While you can overclock the Voodoo 5 using the overclocking tab,
I decided to do it with Powerstrip (available at the
download page). The
Voodoo 5 overclocking tab requires you to reboot the comp before the setting
takes effect. Powerstrip lets you do it on the fly without a reboot.
The Voodoo 5 5500 will overclock up to 185Mhz before Quake 3
would start locking up. A nice 11% increase. At 185Mhz, the fill rate
increases to 740Mpixel per second. Very close to a GeForce2 GTS. However, don't
expect 60fps 1600x1200 Quake 3 performance out of it. This is because of the
SDRAM used by the Voodoo 5 5500 simply can't feed the VSA-100 chips fast
enough. If high resolution gaming is your thing, the Voodoo 5 5500 is not the
best choice.
With a street price of $299, 3dfx has priced this card squarely
to compete against nVidia's GeForce2. While it will never beat the GeForce2 in
pure frames per second speed race, the Voodoo 5 5500 does have other things
going for it. For one, it's prices $50 less than a 32 meg GeForce2 card. The
FSAA is also much better executed in the Voodoo 5 than the GeForce2. There is
also the added benefit that the Voodoo 5 5500 can run your old Glide only games.
We all have a few of those hanging around, right?
Speaking of games, I was very disappointed with the software
bundle, or lack there of. There are no games included with the Voodoo 5 5500.
You just get a few utilities programs. 3dfx views the game bundle as just adding
cost to the product because they feel the type of person who buys their products
already have the latest games. A valid point.
3dfx has done a good job with the Voodoo 5 5500. It won't help
them take back their 3D crown, but it did get them a lot closer than they were
before.
The Goods
The Bads
Rating: 8/10
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