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