Don't buy the Intergraph Reactor card for GP2

I have just received the Intergraph Reactor Video card and the frame produced is not acceptable. I achieved a frame rate in SVGA with all options on of 9. My Matrox Mystique Card produces 16-17 with the same options. The support center informed me that there was no hope for significant improvement. There would be only some improvement when some new drivers come out. Also, the Rendition ICR2 is a little fuzzy and it runs slower than the ICR2 for dos from the new win'95 version. It also seems to me that it runs with the same understeer problem as the original ICR2. I have noticed that the ICR2 for dos from the win95 version handles alot better. I play this game with a Hyper Stimulator which is fantastic to use. On play back the Rendition ICR2 also has the helmet colors and design changing all the time. My computer is a Dell Pentium XPS P200s with 64MB of SDRAM. If some one knows a fix to the Reactor with GP2 for which their tech support doesn't know, please let me know.

This is the most ridiculous post I've seen. My friend, you have a problem but it is not your reactor card. I have a reactor and GP2 gets a much higher framerate than what you are talking about. Did you really talk to Intergraphs Tech Support ? They are known for their excellence in customer support and I find it hard to believe they would accept a framerate of 9 as tolerable. ------ August Branchesi Systems Programmer / Apex Mrsketing Group http://members.visi.net/~muja

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> I have just received the Intergraph Reactor Video card and the frame > produced is not acceptable. I achieved a frame rate in SVGA with all > options on of 9. My Matrox Mystique Card produces 16-17 with the same > options. The support center informed me that there was no hope for > significant improvement. There would be only some improvement when some > new drivers come out. Also, the Rendition ICR2 is a little fuzzy and it > runs slower than the ICR2 for dos from the new win'95 version. It also > seems to me that it runs with the same understeer problem as the original > ICR2. I have noticed that the ICR2 for dos from the win95 version handles > alot better. I play this game with a Hyper Stimulator which is fantastic > to use. On play back the Rendition ICR2 also has the helmet colors and > design changing all the time. My computer is a Dell Pentium XPS P200s with > 64MB of SDRAM. If some one knows a fix to the Reactor with GP2 for which > their tech support doesn't know, please let me know.

I use a dell166 with 32 MB ram and a reactor card. My frame rate is 37 fps in Renddma version.

>>I use a dell166 with 32 MB ram and a reactor card. My frame rate is 37 >>fps in Renddma version. Um...come again? I seriously doubt this bit of whimsical fancy, since the internal limit is 30. Only ICR2-3D has a switchable limiter, and the frame-rate counter never worked properly so it was removed during beta. Wouldn't hurt to check the facts before boasting performance figures. Marc J. Nelson Sim Racing News

On Sat, 14 Dec 1996 11:57:43 -0500, Mike Grandy >> I have just received the Intergraph Reactor Video card and the frame >> produced is not acceptable. I achieved a frame rate in SVGA with all >> options on of 9. Me too. I have a fairly fast 166 Ok...I bite. Where is the "RENDDMA" version of GP2? You don't mean ICR2 do you? I have great results with the Reactor and the bundled ICR2. Nascar 2 runs great too, but sadly, GP2 reports a very low estimated frame rate. -=Don=-

Nascar 2 runs great too, but sadly, GP2 reports a very low Fine, but that's just the estimated rate, which is based on the vga performance (which sucks on the verite). From other reports I've seen, this should have nothing to do with your actual svga performance, since the reactor cooks in svga. Uncheck the "use estimate" box, and crank up the framerate, and see what happens.

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> On Sat, 14 Dec 1996 11:57:43 -0500, Mike Grandy > >> I have just received the Intergraph Reactor Video card and the frame > >> produced is not acceptable. I achieved a frame rate in SVGA with all > >> options on of 9. > Me too. I have a fairly fast 166 > >I use a dell166 with 32 MB ram and a reactor card. My frame rate is 37 > >fps in Renddma version. > Ok...I bite. Where is the "RENDDMA" version of GP2? You don't mean > ICR2 do you? I have great results with the Reactor and the bundled > ICR2. Nascar 2 runs great too, but sadly, GP2 reports a very low > estimated frame rate. > -=Don=-

I need to buy this game, I guess. My impression from previous posts in this group is that GP2 _predicts_ a low frame rate for Verite-based boards (probably based on the VGA performance) but appears to perform quite well in SVGA. Does the game look slow, or is it just reporting a low frame rate? - Mike Boich Rendition

> I have just received the Intergraph Reactor Video card and the frame > produced is not acceptable. SNIP>>>>> Rory, I don't understand why your having problems but I just got the Reactor and all of my RACING SIMS run much FASTER including Nascar-1, Nascar-2, GP-2 and ICR-2 (rendition version). Although GP-2 reports slower est. framerate and lower score in GP2LOG.TXT (which is actually VGA not SVGA) it runs MUCH faster and reports on average about 10-15% LESS processor occupancy! I went from a Diamond Stealth-64 w/2 megs DRAM to the Reactor w/4 megs and It's a very BIG improvement. Even CBENCH reports higher scores in SVGA! Sal V.

