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Re: Best video card for Quake?

 James Van Booven wrote:
 > 
 > I am running Win95, and I understand that Quake will have a native Win95
 > version after it is released.  I was wondering if anyone knows how soon
 > we can expect the Win95 port?  When it comes out, I am going to be
 > running it, since it should run better than the DOS version does in a
 > DOS box under Win95.  Here is my question.  I have an Intel Pentium 133
 > with 24 MB of RAM.  I want to get a new graphics card with the purpose
 > of running the Win95 port of Quake REALLY, REALLY smoothly in high-res.
 >  Assuming that I am willing to spend, say, $400 on a video card in order
 > to get excellent performance with Quake, what would you recommend?  I
 > assume it would need to be a 64-bit (or 128-bit) graphics accelerator
 > with at least 2MB of VRAM (or WRAM) and hardware 3D acceleration.  Of
 > course, I also want this card to work great with other Win95 stuff like
 > AVI's MPEG's, and so forth.  I want it to support a good refresh rate in
 > 1024x768 resolution.  What video card would be best?  Right now I have a
 > Number Nine Imagine 128 (series 1) that is AWESOME in Win95, but it does
 > not have any 3D acceleration.  I hear Quake will support the 3D
 > accelerators, so I want one of the boards that will support Quake really
 > well.  What should I get?  And what are the pro's and con's of the
 > different video boards?  Thanks.
 > 
 Right now, the two best bets (for Quake) are the Vetite chip by Rendition,
 or the Voodoo chipset by 3DFX.  I would recommend the Voodoo to you for a
 a couple reasons...
 1.  You are willing to spend $400.  A card with the Voodoo will retail
 for around $350.  Or course street prices will be lower.  Currently,
 talk has said this to be THE chipset to look at if you are interested in
 smooth hi-res graphics.
 2.  The Voodoo is a dedicated 3D accelerator.  The bad side to this is that
 you have to buy a regular 2D card to sit next to it - but you already
 have a video card that does the 2D job well enough.  But, because a card
 with the Voodoo is a dedicated card, in theory you should get better
 performance compared to 1 card that has to do everything.
 Now, a card with the Verite chip is supposed to be good.  This
 is the only confirmed  chip that id has said they would support
 directly in Quake.  But I have heard even this chip bogs down at
 higher resolutions.  I can't say - I've never seen it.
 Around Christmas time, we should be getting a pretty good idea on how
 all of the 3D cards perform under Direct 3D.  But until then, you may
 be smart to just wait like the rest of us. :)
 - Eric C.