NVIDIA GeForce3 Roundup - July 2001

Conclusion

There are quite a few GeForce3 cards on the market today, a marked change from just a few months ago. No longer are GeForce3s priced out of the reach of many and difficult to find. No, it seems that the GeForce3 is finally making it in the mainstream, with many companies sporting high end GeForce3 graphics cards. The question is, which GeForce3 is right for you?

Well, the best GeForce3 for you depends on what you are looking for in a GeForce3 card. Coincidentally, we can break the GeForce3 market into 3 different segments: budget GeForce3 cards, VIVO GeForce3 cards, and TV tuner GeForce3 cards. We will choose the best card for each of these applications.

When it comes to the budget GeForce3 category, it is difficult to beat the base model Gainward CARDEXPERT GeForce3 PowerPack !!!. Although the card only gets second place when it comes to price, beat out by the PowerColor Chameleon by $5, the $5 extra dollars will prove to be well worth it in the long run. The card offers great image quality, best of all the GeForce3 cards we have seen thus far, as well as a rich standard feature set that includes both TV-out as well as DVI-out. The Gainward CARDEXPERT GeForce3 PowerPack !!! is also one of the more available GeForce3 cards that we looked at; a wide variety of e-stores regularly stock the Gainward card. Temperatures of the card fell within the average range, leaving an opportunity open for overclocking. Overall, the extremely strong image quality and low price were enough to make us comfortable recommending the base Gainward CARDEXPERT GeForce3 PowerPack !!! as the budget GeForce3 card of choice.

The Absolute Multimedia Morpheus is another card that fell into the base GeForce3 category, but its high price kept it from being chosen number one. It does make a great card if you are looking into investing in some cool titles with your GeForce3 as well, since Absolute Multimedia is able to package the games with the card at a much lower cost than the retail stores can offer. As far as the Guillemot/Hercules 3D Prophet III, it contains the features we would classify as being a "budget" card but it's high price ranks up there with VIVO GeForce3s.

As far as VIVO GeForce3 cards, our choice was not as simple. We had to pick from a selection of 3 cards, each with a strong point. When forced to make a recommendation, we had to go with the VIVO Gainward CARDEXPERT GeForce3 PowerPack !!! due to it's high image quality, good VIVO features, and low price. As mentioned before, the Gainward CARDEXPERT GeForce3 PowerPack !!! was the only card that appeared to have as sharp of an image as the ATI Radeon DDR. Add to this the rather low price of $349 and standard DVI-out port, and the Gainward CARDEXPERT GeForce3 PowerPack !!! seems like a great deal; and it is.

A close second is the ASUS V8200 Deluxe, and for those not really concerned with the extra $20 this card will set you back, it is a strong candidate. The hardware monitoring features of the card will win the hearts of many and certainly helps when overclocking. It is too bad that image quality of the V8200 was not as strong as other cards; those with large monitors and high resolutions should stay away. The MSI StarForce 822 rung in slightly cheaper than the Gainward CARDEXPERT GeForce3 PowerPack !!!, but the $4 this card saves you is not worth it when you take into consideration the poor image quality of the card as well as the lack of s-video input and DVI output.

Finally, the only GeForce3 we currently know of that plans to ship with and support NVIDIA's Personal Cinema is the SUMA Platinum GeForce3, making it the clear winner for those looking for a TV tuner on their GeForce3. The card's image quality was surprisingly good for a company that has little recognition in the US. Our only concern is with retail availability; only time will tell if SUMA's Platinum GeForce3 can make it big outside of Asia. We suspect that retail availability will grow and prices of the card will fall once released, as many have interest in getting a TV tuner with their GeForce3.

With the GeForce3 finally making it in the rough world of the consumer market, the real winner in this roundup is you, the consumer. With companies fighting it out attempting to one up the competition, GeForce3 prices will only continue to fall and quality will only continue to improve. The results of this are already being seen, as demonstrated by the high quality of each and every GeForce3 card we reviewed. With our suggestions, you should now feel ready and able to conquer the GeForce3 market. Happy shopping.