Intergraph Reactor

Quoted text (8 lines)

> I got this card, followed installation instructions, and it runs quake at > 15-19fps. I heard guys running at 40fps. Yes I'm using vquake and copied > the two files from the cd. I am NOT impressed with it's poor performance > in N2. My number nine 771 was just about the same, with much better > color than the reactor. If anyone has any suggestions please help > me!!!!!!! :) > Sean Higgins

Are you running RENDDMA or N2REND? I have noticed a huge difference in performance between the two. -- John Hope | City and Regional Planning | Cal Poly San Luis Obispo

I got this card, followed installation instructions, and it runs quake at 15-19fps. I heard guys running at 40fps. Yes I'm using vquake and copied the two files from the cd. I am NOT impressed with it's poor performance in N2. My number nine 771 was just about the same, with much better color than the reactor. If anyone has any suggestions please help me!!!!!!! :) Sean Higgins

:>I got this card, followed installation instructions, and it runs quake at :>15-19fps. I heard guys running at 40fps. Yes I'm using vquake and copied :>the two files from the cd. I am NOT impressed with it's poor performance :>in N2. My number nine 771 was just about the same, with much better :>color than the reactor. If anyone has any suggestions please help :>me!!!!!!! :) First, you haven't mentioned your motherboard/bios/memory/cpu configuration. If you're running these games from Win95, you need at least 24mb of memory to make them run well (this is more true for NCR2 than for Quake). Whether or not your motherboard and its BIOS allow you to make good use of DMA is also essential to good performance. My systems are Tyan Tomcat motherboards, Award BIOS 4.51PG, P5-166 (32mb RAM) and P5-200 (64mb RAM), both with Reactor cards. NCR2, ICR2, and Quake are smooth as glass on these two systems. /*===================================================*/ There are three types of lies... lies, damn lies, and press releases. John Simmons (Redneck Techno-Biker) http://www2.connectnet.com/~jms/ /*===================================================*/

I was suspect about that card all along. When you go to their web sight, they show you a car with all the graphics turned off then show you a car with all the graphics turned on and the lead you to believe that the car with all the graphics turned on is the car shown with the reactor card. I did not see a bit of difference in the actual graphics of the car. check out their sight and you will see what i mean. Any company that tries to insult my intelligence like that will never get my business. Wally

What you didn't notice was that both versions are running at 30fps. With the Rendition cards, you can have many more details on than in the normal version while keeping the same framerate. By the car, I assume you mean the***pit. If you looked, you would have seen evidence of anti-aliasing and full details in the rear-view mirrors (both of which are not available in the regular version). The Rendition cards make a HUGE difference in ICR2 both in performance and appearance. -- Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences The IWCCCARS Project: Q & A Representative Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/

Well, if you really put some thought into what they were trying to illustrate, you'll probably come to the conclusion that in order to get the same performance out of the non-accelerated version as with the accelerated version, they had to turn almost all details off (in the non-accel version). If you would put some of your intelligence to work, maybe your IQ ego would not be so easily bruised. :>I was suspect about that card all along. :>When you go to their web sight, they :>show you a car with all the graphics turned :>off then show you a car with all the graphics :>turned on and the lead you to believe that :>the car with all the graphics turned on :>is the car shown with the reactor card. I did :>not see a bit of difference in the actual :>graphics of the car. check out their sight :>and you will see what i mean. Any company :>that tries to insult my intelligence like that :>will never get my business. :>Wally :>> Sean's stuff snipped /*===================================================*/ There are three types of lies... lies, damn lies, and press releases. John Simmons (Redneck Techno-Biker) http://www2.connectnet.com/~jms/ /*===================================================*/

I have a p-133 with 24MB RAM, not sure of the mother board. I run renddma in N2 and don't notice a noteable difference from my number nine card. Maybe I just have a crappy system :) Sean

Listen to Eric here.....I am still running a P-100 and with my old Diamond Stealth 64, I was pulling about 14-18 fps with ICR2, mind you with no objects, no asphault or grass textures, no horizon, nothing but car textures and skid marks!!!! Now, with the Reactor, I run about 21-30 fps with Everything on.....I mean everything.....This little card has breathes new life into that ol' P-100!!! Best investment I made for my computer so far..... Oh yeah, about the screen shots on Intergraph's page.....They don't do any justice....They're too small for you to see the amazing 3-D effects that the Reactor pumps out....Nobody's insulting your intelligence, you're either ignorant to the fact that the Reactor is a blazing fast video card, or you've been misled by a couple of screen shots....

