Here's a post I found about Rendition Verite based cards written by Loyd
Case of CGW. I though it might be useful for some of you.
Here's some information on the Verite. These numbers are based on recent
driver releases and work I'm doing for a review for CGW.
First, let me dispel one comment you made: Windows 95 resolutions are
indeed standard. You have the usual choices of 640x480, 800x600, 1024x768,
1152x864 and 1280x1024, with 8, 16 and 32 bit color depths as options. You
can manually set refresh rates if you want.
Secondly, Windows performance has gotten better. One vendor's graphics
Winmarks place it around 29 on a P166 for 8-bit color and 25 for 16 bit
color. This is not up in Millennium territory, but certainly good enough.
Third, Direct3D performance. D3Dtest shows that this 3D card is faster in
3D than any card except 3Dfx cards. Even then, it's not clear--3Dfx fill
rates are much higher (roughly double), but polygon generation runs about
the same with minimum features on and much lower once you turn on
filtering, etc. This showed up in Hellbender, where it ran pretty much at
a solid 15-20 fps with graphics features cranked way up. This was, again,
better than anything except 3Dfx, where the low poly count in the game
coupled with the terrific fill rate of the Voodoo chip gives it the edge.
Fourth, VGA vs. SVGA. VGA is slow. Who cares? There are fewer and fewer
VGA games out.
SVGA is very fast--the only thing I've seen faster is ET6000 cards in SVGA.
The Verite pipes its SVGA through the RISC core--it's not "accelerated",
but does get a very fast pipeline. Thus, I get Duke Nukem 3D scores at
640x480 of 40 fps and CBENCH SVGA scores of 36.7 fps.
Fifth, Quake. Quake is absolutely gorgeous on the Verite. Here are frame
rates, again on a P166, of VGA/SVGA versus Verite accelerated. Here are
differences in frame rate between SVGA and Verite accelerated (the SVGA
scores are Verite VESA scores, but compare well with the Millennium and
Mystique):
SVGA
320x200--32.1 fps (This was using VESA 320x200, not VGA; VGA 320x200 was
around 20 fps)
640x480--13.7 fps
Verite accelerated
320x200--38 fps (nopageflip 1)
512x384--25.6 fps
640x400--22.2 fps
640x480--20.1 fps
Note that these were in the opening screen.
Also, the Verite numbers were taken with MIP mapping at max, and bilinear
filtering on. The game looks much, much better. You can actually turn off
bilinear filtering if you want--and get 2-3 fps more.
Finally, if you take a game that does NOT use z-buffering (most 3D games
don't, with the exception of Quake, which uses z-buffering for characters &
monsters), you get even better frame rates. Indycar2 looks far superior to
the SVGA version and runs at a solid 28-30 fps at 640x480 with all features
on.
Overall, I've been pretty impressed, more than I thought I would be.
Best regards
Loyd Case
Contributing Editor, Technology
Computer *** World
--
Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/
Hey !
You burnt the following into my screen :
I've to ask .
Is the Orchid Righteous 3D based on the Verite ????
Thanks for answers and info about the R3D !
No, Orchid's Righteous3D is based on 3Dfx's Voodoo Graphics chip. There
are three boards using Rendition's Verite chip: Creative Lab's 3D Blaster
PCI, Intergraph's Reactor, and Sierra's Screamin'3D.
--
Emory University Graduate School of Arts & Sciences
Nascar Setups Page: http://userwww.service.emory.edu/~ebusch/
> Here's a post I found about Rendition Verite based cards written by Loyd
> Case of CGW. I though it might be useful for some of you.
> [snip]
Thanks Eric! This is very helpful. I've been agonizing over this one
for a little while....
--
Regards, Disclaimer:
Scott D Fraser The opinions made up here are my own.
Development Engineer My mixed up views in no way represent
3.8L Engine Performance Development those of my employer.
It seems none of these new 3D cards have been released yet here in the UK.
All you can buy here, are the Diamond Edge3D (old hat) , Stealth3D. The
Matrox Millennium (which is old hat), & Mystique. Hercules also offer their
Terminator 3D which I dont know much about. There are a few others, but
done of them major players.
-----------------------------------------------------------------
Park Group,
Southend, Essex. UK
-----------------------------------------------------------------
