okay for the money, but be careful
Written: Dec 08 '00
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Product Rating:
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Pros: PRICE, good enough performance for many
Cons: new drivers ?, not for hardcore gamers
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| mecampro's Full Review: Rio Diamond Viper II, (32 MB) AGP Video Card |
I got an OEM Viper II about 3 months ago when I was building a new Thunderbird 800 system on an ASUS A7V. It was a few weeks after S3/Diamond/Sonic Blue announced they were getting out of the graphics card business and the formerly $179 card could be had for a mere $80. The card was still high on PC World's lists at that time too.
I think we all know that hard core gamers want the latest Nvidia cards and will pay $400 for them and they will smoke a Viper II. Okay, no argument from me there. But for my money, knowing that video cards are obsolete in a matter of months, and not having tremendous demands personally - a highly-rated $80 card with stable drivers on Win2k and Win98 SE seemed like a steal, and it was.
I have had no problems whatsoever with this card. Honestly, I intended to buy a ATI Radeon All in Wonder when they became available and prices came down a little, but I'm happy enough with this card to wait another generation. If you are a UT fan, there are special drivers that will outperform even newer Nvidia cards (probably not the newest ones though).
The card might also make a good choice for folks with older AGP systems who are stuck with a 4 or 8 meg card, but don't want to spend a fortune so they can run 32 bit at 1024x768 or whatever - a very cheap upgrade. If you can get an OEM one for $50 or less, and either you don't have great demands or you are waiting for a next generation card, then I think you may be just as satisfied as me.
So why do I say be careful? The card has been out for a year, I think. That's an eternity for a video card. I wouldn't expect more than one more set of drivers from them, if any, since they are out of the business; but as I said, mine is completely stable on Win2k and 98 SE on an Athlon system with ASUS A7V.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
mecampro
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Reviews written: 4
Trusted by: 0 members
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