From: pdc@lunch.wpd.sgi.com (Paul Close)
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games
Subject: Re: Game Machine
Date: 27 Aug 92 02:18:47 GMT
Reply-To: pdc@sgi.com (Paul Close)
Organization: Silicon Graphics, Inc., Mountain View, CA
Originator: pdc@lunch.wpd.sgi.com

Someone writes:
>>>I have a 486/33 with a generic Tseng SVGA card, and it's ok right now
>>>for games, but I'm not sure if it'll do Strike Commander when it comes out!
>>>I understand that Ultima 7 will run slowly on my machine...

You understand wrong!  Ultima 7 is actually too fast on a 486/33.  Their
timing routine is bogus.  As well, there is nothing faster at VGA than a
Tseng ET4000!  Tseng is optimized VGA.  Also, 33 MHz is about as fast as
you want to go with a 486, from what I've heard (see other postings in this
thread from Intel folks).  Probably just until the get the kinks out of
near-microwave frequencies (1/2 :-)

Don't worry, your machine will run Strike Commander just fine (if it ever
gets released :-)

>>>Maybe I should upgrade the video to an Orchid Farenheit 1280 or a Diamond 
>>>Stealth?
>>
>>S3 based cards like the stealth are slower than ET4000 cards in standard
>>VGA modes like games use.  The only way an S3 card will be faster is if
>>you use an application which has drivers which specifically use the S3's 
>>accelerated modes (like Windows).

Exactly, and even then, the gains aren't always perceptible.  I have a
486/33 with the bus speed cranked up to 13MHz, and my Diamond SpeedSTAR 24
just zips along.  I like it better than the Stealth I traded it in on.  And
yes, I use Windows, and no, I wasn't impressed.

Derrick Davis (derrick@sdc.com) writes:
>I posted a request for this type of information before with no response.  
>
>1) Is there any reason that the S3 cards are slower?

Because the S3 *emulates* VGA in hardware.  The S3 architecture is nothing
at all like VGA.  Apples and oranges.  So they have to take the VGA requests
and figure out what the "S3" equivalent is.  So it's slower.

>2) How much slower are they?

Not a lot.  I notice my ET4000 is smoother at some flight sims than the
Stealth, but overall the S3 is not that slow.  If it's all you have, you
probably wouldn't even notice.  Side-by-side, the ET4000 wins easily.

>3) I thought a Diamond Stealth card would be faster because it uses VRAM?

Oversimplification.  The whole thing with VRAM (as I understand it) is that
you can update video memory during the blanking interrupt, so you don't have
to halt processing then.

Well, I don't know, but it's not.

>4) Is ET4000 a card or a Chip Set?

Chipset, just like S3 is a chipset.

As for some other questions on this thread, no S3 is *not* XGA.  Also, I've
heard for the local bus video that a dumb framebuffer like the ET4000 is
better than S3, because the 486 is more powerful than the S3 processor.
With direct access to the framebuffer (local bus), the 486 is faster.  Of
course, if you're running Unix or something, you might want your CPU power
being used more efficiently, in which case a S3 would be better.  Just what
I've heard....
-- 
Paul Close	     pdc@sgi.com	   ...!{ames, decwrl, uunet}!sgi!pdc

			No fate but what we make
Newsgroups: comp.sys.ibm.pc.games