Certified Driver (Win9X - version 1.15 - 1.1 MB)

 

• Voodoo3 Overclocker (Win9X - version 1.4 - 102 KB)

 

This is just one in a fairly rapid series of otherwise quiet betas, but since it has already been announced elsewhere, a few comments on Voodoo3 support in the current PowerStrip 2.41.06 beta are in order. What's the PowerStrip deliver that's not offered by 3dfx Tools or anything else at this time? If enabled, programmable refresh rates from 56Hz to 200Hz in 1Hz increments, at all resolutions including 2046x1536; real-time clock speed adjustments, without rebooting; more flexible color controls with in-game gamma hotkeys; a GLide switcher for those with V2s; screen adjustment for size and position; and DPMS and DDC support under NT - in short, the usual stuff. There is also full TNT2 and Savage4 support in the current release, but it hasn't been validated against any production boards. Finally, 2:1 SDR SDRAM is now detected and properly supported for the Rage128.

• Powerstrip (Win9X/NT - version 2.41.06 Beta - 653 KB)