After having this card for a considerable amount of time I've got to say its been one of the best computer upgrades I ever installed. It revolutionised the games I could play (In comparision to a TNT2).
My System Spec :
AMD T-Bird 1.2Ghz @ 1.32Ghz Creative GeForce 3 64MB DDR Ti 200 512MB DDR 2700 RAM MSI nForce 2 Motherboard. VideoLogic Sonic Xplosion Soundcard. 80GB IBM Deskstar HDD. Windows XP.
Ease of Installation : Mine came with a relatively easy to follow quick start guide, but I didn't pay too much attention to that & simply slotted it in. After a quick driver installation & a reboot or two the card was running perfectly. PLEASE NOTE, if I remember correctly this card doesn't come with any Windows XP drivers! But they can be downloaded from the Nvidia Website.
Performance : The sole reason for upgrading my graphics card was obviously performance, & my god what a boost it was! 3D mark benchmarks expected a 85% 3D performance increase, which I was obviously very dubious about. But as it turns out they were spot on.
With my system spec in 3D Mark 2001 on the default benchmark I get 6250 (6500 With a small overclock) 3D marks & considering my cpu & graphics card's age its quite impressive. With my friends Athlon XP 2100 & GeForce 4 ti200 achieveing 10,000 3d Marks.
It was also the reason my brother got rid of his GeForce 2 MX as he was blown away by the fact how fast my computer ran with this card :)
Most importantly however is games, and almost all games run at over 30fps (Newest games with turned down graphic detail and most pre 2003 games at max or close to) which is perfectly acceptable. As a rough idea this is how well games run :
Stability/Compatibility/Drivers : Possibly the best thing I found with Nvidia cards is their drivers. Having had a Voodoo Banshee before my TNT2, Nvidia was a blessing. No more constant crashing in almost everygame! Obviously the Nvidia cards can't handle 3DFX but these days that doesn't really matter with many games using Direct 3D and/or Open GL.
There are also frequent updates to drivers enabling better performance & compatibility (Not all drivers will work well on your card but nearly all will).
Overall : Still a sound choice but showing its age, if you can cool your card sufficiently you can overclock it getting increased performance, but be very very careful. Its also much much better than a GeForce 2 MX, TNT2 & voodoo cards.
However these days the GeForce 4 ti 200 may be better bet if you can get a good one cheap, but avoid the GeForce 4 MX (Its a GF2 MX in disguise). But if you want the best performance, & if you've got the money it may be better to wait for the GeForce FX to come out, which should blow all the other cards (except the Radeon 9700's) out of the water.
*Please note the rating are based on todays standards*
More details
Ease of use
Very easy
Instruction manual
Satisfactory
Memory / capacity
Good
Manufacturer Support
Excellent
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