Which are the top 5 and the best Matrox PCI card?
I want to upgrade my DOS PC, and ive heard Matrox was the best when it comes to 2D, so i was wonder, which card is the best and what are the next 5 alternatives?
I saw an auction for Matrox G550 for 20e.
Matrox M3D 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀 😀
For Dos-only use you're probably not going to get any benefit over something like a S3 Virge / Trio64. Pretty much solid compatibility and VESA support too.
My collection database and technical wiki:
https://www.target-earth.net
^ couldn't agree more
Matrox was overrated by some magazines and a lot of hearsay. They are just another option that has worse compatibility than S3 for DOS and 3Dfx for 3D. Their GUI speed is also not special, and they are certainly not the only cards with clear output.
Perhaps the most interesting Matrox moments were
-M3D (PowerVR PCX2 outsourcing)
-Mystique Mechwarrior 2 (it has some nice aspects)
-G400 EMBM (this works on newer cards like Radeon too though).
-Dualhead (they were first, especially to make it work so well)
my vote goes to the S3 Virge DX 4MB
wrote:my vote goes to the S3 Virge DX 4MB
Absolutely. Look no further then Diamond stealth - champion of all virge cards 😀
I see, cool.
I found these on sale:
Diamond stealth64 3200
Diamond Viper V330
Diamond Fire GL 1000 Pro
Which one should i buy?
wrote:Diamond stealth64 3200 Diamond Viper V330 Diamond Fire GL 1000 Pro […]
Diamond stealth64 3200
Diamond Viper V330
Diamond Fire GL 1000 ProWhich one should i buy?
Buy for what?
S3 968 is older than Virge and Trio but it might be ok. It has a compatibility problem with Voodoo cards that requires a TSR.
The next two are AGP. V330 is Riva 128 and the last one is Permedia 2 which you don't want.
The first one is really old S3 vision chip, second one is riva 128 and third one is a 3dlabs permedia. None of them are Virge. Get Diamond Stealth 3D 2000 Pro instead 😀
Stojke already mentioned that (s)he has a Virge DX and maybe a Trio in a prior post so I have no idea what (s)he's on about.
Of those three I guess the Riva 128 is most useful. It has usable 3D, although ugly, and fast 2D/GUI. I had a FireGL Pro 1000 (Permedia 2) recently and its 3D is useless for games IMO, but its GUI speed is nice and it was sharp and clear. DOS is an unknown though.
wrote:Stojke already mentioned that (s)he has a Virge DX and maybe a Trio in a prior post so I have no idea what (s)he's on about.
Indeed. If he already has Virge DX, diamond variant will do little to impress 😀 Maybe only in output quality, but thats also disputable.
I have tested also extensively the riva128 (and ZX) cards in DOS, except some very rare older games they actually behave VERY nice , speedy and with a high compatibility , things like modeX and colors in Keen games are OK for example, things that older cards of the era do have problems with... As long as you don't plan to use win3x with a riva card (driver is broken) then it's a viable option especially if you have a speedy DOS machine and need a speedy card.
The Riva's ugly-yet-compatible 3d is a fun curiosity though. It has very low precision for multiply/subtractive blend so any lightmapping will look like lightcrapping. It gets worse if the game uses overbrights.
wrote:The Riva's ugly-yet-compatible 3d is a fun curiosity though. It has very low precision for multiply/subtractive blend so any lightmapping will look like lightcrapping. It gets worse if the game uses overbrights.
Indeed. It is a strange one. You can tell NVIDIA put some serious effort into the drivers even though the hardware clearly is a bit off 🤣
What's also amazing is how vastly improved TNT is. It's night and day in both speed and quality. Watch out 3dfx.
wrote:By that i meant that i found those cards on sale on one auction site and am wondering is any worth buying? All of those are PCI models.
In that case, only the Viper 330 (riva 128) would be worth anything. The Diamond Fire GL 1000 Pro is a total failure and the S3 vision isn't really worth having next to Virge.
