Is there any benefit to having more than 2mb of RAM on your video board besides windows resolutions?

Shagittarius wrote on 2026-03-05, 19:45:

Is there any benefit to having more than 2mb of RAM on your video board besides windows resolutions?

Some games which use proprietary 3D APIs like S3D or Matrox MSI will benefit from 4MB VRAM.

For example, Tomb Raider will run at a lower resolution, and certain visuals like Lara's shadow will be disabled with only 2MB on an S3 Virge or Matrox Mystique card.

theelf wrote on 2026-02-28, 07:58:

3D in virge work really good, and a trio or virge are on same price level.

I disagree with this. Here S3 Trio64 V+ is cheapest possible PCI VGA card (there is no cheaper), while Virge DX is in average 2x (4MB version sometimes 3x) more expensive.
3D in Virge cannot be called "good" sorry, being able to run one game more smoothly is not good. This is why I alerted him , if he's not paying more for nothing. He needs to decide. But you're right, IF he can find Virge for same price as S3 Trio64V+, then it's better pick. I didn't see it in history very much, it's rarity, when it happens. And reason is same, as you've mentioned... 3D cards in PCI are simply demanded, any card capable of 3D is going to be more expensive over 2D variant. While, S3 Trio64V+ was most spread PCI card of its time, it's really flood of them here, this is why they cannot be on same price level.

W.x. wrote on Yesterday, 08:38:

theelf wrote on 2026-02-28, 07:58:

3D in virge work really good, and a trio or virge are on same price level.

I disagree with this. Here S3 Trio64 V+ is cheapest possible PCI VGA card (there is no cheaper), while Virge DX is in average 2x (4MB version sometimes 3x) more expensive.
3D in Virge cannot be called "good" sorry, being able to run one game more smoothly is not good. This is why I alerted him , if he's not paying more for nothing. He needs to decide. But you're right, IF he can find Virge for same price as S3 Trio64V+, then it's better pick. I didn't see it in history very much, it's rarity, when it happens. And reason is same, as you've mentioned... 3D cards in PCI are simply demanded, any card capable of 3D is going to be more expensive over 2D variant. While, S3 Trio64V+ was most spread PCI card of its time, it's really flood of them here, this is why they cannot be on same price level.

dont know your country, here in spain all pci s3 card are in same range of price, 5-15 euros, depend seller mostly, not card type

I never paid more than 5 euro in general for a pci s3, but if a version i like i need to pay 10 2x like you say,i dont think is end of world neither