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3dfx Voodoo5 5500 AGP Review |
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Part 1: Introduction And Installation
How do you survive without NASCAR? An increasing number of fans are turning to their
personal computers and the excellent racing simulations that are available to "get
their racing fix" when the drivers take a break.
The single most important factor in the quality of your racing experience is your
video card. Poor video quality or slow frame rates can ruin the fun of drafting
up behind Dale Earnhardt and beating him back to the line for the win.
3dfx recently released the Voodoo5 5500 AGP with grand promises that this video
card would dramatically improve your gaming fun. Never one to believe any company's
marketing hype I took this video card for a test drive to see for myself.
First Impression
The first thing that you will likely say is "Wow, this thing is huge!" Measuring a whopping 9.6 inches
long 3dfx does warn that the card might not fit into some smaller cases. Also, the
Voodoo5 5500 requires a power connection to power the two cooling fans that are
mounted directly on the two VSA-100 video processing chips. Fortunately 3dfx includes a 'Y' power
cable in the box that should handle the needs of most every PC.
Installation
Let me get it out of the way right up front. I'm an idiot. When the directions
say that they "strongly recommend" that you do something, do it. My installation
problems were purely my own fault and I had to manually hack around in my registry
in order to get back to the beginning so I could follow the instructions.
On my second try (following the instructions) installation was very easy and
everything worked like a champ right away. Simply back off your old drivers, physically
install the new board, hook up the power cord (very simple) turn the computer on and you're
ready to go.
Next page > OK, It's installed. Now What? > Page 1, 2, 3,
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