Upgrade or no?

[DmdBT]

I would like to upgrade my video card to a GE Force 2 or something so I can have 32 bit color in the game. My VooDoo somethingorother only supports 16 bit. For those who have seen the game in both 16 and 32 bit, is it really worth the expenditure of money and effort to upgrade? Can I expect a "whole new world" or will it pretty much just be the same. Do planes stand out better against the terrain? Basically I just need a nudge to make up my mind.

T

[eskimo]

I haven't even seen 32 bit.
How's your framerate?
Framerate is what counts in my book.
As long as it stays around 20 near smoke, I'm very happy.

eskimo

[Westy]

 DmdBT, there's been a few of the same questions in the Tech help and Hardware forumns. so head there and check em out. But breifly, it really depends on your CPU mainly.
 I have a PII 333 with a Diamond viper V770 Ultra (32mb) and I get hi 30's low mid 40's FPS unless there's clouds or smoke around and then it can drip tp the low 20's or worse if there is ALOT of either. The resolution I use is 1024X768 and 32 bit mode. The creenshots that HTC shows is what I see flying. Especially sunrise/sunset. 32 bit graphics are substantially better than 16 bit, imo.
 
 -westy

[This message has been edited by Westy (edited 11-20-2000).]

[TheWobble]

I have a voodoo3 and a tnt2, and I am running an Athalon 800 with 256mb ram

@ 1280x1024x16 (voodoo)
76 fps normal,
55 with some smoke,
35-22 with rancid fifth circle of hell smoke.

1280x1024x32 (tnt2)
68 normal
42fps with some smoke
25-13 with rancid fifth circle of hell smoke.

The 32 bit DOES look better but you wont REALLY notice it unless you looking for it, after getting the framerate hit i put the voodoo back in.  In my opinion anything more than a 8-10 fps hit is not worth the somewhat better color.

[715]

The only real difference I see between 32bit and 16bit is that in 16bit the sky gradients are banded.  I find this visually annoying so I run 32bit.  Other people would probably totally ignore the banding.  You do loose substantial frame rate going 16 to 32.  I have a 650MHz PIII with GeForce 256 (non DDR) and my FPS can fall to ridiculously low levels (like 5 at 1280x1024) if I am in the middle of a very lot of smoke.  But hey.. the smoke looks good.  Note that it is mostly smoke that kills the frame rate, not buildings etc.  Some new planes have high polygon counts (Lancaster, Ju88) and if you fly into a big formation of those your frame rate can die too.

715A

[This message has been edited by 715 (edited 11-20-2000).]

[SKurj]

Ya got a few options BT

Geforce MX (cheap version of Geforce) will run 32bit colour and FSAA for $190 canadian (prolly $100USD)
Geforce GTS2 $400+ canuck bux probably one of the fastest cards for AH in 32bit
Voodoo5 32bit, FSAA (less performance hit that Geforce in FSAA i believe) $400+ canuck bux..

Voodoo1/2/3 show alot of banding in AH i find.  So you may be pleasantly surprised with an upgrade.

Anyone try ATI Radeon?

AKSKurj

[AKDejaVu]

AH is the first game where I saw a very noticeable difference between 16 bit and 32 bit.

If you have the money to burn, I highly recomend a video card that supports 32 bit rendering.

AKDejaVu

[Lephturn]

Hmmmm.  This has gotten me thinking.  I wonder if I could run the V5 at 4X FSAA if I drop down to 16 bit color.  I'm going to have to try this.

------------------
Lephturn - Chief Trainer
A member of The Flying Pigs  http://www.flyingpigs.com


"My P-47 is a pretty good ship, she took a round coming 'cross the Channel last trip.
Just thinking 'bout my baby and lettin' her rip, always got me through so far."
 - Steve Earl

[DmdBT]

I knew I should have left it alone! Went out and got the VooDoo 5 card and guess what... the frekking thing wont run AH. Go figure, now I'm out some cash, can't fly AH, and am missing the last frame of Afrika Corps.

Get an "initialization failed with -3, main GR3D_failed-3" message then back to desktop.

Oh well....

T