rec.autos.simulators

Thanks everyone

However I have a slight problem as N3 locks up after a minute or two, it's
worse with Glide. Sierra are looking into it, we suspect the SB Live drivers
as they are not Microsoft certified for DirectX 7a (or so DXdiag tells me).

All other games are fine SCGT, RC2K, Le Mans (oops didn't mean to embarass
myself there, but it is fun). I've also run Planescape Torment, and the S1
karting demo with no problems.

Bleem works too with Gran Turismo.

A friend has a K6-2 450 and Diamonmd sound card and has no problems with N3

Andi.

The most popular 3D card that people use for playing N3 would be the
Voodoo3 card although you can also use a Voodoo2 card. (you may just
get less FPS if you do that)

Which one is it, a Pentium or a Celeron?

When considering an upgrade to your PC it's important to first be honest
with yourself about what you want to use your new system for and how much of
a budget you can make.

Depending on what you're looking for you can buy a system for 499 up to
3000 or higher.

Is Nascar 3 the only game in your collection and if so, will you be
considering buying more titles in the near future? If so, you might want to
look for a higher end model - AMD K7 or Intel Pentium 3, from 700MHz and
above will last for ages. You'll also need around 256MB of RAM. A good 3D
accelerator is also an essential buy these days. If it's compatibility with
all games you're looking for, best stick to the 3Dfx Voodoo 3 or higher
series. The V4, V5 and V6 will be out soon.

It's impossible for computers to be future proof (despite what you might
hear if you buy from PC World), but buying the highest spec possible will
certainly help.

How's Nascar3 with the new GeForce DDR cards?

--Don

I just do not see a reason to pay all the extra money for a
GeForce card when none of the games out support its extra
abilities.  By the time games start coming out that utilize them,
the cards will be cheaper, so I would just wait on buying one.

My system is a budget homebuilt (less than $500) K6-2 450mhz, 128 ram, SB
Live!, 6.4 hd, Voodoo 3 AGP, Epox MVP-3 motherboard, network card, usr
modem, etc.

N3 runs good on my system and rarely had any N3 specific problems with it,
except what seems to be a buggy Microsoft USB wheel. The only times I would
get lockups, affected most games, not just N3, but it was from my Voodoo 3
and system overheating. One causing it, or one overheating the other. I
suspect this alledged PC100 memory I bought for the system just might
actually be PC66 in disguise. I can run it at 100mhz, but sometimes that
will cause things to overheat. I can run in at 66mhz and seems to go quite
alot longer. This all with the case put together like it's supposed to be.
Playing any game with case enclosed causes a lockup/crash after around 15-20
minutes. I leave the side panel off with an extra case fan mounted to blow
across SB Live and Voodoo 3. Ever notice how damn HOT pci/agp cards get, no
matter what they do??

In reference to the SB Live problem, I've never had any problems at all with
my SB Live with any game that I can recall. Except for an old DOS-only game
called Castles I tried to install and play a while back. That's more due to
the age of the game, than the SB Live, hehe. I also use DX 7a, but am
thinking about going back to 6 since it's less buggy. 7a, for what it's
worth, is a quick-bug-fix-beta of DX7 that still has known bugs.

Not only the bugs side, but you should *NEVER*, *EVER*, not if your *LIFE*
depended on it, should you ever let DX install it's own driver in place of
any of your video/sound card drivers. It's a big mess, crash and burn just
waiting to happen. And if I'm not mistaken, but the SB Live drivers are DX
compatible, even with this 7a version. If it wasn't, mine wouldn't work.
:o)

Destin

p.s. Can't remember N3's "recommended" system, but I know mine far exceeds
it. I get stuttering in the curves sometimes, and sometimes get it on the
straights. With all graphics turned on. I just recently bought Mobil 1 Rally
Championship. It's recommendation is 500mhz P3 or Athlon, among other
things. Far exceeds what I got, but RC runs so silky smooth on my system
with maximum eye candy, that it looks like the game was made for my system.
It flows as smooth as water. I wonder why the big difference between the 2
games? Better coding? No AI cars to plot and render?

Brian