Quoted text (29 lines)

> What you didn't notice was that both versions are running at 30fps. > With the Rendition cards, you can have many more details on than in the > normal version while keeping the same framerate. By the car, I assume > you mean the***pit. If you looked, you would have seen evidence of > anti-aliasing and full details in the rear-view mirrors (both of which > are not available in the regular version). The Rendition cards make a > HUGE difference in ICR2 both in performance and appearance. > -- > Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences > The IWCCCARS Project: Q & A Representative > Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/ > > I was suspect about that card all along. > > When you go to their web sight, they > > show you a car with all the graphics turned > > off then show you a car with all the graphics > > turned on and the lead you to believe that > > the car with all the graphics turned on > > is the car shown with the reactor card. I did > > not see a bit of difference in the actual > > graphics of the car. check out their sight > > and you will see what i mean. Any company > > that tries to insult my intelligence like that > > will never get my business.

I've gone through 3 Intergraph Rendition Cards... I can't say it's the card itself, but I know it doesn't "jive" with my system. The first two were "fried" with the new bios' they had on their web page. The 3rd was sent to me with a preinstalled bios and new drivers. It was the worst functioning of the 3 boards I had. It also cost me a total of $ 20+ dollars in shipping back the boards so all-in-all... a bad experience as far as the functioning of the board goes, but their Tech Support service, to me anyway, is/was FANTASTIC! They took the time and patience to see if we couldn't get things working. I may be looking at a 3d Blaster from Creative Labs... I'm not sure that will work in my system either!

Quoted text (11 lines)

> I've gone through 3 Intergraph Rendition Cards... I can't say it's the > card itself, but I know it doesn't "jive" with my system. The first > two were "fried" with the new bios' they had on their web page. The > 3rd was sent to me with a preinstalled bios and new drivers. It was > the worst functioning of the 3 boards I had. It also cost me a total > of $ 20+ dollars in shipping back the boards so all-in-all... a bad > experience as far as the functioning of the board goes, but their Tech > Support service, to me anyway, is/was FANTASTIC! They took the time > and patience to see if we couldn't get things working. > I may be looking at a 3d Blaster from Creative Labs... I'm not sure > that will work in my system either!

Charlie: I told you that OVERCLOCKING your system to 400MHZ was a bad idea. (GGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGGG) Merry Chritmas Don

I found that the 8-bit versus 4-bit objects really slows the Reactor frame rate down. I'm running a Tyan TitanIII MB with a 256K cache, 32MB RAM, Pentium 166, and an Intergraph Reactor card. My DMA rate using DMADIAG is 13.1. Running RENDDMA worked ok, but I couldn't run Martinsville without turning off the Objects. As a test I created a 16MB Ramdisk to make N2 see only 16MB of RAM. Now when the 4-bit images load, I can run Martinsville at a full 30fps with all items turned on. If Papyrus sees this post, let me know if this makes sense and if there is a less cumbersome way to run the 4-bit images or improve the 8-bit frame rate on my system. At the full 30fps its just like being there. I'm close on several tracks to beating the Winston Cup record time listed in the game. Thanks for bringing the racing world home to us. ******************************************************** * Visit my site at - http://www.skyenet.net/~mridgeway * ********************************************************

Your DMA rate could be the problem. A good score should be in the 50+ range. See if Tyan has a BIOS upgrade for your MB. -- Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences The IWCCCARS Project: Q & A Representative Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/

What kind of DMA scores are you getting? If you don't have it, get DMAtest from my webpage. -- Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences The IWCCCARS Project: Q & A Representative Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/

Quoted text (22 lines)

> I found that the 8-bit versus 4-bit objects really slows the > Reactor frame rate down. I'm running a Tyan TitanIII MB with a > 256K cache, 32MB RAM, Pentium 166, and an Intergraph Reactor card. > My DMA rate using DMADIAG is 13.1. Running RENDDMA worked ok, but I > couldn't run Martinsville without turning off the Objects. As a test I > created a 16MB Ramdisk to make N2 see only 16MB of RAM. Now when the > 4-bit images load, I can run Martinsville at a full 30fps with all items > turned on. > If Papyrus sees this post, let me know if this makes sense and if there > is a less cumbersome way to run the 4-bit images or improve the 8-bit > frame rate on my system. > At the full 30fps its just like being there. I'm close on several tracks > to beating the Winston Cup record time listed in the game. > Thanks for bringing the racing world home to us. > ******************************************************** > * Visit my site at - http://www.skyenet.net/~mridgeway * > ********************************************************

