Hardware / Other hardware

S3 Trio64

discussed in 43 posts, 1996-1998 · overall tone positive

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Key threads

Best video card for Grand Prix 2 frame rates 1996-07-30 · 29 posts
A user with a Diamond Stealth 64 asked which card would improve GP2 performance. Posters compared Matrox Millennium and ET6000-based Hercules Dynamite 128 scores in the GP2 log, and argued over whether video cards matter at all for GP2. John Wallace held that GP2's code limits the gains from fast cards while ICR2 and NASCAR benefit greatly, and user reports were mixed.
Using S3SPDUP to speed up GP2 on S3 cards 1996-07-24 · 26 posts
Users tested the free S3SPDUP utility with GP2 on S3-based video cards. Most reported higher video scores and about 1 to 2 fps more when loading it with the vga option, though some saw no gain or crashes. The download location was shared.
Sharing GP2 log:on CPU and video speed scores 1996-07-25 · 40 posts
Players posted CPU and video scores from GP2's log:on option for many systems. Matrox Millennium and ET6000 cards scored highest, while Cirrus Logic, ATI and some other cards scored very poorly. John Wallace attributed GP2's weak use of fast cards to its lack of linear framebuffer support.
NASCAR Racing 2 demo fails on non-Intel CPUs 1996-09-24 · 22 posts
Users reported that the NASCAR Racing 2 demo appeared to require a genuine Intel Pentium, failing on Cyrix chips and 486s. This led to an argument about Pentium-specific code and whether 486 owners were being abandoned. Speculation that Daytona and Indy entries in the calendar file meant those tracks were coming was dismissed, since NASCAR 1 had the same entries.
Plea for playable sims and DOS vs Windows 95 debate 1997-11-29 · 93 posts
A poster longed for the playability of the original World Circuit, complaining that new sims demand hardware few people own. The thread became a long argument over whether DOS games run faster than Windows 95 ones and whether DirectInput handled joysticks poorly. A developer said their Windows 95 build ran within 1 fps of DOS, and Jim Sokoloff noted NASCAR 1 was fast in VGA at launch while recalling Windows 95 games breaking other software.