GP2, Pentium Overdrive & Matrox

Telephoned Microprose 1.45pm Tuesday 28th May Would not confirm a release date, but indicated it would be in a few weeks. Whoever I was talking to had played the game and seemed to know what he was talking about! Said frame rates were not a problem, I asked if an individual track could be customized for detail i.e. Monaco, replied that detail setting were universal. This is a shame, Geoff should try playing ICR2 at Vancouver in SVGA, tunnel section is horrible, whereas many other tracks are very playable with the same detail. As for fps not being a problem, going from SVGA to VGA with ICR2 can increase my lap times at certain tracks by two seconds. Currently I am this significantly improved the frame rates. On the subject of 3D-cards recently bought a matrox millennium to help fps. I would not advise anyone to do the same! The matrox is very weak on performance for DOS based programs and proved to be no faster than the built in cirrus chip on my motherboard. Also univbe 5.1a & 5.2 do not provided any significant performance increase. I hope the info above is of some help, please e-mail me if you have any queries. -- Simon Fox Tel: 0171 387 7050 X 2793 Fax: 0171 388 5406 Home Page: [link lost in import: /~ccaasjf/index.htm] --

>On the subject of 3D-cards recently bought a matrox millennium to help >fps. I would not advise anyone to do the same! The matrox is very weak >on performance for DOS based programs and proved to be no faster than >the built in cirrus chip on my motherboard. Also univbe 5.1a & 5.2 do >not provided any significant performance increase. The Matrox Millenium is no faster than most other cards for VGA under DOS, but it is just about the fastest going for SVGA - way faster than Cirrus <g>. Is there a possibility that something else in your system is acting as a bottleneck? If so, improving the graphics card won't help the fps - you would need to upgrade the bottleneck first. I think (but am not certain) that Univbe 5.1a had no specific support for the Millenium, so no it doesn't help that card (almost identical fps on my system with it on or off - possibly slightly worse with it on). Univbe 5.2 does have some support but I haven't tried it so can't confirm if it does improve things for the Millenium. -- All opinions my own - they're probably wrong... but at least they're mine!

> On the subject of 3D-cards recently bought a matrox millennium to help > fps. I would not advise anyone to do the same! The matrox is very weak > on performance for DOS based programs and proved to be no faster than > the built in cirrus chip on my motherboard. Also univbe 5.1a & 5.2 do > not provided any significant performance increase. I'd have to disagree with you...I have a 2 meg Millennium, and in Duke Nukem 3D my frame rate went from an average 22 FPS (at 640x480) to about 38 with UniVBE 5.2. It now includes support for this MGA chipset. I'd guesstimate about a 10-20% improvement in ICR2. Neil -- Meek and obedient you follow the leader down well trodden corridors into the valley of steel.. Neil Yeatman, Ajax, Ontario, CANADA

Here is my experience with the Matrox Millenium. A few weeks ago, I upgraded my system to a 133MHz Pentium and replaced my Cirrus Logic 2MB DRAM card with a Diamond Stealth Video 64 3240. It's DOS performance was very poor, in fact the Cirrus Logic could run Nascar much smoother. One exception to this was in ICR2, where using the Univbe 5.1a driver yielded superb performance with the Diamond. I could play with everything on except asphalt texture and I got around 27-29 fps. But its poor DOS performance in other games frustrated me, so I returned the card for the retail version of the Matrox. As stated above, I've tried everything to get Univbe 5.2 to work with this card but to no avail. So, its performance with ICR2 is not as good as with the Diamond. The accelerated version of Nascar that comes with the Matrox is excellent, as I can run everything on except grass and asphalt and get around 25 fps. Overall, I am much happier with the Matrox. It's DOS performance, using the simple testing utility that comes with Rebel *** II, shows it to be over three times faster. In addition, its Windows performance is also faster. Maybe the Win95 version of ICR2 will give me the frame rates I am looking for with the Matrox. Hope this helps anyone in their decision about a graphics card. Eric

writes You're joking?! The Millenium and the Herc. Stingray are THE fastest cards in DOS bar none. Honestly, there must be something wrong with your setup - the Millenium with P-133 returns 30-34 fps in SVGA typically. Cheers! John _________________________________ __ _____| |_____ __ _________| |__| :| John Wallace | |__| |_________ \ :| |::| :| Team WW Racing TSW | |::| | / > :| |::| :|_________________________________| |::| | < / :|__|::|____:/ Sim Racing News \.____|::|__| \ /_______:/ \::/ http://www.dcn.ed.ac.uk/pulse/index.htm \::/ \._______\

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>>On the subject of 3D-cards recently bought a matrox millennium to help >>fps. I would not advise anyone to do the same! The matrox is very weak >>on performance for DOS based programs and proved to be no faster than >>the built in cirrus chip on my motherboard. Also univbe 5.1a & 5.2 do >>not provided any significant performance increase. >The Matrox Millenium is no faster than most other cards for VGA under >DOS, but it is just about the fastest going for SVGA - way faster than >Cirrus <g>.

Have to agree, I've tried ATi Mach64 that came with my Gateway, an older Matrox (my sister's) and now have a millenium. It is noticibly quicker than the Mach64 (both 2Mb) in Dos and stunningly better in Win95. i recommned it I could not notice any difference with 5.2 so i uninstalled it!