Your DMA performance is quite low. What system BIOS do you have? - Mike Boich Rendition

I have to agree with the other post. I am running a 166 with 32 meg of RAM ad I was dissapointed in the performance of NASCAR2. I like a lot of detail and because of it I am good for about 15-18 FPS. I bought a reactor andd the machine jumped to 30FPS on Indycar and about 28 on NASCAR. I turn all graphic to on and it is smooth. Besides, the itergraph people are excellent to deal with. 800 tech support if you need it, and very friendly. The card bench marks slightly slower than my 3400 stealth in 2D. This is honestly the first time EVER that my hardware could stay ahead of Papyrus/Sierra. Best $150.00 you can spend. At least with out getting ***..... RM Des Moines, Ia

Quoted text (18 lines)

> I was suspect about that card all along. > When you go to their web sight, they > show you a car with all the graphics turned > off then show you a car with all the graphics > turned on and the lead you to believe that > the car with all the graphics turned on > is the car shown with the reactor card. I did > not see a bit of difference in the actual > graphics of the car. check out their sight > and you will see what i mean. Any company > that tries to insult my intelligence like that > will never get my business. > Wally > > I got this card, followed installation instructions, and it runs quake

at > > 15-19fps. I heard guys running at 40fps. Yes I'm using vquake and copied > > the two files from the cd. I am NOT impressed with it's poor performance > > in N2. My number nine 771 was just about the same, with much better > > color than the reactor. If anyone has any suggestions please help > > me!!!!!!! :) > > Sean Higgins

: Your DMA rate could be the problem. A good score should be in the 50+ : range. See if Tyan has a BIOS upgrade for your MB. : There are some new ones out now, but I can't guarentee that they will affect the PCI DMA issue. Tyan has been very reluctant to issue BIOS fixes for known problems with their boards. They may make one of the fastest boards around, but their customer support "sucks". Check [link lost in import] for BIOS upgrades. Also all Tyan board owners with similar problems please post your status in the newsgroup alt.comp.periphs.mainboard.tyan and hopfully we can draw some attention to this issue. Thanks -- **************************** Michael E. Carver ************************* Upside out, or inside down...False alarm the only game in town. =-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=<[ /./. [- < ]>=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=-=

Quoted text (16 lines)

> Your DMA rate could be the problem. A good score should be in the 50+ > range. See if Tyan has a BIOS upgrade for your MB. > > I found that the 8-bit versus 4-bit objects really slows the > > Reactor frame rate down. I'm running a Tyan TitanIII MB with a > > 256K cache, 32MB RAM, Pentium 166, and an Intergraph Reactor card. > > My DMA rate using DMADIAG is 13.1. Running RENDDMA worked ok, but I > > couldn't run Martinsville without turning off the Objects. As a test > I > > created a 16MB Ramdisk to make N2 see only 16MB of RAM. Now when the > > 4-bit images load, I can run Martinsville at a full 30fps with all > items > > turned on.

DMADIAG reports 99.1 MB/s for DMA on my system, but Martinsville really is choppy. It's weird because Bristol gives me 30fps w/ everything on, but Mville doesn't ... I have 32MB memory so I'm using 8-bit graphics. I'll try with 4-bits ... -- Henrikki (Hena) Hakkanen Tel. +358-(9)0-345 5538 -------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are mine and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer

Martinsville is choppy for everyone. -- Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences The IWCCCARS Project: Q & A Representative Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/

Have you tried the latest beta (10?) of VQuake? I hear its significantly faster (double speed?) than what's included on the Reactor CD. Available on either the Rendition or Intergraph web sites (maybe both). Also, some quote TIMEREFRESH values while others quote frame rates from elsewhere in the game (which are usually higher), so its hard to compare (and of course screen size makes a difference). Then again, I'm no Quake expert... ;) RENDDMA should give you a substantial increase in speed with N2. Have you used DMADIAG to test your machine's DMA performance? (Available on David Sparks' or Eric Busch's web sites). Maybe a motherboard BIOS upgrade might help you?... Good luck! 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?

Quoted text (12 lines)

>:>I got this card, followed installation instructions, and it runs quake at >:>15-19fps. I heard guys running at 40fps. Yes I'm using vquake and copied >:>the two files from the cd. I am NOT impressed with it's poor performance >:>in N2. My number nine 771 was just about the same, with much better >:>color than the reactor. If anyone has any suggestions please help >:>me!!!!!!! :) >First, you haven't mentioned your motherboard/bios/memory/cpu configuration. >If you're running these games from Win95, you need at least 24mb of memory to >make them run well (this is more true for NCR2 than for Quake). Whether or >not your motherboard and its BIOS allow you to make good use of DMA is also >essential to good performance.

