Sierra Screamin 3D card

At under $200 anyone of these cards is a good buy, and the support Rendition is giving is quite remarkable (especially since they do not actually make the consumer product, they only supply the chips to CL, Sierra, and Intergraph). One Rendition employee actually gave me his pager and home phone numbers in case I ever needed to get a hold of him while he was away from the office. Now that is impressive. All three of the Rendition cards are the same hardware-wise. The main difference is in the bundled games, and the quality of support. Again, all have the same street price of under $200. The Sierra card will not be out for a few more weeks, but the 3D Blaster and Reactor are now available. For regular VGA games they are quite slow (slower then my old ATI Mach64). Vesa 2.0 SVGA speeds are among the fastest, just slightly slower then the ET6000 based cards. With the drivers the shipped with my Reactor, its 2D Windows speed is about average. The next set of drivers are much faster. Realizing they are all pretty much the same, make your decision based on the bundled software, the quality of support the company offers, and how long you want to wait to get the card (if you want one on Monday, the Sierra card is obviously out of the picture). I chose Intergraph, and have nothing but the highest praise of them. -- Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/

Does anyone know the stats on the Screamin 3d card from Sierra? Its got a pretty good price at $199. Is this a good buy or are the other Rendition cards a better buy and what is thier price range. Also how good are they with games that are not 3d?

> Does anyone know the stats on the Screamin 3d card from Sierra? Its got > a pretty good price at $199. Is this a good buy or are the other > Rendition cards a better buy and what is thier price range. Also how > good are they with games that are not 3d? My understanding is that the Screamer/Reactor/Blaster 3D are identical cards from a hardware standpoint (with identical prices) Only real difference is the software they are bundled with. As far as non-rendition-ready games, only thing you might notice is and increase in animation frame rate - assuming your old card was not already a fast, high-end accelerator. David T.

Quoted text (15 lines)

> > Does anyone know the stats on the Screamin 3d card from Sierra? Its got > > a pretty good price at $199. Is this a good buy or are the other > > Rendition cards a better buy and what is thier price range. Also how > > good are they with games that are not 3d? > My understanding is that the Screamer/Reactor/Blaster 3D are identical > cards from a hardware standpoint (with identical prices) > Only real difference is the software they are bundled with. > As far as non-rendition-ready games, only thing you might notice is and > increase in animation frame rate - assuming your old card was not > already a fast, high-end accelerator. > David T.

Hi David, I received the Sierra newsletter and the back page advertised the Screamin 3d for $199. Its bundled with Indy2, Silent Thunder, and ***gladiators. In small print is says Win95 required, so I called to ask if drivers are to be made for Win 3.xx and dos. I actually got two return phone calls from tech mgr. who said that other drivers are being developed, but still wasn't positive about 3.1. I was impressed with the response from support, but they still seem to be in the dark a little informational wise. Have a good one, Terry (not a fan of Win95)<g>

Quoted text (10 lines)

>Well let me save you a lot of trouble and money. Just go ahead and throw >your computer out the nearest window, as you will have little use for it >without Win95. To take advantage of the 3D acceleration you need either a >direct DOS port or Win95's Direct3D. These cards will do you no good in >Win3.1. Like it or not, the future of *** is here... Win95 and DirectX. >-- >Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences >Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/

Eric, I find most of your posts interesting and informative, but this one here is just pure plain and simple BullS**t. Wake up, look around......Win95 is not a perfect platform for everthing. How can any programmers hope to write efficiently for the moving target that Microsoft makes of it's API's. Win95 is still a kludge to get around the limitations of DOS. If the game programmers can write to DOS and Win95, it is silly to think that drivers cannot be written to support other platforms. Not saying they will be, but if the demand is there, they will be written. An attitude like yours' is stifling to the further development of software and computing on any and all platforms I don't have all the answers, but Win95 is only one possible solution. Ralph /----------------------------------------------------------------------\ /Ralph Williams My real .sig file is in the shop getting repaired.\ /----------------------------------------------------------------------\

Sure there may be Win3.1 drivers (though I still doubt it) for these new 3D cards, but there will be no application that will use the 3D aspect of them. That was the original point. I never said Win95 was perfect, but it is going to be the main *** platform. The API's change , that's just how things go. Would you rather they stayed still? Games written for earlier version of DirectX still run on the newest versions, with increased performance. An exception to this is Fire Fight, which required a patch to work with DirectX 2.0 (and Epic rep admitted the problem was theirs, not Microsoft's). Programmers can write for any platform they want, but for each one they add it just takes time away from the game itself. I would rather they focus their efforts on one platform, rather than make sacrifices to ensure compatibility. I'm in favor of anything that can be done to put DOS and Win3.1 in the grave. Both have long outlived their usefulness, and something is desperately needed to replace them. If that is Win95 (which is certainly looks to be) so be it. I would rather it be NT, but that time is still a few years off. -- Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/

Well let me save you a lot of trouble and money. Just go ahead and throw your computer out the nearest window, as you will have little use for it without Win95. To take advantage of the 3D acceleration you need either a direct DOS port or Win95's Direct3D. These cards will do you no good in Win3.1. Like it or not, the future of *** is here... Win95 and DirectX. -- Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/