# Choosing video card

**URL:** <https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/choosing-video-card/4377>\
**Category:** SDL Development\
**Created:** [May 7, 2001, 9:16pm UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/choosing-video-card/4377 "2001-05-07T21:16:27Z")\
**Posts on this page:** 3\
**Page:** 1

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**Author:** ![Roger\_D\_Vargas](https://discourse.libsdl.org/user_avatar/discourse.libsdl.org/roger_d_vargas/32/70_2.png) [@Roger\_D\_Vargas](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/Roger_D_Vargas)\
**Post date:** [May 7, 2001, 9:16pm UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/choosing-video-card/4377/1 "2001-05-07T21:16:27Z")

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This is a bit off-topic. I have two video cards in linux PCs: S3 Virge  
with 4Mb RAM and ATI 3d Rage II+DVD with 2 Mb (both PCI), one in my  
current job, the other in my next job. I would like to know which is the  
best card, S3 Virge or ATI Rage, to exchange cards and keep the best in my  
new job.  
Also I have been trying to determine video capabilities, and both cards  
seems not support acelerated blitting, page flip or hardware surfaces.–  
Roger D. Vargas

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**Author:** ![Kisai](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kisai](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/Kisai)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2001, 1:32am UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/choosing-video-card/4377/2 "2001-05-08T01:32:59Z")

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> Of Roger D. Vargas
> 
> This is a bit off-topic. I have two video cards in linux PCs: S3 Virge  
> with 4Mb RAM and ATI 3d Rage II+DVD with 2 Mb (both PCI), one in my  
> current job, the other in my next job. I would like to know which is the  
> best card, S3 Virge or ATI Rage, to exchange cards and keep the best in my  
> new job.  
> Also I have been trying to determine video capabilities, and both cards  
> seems not support acelerated blitting, page flip or hardware surfaces.
> 
> * * *
> 
> Well, speaking form having esperience with both of those cards, neither of  
> them are very fast, nor do they do 3D very well (or in the case of the  
> Virge, practically non-existant.) So don’t base your choice on any 3D  
> capabilities, because they are both rather pitiful. I do know that Linux  
> supports both of these cards rather well. So what you should do is choose  
> the one with the larger amount of video memory. IIRC, the video memory on  
> the RAGEII card should be upgradeable with a laptop-style memory module that  
> you can get off any dead video card that uses that style (I think only  
> present on ATI RageII and Rage Pro.) The S3 cards always seem to have  
> soldered on memory chips.
> 
> (Side note, I could at least play FF7PC on the RageII card(4MB), slow but it  
> played. Can’t say the same about the Virge.)
> 
> * * *
> 
> Do You Yahoo!?  
> Get your free @yahoo.com address at [http://mail.yahoo.com](http://mail.yahoo.com)
> 
> > ----- Original Message -----  
> > From: [owner-sdl@lokigames.com](mailto:owner-sdl@lokigames.com) [mailto:owner-sdl at [lokigames.com](http://lokigames.com)]On Behalf  
> > Sent: May 7, 2001 2:16 PM  
> > To: sdl at [lokigames.com](http://lokigames.com)  
> > Subject: [SDL] Choosing video card

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<div class="post-metadata">

**Author:** ![Kisai](https://discourse.libsdl.org/letter_avatar_proxy/v4/letter/k/ecd19e/32.png) [@Kisai](https://discourse.libsdl.org/u/Kisai)\
**Post date:** [May 8, 2001, 5:22pm UTC](https://discourse.libsdl.org/t/choosing-video-card/4377/3 "2001-05-08T17:22:15Z")

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> quite slow too, only reason why I still have it plugged inside my computer  
> is the video capabilities.

> Correction: Video capabilities here mean hardware MPEG-decoding.

Actually, the rageII+ (not rageII) has the motion prediction component in  
hardware. This feature is also present in the Rage Pro. The Rage 128 added  
the iDCT so mpeg would be more assisted by hardware. However, NONE of these  
cards, nor any other card that I know of have a full-fledged MPEG decoder on  
them due to licensing issues. (If they had a full Mpeg2 decoder on them,  
they would have to be paying someone royalties.)

(IIRC, there are 3 “hardware assisted” mpeg features, YUV-\>RGB  
conversion(The only feature that Voodoo3’s have), motion prediction(ATI,S3  
and Intel), iDCT (ATI,S3,and Intel), of which I think S3 didn’t put the  
features in untill the Savage line of chips.)

(BTW, YUV-\>RGB conversion is also known as “Video Overlay”, which just about  
every 2D PCI card is supposed to have. It’s also used to display live video  
from a cable tuner/webcam/capture card. )

And chances are that you can’t use any of the hardware-mpeg-assisting  
features under linux anyways. (Or can you?)\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_\_  
Do You Yahoo!?  
Get your free @yahoo.com address at [http://mail.yahoo.com](http://mail.yahoo.com)