rec.autos.simulators

Now that Christmas has come and gone, I'm not the only one asking advice on
which 3D card to buy.  I made the trek to all the local stores today...as
usual, the sheer number of choices is mind-boggling.  Voodoo, Voodoo2,
Rendition, Banshee...how the heck can we tell what is best for our systems?

Personally, I only have interest in (make that time for) Nascar2 (and N3 in
the future) and my new hobby, Viper Racing.  But how do I know if I'm
getting the best bang for my buck in the way of a 3D card?

I have a lowly ( last year = rockin') 200mhz Pentium w/ 64 mb ram, but will
be upgrading in the next few months to the fastest PII processor I can find.

Does anyone have a suggestion on a "can't miss" board?

Stop the madness (and thanks in advance),
LC

Thanks for the info...I wound up ordering, on the advice of a friend, the
Diamond Monster Fusion Banshee card...I will post a review once it arrives
in the hopes of helping some other poor lost soul (like me!).

As for overclocking, I have absolutely no experience in this technique- is
there a newsgroup, faq, or web site that could bring me up to speed?  My
system is a Dell XPS P200S, no PII, no MMX...maybe it's not even a candidate
for overclocking.  It does interest me though, and since my office is
usually about 45 degrees, overheating shouldn't be a problem <g>.

Thanks again,
LC

Correct, see the thread "Re: Voodoo 2, Banshee, or wait??".

Read, guess, roll the dice :-)

Okay, Papy is one of the few companies that is still paying attention to the
Rendition proprietary api.  If you hadn't said N2 (GPL falls in the same
group), I'd have said forget Rendition.  However, it would be a good card for
you *now*.  But I still consider it a dead end as it is old technology and I
doubt we'll see much more support of Rredline (even N99 only supports it in
DOS, correct??).  On the positive, you can find them cheap (though the
Hercules Thriller 8MB is IMHO, too expensive).  And they compare acceptably to
the new whiz-bang chips on "low end" systems (sorry!).  Still, for
(near) future considerations, I still couldn't recommend the present
Renditions.

You didn't mention the Nvidia TNT.  This is an excellent card, by all
accounts, but it doesn't support 3dfx's Glide.  Glide I still consider to be a
must have for sims.  Though I've read the added Glide support in N2 pales
compared to the built-in Rendition support.

3dfx's Glide supported:
Voodoo1 is old technology that you should be able to get real cheap, say ~$50
for a 4MB one.  My 6MB Pure 3D may soon be available.  It won't compare to a
TNT, but it is cheap and does have Glide support.  Again, I consider it a
short term solution.  You do know that it is a 3D card only that requires you
to have a 2D card with it right?  It works via a "pass thru" cable that may
result in a small amount of image degradation.

Ditto on the 3D-only for the V2, but it's a lot faster, and now reasonably
cheap (OEM's for $120 or so).  Get the 12MB for future considerations.  I'd
strongly consider this one.

Banshee is also tempting.  2D/3D, higher resolutions, 16MB, $90 from Guillemot
(after mail-in rebate).

BTW, Nascar1999 supports the 3dfx right out of the box.  I have it running
here just fine on my 200/250MMX with V1.

Have you tried oc'ing your 200?  I have an MMX that I have running quite
happily at 250 (83*3).

There's no such thing as a 'can't miss' board (make one and you'll be a
rich man).  Though they wouldn't do anything for N2/NR1999/etc., for an
all-around card if it was up to me I'd get a TNT now or wait a bit for
the ATI Rage128.

- Eric

Well, IMO, the Rendition is on its way to the video graveyard soon. Very few
apps are supporting it, and expect none to by mid-99 and later releases. As
far as the best combo of 2d/3d/3dfx cards go, I would go with the TNT and a
Voodoo2. I know it is a bit costly, near the 300$ U.S. range for both. The
excellent d3d/openGL operation of the TNT coupled with the Voodoo2
glide/3dfx will give you about all you need for any app. As far as the heat
probs mentioned with the TNT chipsets, I have found no problem with it in a
well ventilated mid-tower set up. The advantage of having these two boards
now is that when you do upgrade, you will have great functionality in all 3d
APIs. I am not sure if you have an AGP slot in your current machine, but it
is a great advantage to use AGP in the new 100mb bus P2 systems. If you
don't have AGP in your current system, wait on the TNT card until you get
the new system. The Voodoo will work just fine with your current card for
now. One other advantage is that nVidia is currently upgrading the TNT, and
the new card should be out in the next couple months.
Regards,
Ed Medlin

www.flyairwest.com
Reach me by ICQ. My ICQ# is 191942
Page me online through my Personal Communication Center:
http://wwp.mirabilis.com/191942
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Sorry, there will be no N3 specifics at this time...

- Eric

   I'd assume NR99 only had a DOS implimentation for Rendition because
it was already done for N2, and NR99 was largely a matter of reusing
N2 core code with minor additions (ie: trucks and new tracks, not
major changes to the code).  They already had a functional DOS
Rendition version, was it worth the time to create a Win version?
(Presumably they worked on the 3Dfx implimentation to bring it up to
their standards, since it wasn't as polished as the Rendition.)

   OTOH, they did take the time to use Rendition for GPL (in Windows),
which will be the basis for N3.

   So, if we do get Eric to tune in, maybe he can tell us what
graphics APIs will be supported by N3?...

   Rendition's days appear to be limited (in the Papyrus world), the
question is how soon?

   BTW, what APIs does Viper support?

"But in a way, fear is a big part of racing, because if there was
nothing to be frightened of, and no limit, any fool could get into
a motor car and racing would not exist as a sport." -- Jim Clark