rec.autos.simulators

by **Mark Smi** » Tue, 12 Nov 1996 04:00:00

After much convincing I purchased the Reactor card (should be here today) and
now I read that NON-rendition ready games and DirectX games are running slower
than they used to on the previous owners video card.

IS THIS TRUE!!

Since I have about 200 games that are NON rendition ready and only Quake and
ICR2 that ARE R-Ready - did I get the shaft here? This is why I always hate to
invest in new technology. I always get ahead of the software. Hell - I had to
pull 32mb out of my machine yesterday JUST to install Death Rally CD. Works
fine with 64mb - you just can't install it....

Anyway - any info on these reported LOSS of performance will greatly be
appreciated. I have to wonder how a $150 video card is supposed to out-perform
my $350 Diamond Stealth 3400xl. Maybe I need to keep both and swap video cards
when playing Quake or ICR2.

by **Eric T. Busc** » Tue, 12 Nov 1996 04:00:00

VGA games will be quite slow, but a fast processor should make up for
this. On my P120 Doom and other games are still quite playable. VESA
2.0 SVGA games will be very fast. I've been impressed with the DirectX
and Win95 speed of this card, it's faster than my ATI Mach64. Also,
keep in mind these are the initial drivers.

--

Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/

by **Scott** » Wed, 13 Nov 1996 04:00:00

I installed my reactor yesterday can tell you that gp2 and nascar
(svga) run much faster now on my computer. I know that these games
were not written for the reactor card so I have no idea why this is
so.
Haven't tried any other games yet.

by **Jason Perkin** » Wed, 13 Nov 1996 04:00:00

My reactor -- running plain old non-accelerated Quake, gets only about a
half a frame a sec less than my STB Lightspeed 128, which IMO was a pretty
fast card.

Jason Perkins

by **David Marti** » Wed, 13 Nov 1996 04:00:00

> >After much convincing I purchased the Reactor card (should be here today) and
> >now I read that NON-rendition ready games and DirectX games are running slower
> >than they used to on the previous owners video card.

> >IS THIS TRUE!!

> >Since I have about 200 games that are NON rendition ready and only Quake and
> >ICR2 that ARE R-Ready - did I get the shaft here? This is why I always hate to
> >invest in new technology. I always get ahead of the software. Hell - I had to
> >pull 32mb out of my machine yesterday JUST to install Death Rally CD. Works
> >fine with 64mb - you just can't install it....

> >Anyway - any info on these reported LOSS of performance will greatly be
> >appreciated. I have to wonder how a $150 video card is supposed to out-perform
> >my $350 Diamond Stealth 3400xl. Maybe I need to keep both and swap video cards
> >when playing Quake or ICR2.

> I installed my reactor yesterday can tell you that gp2 and nascar
> (svga) run much faster now on my computer. I know that these games
> were not written for the reactor card so I have no idea why this is
> so.
> Haven't tried any other games yet.

The Reactor is no improvement over a Triton 9440 PCI graphics card for
NCR1. As a matter of fact I think it's a little worse. However, from
what I've seen of ICR2 Rendition Ready in indysafe mode my mouth is
watering in anticipation of NCR2. I just hope I can get indyfast to
work soon.

David Martin

by **Dave Bar** » Thu, 14 Nov 1996 04:00:00

>After much convincing I purchased the Reactor card (should be here today) and
>now I read that NON-rendition ready games and DirectX games are running slower
>than they used to on the previous owners video card.
>IS THIS TRUE!!
>Since I have about 200 games that are NON rendition ready and only Quake and
>ICR2 that ARE R-Ready - did I get the shaft here? This is why I always hate to
>invest in new technology. I always get ahead of the software. Hell - I had to
>pull 32mb out of my machine yesterday JUST to install Death Rally CD. Works
>fine with 64mb - you just can't install it....
>Anyway - any info on these reported LOSS of performance will greatly be
>appreciated. I have to wonder how a $150 video card is supposed to out-perform
>my $350 Diamond Stealth 3400xl. Maybe I need to keep both and swap video cards
>when playing Quake or ICR2.

It depends on whether your talking about a VGA game or an SVGA game.
Depending on what your old card was, SVGA games might well be faster,
and VGA games will almost certainly be slower. My former card was a
Hercules Dynamite Power (ET4000), which is a fairly decent card for
DOS games. Here are my observations of how a few games played when I
installed the reactor (sorry, no frame rate numbers, you'll have to
live with "faster" or "slower" <g>). My machine is a P133 w/32 meg
EDO. Also, there is a utility available called renutil that will
allow certain VGA games to run using the SVGA core of the card, so
they play MUCH faster.

DOOM and all it's cousins - Slower
Descent Slower
Descent w/renutil Faster
Mechwarrior II (640x480) Faster
Mercenaries (640x480) Faster
NASCAR (640x480) Faster
GP II (640x480) Faster
F22 Lightening II Faster
Fighter Duel Faster
Warcraft II Faster
Apache (640x480) Faster

Overall, unless your current card is a Matrox or an ET6000, your SVGA
performance should improve, and VGA games don't generally tax your
system anywhere near as much as SVGA, so your processor should be able
to compensate for the cards shortcommings in VGA.

David

You're only young once, but you can stay immature forever.

rec.autos.simulators

REACTOR Worries

REACTOR Worries

REACTOR Worries

REACTOR Worries

REACTOR Worries

REACTOR Worries

REACTOR Worries