Are they any benchmarks or test programs that would allow me to determine if my system is making good use of DMA? From the home of Mark and Cheryl Ferris

Quoted text (13 lines)

>I was suspect about that card all along. >When you go to their web sight, they >show you a car with all the graphics turned >off then show you a car with all the graphics >turned on and the lead you to believe that >the car with all the graphics turned on >is the car shown with the reactor card. I did >not see a bit of difference in the actual >graphics of the car. check out their sight >and you will see what i mean. Any company >that tries to insult my intelligence like that >will never get my business. >Wally

There is no attempt to mislead the consumer - what the two screen shots illustrate is that with most systems, you'll get more graphics with the same (or better) frame rate. Best Regards, Marc J. Nelson Sim Racing News - USA http://members.aol.com/simracing/index.htm

>Martinsville is choppy for everyone. Not me...and I have only a P100, run with everything on (no grass/ asphalt), and I get about 18-20fps. Best Regards, Marc J. Nelson Sim Racing News - USA http://members.aol.com/simracing/index.htm

Quoted text (28 lines)

> I was suspect about that card all along. > When you go to their web sight, they > show you a car with all the graphics turned > off then show you a car with all the graphics > turned on and the lead you to believe that > the car with all the graphics turned on > is the car shown with the reactor card. I did > not see a bit of difference in the actual > graphics of the car. check out their sight > and you will see what i mean. Any company > that tries to insult my intelligence like that > will never get my business. > Wally > > I got this card, followed installation instructions, and it runs quake at > > 15-19fps. I heard guys running at 40fps. Yes I'm using vquake and copied > > the two files from the cd. I am NOT impressed with it's poor performance > > in N2. My number nine 771 was just about the same, with much better > > color than the reactor. If anyone has any suggestions please help > > me!!!!!!! :) > > Sean Higgins

The ad you are refering to is representative of a 30 fps frame rate. It is not possible without the Verite'. You should read more carefully.

Quoted text (10 lines)

> >Martinsville is choppy for everyone. > Not me...and I have only a P100, run with everything on (no grass/ > asphalt), and I get about 18-20fps. > Best Regards, > Marc J. Nelson > Sim Racing News - USA > http://members.aol.com/simracing/index.htm

Me either.....also P-100, and I get between 21-30 fps with EVERYTHING on. Josh Walsh (sirlglock on $$$Hawaii$$$ and TEN)

writes: Hi Mike, Glad to see more support on this newsgroup. I have a question for ya. What Motherboards bring to best out in a Rendition card??? I know it needs to be DMA compliant, but what brands seem to be the hottest?? Thanks! Dave Henrie

Hey I was wondering if anyone has had the same problem. I just installed my Reactor card and can not start windows. If I put my old card back in it works fine but with the Reactor it just frezzes. Please e-mail me at Thanks, John

Quoted text (14 lines)

> > >Martinsville is choppy for everyone. > > Not me...and I have only a P100, run with everything on (no grass/ > > asphalt), and I get about 18-20fps. > > Best Regards, > > Marc J. Nelson > > Sim Racing News - USA > > http://members.aol.com/simracing/index.htm > Me either.....also P-100, and I get between 21-30 fps with EVERYTHING on. > Josh Walsh (sirlglock on $$$Hawaii$$$ and TEN)

How can that be? I have a P200 (oc'd to 2.5x83MHz=208MHz) and Mville is choppy as hell compared to every other track. I get around 30fps, even at SearsPoint and Bristol w/ everything on. Well, there's is little stutter when exiting T4 at Phoenix, but other than that ... You guys must have super-P100's ... -- Henrikki (Hena) Hakkanen Tel. +358-(9)0-345 5538 -------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are mine and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer

> Hey > I was wondering if anyone has had the same problem. I just installed my > Reactor card and can not start windows. If I put my old card back in it > works fine but with the Reactor it just frezzes. Please e-mail me at Go get the VGA fix from intergraph's web site and follow the instructions in the zip file. I had the same problem and vgafix solved it ... -- Henrikki (Hena) Hakkanen Tel. +358-(9)0-345 5538 -------------------------------------------------------------- Disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are mine and do not necessarily reflect those of my employer

18-20 fps IS choppy, at least to me. -- Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences The IWCCCARS Project: Q & A Representative Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/