#NT and video cards.
23 messages in this thread
I just loaded Win NT onto my system, and it doesn't recognize my Hercules
Graphite card. It only finds 16 (sixteen) colors. It works fine for 16
Million in 3ds in DOS, but not in NT. Is anyone else using this card and
having good results in NT? If not, does anyone have a suggestion for a card.
I was considering an ATI Ultra Pro 2 Meg, or Pro Turbo 2 Meg.
Thanks,
Dennis
Dennis,
>> I just loaded Win NT onto my system, and it doesn't recognize my Hercules
Graphite card.
There's an NT 3.1 driver available for the Graphite on the Hercules BBS. NT 3.5
complains about it not being current, but it works for me, at least up to the
256 color level; that's all I've tried.
John
John;
Thanks for the message. I posted a note on the Herc CIS forum requesting help,
so maybe by tonight I will have an answer.
Dennis
Hi Dennis,
You asked for other recommendations on video cards that work in NT. I am
running NT3.5 and a Matrox MGA Ultima PCI 2+ card with 4MB Vram and it works
great. I would suspect that the newer MGA Millenium card would also have NT
drivers, but I would check with Matrox first. The Millenium has been getting
favorable reviews…
-Tyler Colwell
Sierra Analysis Group / Alpine Images
Tyler;
Thanks. I was considering the Matrox, but the price was more than I wanted to
spend at this time.
Dennis
Dennis,
>> I was considering the Matrox… <<
I missed the earlier part of this… have you checked out the Diamond Stealth
64? They have a DRAM and a VRAM version dependent on you budget and both are
great cards… of course the VRAM is really fast but I think you'd find the
DRAM quite acceptable, especially for the money.
John
John;
>> have you checked out the Diamond Stealth 64?
Not really. I think I am going to go with the ATI Graphics Pro Turbo. It is
supported by both NT and Vibrant for 3DS. I saw where ATI had won a number of
awards for x, y, z.
But thanks for the input. I may look further.
Dennis
Well Dennis, you'd be doing yourself a favor to look into it… alot of people
have Stealth boards and I've heard no complaints. ATI on the other hand has had
many… the trades are biased to a large extent, who pays the most in
advertising, don't get caught up in that game. ATI pays alot for advertising.
Diamond makes a better board. So whatever, I just thought I'd make you aware of
a good solution…
John
Thanks, for the input John. I am really in the dark as to which is better, and
I might do well to check it out. However, after I answered your note, someone
on this forum was complaining about the Diamond Stealth 64. So I don't know.
I do appreciate your input. Are you going to be at Siggraph? You live in the
Southern California Area don't you. I will be in the area Saturday through
Tuesday. I will be attending Greg Pyros' 3DS advanced seminar at UCLA, and
then Siggraph Monday and Tuesday.
Dennis
Dennis,
>>someone on the forum was complaining about the Daimond Stealth 64… <<
Yeah I saw that, but the complaint was not with the board but that they'd
changed the chipset and Vibrant didn't have a driver. This happens with new
chips, Vibrant works to get new drivers out but alot of times its difficult to
get boards in advance from the manufactures.
His board was a VRAM, the board I was suggesting for your budget was a DRAM.
Which is not a problem, it uses the same chipset as his 2mb board which he
really liked which is the S3 chip.
I'll be at Siggraph but I won't know what days until the date gets closer.
You're not likely to see product of this generic nature there, as that's
usually reserved for Comdex. This is high end graphics like you may get to see
a 3D Labs Glint chip running under NT… which would be nice.
John
Dennis,
Here's what I think you should do, before I have a shoot out with Bad Man
Brandon at the Ammedia corral over display cards. <g> I would suggest when you
take Greg's class to ask other classmates and Greg himself what he'd recommend
for your budget. If this doesn't exactly fit in with the curriculum you can ask
either before or after his course… that's your best bet as I'm sure quite a
few will attend and would be happy to give you there feedback and impressions
without the distortion than cyberspace seems to generate from time to time…
and keep in mind we're talking about the best card for your budget not the best
card or whatever. More people will recommend the VRAM Stealth because of its
speed… just so you know.
O.K. and hope I get a chance to meet you at Siggraph, if not some other time no
doubt…
John
John;
Thanks for your suggestion of asking those at the class. That is a very good
idea.
Dennis
John;
I was able to reach Hercules about upgraded drivers for my Graphite Pro 2 Meg
board. They have an upgrade option where I can get their "Terminator 64 DRAM
2Meg" card for a very good price if I return my old one to them. It has
drivers for WinNT, and windows. Unfortunately, I don't see the "Terminator"
listed as a Vibrant Graphics Driver for 3DS. So, how does one find out if this
card will ever be included on their list?
Also, can I run this without the Vibrant Drivers at 800x600x16M colors using
another mode?
Thanks,
Dennis
Dennis,
one other thing you can do in the meantime is check out the Graphics B Vendors
forum where Tseng Labs, Diamond, Hercules, Genoa and Matrox are represented…
and also you'll get a good idea of what kinds of problems people are having
with each of the respective cards…
John
John;
>> you'll get a good idea of what kinds of problems
Another good point.
Dennis
This is a good idea because Diamond is not very hot on building drivers , not
sure
what was the last update was for NT, so I would not buy Diamond . The ATI card
is working very well with NT and Lightwave. I am running the Matrox Impression
and it works well, but is very slow in Dos mode.
You can run two cards with the Matrox to speed up Dos. I have my old Diamond
card running in Dos and the matrox for NT. <G>
Brandon
>> I have my old Diamond card running in DOS and the Matrox for NT.. <<
Figures… especially as you're running lightwave… speed obviously is not a
major consideration for someone in your situation. <G>
John
Brandon;
Thanks for replying. I am keeping everyone's comments in mind as I look into
this.
Dennis
Dennis;
I think you will regret getting the ATI. I had one for a while and finally
returned it for a Diamond Viper Pro Video. Great card, but the Stealth 64 Pro
Video is supposed to be even faster and better.
Again, IMHO don't get the ATI. It may be fast, but very buggy, especially in
3DS.
Zac (AZ-TECH)
Berkeley
-Zac Rymland (AZ-TECH)
Zac,
You really ought to try the #9 Imagine128. The drivers work great under NT
workstation and the card comes in 4MB and 8MB versions. The 4MB does 65K at
1600×1280 100Mhz and the 8MB does 16.8M at 100Mhz. We (and our customers) have
been very happy with the performance of this card.
Matt Armstrong
Matt;
>>You really ought to try the #9 Imagine128. The drivers work great under NT
workstation and the card comes in 4MB and 8MB versions. The 4MB does 65K at
1600×1280 100Mhz and the 8MB does 16.8M at 100Mhz. We (and our customers) have
been very happy with the performance of this card.<<
What about 3DS?
Zac (AZ-TECH)
Berkeley
-Zac Rymland (AZ-TECH)
Zac,
New drivers are available from the Number Nine download area.
Thanks Matt
Zac;
>> regret getting the ATI.
I will keep your warning in mind.
Thanks,
Dennis