rec.autos.simulators

AMD K6-2 450
128Mb RAM PC-100
Aopen AX59Pro
Fast 8.5 - 9 gig Hard Drive
17" .26 dot monitor
Soundblaster Live!
Microsoft FF wheel

Which leaves, of course, the graphics card(s). So guys, which way do I go;
Riva TNT, Voodoo Banshee or Voodoo 2? If I go for a 3D accelerator card,
what 2D choice do I make?  If I decide on Voodoo 2, Ill buy one now and
maybe a second card at a later stage.

Any advice would be much appreciated.

Craig

**** Posted from RemarQ - http://www.racesimcentral.net/ - Discussions Start Here (tm) ****

Steve B.

remove "edy" from address for email

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Tony Wyss

There are a couple things to consider.  First, if you want a Voodoo2 realize
its a 3d addon card and you MUST have a 2D or 2D/3D card in addition.
Second, if you want SLI its best to get them of the same brand and of course
they have to be the same amount of RAM, i.e. 8 and 8 or 12 and 12.  Thirdly,
its probably not a wise idea (if it even works..it doesn't with the
VoodooRush cards) is to run a Banshee w/an addon Voodoo2 card.  As someone
noted, but not quite correctly, the Banshee cards are based on the Voodoo2
cards except they only have one texture unit as opposed to two texture
units; generally its neither here nor there unless you are playing with some
specially written Quake2 levels.  Oh, and you won't be able to SLI a Banshee
and a Voodoo2 together.  Fourth, the Banshee comes in PCI and AGP models,
but the AGP does NOT take advantage of any of the AGP benefits.  About the
only benefit an AGP Banshee has over a PCI is that the AGP bus is running at
66mhz rather than 33mhz so you might see it be slightly faster.

Voodoo3s....junk.  Don't waste the money on them.  WHy?  Very few games are
really supporting Glide as the primary 3D API.  Its mostly D3D anymore with
Glide usually as a secondary along with OpenGL.  That noted, the Voodoo3
will NOT be able to take advantage of all the DirectX6.1 or DX7.0 D3D specs
which will leave it far behind other competitors.  This is due to many of
the limitations such as 256x256 textures (TNT2 has 2k x 2k textures), not
supporting the AGP texture management and using their own, only 16bit color
output, plus others.

Ok, thats the 3dfx.  As to the Riva TNT....why in the world buy this?!!?
Next month or the first of April the Ultra TNT2s come out and right now in
beta previews their stats match up with 2 Voodoo2s in SLI and Voodoo3s.  Not
to mention they support 32bit display as opposed to Voodoo3s 16bit, 2kby2k
textures, full AGP2x and 4x unlike the Voodoo3.  Makes no sense whatsoever,
unless you are on a budget, to get a TNT or heck even a Banshee.  However,
be warned.....its probably best to also get a Voodoo2 for GPL.  Not everyone
has the best luck with the OpenGL rasterizer for the TNT and who knows how
it might work on the Ultra TNT2.  (FYI, this is NOT the next generation
Nvidia card...its basically a TNT on .25 micron with some other
enhancements...the next gen isn't due out till this fall).  Oh, and
supposedly these cards may be SLIable depending on what Megabyte does.

My 3cents

            Zog

I did the following.

Hercules Thriller 3D (2d/3d combo) AGP card for the primary display and a
Diamond Voodoo2 PCI add in.  My choice was based on the desired to have the
best possible Nascar Racing (2/1999) support and still have 3dfx support for
DirectX.  I have tried running Papy sims on both adapters (and both work
fine) - and the Thriller 3D with a Verite 2200 is hands down better for
that.  However, other games such as EA's SuperBikes is much better on the
Voodoo2 adapter.  The combo works well.  The Windows98 driver support for
the Thriller is very good and the NT driver is functional - although does
have some re-draw problems that I think are related to the SCSI adapter.
During heavy disk i/o, lots of turds get left behind on the screen.  But, I
am running NT right now and it is useable.

The combo is right around $200, the Thriller for about $100 and the Voodoo2
for $125 - so the investment is not too great - but we all know the
investment in time can be.

I have an ASUS P2B-S with a PII 400, 128m memory, a PCI modem, PCI 10mbps
ethernet adapter.  Is ok !

/TomH

--

Regards,
Ed Medlin

www.flyairwest.com

Wrong, you can run a Voodoo1 or Voodoo2 in conjunction with a Voodoo
Rush card. It takes a little setting up, but it can be done
successfully.

even if Glide isnt primary, the fact it will run better and look nicer
than the D3D version means that having Glide capable graphics cards
are still an advantage....
--
Nathan Wong             http://www.racesimcentral.net/~alfacors
                      Alfa Romeo - Super Touring - Club Cars

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Glide in F1RS and MGPRS looks better than the D3D version :)
Even with TNT :)

--
Nathan Wong             http://www.nectar.com.au/~alfacors
                      Alfa Romeo - Super Touring - Club Cars

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IMHO its a simple choice. The STB VooDoo 3 3000 (166mz) AGP can be had
for under $150.00 at  www.buycomp.com . This card will give you SLI'd
V2 performance and includes a TV Out. For a single card D3D/3DFX
solution you can't do better for the price..

G. Patricks