dawn opened this issue on Jul 03, 2001 ยท 12 posts
zstrike posted Wed, 04 July 2001 at 2:34 AM
I doubt its a card from S3. Its probably a generic card using the S3 chipset. These generic cards don't have any manufacturer markings on them except whats on the chipset so people get confused easily. However, generic drivers often can do more harm then good. You need to find out exacty who the manufacturer is for the graphic adapter that is in your computer. S3 Savage 4 is the chipset that is used on the adapter. Any number of companies used it to make their own versions. So you need to get a driver from the same company that made your video card not necessarily from the chip maker. The Open GL instructional set must be integrated properly with the driver for it to work properly and only the company making the card can do that. Replacing the card is probably your best bet. That particular chipset really isn't the best for handling 3D graphics. There are other cards out there that will give you a much better screen. Your running either an early Athlon or a Duron processor. It will give you very good performance yet its saddled with a lowend video card. So it doesn't matter how good your monitor is or the rest of the computer is. What you see is limited by how good the graphic adapter is. If your like most of us your on a tight budget, but you don't need to spend mega bucks to get a decent card. The Matrox G400 or G450 can be had for well under $100 and with 32MB of RAM on it, You can run at 32bit color depth and avoid those annoying gradients you sometimes see. For a few dollars more but still under $100 you can get a nVidia GeForce2 card and get a bit better performance. Several companies use the nVidia chipset in their cards. Stick with a name brand and the Open GL support in the driver will work fine. In California these (Matrox and nVidia) cards can be had at retail prices of $60-$80 if you shop around.