3dfx Voodoo 4 4500 and 5 5500 PCI video cards

Reviewed By: Bill Stiteler

Review Date: January 12, 2001

Developer: 3dfx

Minimum Requirements: PCI PowerMac G3 or G4 and MacOS 8.6. Note that the 5500 is a full-length PCI card and may not fit in some Macs. Both cards offer VGA and DVI monitor out ports.

Retail Price: For whatever you can find it

Availability: Discontinued

Like most people who play violent video games, I don't believe that video games cause violence. Besides the fact that I'm looking out for my own interests, I think it's just that graphics have finally gotten good enough to convey violence in a manner that can be properly appreciated.

Take Atari's Adventure, for example. For those of you not overcome by nostalgia right now, I'll explain what you're looking at. The square, that's you. The thing next to you which is very clearly a left arrow, that's the magic sword which can slay any dragon with a touch. I'd also like to point out that you're holding onto the sword in this picture. Yes, by the blade. And that thing next to that which looks like a seahorse? That's a dragon.

That's a dragon.

So you can see why, in 1979, no adult in their right mind, or even the ones who make speeches at PTA meetings, would go on TV and say that a square holding a left arrow nudging a seahorse caused a child to go berserk and blow up a bank. This is why the CIA invented crack. Not enough people were complaining about that, however, so they decided to invent video cards. I forget how the black helicopters fit in.

You'll have to forgive me, see, I've been playing Deus Ex with 3dfx cards, and it just seems so real. Over the last few weeks I've had the pleasure to test both the Voodoo 4 4500 and the 5 5500 PCI cards.

Both brought games to life with frightening clarity, but nowhere near as frightening as the type of people who worry about phrases like "triangles per second" and spend hours tinkering with settings to get a frame rate that one second higher. I, like every other human being who has seen a tree on occasion, am more concerned with the differences the human eye can discern.

After pulling out the 3dfx 3000 I salvaged from my friend Dale's dead PC, the 4500 slid in with no problem. I restarted, checked to make sure I was using the latest software, and popped in Unreal Tournament, setting everything to "High." The card performed wonderfully with no stutters in performance and fantastic rendering on complex textures. I was used to seeing force fields as yellow blurs, but now they gained the level of transparency I'd seen on other machines. And of course, lots of gore.

I was enjoying it so much that for a few days I forgot I had another card, the supposedly more powerful 5500, to work with. The 55' is a bit more of a complex install: it has two chips, each with its own fan. The card can't draw enough power from the PCI slot, so you have to connect the card to your internal power supply. Threading those cards is always a pain, and I wondered if it was worth it.

It wasn't. At first.

I rebooted, again without problems, and began Deus Ex. I didn't see any noticeable improvement over the 4500. I'd heard about the 55's "anti-aliasing" effect, but watching the opening "DX" shape spin around, I could easily see the points where the curve broke. What was the big deal about? Aren't they based on the same engine?

How quickly I forgot that I still had DX set up for the 4500 card I'd begun playing with. After revisiting the video settings section, I began fiddling with settings. For "began fiddling with the settings" in the previous sentence, read "went to 11."

Boom.

The 5500 turned Deus Ex from an engaging, story-driven shooter to engaging, story-driven shooter with amazing friggin' graphics. No stutters whatsoever, smoke danced, burn marks charred stone, and in the most complex test of graphing, faces became more lifelike. Don't get me wrong, the citizens of Hell's Kitchen still looked like someone had beaten them all with a lead pipe, but now they looked like they'd managed to spend a few weeks at home, resting. Also, the gore was more realistic.

I hope you appreciate my predicament, trying to recommend a product that very shortly you won't be able to find anymore; much less a choice between the two. But since there are probably still a few shelves, as well as in auction sites, let me say that the cheaper 4500 has everything you'll probably need in a video card, unless you want everything you can get by today's standards, in which case you'll want the 5500.

3dFx has now disappeared (under... mysterious circumstances). Best of all, you can totally strike a geek attitude as you tell newbies, "Yeah, I'm runnin' with a Voo' 5500. What? Oh no, you can't get those no more [spit]. Guv'mint took 'em away. Whatta you got, kid? Oh yeah, that's a real fine card. Still, ain't no 55.' You can't get those no more [spit]." Don't push them too far, though. They might come at you with a right arrow.

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