7.15 Is the 2d frame rate of the Viper 330 an improvement over other cards?
From FlightSim
Q:
I HAVE WANTED TO KNOW FOR SOME TIME NOW IF THE 2D FRAME RATE OF THE VIPER 330 VIDEO CARD IN FS98 IS AN IMPROVEMENT ON OTHER CARDS. REPORTED FRAME RATES ARE GIVEN BUT I DO NOT KNOW IF THEY REFER TO 2D OR 3D. AS I CANNOT LIVE WITH THE PAUSES IN 3D MODE ALL THE TIME I STILL USE 2D MODE AND WANT TO GET A VERY FAST 2D CARD. SPECS ON THE VIPER 330 IN 2D MODE LOOK ON PAPER TO BE FANTASTIC COMPARED TO ANY OTHER 128 BIT BUS VIDEO CARD. CAN ANYONE PLEASE GIVE ME A REPORT ON THE VIPER 330 IN 2D MODE. MUST KNOW BEFORE I BUY.
A:
I have one and cannot see any difference between graphics in 2D and 3D. It is almost as good (maybe 99%) as the Monster, just as fast, and you can run things like NavDash at the same speed and image quality as the Monster. I highly recommend any of the current cards using the RIVA 128.
Pete
BTW - The thing screams in 2D in WIN95!
Last time I checked, the STB Velocity 128 3D was a 2D card. I
currently have an STB Powergraph Video 64+ 2 MB. I used to sell an
Open GL based 3D solid modeling program, which I decided to try out
on my system. Ran ok with the Powergraph. I saw a Velocity 128 3D
8 MB board at my local Computer City, read the box, saw that it
supported Open GL and thought cool, Open GL, 8 MB, maybe I should
check it out. Brought it home put it in, it ran the software slower
than the the Powergraph!! After some research, it turned out that
the board was really a 2D board, and that it didn't really support
Open GL (it supported some subset or something, IOW, it didn't
support it at all). Now, tis true, this was 8 months ago, and I have
read that it is a fairly fast 2D board. But, unless things have
drastically changed since then and they've changed chipsets on the
thing, IT IS NOT A 3D BOARD! I believe it is an S3 Virge chipset
card.
Tom Q. Perry
