From what I remember they perform very similarly. Maybe +/- 5% depending on the benchmark. Check the bottom of this page for VLB benchmarks:
http://vgamuseum.info/index.php/benchmarks

S3 Vision series is both a tad quicker and have a little better compatibility than Cirrus cards, but if you have one of the later Cirrus VLB cards I wouldnt change unless I stumbled across an S3 card very cheap.

I'm curious how the S3s fare in terms of output quality (specifically on an LCD) compared to Cirrus Logic cards. While I'm more than happy with the performance of my CL-GD5428, and the image quality destroys the Trident I was using before it, it could be better.

We always talk about speed on these but the big thorn in my side is the image quality 😊

I don't really believe there would be a dealbreaking difference in FPS in DOS games between them though, especially if you bump up to a DX4 100 (or higher) and/or run it at 40MHz bus. Note I'm thinking in terms of playing games at reasonable rates, not benchmarks.

I technically own two S3 cards (Alright, one is a Diamond, the other is STB, but they both implement S3 chipsets).

I have a Diamond Multimedia Stealth SE, implementing a Trio32 chip with 2MB of video memory. The graphics output is quite good, it's a VERY fast card, and I enjoy it all around.

Then is my Virge/VX on an 4MB STB board. This is an OEM card from a Gateway 2000, and while the video output is quite crisp and good as well, it does not output to an LCD if you use a 640x480 video mode, and using anything above 1024x768x16 (or 1280x1024x8 I think) makes it unusably slow. At a topped out (for my display) 1280x1024x32, it take a good 3-5 seconds to minimize a maximized window of Windows 95's file manager.

I have never had a board with a Cirrus Logic chipset, so I couldn't speak for those, this is really more intended to answer BeginnerGuy's question.

I did some benchmarks on my recent 486 DX2 build between a few VLB cards I had (S3 Trio32, S3 805 and a CL GD5429):

1            |   3DBench   | Chris's 3D Benchmark | PC Player Benchmark |     Doom    | Quake |
2            | 1.0  | 1.0c |  320x240  | 640x480  |  320x240 | 640x480  | min. | max. |       |
3------------|------|------|-----------|----------|----------|----------|------|------|-------|
4S3 Trio32   | 50.0 | 48.2 |   31.4    |  9.1     |   9.6    |  3.8     | 69.9 | 26.1 |  6.9  |
5S3 805      | 50.0 | 48.2 |   27.5    |  6.9     |   9.3    |  3.5     | 67.8 | 26.2 |  6.8  |
6CL GD5429   | 47.6 | 46.6 |   28.4    |  8.8     |   9.3    |  3.6     | 69.9 | 26.0 |  6.8  |

I don't have either of the two specific cards you mentioned Yuuker, so I cannot say specifically about them, but I'm guessing the performance difference wouldn't be significant. Timeline-wise, I think the Vision864 came out sometime between the 805 and Trio32? Might be wrong.

For VLB the S3 Vision864 is much better card then any Cirrus Logic even 5434. If you can get it for good price, go for it (FYI one just went for 100USD in one eBay auction).

If you want only good DOS performance, Trio32 will be much cheaper and as good as 864. But in Windows 864 trumps over Trio32 by almost 3X.

Any idea how the 864 compares to the Trio64 in Windows? I would imagine they should be about the same.
Trio32 is pretty rare compared to the Trio64. I never really understood why Trio32 existed in the first place.
$100 is a lot for a card. A lot of ISA and VLB cards that aren't complete crap seem to sell for about that these days.

Anonymous Coward wrote:

Any idea how the 864 compares to the Trio64 in Windows? I would imagine they should be about the same.
Trio32 is pretty rare compared to the Trio64. I never really understood why Trio32 existed in the first place.
$100 is a lot for a card. A lot of ISA and VLB cards that aren't complete crap seem to sell for about that these days.

I recall picking up mine in the realm of 40 bucks, and about 7-10 bucks for a 1MB memory upgrade (It was originally 1MB)

It works fine, and is perfectly fast enough for a DX4-100 @120mhz.