Customer Reviews

Creative Labs 3D Blaster Annihilator 2 AGP

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(2)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(2)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

...except the Annihilator Pro. (Same card really...)

Anyway, I could just sit here and spew at you about how this card rocks and kicks and all that, but let's talk brass tacks, shall we?

The geForce 256 has had compatibility issues on other platforms, but Creative kicks that aside by pairing the chip with DDR RAM and effective drivers. (Yes, you can go get nVidia's drivers, but you'll miss out on a few tricks.)

All graphics processing is handled by the card and its RAM. This GREATLY speeds up the overall processing time, making game play more fun! I have yet to see it dip into my board's RAM and I play some seriously graphics-intensive games (Asheron's Call, Diablo 2, etc...)

The card also has on-board MPEG and DVD decoding. (I have a separate DXR decoder in my machine, so it didn't make much difference, but it might to you!)

A few cautions: 1. Creative's support line is... unresponsive. 2. Let Windows go Online and get you the latest drivers. Throw that included CD out!

Otherwise, you should be AMAZED by this graphics card. I know I am!

I just bought this video card.. and wow. If you play any sort of 3d game other than unreal tournament, this is the card for you. I had a voodoo5 5000 before and the geforce2 is a lot better, and faster. It supports OpenGL and Direct3D just fine. Also, with the newest drivers from nvidia it supports Full Screen Anti-Aliasing (FSAA, what 3dfx has been bragging about) for almost any game, making it look incredible. It is expensive for just a video card... but if you buy it, you won't regret it.

This is a really nice card, the price is right since they removed useless features like ram heatsinks and video out. The memory is 6ns Infineon DDR ram. Card ships in a attractive box with drivers and some really cool Nvidia demos. It has a small HS/FAN that is exactly the same that came on most GeForce's. The newer 18 micron fab really helps cut down on heat. Running at 200/333 its already pretty fast, I found that I could do 220/390 without any problems. Furthermore the card is stable at 133FSB (89AGP) on BX boards for those of you that overclock. I give it 5 stars, its a basic board that does what it was designed for and does it well. 32MB ram isn't a problem, I found that it benched within a few frames of my Herc 64MB Prophet II; at this time I find that 32MB is just as effective and is much more affordable than the 64MB cards.

This card is not compatible with 1.0 compliant AGP. The confusing thing is you think 2.0 compliant is 2x, it is not. I called costomer service before buying this card. I had asked if 2.0 compliant was the same as 2x, she said 'right', that's was her only word! She odviously didn't know what she was talking about. I like Creative products, it's not that, I have the SBLive X-Gamer and it's excellent but I bought my PC only last year and this Anhilator 2 should be compatible with 1.0 slots but it isn't. Most other top of the line cards(Voodoo 5) are 1.0 compliant and AMD super7 compatible. I give it an extra star because it is said to be good on 2.0 AGP systems. No stars on mine because it doesn't work.

A great card, a bit expensive here. Look at Tomshardware.com for comparable cards. I owned this card and ran it in a high end, well ventilated tower. This card runs HOT!!! I mean to the point that the heatsink couldn't be touched!!!! The heatsink is cheap and Creative Labs may as well let you put your own heatsink on. Mine burned out in under a year and that's without playing games on it!!!! If you buy it, get some fans to blow on it!!!

It get's great ratings, is a bit expensive, but you get what you pay for. Good video quality. But Creative Labs did themselves wrong by placing the chip at the bottom of the card. Heat rises and the card heats up. A little redesign and a quality heatsink and this would get 4-5 stars.

A fine card. Does great at what it's supposed to do: pump out great 3-D graphics, smooth and fast. It also does 2-D graphics well, giving you high refresh rates even on large monitors at high resolution.

3-D and 2-D graphics are about all the card does, though. If you're looking for extra features, this might not be the card for you. Some disadvantages of the card:

1) No TV output. This would have been nice to have, especially with the included DVD acceleration.

2) No bundled DVD software. Even though this card has DVD acceleration, you have to purchase extra software at additional cost before you can watch a DVD.

3) The drivers don't give you many extra features or controls besides what you already get in Windows. This can be a good thing or a bad thing, depending on your preference. I would have liked to see a built-in control to set the default brightness/gamma in 3-D games, as things otherwise appear too dark for me.

I don't overclock, and so can't vouch for this card's heat generation or overclocking tolerance. My CPU is the bottleneck in my system now, as this card is plenty fast by default. The drivers have no controls to adjust overclocking speed (there may be a code to make them appear, but I don't know it).

I bought the card for its 3-D graphics capability, and have been very pleased with it. It has a very good price for a GeForce 2, and is recommended if that's what you want and you don't care about DVD or other extra features.

This video card is really the best on the market I believe right now. It is very fast especially in T&L conditions and also in very high resolution 3D applications. I could get about 25-30 FPS in halflife at 640x480 (with a RIVA TNT on a PII 450), but I usually run at 800x600 and get 72 FPS (GeForce 2 GTS 32MB on a 1.1 Ghz AMD T-Bird). I've tested the card at 1024x768 and I get 72 FPS. At 1600x1200 I can get about 30 FPS, exceptional for a card at that resolution. Also, the FSAA is great (full screen antialiasing). I'd get this card be cause the extra 32MB or RAM on the card is not worth the extra price and I don't think that the GeForce 2 Ultra is worth the high price. So you know, I'd leave the first PCI slot done from the AGP just because all the GeForces run a little warm and you want that heat to disipate. Great card, I'd recommend it to anyone!

I just bought this video card.. and wow. If you play any sort of 3d game other than unreal Tournament, this is the card for you. I had a voodoo5 5000 before and the geforce2 is a lot better, and faster. It supports OpenGL and Direct3D just fine. Also, with the newest drivers from nvidia it supports Full Screen Anti-Aliasing (FSAA, what 3dfx has been bragging about) for almost any game, making it look incredible. It is expensive for just a video card... but if you buy it, you won't regret it.

Even though this card is out dated it still pushes all it can give. If you're not to keen on having 100fps on games, with this card you can still play all current games at decient levels and get a fresh 30fps. Movies are shown in 24fps, and I can't tell any differnce after 30. So this card is great if you wanna play games on a poor income.

This card is not compatible with 1.0 compliant AGP. The confusing thing is you think 2.0 compliant is 2x, it is not. I called costomer service before buying this card. I had asked if 2.0 compliant was the same as 2x, she said 'right', that's was her only word! She odviously didn't know what she was talking about. I like Creative products, it's not that, I have the SBLive X-Gamer and it's excellent but I bought my PC only last year and this Anhilator 2 should be compatible with 1.0 slots but it isn't. Most other top of the line cards(Voodoo 5) are 1.0 compliant and AMD super7 compatible. I give it an extra star because it is said to be good on 2.0 AGP systems. No stars on mine because it doesn't work.