yet another post about 3D cards...

...i've been reading everything on the subject, but i still have a very simple question. Q: what is the biggest, bestest, most-goodest video card out there right now that uses the rendition 2200 chip? i don't care about price. if it comes with 64megs, bring it on. whatever it takes. i've been going back and forth on the whole "3Dfx versus rendition" thing, and am pretty well set on the rendition. i currently have a intergraph intense 100 with a rendition 1000 chip. i'm an idiot and haven't been able to take advantage of the rendition-ready version of nascar2 - but that's a different story. i just checked out the top-rated video cards at pcworld.com ([link lost in import] for august, and the only one listed on the PCI list was the hecules thriller 3D. i thought that the intergraph intense 3D voodoo card used a rendition chip, but i was wrong. a lot of them are using the intel740 chip. the actually rate boards that are AGP (whatever the heck THAT is) more highly than PCI. they all seem to have something called RAMDAC. apparently that is the next best thing. i dunno. BTW, the diamond stealth II is the highest rated of ALL the video cards out there with a 93 according to them. i am most concerned with nascar2 and ICR2 and getting the most out of them. i imagine that GPL will be rendition supported as well. VROOM!!!!!!! danke schon in advance, j

You're kidding, right? Voodoo would be a key word here... BTW, most people begin sentences with capital letters :) -- "The enemy AI in Quake II fights the way old people have sex." -Fargo ICQ # 5905329 snip snip

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>...i've been reading everything on the subject, but i still have a very >simple question. >Q: what is the biggest, bestest, most-goodest video card out there right >now that uses the rendition 2200 chip? >i don't care about price. if it comes with 64megs, bring it on. whatever >it takes. i've been going back and forth on the whole "3Dfx versus >rendition" thing, and am pretty well set on the rendition. i currently >have a intergraph intense 100 with a rendition 1000 chip. i'm an idiot >and haven't been able to take advantage of the rendition-ready version >of nascar2 - but that's a different story. >i just checked out the top-rated video cards at pcworld.com >([link lost in import] for august, and the only one listed on >the PCI list was the hecules thriller 3D. i thought that the intergraph >intense 3D voodoo card used a rendition chip, but i was wrong. a lot of >them are using the intel740 chip. the actually rate boards that are AGP >(whatever the heck THAT is) more highly than PCI. they all seem to have >something called RAMDAC. apparently that is the next best thing. i >dunno. BTW, the diamond stealth II is the highest rated of ALL the video >cards out there with a 93 according to them. >i am most concerned with nascar2 and ICR2 and getting the most out of >them. i imagine that GPL will be rendition supported as well. >VROOM!!!!!!! >danke schon in advance,

Hmmm.... Well, really depends on your system and what other games you play. Nascar 2 will probably rip on a Stealth II unless you have a really weak system, and probably be a bit faster on a Hercules Thriller. ICR2 will work, but has a few glitches with the V2x00's. GPL will probably be pretty good too. BUT, if you play anything else, seriously consider a 3dfx. It's going to be about the same speed in Direct 3D games, but will play all the games that either only have 3dfx support or are better optimized for 3dfx. I had a Rendition V1000 for a good while, and while I hated giving up N2, never had to worry about whether games would support the 3dfx. Lot's of used Voodoo 1's out there with people moving to Voodoo 2's, and for $50-$100 you could get a Voodoo 1 that is all you really need on anything less than a P-II. If you rarely play anything else, probably hard to beat a V2x00 for $100 or so, maybe a bit higher for an 8 meg Thriller 3D, especially on an older system. But I think for around $50-60 after rebates, you can get a Stealth II, and that'll probably do fine. For more info on Rendition stuff, go to [link lost in import] They have a comparison on the different V2200 boards, and a message board where you can ask opinions Definitely don't rely on something like PC World for *** graphics reviews. They tend to look at things more for business use, and the benchmarks they use for *** stuff don't seem to represent real-world ***. Try [link lost in import] for a lot of 3D card reviews, and for info on a lot of the terms you see. AGP is a newer type of video card slot, found in Pentium II's and some newer Pentium Classic motherboards. You more than likely only have PCI slots, so can't run an AGP card on your machine. Most cards until recently have a PCI and an AGP version, and the PCI version is usually just a bit slower. Some newer ones are AGP only. The RAMDAC will mainly affect the refresh rates you can use with a graphics card, a faster RAMDAC will generally allow higher refresh rates. As long as you can get 85 HZ with your most common video mode, you're probably fine. Most cards will have a listing on the box as to what resolutions and refresh rates they support. Ken

Ken Beard responded to a request for the best rendition cards and other video card inquiries: ken- yhanks so much for the feedback. i read all through the FAQ's and didn't see anything like this. actually, a couple of them seemed really out-dated. maybe this can be incorporated in the future... j

Jay Wolfe wrote No problem. Any other questions lemme know. Ken

As a footnote see Tom's comments on Graphics cards on http://www.tomshardware.com/video.html http://www2.tomshardware.com/agp-perf.html which is just about the most authoritive guide you can get. Paul

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> Jay Wolfe wrote > > ken- > >yhanks so much for the feedback. i read all through the FAQ's and didn't > see > >anything like this. actually, a couple of them seemed really out-dated. > maybe > >this can be incorporated in the future... > >j > No problem. Any other questions lemme know. > Ken