rec.autos.simulators

At under $200 anyone of these cards is a good buy, and the support
Rendition is giving is quite remarkable (especially since they do not
actually make the consumer product, they only supply the chips to CL,
Sierra, and Intergraph).  One Rendition employee actually gave me his pager
and home phone numbers in case I ever needed to get a hold of him while he
was away from the office.  Now that is impressive.  

All three of the Rendition cards are the same hardware-wise.  The main
difference is in the bundled games, and the quality of support.  Again, all
have the same street price of under $200.  The Sierra card will not be out
for a few more weeks, but the 3D Blaster and Reactor are now available.

For regular VGA games they are quite slow (slower then my old ATI Mach64).
Vesa 2.0 SVGA speeds are among the fastest, just slightly slower then the
ET6000 based cards.  With the drivers the shipped with my Reactor, its 2D
Windows speed is about average.  The next set of drivers are much faster.

Realizing they are all pretty much the same, make your decision based on
the bundled software, the quality of support the company offers, and how
long you want to wait to get the card (if you want one on Monday, the
Sierra card is obviously out of the picture).  I chose Intergraph, and have
nothing but the highest praise of them.  

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Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Nascar Setups Page: http://www.racesimcentral.net/~ebusch/

Does anyone know the stats on the Screamin 3d card from Sierra? Its got
a pretty good price at $199. Is this a good buy or are the other
Rendition cards a better buy and what is thier price range. Also how
good are they with games that are not 3d?

Only real difference is the software they are bundled with.

As far as non-rendition-ready games, only thing you might notice is and
increase in animation frame rate - assuming your old card was not
already a fast, high-end accelerator.

David T.

I received the Sierra newsletter and the back page advertised the
Screamin 3d for $199. Its bundled with Indy2, Silent Thunder, and
***gladiators.  In small print is says Win95 required, so I called to
ask if drivers are to be made for Win 3.xx and dos. I actually got two
return phone calls from tech mgr. who said that other drivers are being
developed, but still wasn't positive about 3.1. I was impressed with the
response from support, but they still seem to be in the dark a little
informational wise.

Have a good one,
Terry  (not a fan of Win95)<g>

/----------------------------------------------------------------------\
/Ralph Williams      My real .sig file is in the shop getting repaired.\

/----------------------------------------------------------------------\

Sure there may be Win3.1 drivers (though I still doubt it) for these new 3D
cards, but there will be no application that will use the 3D aspect of
them.  That was the original point.  

I never said Win95 was perfect, but it is going to be the main ***
platform.  The API's change , that's just how things go.  Would you rather
they stayed still?  Games written for earlier version of DirectX still run
on the newest versions, with increased performance.  An exception to this
is Fire Fight, which required a patch to work with DirectX 2.0 (and Epic
rep admitted the problem was theirs, not Microsoft's).  Programmers can
write for any platform they want, but for each one they add it just takes
time away from the game itself.  I would rather they focus their efforts on
one platform, rather than make sacrifices to ensure compatibility.

I'm in favor of anything that can be done to put DOS and Win3.1 in the
grave.  Both have long outlived their usefulness, and something is
desperately needed to replace them.  If that is Win95 (which is certainly
looks to be) so be it.  I would rather it be NT, but that time is still a
few years off.

--

Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Nascar Setups Page: http://www.racesimcentral.net/~ebusch/

Well let me save you a lot of trouble and money.  Just go ahead and throw
your computer out the nearest window, as you will have little use for it
without Win95.  To take advantage of the 3D acceleration you need either a
direct DOS port or Win95's Direct3D.  These cards will do you no good in
Win3.1.  Like it or not, the future of *** is here... Win95 and DirectX.

--

Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Nascar Setups Page: http://www.racesimcentral.net/~ebusch/