Hi,
I have a P100 and a simple 1MB videocard. I run GP2 only in VGA because
that's the only way to get a decent framerate.
Now I, wonder will a better Videocard (like the Matrox Millenium or The
Hercules dynamite 128) speed up the game significantly. Or in other words
are they worth the money.
And how about a 3d card (Like the mystique). I now GP2 doesn't support them
but will they give an improvement on the speed.
Please answer !!
[snip]
Save your money. Especially on a P100, a new videocard wont give you
any real difference.
Regards,
David.
Best bet is a processor upgrade........I`ve gone from a pentium120 to a
cyrix 686 166+ and there is a big difference in performance so you should
notice an improvement from a p100
My graphics card is only a 1meg card also.....so start saving up!
Later
Rich
After I replaced Stealth2000 with Matrox Millenium on my P133, I could
feel significant performance gain from all of my games. So, a good video
card certainly helps. But now is not a good time for upgrade except for
a 3D card, I think. You could spend $500 on a P166MMX ODP chip and enjoy
GP2 in SVGA, but your existing video card would serve only as a
bottleneck, and considering 300MHz Pentium II on the horizon, the value
of getting an ODP is questionable. You could spend $200 on a Millenium,
but Matrox is preparing for Millenium II. So, just be patient a little
bit. I've learned that when it comes to upgrading PC, a little patience
really pays off.
The old cards don't support linear Framebuffer, but the newer ones do.
The speed gain is at about 20 % with linear Framebuffer.
: I have a P100 and a simple 1MB videocard. I run GP2 only in VGA because
: that's the only way to get a decent framerate.
: Now I, wonder will a better Videocard (like the Matrox Millenium or The
: Hercules dynamite 128) speed up the game significantly. Or in other words
: are they worth the money.
: And how about a 3d card (Like the mystique). I now GP2 doesn't support them
: but will they give an improvement on the speed.
: Please answer !!
It really depends on a number of factors. How bad is your video card in
the performance level? What are you considering a decent framerate?
How much detail do you want to display? Are there any other
applications/games/sims you run that need a video improvement?
Unless your video card totally SUCKS in performance, I would suggest you
save up for a motherboard/cpu upgrade. With all the hype and pushing of
the MMX and now the new P2 cpu's, a P5-166 and new motherboard should be
getting quite affordable. For a few hundred dollars more than a video
card upgrade, you will receive a real increase in performance. Or you
can opt for one of the non-Intel chips and save some bucks.
Overall a new video card will usually give you a few frames per second
increase, while a speedier motherboard and CPU should give you a much
better increase in performance. Especially since GP2 is a CPU hog, this
is where the drag on performance really comes in. Even with an
extremely fast video card, the CPU is still struggling to calculate the
graphics (along with everything else).
(Ahh, this brings back fond memories of the Quest for the Holy Graphics
Card episode in r.a.s. a way back.....)
--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./. [- < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
: That is caused by VESA 2.0 linear Framebuffer.
: If you use Univbe with your old card there is nearly no difference to
: Matrox millenium.
My memory is foggy, but does GP2 support VESA 2.0?
--
**************************** Michael E. Carver *************************
Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town.
=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./. [- < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=
No, is the short answer. It seems that GP2 is mainly processor
dependent rather than Video Card dependent.
This message is sent to rec.autos.simulators
> : That is caused by VESA 2.0 linear Framebuffer.
> : If you use Univbe with your old card there is nearly no difference to
> : Matrox millenium.
> My memory is foggy, but does GP2 support VESA 2.0?
--
Ren van Lobberegt, The Netherlands.
http://www.toptown.com/INNERCIRCLE/1846/
>> : That is caused by VESA 2.0 linear Framebuffer.
>> : If you use Univbe with your old card there is nearly no difference to
>> : Matrox millenium.
>> My memory is foggy, but does GP2 support VESA 2.0?
>Not that I can remember, Univbe didn't do squad for me.
>But for S3-cards there's a utility called S3SPDUP which can
>give you something like 15% decrease of processor occupancy.
>I don't have the URL anymore, but I'm pretty sure Pieter van Dieren
>has it or a link to it on his GP2 page : http://cervino.vol.it/GP2/
I had a video card based on S3 Vision864 with 2 MB DRAM, now i have a
matrox mystique with 2 MB
With univbe it had the same!!! speed as the matrox (I hoped that the
matrox speed up gp2 a bit but that is only true if you don't use
univbe for the s3-card (mystique has build in VESA 2.0), it was a big
disappointment)
a friend of mine tried the same and came to the same results.
If you don't believe it, try it!!!
Steffen
