Who made the best moderatly priced videocard in 1995?

[RedShirt]

Who made the best card (100-300 bucks) back in 1995?

Also, who made the better card between Diamond and Matrox?

A friend and I are having a debate on which was better.

Edit: I'm talking about before 3d... Before the voodoo1 or the Riva128

 

[Goosemaster]

I htink it was the Diamond Viper 330 and the STB velocity 128


Maxtor had the mystique and I think the g200

maybe the Rainbow Runner at the time too

 

[XBoxLPU]

The STB velocity 128 is still currently the best videocard you can buy, running very happy with one!

 

[Zim Hosein]

Another vote for a STB Velocity user

 

[oldfart]

Back then I liked the cards based on the Rendition Verite' 2x00. The was a 2100 and 2200. I had a Diamond Stealth II S220 based on the 2100. These cards had the best image quality of any card made at that time (much better than the butt ugly Riva 128, sorry guys)! There was a Hercules card based on the 2200 that was also very popular.

 

[RedShirt]

I'm talking pre-3d here... Maybe I should have said 1994... Before the VooDoo1 or the Riva128, who made the best cards?

 

[rahvin]

Matrox Millenium, the original. NM, you said moderatly priced, at the time that card went for $450.

Probably an S3 chipset card.

 

[FuManStan]

Heh yeah, some of your time frames are a bit off. I looked at the box of my old Intergraph Intense3D 100 which was a Rendition V1000 card and the date was 1996. So pre-3d is about right...

 

[ElDonAntonio]

The Matrox Millenium 1 and 2 were da bomb man...

 

[AndyHui]

Back in 1995 huh?

At the very bottom were Cirrus Logic and their ISA cards, which were pretty much everywhere.

S3 were the kings of the volume market with their Trio and ViRGE lines of cards.

At the high end you had MGA Millennium cards.

At the "ultra high end" you had Number9 with their Revolution cards.

 

[spanky]

"Number9" and "high end"?! i need to go back to sleep.

 

[DaFinn]

Hey... Number9,
I have one lying somewhere. Ordered for a customer who never took it. A whopping 4Mb pci card which cost me an arm and leg at the time. See if I can find it.
And yes, also got the original Matrox millenium 4Mb pci card... still great 2D (up till 1024x768 that is).


-DaFinn

 

[RanDum72]

I remember having a diamond card with the S3 virge chipset and 4mb of Video RAM (dual-ported memory). It was the fastest at 2d during that time. MAtrox also came out with Windows RAM (WRAM) which is their version of dual-ported memory.

 

[brtspears2]

Matrox does make a good card for windows alright, still using one today.

 

[Cosmic_Horror]

If you are talking pre-3d the matrox was certainly top end but also very expensive.

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

 

[RedShirt]

Alright, so Matrox was ahead of diamond in terms of quality at this time?

 

[Maverick]

matrox mystique

 

[mastertech01]

Believe it or not Number9 was a top dog at one time, and very expensive.

 

[glugglug]

S3 Virge was dirt cheap, (like $40 for a 4MB card) and had the fastest 2D, (actually outran a Number Nine in WinBench) but only a 135MHz dot clock so no ultra-high resolution/refresh combos, and both Matrox and Number Nine were delivering better image quality.

 

[freebee]

Why do i remember paying 500 bucks for a diamond stealth 64...? Or was it a matrox something....It was a lot because Micron computer when the P90s first came out had a system for 14 grand with 128mb ram....i got the 64mb ram version for 6.5 grand.

Edit: i dont think thats not possible....i don't ever remember having that much money. That was like 10 years ago....can't remember that far back.

 

[ElDonAntonio]

to answer your specific question, I'd say that Matrox was the top dog!

 

[Goi]

Without a doubt the best consumer cards you could get back then were the Matrox Millennium or Millennium II if they were out by then, and the #9 Imagine and Revolution series. However, those were beyond the price range of most consumers. A bit lower down the food chain you have the S3 line of cards that were immensely popular and actually pretty good too. Before the Virge there was the 864, 964 and 968(these were in the Diamond Stealth 64 series), which were very fast in both VESA and VGA modes, yet reasonably priced. The Trio cards came later. ATI Mach and Rage cards were also pretty good, but they were a bit more expensive than S3 cards.

Others in that time included Tseng Labs(known for their fast ET series cards) and Cirrus Logic and Trident, the bottom of the food chain but extremely cheap.

 

[fr]

I bought a Diamond Stealth 3D 4MB to replace my Trident 1MB card which couldn't play VCDs that well. I remember playing Descent ViRGE Edition for the first time. rool:

 

[RanDum72]

I think the best bang/buck cards back then were made by Diamond. I had nothing but Diamond cards back then, from VLB S3 964 chipsets to PCI Virge.

 

[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*?