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Conclusion Everyone in the gaming world is well aware of the revolutionary impact of the Voodoo2 chipset from 3Dfx. When it came out it really pushed the envelope of what was possible from 3D applications in terms of frame rate, texture detail, picture quality, screen resolutions, etc. While there is little doubt where 3Dfx Voodoo2 stands, it becomes a quite a bit more difficult to distinguish between the various cards that are actually being produced by different manufacturers. Even the much publicized battle between the earliest Voodoo2 products from Creative Labs and Diamond Multimedia ended up showing that, in fact, there were only slight differences in performance between the two. Accordingly, the same applies with the AOpen PA2000 and would most likely apply to any card based directly on the 3Dfx reference design. For those of you who may not be aware, 3Dfx provides the manufacturers with a reference design that they use in developing their product. Now when you have a product that performs as well as the Voodoo2, it doesn't make sense for companies to invest extra money and forsake market time for the mere possibility of coming up with something that performs just slightly better(the Quantum 3D Obsidian X-24 is a notable exception, that allows SLI performance on a single PCI card). These days new technology comes out so fast, that companies probably don't want to risk missing the boat in regards to getting their products to the market quickly and efficiently. The bottom line is that it makes sense not to mess with a good thing, so most companies don't. If you actually compare two different cards based on the reference design side by side, practically everything from the circuits printed on the board to the position of the ICs, resistors, etc. are the same. Many are already that the performance of most Voodoo2 cards are very similar. Furthermore, one could also argue that any differences that may be observed wouldn't really translate into any tangible difference, in regards to gameplay, etc. Our tests showed exactly this. The PA2000 is a great performer... but no better or worse than the other cards we've tried. Again, it's really the Voodoo2 part that is important. There is one side note to those performance freaks who insist on overclocking everything from their CPU's to their toaster ovens. We have not done any quantitative comparison on the overclockability of this particular card versus other Voodoo2 cards. However, in our experience, the intensive 3D calculations of running games at high resolution and high frame rates is a big heat producer. And is thus likely to cause your applications to crash if performed improperly. Successful overclocking any Voodoo2 card invariably requires a substantial amount of additional cooling mechanisms. Finally, although successfully overclocking your card will probably give you some higher numbers on your benchmarks or frame rates, we haven't noted that it can really amount to a qualitatively tangible difference in game play. How then is it possible to decide between the different cards currently available? Since we've ruled out performance as a definitive criterion, we have to rely on peripheral factors such as warranty, bundled software, driver support, customer support, extra features, etc. However, all other things being equal, the biggest factor left is price. Shop around for the best price and keep an eye on what's offered in the entire package. Performance will be consistently great! What about the PA2000? AOpen is well known for it's quality and performance of it's motherboards, so it's no surprise that the PA2000 is a great performer also. Just keep in mind that we have to thank 3Dfx for developing a remarkable product in the Voodoo2 as well! |
