Who made the best moderatly priced videocard in 1995?

[AndyHui]

Heh...

This should be interesting. Anyone remember the game Incoming, by Rage Software? Should be around 1997.

Here are the video cards listed on the bottom of the box.

ATi Technologies: Graphics Expression, 3D Rage/Pro Expert series Still going strong these days with the Radeons
Canopus Corp: Total 3D, Pure3D Gone from the US market, but active here in Asia with some high-end products
Chromatic Research: Mpact 2 What happened to them???
Creative Labs: Graphics Blaster 3D, 3D Blaster Extreme, Voodoo II Now relatively quiet in graphics market
Deltron: Flash 3D, Flash AT3D Rush I assume these guys are gone
Diamond Multimedia: Stealth 3D 2000, Viper V330, FireGL 1000, Monster 3D Bought by S3, closed most of it down, then given to VIA
Guillemot: Maxi Gamer 3D, 3Dfx, Voodoo II Bought by Hercules
Hercules: Intense 3D, True 3D, Thriller 3D, Stingray Still around if you look hard enough
Integraph: Intense 3D Voodoo Gone from the consumer graphics market
Intel: i740 AGP cards, Real 3D Chipset integrated video, i845G
Jazz Multimedia: Voodoo II, 3Dfx, Voodoo Rush Gone
Matrox: Millenium II, Mystique Parhelia, too little, too late
Miro: Hiscore 3D TV cards only now
Number9: (9), 9FX Reality 334, Revolution 3D Bought by S3, then closed down completely by S3
nVidia: Riva 128 No need to say anything
Orchid Technology: Righteous 3D, Voodoo II Bought by Diamond MM, see what happened to them
Quantum 3D: 3D Obsidian Part of 3dfx, now gone or floating around somewhere in nVidia
Rendition: Verite 2100/2200 Gone
S3: S3 ViRGE Graphics division sold to VIA
STB Systems: Velocity 128, Nitro 3D, Velocity 3D Bought by 3dfx
Techworks: Power 3D Huh?
Tri Logic: Pyramid 3D Bitboys?? Hahahahahah
3D Labs: Permedia 2 Bought by Creative
3Dfx: 3Dfx Voodoo Rush, 3Dfx Voodoo I, Voodoo II Effectively closed down and bought out by nVidia

Hhmm....there's more deaths in the above list than Transformers the Movie....:Q

 

[RanDum72]

Diamond Multimedia: Stealth 3D 2000

Ah, yes the first 3D decelerator.

 

[Jaylllo]

LOLOLOLOL



Andy Hui's post with commentary made me laugh my a$$ off.

Now if we can only turn this ridiculous thread into something constructive.


LOL

 

[rbV5]

My Diamond Fire GL 1000 was the schnitz for me!

 

[aswedc]

*goes to look in closet*

Posting from a 2MB Ark Logic 2000PV with very bad image quality at 1024x768 16bit color!

 

[Rankor]

Tseng Labs made a ET6000 chipset that was much cheaper and very good

That's right. When Hercules was (really) Hercules, they made the Dynamite 128 based off of the ET6000 chip. That was a great card. When the Voodoo1 came out, I paired it with that. What a combo.

Back then, Hercules backed their cards with a 6 year warranty. Right now, the card still runs in a computer in the Philippines.

 

[AndyHui]

 

[Mamoose]

I vote for the Matrox Mystique

 

[CrazySaint]

Originally posted by: Chaotic42
Um, Tandy CGA card? It was 16 colors, but not EGA.

Those poor bastards with regular CGA. How can you fly an F-19 when everything is *pink*?

He said 1995, not 1985 hahaha oh man, I remember playing CGA/EGA games on my EGA monitor on my XT machine. I remember when the VGA monitors came out, it was like "wow". lol

 

[Sunner]

Guillemot: Maxi Gamer 3D, 3Dfx, Voodoo II Bought by Hercules

Unless my memory has gotten worse, it was the other way around, that is, Guillemot bought up Hercules after they files for Ch 11, and keeps using the brand name due to the good brand name recognition?

 

[RedShirt]

I remember buying a Matrox Millenium II 4MB Wram for close to 200 dollars around this time frame. I still have the card today and I attest that it's 2d image quality is better than many Geforce 3/2/1's.

