![[H]ardOCP](/images/blank.gif){kind=small}
- Date:
- Tuesday , July 03, 2001
- Author:
- Steve Lynch
- Editor:
- Kyle Bennett
- Google +1
VisionTek's GeForce3 Reviewed
We have been using the VisionTek GeForce3 longer than any other GeForce3 card we have had in to test. We finally get around to reviewing it and giving you the straight skinny on a company that went from having none of the retail market to carrying what is most likely the best selling GeForce3 card in North America. And there is a reason for that too.
VisionTek GeForce3
VisionTek has been providing top end graphics cards for years to the end user. The reason VisionTek has only recently gained the much deserved recognition they have, is due largely to the fact that VisionTek has mainly provided graphics cards to OEM's instead of the retail market. You may have been buying VisionTek cards for years and not even knowing it since VisionTek has long been a maker of TNT and GeForce based reference design cards for OEM's.
[H]ardOCP was fortunate enough to tour the VisionTek facilities and witness the very first VisionTek GeForce3 roll off the production line, which was promptly signed by the VisionTek crew and then given away here by [H]ardOCP. I recommend reading through the VisionTek Tour article if you haven't already, as it gives you great insight into the design flexibility of this company.
Only recently has VisionTek decided to take on the retail market themselves and provide you with one of the best, most reliable graphics cards on the planet. On an interesting note, VisionTek was also the first to the market with their GeForce3, pretty funny. . . considering this was their first foray into the retail market.
The Card
When it comes to "reference design" GeForce3 boards. . . VisionTek wrote the book on reference design, literally. Having provided the reference boards for NVIDIA for a longtime, VisionTek has fine tuned their design process. Having said that, take a long look at the VisionTek board, you will see a standard reference design... making it barely distinguishable from a GeForce2 Ultra card. Here is the card as we received it:
The Heatsink was attached to the GPU via the dreaded TIM ( Thermal Interface Material ). While I am NOT a fan of using TIM's in any application, I must say they are a far better graphics card solution than they are for a CPU. The reasoning behind this is fairly simple. A Graphics card puts out far less heat than today's CPU's and Graphics cards HSF units are rarely removed UNLESS it is being replaced all together, whereas a HSF on a CPU may be removed and replaced many times. Still, thermal paste gives a much better heat transfer rate and we will be OCing this card so we wanted to get prepped for pushing the limits.
Removing a HSF without damaging a TIM is nearly impossible. You will see the condition of ours after HSF removal, and now know why reusing a TIM isn't happening either. After one time removing the HSF, and the TIM was ruined.
Once we realized the TIM would not be able to be used again, we quickly cleaned away the remaining thermal material. An easy way to remove stubborn / sticky / messy TIM's is to heat them up with a blow dryer and simply wipe off the residue with a small cloth and a touch of alcohol. If you MUST scrape, use something small and preferably plastic... hard metal objects will scar your chipset and possibly damage it beyond repair.
Afterwards, I applied a small thin layer of thermal compound ( matter o' fact, I probably use too much for most peoples tastes )...
and then I put the HSF unit back on, rotate gently back and forth applying a little pressure to make sure the thermal paste spreads evenly across the bottom and removes and trapped air. Then I push in the securing pins to hold the HSF to the card, and I'm ready to roll. . .
The Box
Although considerable thought and design went into making a very nice looking Purple Bubble covered box, there is not much else inside other than the video card itself and drivers. No games were included, but being that at the time this card shipped, no games were available to utilize the GeForce3 features. No games shipping is all the same to me, my personal preference is for bypassing the bundle and pass the savings on to ME.
Most gamers don't really care anymore about bundled games, especially if it means an increase in price. Normally gamers own the games they are already playing, or want to play.
At this time however, I am in favor of games like Giants: Citizen Kabuto / AquaNox / DroneZ shipping with the GeForce3 simply because they are the only retail games to showcase the GeForce3 power and features.
Specs:
- 256-bit Graphics Architecture
- AGP 4X
- 200 MHz Core Clock
- 460 MHz Memory Clock
- 57 Million Transistors
- 800 Billion Operations per Second
- 3.2 Billion Samples per Second FSAA Fill Rate
- 76 GFLOPS
- 7.4 GB/sec memory bandwidth
- TV-Out, TV-In
- Supports Windows 9x, 2000, ME, NT, etc.
General Features
- Breakthrough nFinite-FX Engine V Fully Programmable for Jaw-dropping Realism
- First to Offer High Resolution, High Frame Rate, Full-scene Anti-aliasing (FSAA)
- XBox Architecture
- nFinite FX Engine V Creates an Infinite Number of Special Effects that Bring 3D Characters and Environments to Life
- Lightspeed Memory Architecture - Generates the Power Behind the GeForce3 GPU, Delivering Earthshaking Performance at all Resolutions
Minimum System Requirements
- Intel Pentium II, III, 4, Celeron, AMD-K6, K6-2, K6-III, Athlon, or Other Compatible CPUs with AGP slots
- 64MB System Memory CD-ROM Driver Windows 9x, 2000, ME, NT