good video cards
9 messages in this thread
I am trying to buy a good video card for Acad12 for Dos, and 3D Studio Rel3.
I'm not sure but I'll probably be running them all under OS/2. If not, then
dos. But either way, I need a good card for Windows because I have lots of
Winapps. I heard that the 64-bit cards are currently the best performers. I
don't want to spend more than $500. Can anyone suggest good video cards?
I know that this request is kind of hard to fulfill (card that is good in acad,
3ds, windows, os/2, and dos!!!) but any help would be appreciated. I'm not
looking for the best performance in each category but I don't want one that is
great in windows, terrible for dos, doesn't work in os/2, etc.
Thank you for your help, Anthony
p.s. What ever happened to cards based on the TI coprocessors?
Hello Anthony,
A great Card is the MATROX MGAII ULTIMA with 2 or 4MB, VLB or PCI.
It seems to be the fastest 64BIT Chip. If youre mainly working with 3ds
its better to get the MAtrox with MGAII chip(Ultima), Because the 3d-Drawing
Z-Buffer-Options of the MGA I Chip(MAtrox-Impression) are useless for
3ds as far as 3ds is a software-renderer.
If youre using ACAD mainly, the MAtrox Ipression is the better choice. Then
you have very good drivers with support 3d-drawing and z-buffer.
IN windows you can switch between resolutions(up to 1600) and Color-Deeph(Upto
24 BIT). Excellent and very fast.
To additionally speed up (50%) 3ds use the LIQuidspeed-Drivers from Vibrant.
So far
Philipp
There is a great real-time preview .pxp written by Pavel Korensky called Sandra
that works with the MGA Impression series cards (not the Ultima as far as I
know). It renders super fast, and allows real-time interaction with the scene
so you can manipulate the scene/objects in real time. He also has a .kxp
coming out that uses the MGA to render a preview flic. These alone are great
reasons to get the Impression over the Ultima, unless you need PCI which is not
yet available in Impression flavor.
John Tissavary (LUNA cie)
John,
What sort of manipulations are we talking about here?
Are you referring to Sandra.pxp? It allows rotation, zooming, and panning (I
think… haven't used it in a bit because I had to move the MGA to a different
machine temporarily).
It renders the entire scene, including lights and camera perspective (you can
choose which camera). It renders Medit colors and light colors, as well, but
no mapping.
John Tissavary (LUNA cie)
Anthony,
<< 3ds/os2/dos/acad12… >>
It seems that the desire to run 3ds and os2 will be the one that limits you.
Please download os2txt.zip from the Index and Info section of the lib. This
includes 52 pages of threads from individuals getting os/2 to run with 3ds in
the forground and with 2 background slave renders during Oct-Nov 93. The
problem back in Nov. were the OS/2 supplied video card drivers. At that time
the S3 chipset seemed to work the best with 3dsr3. There hasn't been any recent
posts regarding the possibility of new existing os/2 drivers and the latest
vib3ds.zip offering a greater selection of video card choices for the
foreground/background configuration. Vibrant recently added a NULL choice at
the bottom of the video card choices in vibcfg that may be of use for the
background sessions.
If you investigate this, please post your results.
jonas[adesk]
I noticed someone mentioned the Matrox line, and you mentioned the OS/2
system… I never had any luck at all with those two, ended up gutting the
OS/2…
Also, Matrox will -not- playback flics anywhere -near- ideal… (10-15
fps, right?) other than that (I guess that leaves Windows) it's an excellent
card… <g>
What type's of problems? If anyone hears of problems with os/2 and the matrox
impression w/3 mb and z buffer (that is what i am considering buying) please
let me know. Or if you have found that card (or any other matrox) good, please
tell me. If there are any special settings, configuration, drivers, etc., to
getting it to work (or getting it to work optimally), please tell me.
Right now, there are only 256 colors drivers available for OS/2. NT have 24bits
drivers for all resolutions but the OS/2 truecolor drivers are in late beta
testing phase. Chicago 8bit drivers are also in beta, getting ready for the
release of W4.
So if you are looking for a 2d/3d accelerator with OS/2 support, it could be
better to hold your breath for a couple of months (now that's funny) <G> In the
meantime, there could be other offers which may interest you better than
Matrox. I have a Matrox board here and I really will buy the next OS depending
on the driver support. If Chicado gets first place in the race, I will stick
with MS (argh!). If I can get OS/2 truecolor drivers, I will go OS/2. If the
race results in tie, I will get both and drop one in Xmas <G>
ana /krazy images