Video card upgrade - fog effect

[Xyphorus]

Hello,

I am about to upgrade my 16MB video card for a 32MB one. I just read in another thread Schrullenhaft's comments about the ATI Radeon not supporting CM fog-tables under directX. Having the fog effect in CM is the main reason why I decided to ugrade my current video card.

So, in n a nutshell, if you could indicate me a video card brand, and or model (32MB) that DOES support fog for sure , I would be very appreciative.

Thank you for your time,

Karl

[Schrullenhaft]

NVidia-based cards (TNT2, GeForce family) would be a safe bet. You'll get fog and support for all of CM's graphical features. Some of the latest drivers may not support FSAA without problems in CM (except for GeForce 3's). You can get these from name-brand manufacturers like Creative, Elsa, ASUS, Hercules/Guillemot, Visiontek and Diamond (for the TNT2's only). There are a large number of smaller compaies making these cards too. Most of the designs for the GeForces are the same (NVidia Reference board copies). The biggest difference (other than price) will usually be component/build quality, speed/quality of the video memory, hand picking of chips for quality/overclocking-capability and the warranty length and/or support.

Among the NVidias the least expensive would be cards based on the TNT2 family (w/ 32Mb), but they are getting phased out, however you may find them for less than US$100. There are several TNT2 flavors - Vanta, M64, a standard TNT2 and the Ultras - the biggest difference between them is typically speed of the chip, the speed and type of video memory they work with and the number of pipelines in the chip. None of them have FSAA capabilities, but they work fine. Next up would be the GeForce2 MX family with the latest versions called MX 400 (a faster chip ?). These support FSAA; they're faster than most of the TNT2 line, but they're not as fast as the GeForce 2 GTS or Pro (they are better than the original GeForce 256's - the first and slowest of the GeForce cards). Some GeForce2 GTSes can be purchased at a pretty good price right now (since they're about to be phased out I assume). The GeForce2 Pro I believe is a 64Mb card (with a slightly faster chip clock and possibly faster memory). The next in line would be the GeForce2 Ultra (a little faster and usually quite a bit more expensive). The highest (and of course most expensive) performer is the GeForce 3. Within a month or so (quite problaby longer) the GeForce3 MX will be out. They'll probably retail somewhere in the US$140-180 range. They'll be faster than the current MX cards and possibly faster than all but the GeForce2 Pro & Ultra cards (and of course slower than the standard GeForce 3's).

There are other cards than the GeForce line. The 3dfx Voodoo 4 & 5 series (4500 & 5500; 32 & 64Mb respectively I believe) are often still available at really good prices. They'll do fog and FSAA (one of the highest qualities of FSAA, but that is subjective). There's some minor graphical problems (primarily switching out of CM and back), but otherwise they work fine for CMBO. I'd guess that they would work fine for CMBB/CM2, but that remains to be seen (certain texture sizes sometimes cause problems with Voodoo cards). The Voodoo 4 & 5 series cards aren't as fast as some of the fastest GeForce cards, but you can purchase them for quite a bit less. However there is one major issue to consider - 3dfx is no longer in business (NVidia bought the remanants of the company after they declared bankruptcy) and there will be no more driver support for the latest Voodoo cards. So if a problem crops up with a game or OS in the future, you'll have almost no hope of getting a fix for it.

Matrox video cards have excellent 2D quality, but their 3D performance is not up to the level of NVidia, ATI or 3dfx. However they still work for people and I believe the G400/G450 should support fog and transparencies (but I'm not sure).

S3-based video cards sometimes work, but many people have had problems with the drivers in CM and other game titles (Diamond and Creative were two of the bigger companies selling video cards based on S3 chips - but not all of their cards were S3-based). Cards based on the Savage 4 or Savage 2000 you'll find in the 32Mb range. I'd suggest avoiding them due to the number of legitimate problems and lack of continuing support.

You may have heard of the Kyro and Kyro II chipsets (Hercules Prophet 4000/4500 cards). They work and support the features in CM, but many people have had problems with the text display in CM. Apparently even turning off the FSAA feature does not clear up the text (nor do the posted registry patches according to some people). These cards should be very economical performers for CM, but until the text issue clears up with a new driver release they will probably be frustrating to use. If you play other game titles I've heard that they have really good performance, especially for the price.

[ 08-27-2001: Message edited by: Schrullenhaft ]

[Xyphorus]

Schrullenhaft, thank you for your quick response. I will follow your advise and get a NVidia-based 32MB card (TNT2, GeForce family). As I only play one 3D game; CM, I am not too worry about the card's performances for other 3D games, as long as it works fine with CM2 too.

Thanks for the expert advise and have a great week.

Karl

[Maximus]

If you intend to use alot of Hi-Res mods, I'd suggest getting a 64MB card if you can.

I had a 32MB TNT2 Ultra and it was getting pretty bogged down with all the hi-res mods. I went to a 64MB Geforce 2 GTS Pro and everything works fine now. Of course I boosted my CPU and memory from a Celeron-433 w/128 MB to a 1.2 GHz Athlon w/256 MB.

Point being, don't go the cheap way if you can afford to go higher. Because if you buy a 32MB card right now, you're going to end up having to upgrade again sooner than later.

[Shipmonkey25]

If you can find a Geforce256 around, they are faster than any of the 32mb Geforce2 MX cards. The key to the low price of the MX cards is their lack off DDR memory, whish the Geforce256 supports. Plus you can find the Geforce256 cards for around eighty dollars when aviable.