rec.autos.simulators

   The new NVIDIA Riva TNT chipset looks pretty damned
impressive.   Superior image quality, higher resolutions (up to
1600x1200), and comparable framefrates to a Voodoo2, with
just 1 card! (damn things actually a little cheaper than just ONE
Voodoo2 card).

    Question is, I'm about to get a PII 400 and I'm really tempted
buy the STB Velocity 4400, but will I be missing something in GPL
and Nascar 3 because the TNT isn't 3dfx?

     Thanks in advance!

Gritz

Yep, it does sound wicked, and IF the games you want to play are D3D, then
you're set.  But if not, then you really have to look at having a Voodoo 2,
for compatibility.  I'd rather play every game 3d accelerated, with some
being 15% slower and looking a tad worse, than to play 65% accelerated
faster and better looking, but that other 35% looking and running much worse
in software mode.

And, unless you're running Quad P-450's, I doubt that 1600x1200 resolution
is even worth mentioning, it just won't have a playable framerate.

If you were planning on replacing the video card on a pre-built system with
the TNT, I'd suggest adding a Voodoo 2 now, and then putting in a TNT later
if you want.  If you're piecing this together, you're gonna need a 2D card
even if you get a Voodoo 2, so this would probably be a great choice - I'm
running a Riva 128 w/ my Voodoo 2, and it works pretty well for Windows, and
I'd imagine the TNT is better in that area also.  Won't help GPL, but will
run a decent amount of stuff well, and tide you over until you get a Voodoo
2.

Maybe D3D will start to take over, and relegate 3dfx-native stuff to
obscurity, but I honestly don't see this happening for a good while.  Pretty
good bet that something in the next 6 months will catch your eye, and be
3dfx-only.  And you already know it won't help GPL.  I've heard of a D3D
version of N3, but I would not be at all surprised if the native 3dfx /
Rendition versions worked much better, as the programmers will know about
those from GPL and haven't done D3D before.

Ken

GPL would work really nicely with some Voodoo2 SLI goin' on inside your
super
machine.  Use the Witchdoctor arrangement on the Canopus Spectra 2500 and
two Pure 3D II's in SLI mode and get the TV out, too.

Kyle

Kyle

These were taken sitting still in the pit lane at Monza with no AI
cars (from GPL version 0.2.0.0) on a K6-2/300 at the highest
resolution supported by each video card:

Diamond Viper V330 AGP 4MB, 640 x 480, ~4 fps
Diamond Viper V550 PCI 16MB, 640 x 480, ~4 fps
Diamond Monster 3D II PCI 12MB, 1024 x 768, ~23 fps

The huge disparity is because GPL (and N2 as well) only support
Rendition and 3Dfx with native code, and everything else is software
rendering.

Additionally, on the same machine the V550 PCI 16MB showed only ~10%
improvement over the V330 AGP 4MB in ZDNet Winbench Business Winmarks.
I don't have the 3D Winbench so I couldn't test that.  There is no
noticable difference in Windows 98, though I can run the V550 at 16.7M
colors and it benchmarks about the same as the old V330 at 65K colors
in 2D.

On the MGP:RS demo I don't "feel" any frame difference between the
Voodoo version on my Monster 3D vs. the DirectX version on the V550.

Clark A. (ace29 on TEN)

On Tue, 29 Sep 1998 22:17:52 -0500, "Gritz"