Rage Fury Pro/Xpert 2000 pro 32MB: Any good?

[C0deHunter]

Dear all,

I am running my recently built retro Win98SE system (Abit BH-6, PIII-800E, 768MB SDRAM, SB AWE64 GOD, Roland SC-55 MKII, Hitachi CM750U monitor) with this video card (coupled with a Diamond Monster 3DII Voodoo2, *which I rarely use*).

I would like to know if this video card is decent enough to run the following games:

Quake, Q2, Q3, Heavy Metall FAKK2, SiN, Unreal, Hexen II, Heretic II, Daikatana, etc.

I am actually running Quake 1 in its *non* GL (3Dfx) video mode, and I love the chunky, pixellated graphics. (planning to run the other games in the above list to see if I *really* have to switch to 3D versions of those instead)

In Quake 1, although everything looks good up to 1024x768 resolution, in lower res (such as 640x480), I get this *bent* (U shaped) color-banding effect all over the screen (true when I even run the Windows 98SE in low res mode)
Is this normal?

My preferences: I am *not* planning to play these games in high-res (larger than 800x600), or SLI (as I love the lower, pixallated, chunky graphics)

Should I upgrade this card with a different one? If so, which one do you recommend?

Your thoughts are really appreciated.

[The Serpent Rider]

Avoid anything ATI related before the original Radeon.

[leileilol]

I would like to know if this video card is descent enough to run the following games:

Quake, Q2, Q3, Heavy Metall FAKK2, SiN, Unreal, Hexen II, Heretic II, Daikatana, etc.

Yes. It could even play Vice City. As with other DX6 cards generally, the support line is drawn at the HWT&L req'd gaming era of fall 2002.

All I can say for now, I hope you don't plan on using its TV out...

[Putas]

Should I upgrade this card with a different one?

No, it will easily handle what you need.

[C0deHunter]

Great, I wish I could somehow fix the *color-banding* issue that I see.

[leileilol]

If it's what I think it is, i've had later good Radeons do strange color banding in 8bpp so even that blind Radeon advice won't help you here. It only seems to affect 8bpp in Windows though. It's also a problem with DOSBox's surface output in fullscreen. ....and before anyone suggests Nvidia - palette stalls are far worse.

Maybe slipping in -dibonly to Winquake might help

[C0deHunter]

Thanks for your reply. Is there a utility (I couldn't find it in the ATi tabs) to increase the refresh rate of the monitor/screen?

I am using my Hitachi CM751U multisync monitor, and when I launch the games, it defaults to 60Hz. This monitor has a maximum refresh rate of up to 160Hz (at 640x480)

My Monster 3DII tab has a slider option (both for D3D and Glide) to increase the refresh rate from 60Hz all the way up to 120Hz.

Since I am not utilizing Voodoo2 (yet), I wanted to know if my Rage Fury Pro, has a similar feature (or if there is a utility that allows in-game/in-application refresh rate increase)

[Putas]

The refresh selector is not present on monitor tab?
I used bios editors to have high refresh rates even in DOS. At least 85 Hz worked fine.

[C0deHunter]

They are available for Windows OS, not when you run a game: it defaults back to 60Hz when I launch a game.

[appiah4]

Avoid anything ATI related before the original Radeon.

Eh? No. Rage had driver issues at its time, but they have been fairly ironed out later on. Latest drivers for Rage cards are mostly trouble free and Rage 128 PRO is a fairly fast chipset, fairly comparable to a TNT2 or V3-2000.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_cont ... xTF85QUjzk

Phil's review does it justice here.

[The Serpent Rider]

Rage128 cards are not good for OpenGL games in general. Plus something like Daikatana will practically "kill" it on any resolution.

[leileilol]

Yes, pick the technically incompetent game that's even slow on a Geforce2 GTS, that'll show who's right

[appiah4]

Rage128 cards are not good for OpenGL games in general. Plus something like Daikatana will practically "kill" it on any resolution.

They were not 'great' for OpenGL at the time, but they were always decent. Check out Anandtech's review of the chip at the time of release:



It basically matched a TNT2 and Voodoo 3 2000 when you had a decent CPU and cranked the resolution up; at lower resolutions it was only 10% or so behind:



Now with newer drivers they are just GREAT in OpenGL, they surpass the cards named above. Just watch Phil's review of the card.

As for Daikatana.. Wow, that is your measuring stick?

[C0deHunter]

Can someone please post the latest drivers for this card? Thanks!

[appiah4]

Can someone please post the latest drivers for this card? Thanks!

Still available on AMD's website:

https://www.amd.com/en/support/graphics ... ge-128-pro

[C0deHunter]

Thank you so much!

[C0deHunter]

Update

I just completely *bypassed* Diamond Monster 3DII Voodoo2, and have connected my monitor *directly* to the Ati Rage 128 Pro.

I renamed the OpenGL32.dll to _OpenGL32.dll in order for Quake 1 to run properly on Rage, and now I get 120Hz refresh rate! The image quality seems better (color, etc.) than Voodoo2's GL (although a bit dark)

Questions:

How would I know if I am running in 32bit or 16bit? (I am using the -bpp 32 command-line on my shortcut)

How can I change the refresh rate of the monitor when I am running this game, and also how can adjust the brightness. contrast in game?)

Thanks!

[appiah4]

Quake 1 has no 32-bit color mode IIRC.

[leileilol]

It does in GL!

Usually a dead giveaway for when you're still using 16bpp is texture dithering. The Rage128 has a ordered dither

[subhuman@xgtx]

Quake 1 has no 32-bit color mode IIRC.

-bpp 32