rec.autos.simulators

Neither will do much for 3D, but the Matrox is the better 2D card.

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Ricardo Ferreira aka Storm wrote in article

I want a new card because my S3 ViRGE RAMDAC can only go 135MHz max and
that sucks for my 17" monitor (its slower and can't get the refresh rates i
need for a good picture).

About the 3DFX only stuff... This question is just like the SVGA dilema in
a programmer point of view. Before VESA 1.2 programmers had to catter for
every SVGA chipset out there. The result was that no one had the patience
or computer resources to do that, and so the games were 320x200 only. As
soon as Vesa 1.2 got here, you started seeing games at 640x480 because the
API was not proprietary and every card that mattered supported it, so the
programmer only has to call some standard function and voila, he supports a
multitude of cards.

I think D3D & OpenGL will win because of the same reason, every card
supports it, even 3DFX ones , so the programmers spare time & money and
they support more cards. Proprietary APIs are not the way to go. About the
SVGA stuff, take it from me, it was hell :) And also proprietary APIs stop
the development of technology.
Backward compatibility comes to mind... no chipset will be able to freely
evolve if he has to be hardware compatible with another card. Thats why
hardware abstraction in the form of software drivers for each card works.

I for one will not buy any games that only support 3DFX and don't support
one of the above mentioned APIs.

Thanks,
Ricardo Ferreira

Actually there is only one choice for 3D. It is a 3DFX based card (not
a Voodoo rush either). The S3 Virge card that he already has is a superb
2D card. I have one (Stealth 3D 3000) and it gives fantastic benchmarks
on my P5-166. 3dbench=142.8, Cbench=179, Svgabnch=60. In addition
to that I have a Monster 3D (3DFX chipset) card for 3D. The combination
cannot be beat IMHO.

No I can't play ICR2 or N2 in 3D, but that is Papy's loss for supporting
the wrong 3D chipset :-) I certainly am not interested in any new games
unless they have 3DFX support. MFR's take note, I am not alone. hehe.

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