Quake 2
| Resolution |
Demo1
(Minigl) |
Crusher
(Minigl) |
Demo1
(ICD) |
| 640x480 |
70.2
fps |
42.0
fps |
56.3
fps |
| 800x600 |
44.8
fps |
33.3
fps |
38.4
fps |
| 1024x768 |
27.9
fps |
22.5
fps |
25.7
fps |
Quake III Arena
- .cfg files included in PSA Enhanced Savage3d Driver were used
| S3 Minigl |
Fast
@ 640x480 |
38.3
fps |
|
Fastest
@ 640x480 |
56.9
fps |
| Opengl
ICD |
Fast
@ 640x480 |
40.2
fps |
|
Fastest
@ 640x480 |
50.3
fps |
To make a long
discussion short, the Savage3d is best used at low resolutions. The
reason for this lies in its 64-bit memory interface. With such a handicap,
high resolutions become fill-rate limited. This greatly reduces performance
at high resolutions.
During its first
months, the Savage3d had very poor or no Opengl drivers. I remember
having to resort to using the Opengl driver from the Virge just to
try if it could run Glquake. The situation has changed and a real
minigl was made for Quake 2. The same does not go with Quake III.
As of writing, only the Beta Minigl released some months ago has been
the only thing that S3's engineering could give us. Hopes are dim
that a fully functional ICD or minigl would ever be released that
could support Quake III. The current minigl causes lots of visual
tearings and a blue color effect. With the current ICD, lightmap is
unplayable due to the black hole effect. This resorts to Vertex lighting
using the ICD as the best option.
Even way back
during the first months, the Savage3d's D3D has been solid enough.
There aren't really many issues regarding D3D with the Savage3d. Just
don't forget to use v-sync on since most games give flickering when
it's off.
As for Metal and
S3TC, the only way to make full use of this is through Unreal Tournament.
I tried playing Orion's Barricade map with four bots with the Timedemo
Statistics on. I get an average of forty fps on my test setup. That's
pretty good even for an 8mb dinosaur card. I wasn't able to test the
high detailed textures, though. But from what I've seen with the Unreal
maps of way back, I'm sure they look every bit as good as they do
on the Savage4 and Savage2000.
TV-Out
The Savage3d comes
with a tv-out connector. I made good use of this a couple of times
now. I don't have any complaints other than that the resolution of
the CRT has to be the same as the TV. And I was quite annoyed to see
that the TV can't get the whole desktop.
2D
Ever owned an
S3 Trio or S3 Virge? If you did then you know exactly how the 2d looks
with the Savage3d. I guess S3 didn't bother fixing what's not broken.
Unlike some of the Savage4's drivers, there are no missing tails on
the fonts.
SoftDVD
Mpeg playback
is quite good with this card as with any other Savage card. But it
could never replace a decent DVD player however. But with motion compensation,
it's better than what the competitors have had.
Conclusion
The Savage3d never
did well with sales or OEM deals. It paved the way for it's younger
cousins. If S3's reason for the Savage2000 is that they could give
fast performance if they wanted to and the reason for the Savage4
was to prove that they could produce a successful follow-up, I'd say
that the purpose of the Savage3d is to show to the world that S3 could
make a hell of a great card. It's true that the competition is faster
and had more sales, but nothing came close to the Savage3d with its
combination of quality and affordability. I have great love for this
particular card and I hate to see it become obsolete and abandoned
by its makers.