So, between Diamond and Matrox, Diamond was probably the better bang for the buck but Matrox was the better in terms of overall quality between the two?

 

[Flatline]

Wow...back in the days when people were still bragging about who had the better RAMDAC

Sometimes I feel old (but I guess I should, since everything is obsolete six months after its release)

 

[ssanches]

Doh! This thread brings old memories! I really can't remember who was the best "moderately" priced videocard, but OEM cards based on the Trident and Cirrus Logic chips were quite popular. 512K-1MB video memory probably was standard,upgradeable to 1 MB-2MB. I would probably vote for an OEM card based on a Cirrus Logic chip, maybe based on the GD-5430, etc. IIRC, most cards in 1995 didn't have any 3D acceleration, just basic GUI acceleration.

 

[aircooled]

Yep, I had several 2mb Cirrus Logic and Trident cards at the time. The Dells from that day were shipping with number9's.

 

[Ziptar]

The Stealth 64 Video VRAM 4 MB VRAM (4MB Vid Card was unheard of) It owned in 1995!!!

It was like $550 at the time. I remember the first time I held it bare in my hands, no box, no antistatic bag..... I quivered with anticipation... I could barely contain myself as I slowly slipped the Divine piece of hardware into it's PCI slot, only glancing briefly at the 1MB Oak ISA Card that it was replacing. I gave it one last stroke inorder to feel it's power pulse and radiate through my trembling fingers.... Cover on...... power up....... Boot OK... Good..... Load Drivers.... and..... then......

DOOM II BABY !!

USENET post of the Original Press Release Dated March-1995

 

[alkemyst]

I remember my Matrox Millenium w/ WRAM...I think 4MB maybe 8MB.

I wanted a Number9 Revolution3D so bad...I think 16MB or something

hehehe now RADEON 8500 128MB

 

[MWink]

Originally posted by: RanDum72
Diamond Multimedia: Stealth 3D 2000

Ah, yes the first 3D decelerator.

So true. I had the Stealth 3D 3000 and games ran faster and looked better with software rendering than in 3D mode. Worst card EVER!

 

[Macro2]

I have a Matrox Millenium 2 w/4 MB of VRAM in this computer right now. I'll take offers...

 

[ssanches]

Originally posted by: Ziptar
The Stealth 64 Video VRAM 4 MB VRAM (4MB Vid Card was unheard of) It owned in 1995!!!

It was like $550 at the time.

That alone removes it frm the race for the best "moderately" priced VGA card

 

[LanEvoVI]

Originally posted by: RanDum72
Diamond Multimedia: Stealth 3D 2000

Ah, yes the first 3D decelerator.

Woohoo! i'm still running one of those in my P200 box at home...ahh the memories...

 

[Whitedog]

There was no such thing as a "good video card" before the Riva 128. Period.

They all sucked.

hehe

 

[Whitedog]

The reason I say is I had one of those $#@%$ Diamond Stealth 64 VRAM $300 &%$$@ cards.. it wasn't any better than my cheezy $40 1meg 32bit card. :|

I got the Riva 128 and FINALLY could "notice" a difference.

 

[bernse]

Memories.... When I built my P200 in 95 (or was it early 96?) I put in a Creative Labs 3D Blaster PCI, Verite V1000 chip. Vquake was a sight to behold as it was the first accelerated Quake.... I remember running it in software for the longest time until I could figure out how to run it as VQuake. My eyeballs almost popped out of my head.

That box is still working at my Sisters place.

 

[Boogak]

Pre-3d, Matrox and Number 9 were widely recognized as having the fastest 2d video cards. Ah yes, I remember the days of watching how fast Winbench would scroll numbers and colored squares past my monitor. Now I watch how fast polygons scroll past my monitor

 

[wolf papa]

VQuake? I'd looked for a Rendition Verite card (cause I heard how good VQuake looked), then gave up and ordered a RealVision Flash (4meg VooDoo 1) from Deltron (located in Ontario, if I remember correctly), just under 200$ - and worth every penny, to be able to play GLQuake at what, 360x480 or 384x512? Ahhhh, forget RTCW and Doom3, Quake is the game they need to re-make.