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Image Quality
I displayed a couple of screen shots of the nVidia demos, but I'm sure you'll be wondering how todays games will look. I'm sorry to report that games don't really look any better than they would on a GeForce 2, sort of. Games will look better if you either increase the resolution, turn antialiasing on, or both. Some games, such as Giants, have patches or options to really increase the polygon count to take advantage of GeForce 3 features. You'll still need to wait a little bit for more cutting edge Direct X 8 games to dominate the market, and only those that need the GeForce 3 features. Anyhow, below and on the next page are screenshots of Quake 3, demonstrating the antialiasing quality of the card. Note the blurriness of Quincunx AA that I mentioned earlier.
I really like the 4 x AA, but it was fairly choppy while playing. Sure, standing still looks nice and steady, but doing that long enough will leave you staring at the ceiling, hehe, erm..., you know, you stand there? Get shot? Die? And end up looking at the ceiling? Nevermind...
One game that looks really good though is Max Payne. That game has jaw-dropping graphics, and even at 1600x1200, the game was as smooth as butter. You can take a look at the screenshots in my Max Payne review.
Final Words
There is no doubt, the GeForce 3 is one heck of a great video card. Thankfully, the price has dropped considerably since it was originally announced. Street prices range from 300$ to 350$ depending on the brand and extra features. FSAA performance is finally playable in action games, to an extent. MSI includes a decent software bundle and a sweet looking card.
A couple of things do concern me though. There aren't many big Direct X 8 games out there, so a lot of the GeForce 3 "new" features go wasted. Also, with the announcement and reviews of the GeForce 3 Titanium, people may skip this card and go for the newer ones. The Detonator XP drivers may keep the new ATI video cards at bay for a while, unless ATI releases some new XP drivers of their own. Overclocking was also a bit of a letdown, but it may just be my part that is at fault.
Still, even with the apparent lack of games and the newer Titanium cards being released, there really isn't any reason not to get the StarForce 822 GeForce 3. It's a solid card, has optional TV-Out, a comprehensive software bundle, and no doubt, a soon to be lower price. Even with todays games, you can now run at higher resolutions, or turn on FSAA without slowing your games down as much as before. With features for the games of tomorrow, your GeForce 3 investment will last a long time. At least until nVidia's next refresh cycle...
MSI:
90%
Pros: Very fast, especially at resolutions 1024 and over. Decent FSAA performance, DVD software included, as well as TV-Out. Decent pricing now.
Cons: Questionable value until more DX8 titles hit the market. Faster video cards due to ship soon.
Update: Well, wouldn't you know it? No sooner than I post the review online, I found out why my benchmark scores were lower than others you see online. Granted, not everyone has the same test platforms, but if you're running an AMD/Windows 2000 system, pretty much regardless of what motherboard chipset, be sure to run the . After doing this, I got a big boost in framerates. I had time to do the AA off benchmarks, but I expect similar boosts with varying levels of AA on.
Quake 3 Arena, Demo four, High Quality, Sound On, No AA, 32 Bit Colour
Morale of the story? Make sure you got all the drivers and patches for your software installed. I couldn't believe I forgot to do this, and the extra performance was shocking. Well, not really, but I noticed I didn't use the work "shock" in the review.
Grab the patch from AMD here:
Agree? Disagree? Discuss it in our forums
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