🚀 go-pugleaf

On Wed, 27 May 1998, Brian Bethel wrote:

> Hey, all. Have a question I'm sure you brilliant Netizens can help me with.
> 
> I just bought a new Pentium II 266. Yeah, yeah, I know ... your Pentium 
> 400 kicks the snot out of it. It's still a lot cooler than what I had, 
> and it was pretty cheap, too.

Actually your PII 266 kicks the snot out of my K6 200...

> I have in my old machine an original Monster 3D. My first impulse was to 
> just transfer the card, but I'm starting to wonder if that's the most 
> proper thing to do.

Why not?  There's nothing wrong with running it in your PII - certainly
better than some other cards there are around.

> How much of a real-world performance jump would I see if I bought, say, 
> one of the upcoming Canopus cards or a Monster II with 12mb? If the 
> perfomance hike is extreme enough, I may cough up the cash.

I understand that you should see a fair difference (10-20fps?).  It would
getter better as you upgraded the CPU.  The main question is whether you
can afford it.  The Voodoo2 should prove to be a good long-term
investment.

> Is the image quality any better on current software? Inquiring minds want 
> to know. :) 

I understand it is slightly better, yes.  It supports "multitexturing"
(don't ask - I don't know what that is) and I understand the cards also
eliminate some of the dithering and "banding" seen with Voodoo1 cards.

My advice:  get a Voodoo2 card if you can afford it and get a 12Mb one.
It's up to you whether you want to spend more on the Canopus to get the TV
out.  If you can't afford it, there's nothing wrong with your Voodoo1 at
the moment - they're still very good cards.

Cheers,

Dave.