Riva G-Force 256.........does it exist or I'm Mad

1882 Views 22 Replies 10 Participants Last post by Whoever, Nov 26, 2001

Ali

Discussion Starter · Nov 23, 2001

While I was at a computer store buying a printer I saw a box on which it was written........Riva G-Force 256...........the company's name was like Eoforce or something like that.......I opened the box and looked at the card and it seemed okay..........and it was so damn cheap........25$.......what do U think...........will it outperform an Asus v3800 with Riva TNT2 m64 or not.......!

Ali

1 - 20 of 23 Posts

Enigma1982

· #2 · Nov 23, 2001

Look like no-brand name product............
If I were you I will not buy this product.................
Because brand name model detail look confuse
And price too cheap

Zephon

· #3 · Nov 23, 2001

It's funny how they think that they can fool us with similar names. Where did you see it? Don't go for it, I can tell you. I've seen a lot of products with names that look like other good products(mostly toys, never seen computer things. eg: Batmen, Dragoon Ball, and others) and they all suck.

kairi00

· #4 · Nov 23, 2001

IIRC, the G-Force line of cards were all based on the S3 Virge chipset (in other words, total crap).... G-Force is not GeForce I guess

Ali

Discussion Starter · #5 · Nov 24, 2001

I will definitly not buy it..............brand is always important.!

Ali

Zephon

· #6 · Nov 24, 2001

Originally posted by kairi00
IIRC, the G-Force line of cards were all based on the S3 Virge chipset (in other words, total crap).... G-Force is not GeForce I guess

I agree with the S3 Virge chipsets being crap. I own a S3 Virge GX2. It has 4MB, but it sucks. Whenever I want to play a game that uses hardware acceleration(the specs of the card says that it's compatible with D3D and DirectDraw) the computer either crashes or the game runs at 5-10fps with horrible graphics. I have a Voodo2 also, which is not very good, I know, but it's much better than S3.

FireGL

· #7 · Nov 24, 2001

only get a product from trusted manufacturer... yeah its expensive but you get what u pay not a crappy stuff that you will regret

kairi00

· #8 · Nov 24, 2001

Originally posted by Zephon

I agree with the S3 Virge chipsets being crap. I own a S3 Virge GX2. It has 4MB, but it sucks. Whenever I want to play a game that uses hardware acceleration(the specs of the card says that it's compatible with D3D and DirectDraw) the computer either crashes or the game runs at 5-10fps with horrible graphics. I have a Voodo2 also, which is not very good, I know, but it's much better than S3.

Hehe.... I have a S3 Virge + Voodoo2 combo in my old P200 MMX... and boy, before I had the Voodoo2, all the 3D games I have ran faster and looks better in software mode.... how pathetic is that??

Ryos

· #9 · Nov 24, 2001

They looked better in software mode? That IS sad.

kairi00

· #10 · Nov 24, 2001

Originally posted by Ryos
They looked better in software mode? That IS sad.

I should post screenshots one of these days.... just for laughs...

liquid

· #11 · Nov 24, 2001

IIRC, the G-Force line of cards were all based on the S3 Virge chipset (in other words, total crap).... G-Force is not GeForce I guess

Kairi00 you are completely wrong...this is not an S3-virge card, those have been extinct for several years now...and the majority of them were made by Diamond under their stealth 2000/3000VX and GX series (which was around 1997). The newer stuff now is S3 Savage 4, Savage 2000, and Savage MX (mobile version based on the Savage 4). You will not see the Geforce designation on these cards.

Ali, that card you saw at best buy for $25 is a Geforce 256 (a.k.a geforce 1), it is much more powerfull than your current TNT 2 m64. The chipset is about equivilant to a geforce2MX in performance, and for $25 it's a steal. The G-force name is just the OEM playing with the word GeForce, don't worry about it.

