VOGONS


First post, by Jade Falcon

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Sometime down the road I want to build a SK8 system, I have the perfect case for one. But I lack just about everything else.

Now I know all the other parts I want. But the 2D card I'm at a loss on.
I goal is to have a top end pre 97 system for playing games that I can't play in my vista/core2 system. Late dos games like duke3d and descent and early 32bit 3d 9x games. I know I'm better off with a sk7 setup, but SK8 would be alot funner.

Here are my thoughts.

S3 virge. Nice all rounder maybe not for 3d but good dos support. That and I like them.
Matrox mystique. This card seems to make a lot of since for a full blown Ppro 32bit power house.
First gen rage. Nothing fancy but much like the virge its a nice all rounder with good support. But I'm not a big fan of them.
ATI Mach 64, more or less a rage without 3d. Never had one but I think it would be a neat card for the system.

What about a Rendition? I never had one before but if I recall they aren't that good for dos.
Any other ideas? I open to anything. But I would like something with good dos support over everything. This leads me to the Virge.

Reply 1 of 11, by jheronimus

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Maybe a Tseng ET6000/ET6100? Should be faster, and should also make your system a bit more unique (seems like that's your thing with this build). Or an Ark Logic-based card — for the same reasons.

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Reply 2 of 11, by Jade Falcon

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unique it definitely a thing I'm going for. But usability is also important too.
The Tseng seems like a nice Idea, how do they far for Dos?

Reply 3 of 11, by clueless1

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Jade Falcon wrote:

unique it definitely a thing I'm going for. But usability is also important too.
The Tseng seems like a nice Idea, how do they far for Dos?

Really good. I think it fails the Commander Keen test on the Gona compatibility chart, but newer games should work well and it's very fast. ARK2000 is another, but it's much harder to find and more expensive unless you get lucky.

The more I learn, the more I realize how much I don't know.
OPL3 FM vs. Roland MT-32 vs. General MIDI DOS Game Comparison
Let's benchmark our systems with cache disabled
DOS PCI Graphics Card Benchmarks

Reply 4 of 11, by Munx

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I'd consider a PCI Cirrus Logic card like GD-5446 as an option too. Gave me ~25% fps boost in Duke3D over the Virge and has great DOS compatibility.
If you plan on running with the workstation PPro theme Matrox seems like the best choice.

My builds!
The FireStarter 2.0 - The wooden K5
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Reply 5 of 11, by Jade Falcon

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Munx wrote:

I'd consider a PCI Cirrus Logic card like GD-5446 as an option too. Gave me ~25% fps boost in Duke3D over the Virge and has great DOS compatibility.
If you plan on running with the workstation PPro theme Matrox seems like the best choice.

Thanks, that was my though with the Matrox as well.

clueless1 wrote:
Jade Falcon wrote:

unique it definitely a thing I'm going for. But usability is also important too.
The Tseng seems like a nice Idea, how do they far for Dos?

Really good. I think it fails the Commander Keen test on the Gona compatibility chart, but newer games should work well and it's very fast. ARK2000 is another, but it's much harder to find and more expensive unless you get lucky.

Thanks for the info. The only old dos game I'll be playing is lemmings. So that should not be a problem.

Reply 6 of 11, by Ozzuneoj

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Rendition cards have some serious weaknesses in DOS VGA performance, but they do offer very well implemented hardware acceleration in several games, some of which had no 3dfx support. If you're into Papyrus racing games from the 90s, you'd probably like having a Rendition card in there. They were one of the few cards that could legitimately compete with 3dfx early on. It didn't last long of course, but this hobby is filled with examples of less utilized products that everyone likes to use anyway. 😀

Its too bad there isn't an easy way to swap between one of these and, for example, a CL GD-5446 or something like that with excellent 2D speed.

Now for some blitting from the back buffer.

Reply 10 of 11, by hasnopants

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Im running a system right now with a S3 Virge DX and a Voodoo 1 with basically the same thing in mind that you have above. It is running nicely, S3 is a better card than I have read I am finding, for what its worth.

Current Systems:
DIP40|8088|640K|HERCULESGB102|PCSPKR
DIP40|V20|640K|VGA|ADLIB/TNDY/COVOX
S7|P233MMX|128M|S3ViRGEDX/DM3D|SB16
S370|P600MMX|256M|SIS630/DM3DIIX2|SBLIVE!5.1
S775|P43.4|2G|6800GS|SBAUDIGY

Reply 11 of 11, by Jade Falcon

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I'm going to try a S3 Virge, a few Cirrus Logic cards and a mystique, and maybe a few other cards that were spoken of here. This will be a post new years winter project. So don't get your hopes up on seeing a new SK8 system any time soon.