Analysis:

The features aren’t very comparable side by side ‘coz they were arranged in a different format from another.

The differences that matter:

32-bit rendering is not supported by the Voodoo3 3000, this is supported by the TNT2 Ultra.

The Voodoo3 3000 doesn’t support 2 and 1 pass bump mapping which is supported by the TNT2 Ultra.

Clock speed is 166/166 vs. 150/183 in favor or 3dfx.

Voodoo3 3000 has 350mhz RAMDAC against 300mhz RAMDAC for the TNT2 Ultra.

16MB of memory for Voodoo3 3000 against 32MB of memory for the TNT2 Ultra.

3dfx’s support for the Glide API, non-support for the TNT2 Ultra.

Well, there. Those are the more important features that separate them both.  So who’s the better option?  If you remember the TNT vs. Voodoo2, the Voodoo2 proved to be faster and with the SLI thingy that it can do, it was clearly the option for gamers.  The TNT however proved to be the overall winner because it not only provided 3D acceleration but also 2D acceleration, which the Voodoo2 lacked.  It also provided 32-bit rendering so that made lots of visual quality freaks happy.  I don’t really see the difference between the 2. So, I don’t care ‘bout it.

The Glide API is fine but not too many games are using it nowadays and it’s heading for the trashcan. Too bad.

As much as I would like to put screenshots of these 2 cards and compare them, all the screenshots of the Voodoo3 3000 got fuxored so that means no comparison between the 2 in terms of visuals.  But, without proof, you all know that the Voodoo3 series of cards have the worst visual quality in their class. 3dfx concentrated more on speed and did away with the visuals. If you want great visual quality, get a Savage4 and have fun with Trilinear filtering. Well, there’s a downside to the Savage4. It is kinda slower and there’re some issues that still haven’t been resolved.  But, overall, it’s good considering it’s el cheapo.

Well so now you guys know the thingy about these 2 cards, it all boils down to speed.

Yeah? What about visuals? What about 32-bit and what about those funky features added to spice up a card?  It all comes down to who’s the faster card.  If you look at the core/memory clock speeds, the Voodoo3 3000 has an advantage in fill-rate power but the TNT2 Ultra has more bandwidth.

166/166 vs. 150/183

It’s an even match but like the GeForce2 GTS, more bandwidth gives you more speed and thus at least removing the limiting factor of your card.

So, let’s get the benchies coming but first, the test system.