Re: Little OT: Video Cards

Brian,

SUMMARY:
    As far as the Viper 770 goes, it has nRivia's newly released TNT2 chip.
That is great for games - it has a HUGE buffer for textures, but as far as
its practical use goes, probably not as good. The TNT chip was very well
known for its "crispness" in image quality when it came to 3D (games
especially). As well as that, you can "piggy back" these cards - you can
have 2 Viper 770s in the same system. This means software such as 3D Studio
Max which can render using Hardware acceleration (ie Direct3D and OpenGL)
will absolutely fly (obviously you need a good overall system as well with
heaps of RAM).

So, as far as performance goes, the 770 is a winner for games and 3D
rendering (and 2D - but that is not really important nowdays - all cards
have good 2D specs). But for web design, I cannot see those benefits as huge
requirements. The 770 does however support fairly high screen resolutions.
As far as support goes, my 330 runs fine in '98. However it does try to
install their rather annoying "InControl" tools.

The Matrox G200 chip is a very good chip. I would go for that in your case.

Cheers,
Alex.

TECH DETAILS:
You will [probably] want a chip with a high quality and high clocked RAMDAC.
Most of the new graphic chips have included the RAMDAC internally, thus
saving cost, but the best picture quality is still produced by an external
RAMDAC. The most popular cards with external RAMDACs are Matrox Millennium I
and II and Number Nine's Revolution 3D. These cards are still offering you
the sharpest and cleanest picture on the screen. If you have got an
expensive monitor, you want to use the high refresh rates your monitor
supports. As a simple rule you should at least have a refresh rate of 85 Hz
available for all the reolutions you want to use. Refresh rates of 120 and
more sound nice, but they won't give you much of an advantage anymore.
Responsible for this is again the RAMDAC. [Generally, the faster the clock
speed of the chip, the higher you can go with resolution settings]
(Quoted, "Toms Hardware Guide") -
http://www5.tomshardware.com/guides/video/index4.html
* The Viper 770 has an INTERNAL RAMDAC.



----- Original Message -----
From: Brian V Bonini <brian(at)livenet.net>
To: HWG Graphics <hwg-graphics(at)hwg.org>
Sent: Wednesday, June 16, 1999 11:28 PM
Subject: Little OT: Video Cards


> Can some of the pros make some suggestions
> on video cards?
>
> I'm torn between the new Viper 770 and the
> Matrox G400 MAX. While the vipers specs are
> significantly better, the Matrox card has a "dual head"
> to support two monitors. And is a lot cheaper (although
> cost is not really a big factor) at $160 as opposed to the
> viper at $190 x 2. Plus, 2 separate cards will rob me of
> one of my PCI slots.
>
> Anyone here using the Matrox card? What do you think of it?
>
> I've not been able to find many reviews about this card.
>
> Thanks,
> -Brian
> **********************
>
>
>
>
>

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