Video Cards

I am in the process of upgrading my system and the next thing on the agenda is a new video card and motherboard, I'm going to buy a pentium motherboard (I'm not yet sure what speed, the fastest I can afford at the time), given a fairly tight budget, I was wondering if the Diamond Stealth DRAM card with 1MB of video RAM on is any good (it's a PCI card), when I say good, I mean for general use as well as games! Thanks for any help, Jonathan. -- ________________________________________________________________________ / \ | Sir Jonathan Dyson - ICL Servers and Networks Division | \________________________________________________________________________/

Jonathan (or do I call you sir :) !), Check out the hardware section of Sim Racing News for all the info on graphics cards you could require. If it's not enough, drop me an e-mail and I'll answer any questions you may have. Cheers! John _________________________________ __ _____| |_____ __ _________| |__| :| John Wallace | |__| |_________ \ :| |::| :| Team WW Racing TSW | |::| | / > :| |::| :|_________________________________| |::| | < / :|__|::|____:/ Sim Racing News \.____|::|__| \ /_______:/ \::/ http://www.dcn.ed.ac.uk/pulse/index.htm \::/ \._______\

1mb won't get you very far these days. At a minimum get 2mb. Dram isn't bad, but if you can afford to get VRAM get it, much faster. As for the brand name ......everyone has their own opinion....good luck

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> I am in the process of upgrading my system and the next thing on the agenda is > a new video card and motherboard, I'm going to buy a pentium motherboard (I'm > not yet sure what speed, the fastest I can afford at the time), given a fairly > tight budget, I was wondering if the Diamond Stealth DRAM card with 1MB of video > RAM on is any good (it's a PCI card), when I say good, I mean for general use as > well as games! > Thanks for any help, > Jonathan.

When I got my P-133 I went for the "STB Powergraph 64 Video" with two meg of EDO RAM. It sells for a little less than the Diamond cards (which I have allways used & liked) and performs as well if not better. They are excellent cards and come in many styles and prices. Good luck. Danny Anderson

Hold your fire on the video card for now as there will be a number of 3D accelerator cards coming up and some I believe will make Nascar fly. -- Nigel of Lakewood Racing Lakewood Computers New Zealand

The above is misleading, VRAM is NOT faster than DRAM, actually DRAM is normally the quicker of the two. VRAM can be faster in specific circumstances due to the dual-porting (such as under Windows), but in DOS a DRAM card will almost invariably be quicker than VRAM, especially EDO-DRAM cards. I'd agree with the minimum 2Mb though ;) Cheers! John _________________________________ __ _____| |_____ __ _________| |__| :| John Wallace | |__| |_________ \ :| |::| :| Team WW Racing TSW | |::| | / > :| |::| :|_________________________________| |::| | < / :|__|::|____:/ Sim Racing News \.____|::|__| \ /_______:/ \::/ http://www.dcn.ed.ac.uk/pulse/index.htm \::/ \._______\

Gnat's todgers. DRAM is better in DOS, VRAM is better in Windows although in each case the difference is quite small. A DRAM card loses more in Windows than a VRAM card loses in DOS. Your choice - I like the DRAM cards (so what if my Excel spreadsheet draws 0.2s faster - big deal) but I'll take Pammy over a gnat any day - what's a guy to do.....! :) Cheers! John _________________________________ __ _____| |_____ __ _________| |__| :| John Wallace | |__| |_________ \ :| |::| :| Team WW Racing TSW | |::| | / > :| |::| :|_________________________________| |::| | < / :|__|::|____:/ Sim Racing News \.____|::|__| \ /_______:/ \::/ http://www.dcn.ed.ac.uk/pulse/index.htm \::/ \._______\

When I upgrade to a Pentium I am getting a Matrox Millenium with Windowed RAM -- "MikeWare SoftWorks" The next Generation in Quick Basic Programming!! http://users.aol.com/libolt/private/QBASIC.htm Copyright (C) 1996 MikeWare SoftWorks

> People keep saying that in DOS DRAM is quicker than VRAM, but by how much? > Are we talking Gnat's todgers or Pam's knockers? > I have a Diamond Stealth 2Mb Video Yeah, it will probably give you approx. 0.02 FPS more !! (0.03 if your lucky) Select ********************** * Live sucks ! * * * * And then you die ! * **********************

>********************** >* Live sucks ! * >* * >* And then you die ! * >********************** Isn't it "Life Sucks, and then you die"? :)

OOH Good for you I already have one.