[NTLUG:Discuss] PCI ?? AGP

[Steve Baker]

> RIVA TNT 16MB PCI    note: this is a tnt --not-- a tnt2 or 2ultra
> or
> SAVAGE4 32MB AGP
> 
> both are Creative "Blasters"
> 
> is 32MB and AGP going to make up for the better current support of the
> TNT chip?

The TNT is rather an old chipset - TNT-2 or -2ultra are much better
and likely to be supported for longer.

I don't think there are ANY drivers for the Savage4 right now - and
there has been some controversy over the part that makes me want to
run away screaming rather than buy one.  S3 claimed that the board
has hardware geometry accelleration - but after they's sold a good
number of them they admitted that the drivers don't make use of this
supposed wonderful feature.  Given S3's previous reputation for building
crap - I'm not suprised.

Also, the Savage4 uses a patented texture compression scheme (it's
not all that clever IMHO - but it *is* patented).  They are charging
companies a fortune to license the compression technology - although
Microsoft have purchased a blanket license.

What this means is that it's virtually impossible to write OpenSourced
driver for the damned thing.  Grrrrrr!

So, right now, my advice is this:

* Avoid S3 like the plague.

* If the only choice is the Savage or the TNT, get the TNT.

* If you need something that definitely works right now and
  runs pretty much everything with good support, get a Voodoo-3
  for about $99.

* If you don't mind waiting a little while and suffering initially
  poor drivers (although with a good likelyhood that things will be
  better in a month or so) then get any board with a GeForce chip
  on it for about $240.  It knocks the spots off anything else in
  terms of performance. In most situations, it can run about 10x
  faster than any of the competition - more so if your main CPU
  isn't exactly state-of-the-art.

* If you can't afford the GeForce but you still want something
  better than a Voodoo-3, then look at Matrox G400 - not as fast
  as the GeForce (by far) - but should be better than the Voodoo-3.
  The drivers are still a little 'iffy' but coming along nicely.
  Dunno how much they cost - but if it's more than about $150, I'd
  either go down to the Voodoo-3 and save myself $$$ or go up to
  GeForce.  YMMV.


If you don't need to buy now, the Voodoo-4 and -5 are supposed to
be appearing in a couple of months.  They also are not as fast as
the GeForce but have a few cute features that you might like such
as good antialiasing.

I have a GeForce, a Voodoo-3 and a G200, of those, the Voodoo-3
works best, the GeForce works fastest (when it works) and the
G200...um...well...I keep it for testing with along with my old
Voodoo-1 - it works OK and the drivers are essentially the same
as the G400 drivers - so I imagine G400 support is OK.

-- 
Steve Baker                  http://web2.airmail.net/sjbaker1
sjbaker1 at airmail.net (home)  http://www.woodsoup.org/~sbaker
sjbaker at hti.com      (work)