Right so you've seen what the Voodoo Banshee can do on a high-end Pentium II 400MHz. You've also seen what it can do on an AMD K6-2 300MHz, well now I've gone and given all you mid-range owners (Pentium II 300MHz) a few benchmarks to chew on.

Incoming (left) - Quake2 Timedemo demo1.dm2 (middle) - Quake2 Timedemo demo2.dm2 (right)

Even though the Voodoo Banshee is no speedster when compared to a 'full monty' Voodoo2 SLI configuration it's still faster than a single Voodoo2 in D3D games and not too far behind in Glide based ones either. I've said it before and I'll say it again- Quake 2 maniacs please think hard before you go for the Banshee. You can't expect to get Voodoo2 performance in Quake 2 with the Voodoo Banshee's single TMU (texture memory unit) because Quake 2 actually makes use of dual TMUs in order render the most complicated and texture intensive scenes. But it's only games like Quake 2 and SiN that support dual TMUs to date (more titles will follow shortly)

So there you have it- the Voodoo Banshee makes just as much sense as it does for high-end owners. In fact, it makes more sense for high-end owners to stick with and/or buy Voodoo2's. Consumers with a less money to throw away will have a lower-spec machine anyway but if they can get the whole caboodle with a Voodoo Banshee for less money then why not? After all with the Banshee being aimed very much at the OEM price point and mid-range, it should fit in snugly with a Pentium II 300MHz. It should also fit in nicely with a mid-range PC owner's budget! The Voodoo2 will of course come down in price but if you want to play Glide games, have great D3D performance- then the Banshee is your most sensible option right now. Of course you could wait a while longer until the next Voodoo Banshee comes along with two TMUs and more memory. But sticking with your trusty Voodoo2 is what I would do- if you don't have one then go and buy one. If you need a groovy 2D card, to play Glide based games, want a little bit extra in terms of D3D and don't want to frag in Quake 2 at an optimal performance, then the Voodoo Banshee is where it's at. Then again if you want more for your money in terms of image quality but don't need Glide, then either the Matrox Millenium G200 or Matrox Mystique G200 are a safer bet. Well see what the TNT has to offer (at whatever clock speed that might be at?) soon (I'll do some testing soon) and then live in hope for the S3 Savage 3D.