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> On Sat, 14 Dec 1996 11:57:43 -0500, Mike Grandy > >> I have just received the Intergraph Reactor Video card and the frame > >> produced is not acceptable. I achieved a frame rate in SVGA with all > >> options on of 9. > Me too. I have a fairly fast 166 > >I use a dell166 with 32 MB ram and a reactor card. My frame rate is 37 > >fps in Renddma version. > Ok...I bite. Where is the "RENDDMA" version of GP2? You don't mean > ICR2 do you? I have great results with the Reactor and the bundled > ICR2. Nascar 2 runs great too, but sadly, GP2 reports a very low > estimated frame rate.

Estimated frame rate has nothing to do with the actual frame rate, because, as we all know, VGA core of Verite is very slow and that's the only thing GP2 looks at when determing the 'estimation'. I have a P200 and set all the graphics and textures on except sky texture, set the frame rate to 19,2fps. I get processor occupancy of 60-70% in Magny Cours and other fairly 'flat' tracks. Monaco gives me PO of 130-150% with these settings. And note that my estimated frame rate is around 11fps ... -- Henrikki (Hena) Hakkanen Tel. +358-(9)0-345 5538 -------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are mine and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer

I agree. Its basically a problem with the way GP2 estimates framerates. The framerate estimate in the game does NOT reflect the actual framerate when playing when using a Reactor, 3D Blaster etc. In fact I am very confident that my 3D Blaster sped the game up marginally when it replaced my s3 trio 64. Anton Voss

Hi I just got the Reactor card from Intergraph and Indycar II. I was wondering if somebody has tried to use the Indycar II that the card came with in another PC ( my case its a P100 w/ an ATI 64 card 2meg) and got it to work ??( Im thinking of doing the null cable setup) Im also hoping this setup will work w/ the Quake shareware that it came with also.. I dont really care about graphics on the other PC just as long as it can work w/ my main PC. THanxs !!! JNR

It should work, you just will not be able to run the Rendition versions of either on the second machine. You will not be able to race at the 5 enhanced tracks, as they will not run on the other machine. -- Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences The IWCCCARS Project: Q & A Representative Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/ setup)

No it looks like it is running faster than before. If I can tear my self away from Rendition Ncar2 & Icar2 I'll do some real tests with Processor Occupancy -=Don=-

Eric, I loaded the Intergraph card and it works fine in Win95. When I go to dos though, it puts funny characters all over my screen. Some of the text is in the correct place, so I can sorta make out what is on screen. Dos functions work still, so I can run N2, and it works fine. Then when I exit from a dos program to the dos prompt, this character error is fixed. Until the next time I leave windows and go to dos. Have you heard of this problem? Darryl Woodley

What BIOS revision are you using (look at the splash screen while booting)? -- Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences The IWCCCARS Project: Q & A Representative Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/

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>What BIOS revision are you using (look at the splash screen while >booting)? >-- >Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences >The IWCCCARS Project: Q & A Representative >Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/ >> Eric, I loaded the Intergraph card and it works fine in Win95. When I >go >> to dos though, it puts funny characters all over my screen. Some of >the >> text is in the correct place, so I can sorta make out what is on >screen. >> Dos functions work still, so I can run N2, and it works fine. Then >when >> I exit from a dos program to the dos prompt, this character error is >> fixed. Until the next time I leave windows and go to dos. Have you >heard >> of this problem?

I've seen it, up close and personal. :( It looks like the font table is corrupted in DOS mode, most often when shutting down Win95 to DOS mode. Doesn't happen every time, maybe 50/50. I've heard of this happening to about three other people with Reactor and 3D Blaster cards. I have contacted Intergraph and have not received word of a fix yet. This *might* be fixed by the new BIOS (73/74 mentions a fix for screen corruption in "Mode 13"), but I haven't gotten confirmation from Intergraph. As a work-around, type "MODE CO80" (without the quotes, that's cee-oh-eight-zero) at the DOS command line. This resets the screen mode in DOS (and coincidentally seems to reset the font table). If this works, you can add it to your DOSSTART.BAT file in your C:\WINDOWS\ directory so it runs automatically everytime you shutdown Win95 to DOS mode. Pick one or more: Model Rockets (competition-NERCB) / PCs (even Atari!) / Papyrus ICR-ICR2-NCR / Who needs a life when you have multiple non-lives?

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> On Sat, 14 Dec 1996 11:57:43 -0500, Mike Grandy > >> I have just received the Intergraph Reactor Video card and the frame > >> produced is not acceptable. I achieved a frame rate in SVGA with all > >> options on of 9. > Me too. I have a fairly fast 166 > >I use a dell166 with 32 MB ram and a reactor card. My frame rate is 37 > >fps in Renddma version. > Ok...I bite. Where is the "RENDDMA" version of GP2? You don't mean > ICR2 do you? I have great results with the Reactor and the bundled > ICR2. Nascar 2 runs great too, but sadly, GP2 reports a very low > estimated frame rate. > -=Don=-

OK, GP2 REPORTS a low frame rate, but on my p166 actually ran the game FASTER. Did you guys trying PLAYING the game as opposed to just checking the graphics setting in the game? I think that GP2 just doesn't understand the hardware of the Rendition board and puts out a bogus estimate . . . Mike

It makes the estimate based on the Rendition cards' slow VGA core. This is in no way representative of the games actual SVGA performance. -- Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences The IWCCCARS Project: Q & A Representative Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/