vetz wrote:OK fine, I'll let you have the benefit of doubt by saying that generally S3 VLB cards have good output, even though the "highend" VLB card I have sucks.
I mentioned Matrox vs S3 as just an example of something that could be done in a side by side comparison. This is because it has been said countless times here on Vogons that you should get a S3 card over a Matrox because it has some better DOS compatibility. What many seems to miss is the signal output quality aspect of it and how the compatibility really is less of an issue that what it is made out to be. With a video this could be shown more clear and perhaps put some more light on the subject. There are some issues that have been exaggorated around on the internet, which may result in that someone (new retro users) reads it as "fact". Like for instance when I tried to sell my MT100 one interested buyer said that it wouldn't work with games made for the old MT32 revision.. I facepalmed myself, but I also knew exactly where all that were coming from.
Well, again: As you said you have one card. It's hard to judge with just one card. I've tested a lot of S3 VLB cards from many different vendors (ELSA, Miro, Diamond, Number Nine, Jaton, SPEA/Videoseven) as well as some no name cards. And in general these S3 based VLB cards offer decent image quality, especially compared to the many blurry noname Tseng cards.
I totally agree with you that Maxtrox offers a much higher quality output compared to (most) S3 _PCI_ cards and I would always prefer a Matrox card when building a rig for later DOS games (with optional SVGA res). And yes, you're right, I also think the compatibility issues will not occur for many people.
But when you are comparing graphics chips from vensors it doesn't help anyone when things get mixed up. It's just confusing for people new to the scene. The thread opener is interested in building a _VLB_ based system and your example that S3 cards generally suck, especially against Matrox, just doesn't help - simply because there is no Matrox VLB card for DOS gaming available.
Peace,
Fabian
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