Im in the market for a 3D video card (I currently have a Diamond Stealth
Video Vram w/2meg vram) and was wondering if I could get some input on
which would be the best for games like F1GP2, Mechwarrior, Flight sims
etc., best features (ie. output to TV, type of ram) and cost differences.
If anyone can recommend one, I would appreciate it dearly. Messages can be
posted here or email me directly.
Thank you
Jim
I've posted numerous articles on the 3D card subject here lately. A 3D
card will do absolutely nothing for present DOS games, as they are unable
to utilize any of the cards acceleration features. As far as suggestions
go, stay away from the ATI 3D Rage card as it is due to be replaced by the
RageII chip. Avoid any of the Virge cards, as their hardware acceleration
turns out to be slower than software (what good is a pretty game if the
framerate sucks). While you're at it pass up the Matrox Mystique as it
lacks filtering (take a look at http://www.rendition.com/techdef2.html to
see what a difference it makes). Same goes for the upcoming PowerVR cards,
although filtering is being added in a later version. So then, what's
left?
Right now the Rendition cards look hard to beat. With an estimated street
price below $200 (read $199) and 4megs of EDO RAM, they are a very cost
effective 3D solution. Sierra is planing a board of its own, so expect
ports of ICR2 and Nascar2 for the Rendition. From what I've heard of
eyewitness accounts, Quake is running beautifully on the Creative Labs
board at 16-bit color with absolutely no texture pixelation. They will be
VESA 2.0 compliant (no more Display Doctor for the HiRES modes in Quake)
and are said to be quite fast in DOS SVGA.
The early winner on pure speed looks to be cards based on the 3Dfx Voodoo
graphics chip. These cards are 3D only, and are used in conjunction with a
2D card. These 4meg boards will sell for just under $300. Direct3D
benchmarks based on the Tunnel Test show its performance to be much faster
than the other cards, although I have yet to see a comparison to the
Rendition cards. The only thing keeping this card from being the one to
get is the price. Some companies feel that it's market share will be too
small compared to the Rendition card, and thus are not making ports for it.
Quoting John Carmack of iD: "3dfx is the best card out there for Quake and
will provide the most significant improvement. Unfortunately it costs $300
for a card that is used in addition to your current 2D card. This may cause
the marketshare for the card to be small and Quake may not have a port of
it for that reason."
With that said, why take my word for it. Goto http://www.dimension3d.com/
and look at all of the press releases and features for all the cards. You
also might want to drop in on the comp.sys.ibm.pc.hardware.video newsgroup
as well. These 3D cards have been the topic of much discussion lately.
There is also an older article that does a good job describing many of
these cards available here:
http://www.chipanalyst.com/report/report10_3/100304.html
BTW, I plan on getting both a Rendition card as well as a Voodoo card
(Orchid's looks to be faster than Diamond's). That way I get a good 2D
card, great software ports for both cards, and very fast Direct3D
performance. What can I say, I've got money to burn.
--
Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/
> performance. What can I say, I've got money to burn.
/|\ David Otterness
/ |#\ Lake County, IL, USA
/ |##\
/ |###\ IndyCar-#2
/ |####\ NASCAR-#2,whoever beats #3
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\####| / E-mail me at:
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\|/ Handle: Roid