Also, don't be put off buy non-brand name OEM's, especially in the case of Nvidia graphic cards. why? because ALL OEM's (both brand name generic) stringently follow Nvidia's reference design. The only difference you will see is either they type of heatsink/fan combo or composite/s-video out jack. And in most cases even that's the same.

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kairi00

· #12 · Nov 24, 2001 (Edited)

Originally posted by liquid

Kairi00 you are completely wrong...this is not an S3-virge card, those have been extinct for several years now...and the majority of them were made by Diamond under their stealth 2000/3000VX and GX series (which was around 1997). The newer stuff now is S3 Savage 4, Savage 2000, and Savage MX (mobile version based on the Savage 4). You will not see the Geforce designation on these cards.

No, but seriously... there *WERE* S3 Virge based video cards that came out several years ago that were called G-Force! How do I know? Let's just say I've had experience in dealing with tons of legacy hardware

Seeing that the price is only $25, I just assumed it's this old card.... And I know that S3 Virge's are extinct already.... but hey, some places still carry those for dirt cheap.

IIRC (this is a LOOOONG time ago, so I could be wrong), the G-Force 128 has 2Megs of VRAM on it, while G-Force 256 has 4Megs of VRAM... or something like that.

A GeForce256 for $25? That's quite a steal....

liquid

· #13 · Nov 24, 2001 (Edited)

One way you could probably tell if it's a Geforce256 is if it has 16MB or 32MB of ram.

Virge cards are usually have 2MB to 4MB of Vram. (but they were definetly less than 8MB)

but then again, the box did specifically say Riva which indicates its a Nvidia product.

and for $25 sounds about right for a Geforce 1 SDR card.

kairi00

· #14 · Nov 24, 2001

Originally posted by liquid
One way you could probably tell if it's a Geforce256 is if it has 16MB or 32MB of ram.

Virge cards are usually have 2MB to 4MB of Vram. (but they were definetly less than 8MB)

but then again, the box did specifically say Riva which indicates its a Nvidia product.

and for $25 sounds about right for a Geforce 1 SDR card.

Oh yeah... Ali did say it has "Riva" written on it.... I must've missed that... heh... :emb:

liquid

· #15 · Nov 24, 2001

kairi00 post some shots of from that S3-virge of yours I still have mine (holding in my hand right now) but it doesn't work in my 1Ghz system

but if it ever does, I'll try to post some short of the hardware decelleation in action! *lol*

kairi00

· #16 · Nov 24, 2001

Originally posted by liquid
kairi00 post some shots of from that S3-virge of yours I still have mine (holding in my hand right now) but it doesn't work in my 1Ghz system but if it ever does, I'll try to post some short of the hardware decelleation in action! *lol*

Hehehe... I'll do so later tonight... I currently don't have any games installed on that old machine...

kairi00

· #17 · Nov 25, 2001 (Edited)

All right... some S3 3D decelerator vs software rendering shots.
Top: software rendering.
Bottom: Direct3D on S3 Virge.

If you play this on a proper 3D accelerator, the explosions are supposed to be transparent.... oh, and the fact that the 3D-accelerated version runs at half the framerate of software rendering.

Ryos

· #18 · Nov 25, 2001

And people wonder why S3 dropped their video cards...

kairi00

· #19 · Nov 25, 2001 (Edited)

More transparency problem.....

When I look at it again, it doesn't look THAT bad, but just the fact that it's running at half the framerate of software rendering, and MAJOR transparency problems.... if you play games that use a lot of transparency, you'll see major artifacts on the display.... now where did I put my copy of Sonic R.....

[edit] and no, I'm not gonna bother running ePSXe on it.... *shudder*.... oh the horror...

Zephon

· #20 · Nov 25, 2001

Those screenshots are not bad at all. I remember trying to load Rogue Squadron with my Virge GX2 using D3D acceleration. Man, the screen was all distorted, the colors were all ugly and the game was horribly slow. For sure Software mode works better.

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