Graphics 3D Acceleration

[AHToad]

Toad gingerly walks out onto the busy airfield, white-tipped cane tapping in front of him.  One can barely hear his voice over the roar of Merlin engines and the howl of prop tips as one aircraft after another hurtles into the air for the public beta.

"Hello?  Is anyone there?"

Yep, blind as a bat .. no graphics .. and I DO so want to fly the BETA!

FACTS BEARING ON THE SITUATION:

- I need to live with my system configuration for a while longer (Pentium 200MX, 96MB RAM, Matrox Millenium II 2D/3D card (but they lie about the 3D part).

POSSIBLE COURSES OF ACTION:

- Add an el cheapo 3D accelerator card.  Will a cheap add-on 3D Accelerator card give me enough framerate to fly at all?

- Buy New!  Should I give up on the Millenium card and get a modern 3D Accelerated card now?  But the next generation sounds sooo good!

- Do Both.  Should I go the cheap route for now, and get the next generation next year, which (as always) is rumored to blow the socks off this old crap?

- BRAND NEW START.  Am I kidding myself that a Pentium 200 can do anything with AH and just look to a total upgrade?  Chuck the old boat anchor, get a biggish bag of money, and call Dell?

Advice is appreciated.  Good advice really appreciated.

Thanks in advance.

Toad, beseeching Toad

[weazel]

You would be wasting your money with a 2nd generation card-without a fast CPU you wont gain much. However *I* do happen to have several new Celeron 300a CPU`S I grabbed up before they got scarce. If you decide to upgrade look around for the best deal you can get-then call me and I`ll hook you up with a screamer for less.  

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[Azrael]

Depends on how much you like to spend, and which goal you like to achieve.

For AH (and WB) a Celeron > 300 / PII w/ a TNT card should do just fine. If you already have a ATX case you need a Mainboard, CPU, Ram and a video card.

Az

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Azrael
XO 487th BG (Heavy)
'The Gentlemen from Hell'

[Ozymandias_KoK]

Ah yes, the One True Toad!

For now, get a TNT (or even TNT2).  Save up for a few months, and you can get a really good box built and just throw the TNT into it.  This can easily be done for less than $1000.

And like anything computer related, if you want to wait for the REALLY cool stuff, it's just around the corner, just a little ways off, be here any day...or even just a couple of weeks...never been a time when something better wasn't on it's way down the pipe.  Why wait?  

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TKoKFKA-OZDS-

[Valor]

just found this on the bbs on    www.anandtech.com   :

  www.amazon.com/exec/obidos/ASIN/B00000JBBJ/002-1226461-1758600  

Supposedly, it shows the Diamond Viper 770
TNT2 Ultra as $179.99, but when you ring it
up, the discounted price is $99.

A very good price if it's true.


[This message has been edited by Valor (edited 09-29-1999).]

[Wormie]

For 60 bucks you can have a dual SLI set up with 12 meg Creative Labs VooDoo 2 cards. The cards are re-worked but for this price who cares.

While not on the cutting edge anymore I suspect they will give you as much graphic power as any newer card would considering your other system limitations.

And heck if you dont feel you need SLI you can buy single 8 or 12 Meg cards also.
 http://www.creative.com/specials/voodoo2/


Wormie

[6gun]

Well, I did not believe this but I did it so it is true  

I just went from a TNT I to a Creative Tnt II Ultra.  

My frame rate, when I first went to the tower offline was 28 or 29 with the TNT I.  I clicked V-Synch off with the new TNT II and checked.

Drum roll...... 68!  Went way over two times faster frame rate!  

I saw HT online and told him and he said that was..... normal!  AND he said when they get the newer graphics in, the difference will be even more extreme, cause the II will do some stuff the I's wont.

Hope this helps  

I have a Celeron 300a, @ 450 and 128 meg of ram.  

6gun

[Dhog]

Don't really know what you would consider "good", Toad, but I get 25-30 fps with my PentiumPro-200 and a TNT board. It's flyable at any rate.

Dhog

[scout]

POSSIBLE COURSES OF ACTION:

- Add an el cheapo 3D accelerator card. Will a cheap add-on 3D Accelerator card give me enough framerate to fly at all?

Original TNT with o/c celeron-450 (P2 socket Celeron-300):
1600x1200, typ fps=28, hi=50, low=20, 23 on rwy, 17 in tower.
1024x768 standard res, typical fps=48.
1600x1200 is very playable, its what i'll be using.

Answer yes, IMO, assuming TNT-1's are now in the bargain bins.


- Do Both. Should I go the cheap route for now, and get the next generation next year, which (as always) is rumored to blow the socks off this old crap?

As another poster said there is *ALWAYS* something better just around the corner.
But, if I were to get a new 3D card _right now_, it would be a TNT2.


Note, on overclocking Celeron's, don't count on it, unless you can manipulate CPU voltage.
The only m/b you can this easy with (in BIOS) is Abit's (BX-6, BH-6, Bxx...).
This note pertains to the original P2 socket Celeron-300's, I know nothing about the new (square) socket type Celerons, stopped keeping up to date November-98 when I upgraded.

[Jekyll]

And AHToad.. since the 'Wingless Cafe' is so much a part of WB history, what are we going to have for Aces High?

A noisy little airfield on the top of a mountain, blinking a not-so-friendly red sign?

We'd better start lobbying HT and Co. to include it in the next terrain  

[aztec]

   Weazel I am interested in buying one of you 300a's. Could you email if you would like to sell one? Thx....aztec