Super7 Video Accelerator Comparison - Part 1: High End Gaming Solutions (June 99)

In terms of performance, 3dfx and NVIDIA have the best implementations of 3DNow! support in their drivers. While both Matrox and S3 claim support, there is relatively no performance increase that can be attributed to 3DNow! when testing with the G400/Savage4 on Super7 systems.

The big question is what happens a couple months down the road when AMD makes the debut of the Athlon processor, driver support for the Athlon seems to be cooking much better than for the K6-2/3. AMD has been working with most manufacturers including Matrox and NVIDIA to make sure that their products receive the greatest benefit from the Athlon processor and its enhanced version of 3DNow!

After months of waiting, 3DNow! support is finally being taken more seriously by the graphics card manufacturers, but is what they have to offer too little too late?

AnandTech's Super7 test bed was configured as follows:

• AMD K6-2 475 running at 95MHz x 5.0 at 2.4v core on an Epox MVP3G-M (1MB)
• AMD K6-3 450 running at 100MHz x 4.5 at 2.4v core on an Epox MVP3G-M (1MB)

Both processors were cooled using Cooler Master fans provided by Boston Limited

• 128MB Mushkin Samsung Original PC100 SDRAM
• Western Digital Caviar 5.1GB EIDE HDD
• 48X Phillips EIDE CDROM Drive provided by Boston Limited

• Windows 98 SE + DirectX 6.1a
• Quake 2 using demo1.dm2 and 3Finger's crusher.dm2 demos
• Expendable using -timedemo option

The Cards

• 3dfx Voodoo3 2000 clocked at 143/143MHz (core/mem)
• 3dfx Voodoo3 3000 clocked at 166/166 & 175/175MHz (core/mem)

• Diamond Stealth III S540 Savage4 clocked at 125/143MHz (core/mem)

• Hercules Dynamite TNT2 Ultra clocked at 125/150, 150/175, & 175/200MHz (core/mem)

• Matrox Millennium G400 clocked at 125/166MHz (core/mem)
• Matrox Millennium G400MAX clocked at 166/200MHz (core/mem)

The Drivers

• AMD 3DNow! Quake2 patch version 3.20
• 3dfx Voodoo3 MiniGL version 1.48
• 3dfx Voodoo3 OpenGL ICD version 1.01.02
• NVIDIA TNT2 Detonator drivers version 1.88
• Matrox G400 PowerDesk drivers version 5.11.012 (not available for download)
• S3 Savage4 drivers version 4.11.01.8002-8.02.11