Win2000 and the best gaming card?

[msan_ewu]

Howdy! I keep thinking about how to write this and on the third attempt I think keeping it short and sweat will be the best.

Which company provides the best Win2000 drivers. I will upgrade my card soon. I'm looking at Kyro II, GF3, or Radeon 64mb. I'm not interested in speed as much as quality. I know a few things:

-ATI doesn't have the best drivers.. but how are the Win2000?
-Already know ALL about 3dfx and my V5. Please, no flames.
-Win2000 isn't a gaming OS. I know this.
-The best cards are coming in the fall. Know this too

My system for background:
Tbird 1200/266fsb Alpha cooling
256 Crucial PC-133 CL2
Abit K7Ta-RAID w/686b BIOS
2 WD WD200BB @ RAID-0
1 WD WD300BB (storage)
2X CD ROMs
SBLive
Ethernet NIC
(V5) Voodoo5500

I love to tinker with new hardware but have been a 3dfx fan for so long I haven't swapped vid cards around too much. Although I've tried the ProphetII but not with Win2000. So.. I'll be looking at new cards and just need to know which company supports Win2000 the best.

Thanks for your time and any responses.

Cheers!

msan

[UsePost2000]

Im into hardware and performance as much as I am into networking. The GF3 wont show a huge performance increase over the GF2 Ultra, that is until games start to write code for it. So the best bang for your buck is going to be the GF2 Ultra because prices will drop when the GF3 comes out. Id be interested in your voodoo for one of my older machines. Let me know when you upgrade. Btw, im running a GF2 in W2k and its absolutely beautiful. Hope this helps.

[Darren Wilson]

I don't know where the issues of bad drivers for the Radeon cards has come from but it is total rubbish. The Radeon (supported) drivers have very few problems, and none that I can see in Win2K.

Yes I do run 2K & a Radeon and have also read the 'benchmark tests' on other sites regarding this 'supposed performance hit when using Win2K'. All I can say about it is that my Radeon based system using Win2K outperforms a colleagues TWO Hercules GF2 Ultra powered WinME systems. This is not 'BS' either. Even he was shocked. All systems are running 1ghz Tbirds & Abit KT7A-RAID boards.

In the long run though the decision is yours. I have not had any complaints about the Radeon from those that I have recommended it to, even the most hardened gaming customers.

[Nakedboy]

Nvidia seems to have great support for Windows 2000. Not to mention all the "leaked" drivers you can play with.

[Raijen]

Originally posted by NakedBoy:
Nvidia seems to have great support for Windows 2000. Not to mention all the "leaked" drivers you can play with.

I've never had a problem ::touches wood:: with a NVidia card either; very tip-top preformance as well

My 2c

[ShadowKing]

I am using a Geforce2 MX in WIn2k and it works very well for OpenGL, but the Direct 3D isn't as strong... Maybe I havent tweaked it as well as I should have...

[msan_ewu]

Thanks for the replies. Sorry I hadn't been back in awhile. First thing first...

UsePost2000,

I wouldn't mind getting an Ultra except for a few things. Although I'm sure I could get on nVidia just discontinued the line hoping to increase GF3 sales (sorry, no link to info). Not that it matters with unified drivers but it does make a strong ($350 strong) case for the GF3. I'd be happy to sell you the V5. I've added some BLORBs to it but never OC'ed it too high. The longest is to run a 3dMark@185 just to see if there would be a performance increase. There was but not enough to consider it an OC'ers card. I'll post when I make the switch.

Darren

I've owned a RF Maxx. Maybe that's where I started stereotyping ATI in that department. I wouldn't call the stereotype "rubbish" though. Off the top of my head I can think of a few but then again all companies have them (Texture compression in the GF series anyone )

Nicholas 'Raijen' Furniss & NakedBoy... I've owned a few nVidia cards but the Prophet II really made me mad. I purchased it the week it was released and found AGP power issues with my Athlon based systems. They were fixed but not after I took the card back. I've been reluctant to go back though.But I may for the drivers.

mlowe, I wouldn't get a MX but thanks for the advice.

Well....

My new rig is schizo Because of the lack of good suppport for the V5 2000 drivers I set up a Win2000 drive (RAID) for everything but games. On the other drive I set up a bastardized Win98 gaming system. Using 98Lite I stripped the OS down to nothing except what was essential for gaming. If it wasn't for Opera I couldn't even get on the net. I'll tell ya... Gaming screams on the drive. Getting rid of the bloat and 98se is pretty darn fast and no problems with gaming. I would recommend this to anyone. Win2000 for everything (and games) but 98 completely stipped to the core and built back up just for games and gaming performance. I'm playing UT at a 'minimum' of 60fps w/2xFSAA 32bit and all the goodies at 10x7. Very nice!

Thanks for the replies.