[NTLUG:Discuss] New card blues

[Steve Baker]

Pervaz Allaudin wrote:
> Hi:
> 
> My system was running extremely slow; I was recommended a new graphics 
> card.
> So I bought a new used pci diamond multimedia 3dfx card (voodoo)- good 
> old guys at the electronic discounts.

Which Voodoo card is this?  All 3Dfx cards are ancient pieces of junk - but
some are MUCH worse than others.

If you have a Voodoo-1 or Voodoo-2, you should know that these are 3D-only
cards.  They don't do 2D graphics at all - so you have to have a regular
2D graphics card - take the video out of that and plug it into the Voodoo
then take the output of the Voodoo and plug it into your monitor.

If you have a Voodoo-3 then it should behave OK as a 2D card *and* a 3D
card - although it doesn't do a great job of doing either.

> So where should the switch between the adapters be. Or do you'll 
> recommend trade the card in for 256 M of memory - I'd rather have the 
> card working.

Get a GeForce card - used GeForce-2's should be cheap - and they are about
50x faster than any of the Voodoo cards at 3D work.

It's hard to say whether your PC is slow because of RAM or slow because
of graphics - but if you are doing 3D graphics when it's running slow,
then it's CERTAINLY going to be the graphics card because your old SiS
3D chipset isn't supported for doing 3D under Linux - so all of your
3D rendering is being done in software.

If your PC is just generally slow - when doing things other than 3D
graphics - then more RAM might be indicated...or a faster disk drive...
or a faster CPU....who knows?  We need more information.

---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
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