>...i've been reading everything on the subject, but i still have a very
>simple question.
>Q: what is the biggest, bestest, most-goodest video card out there right
>now that uses the rendition 2200 chip?
>i don't care about price. if it comes with 64megs, bring it on. whatever
>it takes. i've been going back and forth on the whole "3Dfx versus
>rendition" thing, and am pretty well set on the rendition. i currently
>have a intergraph intense 100 with a rendition 1000 chip. i'm an idiot
>and haven't been able to take advantage of the rendition-ready version
>of nascar2 - but that's a different story.
>i just checked out the top-rated video cards at pcworld.com
>(http://www.racesimcentral.net/) for august, and the only one listed on
>the PCI list was the hecules thriller 3D. i thought that the intergraph
>intense 3D voodoo card used a rendition chip, but i was wrong. a lot of
>them are using the intel740 chip. the actually rate boards that are AGP
>(whatever the heck THAT is) more highly than PCI. they all seem to have
>something called RAMDAC. apparently that is the next best thing. i
>dunno. BTW, the diamond stealth II is the highest rated of ALL the video
>cards out there with a 93 according to them.
>i am most concerned with nascar2 and ICR2 and getting the most out of
>them. i imagine that GPL will be rendition supported as well.
>VROOM!!!!!!!
>danke schon in advance,
Hmmm....
Well, really depends on your system and what other games you play. Nascar 2
will probably rip on a Stealth II unless you have a really weak system, and
probably be a bit faster on a Hercules Thriller. ICR2 will work, but has a
few glitches with the V2x00's. GPL will probably be pretty good too.
BUT, if you play anything else, seriously consider a 3dfx. It's going to be
about the same speed in Direct 3D games, but will play all the games that
either only have 3dfx support or are better optimized for 3dfx. I had a
Rendition V1000 for a good while, and while I hated giving up N2, never had
to worry about whether games would support the 3dfx. Lot's of used Voodoo
1's out there with people moving to Voodoo 2's, and for $50-$100 you could
get a Voodoo 1 that is all you really need on anything less than a P-II.
If you rarely play anything else, probably hard to beat a V2x00 for $100 or
so, maybe a bit higher for an 8 meg Thriller 3D, especially on an older
system. But I think for around $50-60 after rebates, you can get a Stealth
II, and that'll probably do fine. For more info on Rendition stuff, go to
http://www.racesimcentral.net/; They have a comparison on the different V2200
boards, and a message board where you can ask opinions
Definitely don't rely on something like PC World for *** graphics
reviews. They tend to look at things more for business use, and the
benchmarks they use for *** stuff don't seem to represent real-world
***. Try http://www.racesimcentral.net/ for a lot of 3D card reviews, and
for info on a lot of the terms you see.
AGP is a newer type of video card slot, found in Pentium II's and some
newer Pentium Classic motherboards. You more than likely only have PCI
slots, so can't run an AGP card on your machine. Most cards until recently
have a PCI and an AGP version, and the PCI version is usually just a bit
slower. Some newer ones are AGP only. The RAMDAC will mainly affect the
refresh rates you can use with a graphics card, a faster RAMDAC will
generally allow higher refresh rates. As long as you can get 85 HZ with
your most common video mode, you're probably fine. Most cards will have a
listing on the box as to what resolutions and refresh rates they support.
Ken
