Goodbye, Ti? Abit's Siluro GF3 Vio Faces Off Against The Establishment

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Conclusion

The continuing price drops on GeForce3-based graphics cards are finally making those high-end boards more attractive. Although none of the cards have gone below $300 as of yet, I expect some models to be available at $250 or even slightly less before Christmas. This is finally a price that should be acceptable for high-end gamers.

The Siluro GeForce3 Vio is queuing into the line of GeForce3 products with a good price/performance ratio and useful hardware features (DVI, TV-in/ out). In additon, the card can be overclocked safely by 15-20%.

Many of you may wonder if it could also be of interest to buy a GeForce3 Ti200, due to the fact that this one is manufactured in 0.15 µm and thus should have better overclocking capability.

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Basically, the idea is nice, but you can be sure that only a few Ti200 cards will be equipped with memory that is fast enough to give you the results you want. This is different with the Ti500, but you can be sure that it will stay very expensive for some time.

Feature Comparison Table

Swipe to scroll horizontally
Manu-facturer ASUS ELSA Gainward Hercules Leadtek MSI Visiontek Abit
Model AGP-V8200 Deluxe GLADIAC 920 CARDEXpert GeForce3 3D Prophet III WinFast GF3 StarForce 822 GeForce3 Siluto GeForce3 Vio
Street Price *) US$340 US$350 US$300 US$330 US$315 US$280 US$300 US$315
3D Chip GeForce3 GeForce3 GeForce3 GeForce3 GeForce3 GeForce3 GeForce3 GeForce3
Memory 64 MB 64 MB 64 MB 64 MB 64 MB 64 MB 64 MB 64 MB
Memory Bus Interface 128-bit 128-bit 128-bit 128-bit 128-bit 128-bit 128-bit 128-bit
Chip Clock 200 MHz 200 MHz 200 MHz 200 MHz 200 MHz 200 MHz 200 MHz 200 MHz
Memory Clock **) 230 MHz DDR 230 MHz DDR 230 MHz DDR 230 MHz DDR 230 MHz DDR 230 MHz DDR 230 MHz DDR 230 MHz DDR
Memory Access Time 3.8ns 3.8ns 3.8ns 3.8ns 3.8ns 3.8ns 3.8ns 3.8ns
Memory Bandwidth 7.4 GB/s 7.4 GB/s 7.4 GB/s 7.4 GB/s 7.4 GB/s 7.4 GB/s 7.4 GB/s 7.4 GB/s
Ramdac 350 MHz 350 MHz 350 MHz 350 MHz 350 MHz 350 MHz 350 MHz 350 MHz
Card Features
3D Chip Cooler and Fan yes yes yes yes yes yes yes yes
Heat Sink on Memory yes yes yes yes yes no yes yes
TV-Out Encoder Chip Philips SAA7108E Bt 869KRF Philips SAA7108E CX25871-13 CX25871-13 Philips SAA7108E Bt 869KRF Philips SAA7108E
TV-Out Connect-ors Chinch and S-VHS Chinch or S-VHS Chinch and S-VHS Chinch or S-VHS Chinch or S-VHS Chinch and S-VHS Chinch or S-VHS Chinch or S-VHS
Video In Decoder Chip Philips SAA7108E no Philips SAA7108E no no Philips SAA7108E no Philips SAA7108E
Video In Connect-ors Chinch or S-VHS no Chinch and S-VHS no no Chinch no Chinch and S-VHS
DVI Output no no yes yes yes no no yes
Hardware Monitor-ing yes no no no no no no no
3D Glasses yes no no no no no no no
Software
Driver Tools yes no yes no yes yes no no
DVD Player yes yes yes yes yes yes no no
VCR Software Digital VCR no no no no no no no
Games (No demos) Messiah / Sacrifice / Star Trek New Worlds Giants (GF3 version) no no no Rouge Spear / V-Rally 2 no no
Software (No demos) 3Deep / Ulead VideoStudio 4SE / Video Life Mail 4 no 3Deep / Ulead VideoStudio 4SE no 3Deep / Cult 3D no no 3Deep / Ulead VideoStudio 4SE
Patrick Schmid
Patrick Schmid
Editor-in-Chief (2005-2006)

Patrick Schmid was the editor-in-chief for Tom's Hardware from 2005 to 2006. He wrote numerous articles on a wide range of hardware topics, including storage, CPUs, and system builds.