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11/30/98 - Monday's News:	Click for Current News Page
One reader sent a copy of a reply from IXMicro indicating they *were not* going out of business, contrary to rumors and some posts on the net recently. The mail said there would be a reply to the rumor at IXMicro's site soon. I've also mailed them for an official reply to the rumors. Here is the reply a reader received (sent to me via mail): " Dennis, Thank you for the email. I assure you that this is just a rumor. We will be issuing a press release later today discussing this matter. The price drop was not done by IXMICRO. It is a mistake from one of our partners. Again, this will be addressed in the release. Thank you for your concern. Please feel free to contact me if you have any further questions or concerns. Regards, Susie " $29 Monster 3D cards? (voodoo1): The card may cost less than the games now... " Mike, Thought that you might want to pass this on. A Monster 3d (Voodoo 1-4Mb) is $59 at Comp USA, MINUS a $30 rebate. Net price of $29! It seems it's time for more PCI slots in my mac! Michael " (Update: readers report qtys are limited and the sale ends Dec 5th) = 9:00 PM Update = Ult. Rez Sale Update: Bob Hagar wrote with an update on today's earlier post, reporting that even MacConnection now has stopped taking orders: " Mike, I talked to MacWarehouse and indeed they are not going to honor my backordered Ultimate Rez card. I also talked to MacConnection and they are not taking anymore orders for the card. What a bummer. Bob " Several readers have written saying they got their cards and that they included the full retail software bundle. Most said the card and bios was labeled "Apple IXMicro 1.01" and seemed to be the full lenght PCI slot version (the one Apple OEM card I saw was full length - longer than the std retail card by about 3 inches of bare board material, I assume to fit in the G3 PCI card guide slots to provide better support of the card in shipping). Carmine's (MiM) ["I got blisters on my fingers!"] News Feed AppleTIL Updates (Monday:11/30/98)  Sherlock: Internet Config Conflict  Mac OS 8.5: Printing to ImageWriter  Mac OS 8.5: Adobe PSPrinter 8.5.1 Driver Conflict  WebObjects 3.5.1 Cleanup Kit for Windows NT  Revised RebuildWODefaultApp Script for WebObjects 3.5.1  Original System Software Fulfillment Macworld's latest issue has a roundup of 3D gaming cards. (Note the article had the pictures of the ATI RagePro VR card and Microconversion Game Wizard switched). And contrary to what is said - the screenshots I've seen of the latest Unreal in Rave mode with an ATI RagePro look very good - in fact even Frank Bernier agreed they look as good or better than 3Dfx mode. I'm not sure they had Coronas turned on for the Rave screenshot (it's an option in the advanced settings). Of course RAVE mode demands more CPU power to run smoothly than is needed with a 3Dfx card. The table on page 186 has a nice list of recent games that support RAVE and 3Dfx modes. Now if Apple would just license OpenGL from Conix3D as a standard part of the OS, we might see titles like Quake II (and III) come to the Mac. For reviews of all the cards mentioned in the Macworld article, (MacPicasso MP540/3D Overdrive, ATI RagePro series, Game Wizard Voodoo 2 and many others) - see my Graphics cards page. For tons of Unreal benchmarks with various video cards and CPUs (and to test your own setup with our FPS Toolkit) see our Unreal area. Gary Amstutz (USA Villagetronic dealer) replied that a reader comment on Carmageddon 3Dfx version not running reliably with MacMagic is a common complaint in that version (crashes and/or quitting to the finder). Bob Hager wrote that MacWarehouse has pulled the $79 Ultimate Rez sale offer noted here last week. Checking their site I could not find the sale page anymore. Bob wrote: " I just wanted to let you and your readers know that I talked with the man at MacWarehouse and he told me that the Ultimate Rez cards that were on sale for $79 are in effect not on sale at that price. He said the manufacturer cancelled the offer. " MacConnection's sale page [link expired] posted last week offered the card for $69.95 (plus shipping). [Update- Bob later wrote that even MacConnection had stopped taking orders.] Teng Chou Ming has released v3 of Extension Overload, which covers Extensions and Control Panel from System 7, 7.5, 7.6, Mac OS 8, 8.1, 8.5 and the iMac. For more information or to download Extension Overload, see http://www.mir.com.my/~cmteng/. Voodoo Extreme has a page with game developers reactions to the Voodoo3 card announced by 3Dfx at COMDEX (due June 99). The lack of 24 or 32-bit color rendering is a common thread. John Carmack's comments (ID software - Quake's developers) was interesting. Note that Quake III will use true color textures that will look better on other cards like the TNT that support 24/32-Bit color modes. Orange Micro - 660 vs PCfx card Performance: Tom Berg wrote with performance comparisons between the PCfx card and their more expensive 660 Model. Quite a difference! Matrox Millennium Flash ROM Notes: Over the last few days I've posted reader comments on flashing PC Matrox Millennium 1 and II cards with a Mac bios. As I suspected, the source of problems in flashing reported by one reader this weekend may be due to a smaller flash chip in some versions of the card. Sonny Foster writes: " Hi Mike, Just been following the article of flashing a Mill. II to work on a Mac. I did a fair bit of "research" on this possibility a number of months back and found something relatively important out. Basically there are two versions of each Mill. II card, apart from just the size of VRAM on the board. There are two possible sizes for the flash ROM - 32k and 64k. Apparently if you try ande flash the 32k card to work on a Mac, there is not enough room for all the Mac info. and the card will become useless. You will not be able to flash it back to work on a PC either. It has to be send back to Matrox to be fixed :-( The 64k version works fine. Maybe this is the reason some of your readers have been having problems flashing their cards ? Hope this feedback is of some use. Keep up the great work with the pages. Cheers Sonny Foster- Australia " I'm not sure how to determine the size of the chip unless you take the part number off it and then look it up in a data book for the IC mfr. As is the case with some other PCI Cards (esp. SCSI cards), some OEM versions have different components (rom/eeprom sizes, etc.). I know from personal experience that there were different Ramdac speeds on some of the OEM Matrox Millennium 1 cards as I saw that at PC shows years ago. Today's Unreal news page has reader comments and tips on the Klingon Honor Guard addon, news on Carmaggedon 2 for the Mac, a request for Unreal screenshots using various 3D cards, how to test ping times and a new startup screen. Several readers wrote commenting on the rumors of IXMicro closing soon. [Note - they later did.] Rumors had been floating around for some time but I was hesitant to repeat them publicly. Many readers have written asking about future support of the cards (if the story above pans out). My comment is that Apple shipped many G3 systems with the OEM version of the card and therefore will continue to support it in some way I suspect. That's assuming the apple drivers (OEM) work with the retail card. I suspect they do but have not verified this. At prices as low as $69-$79, the software bundle is worth that much (i.e. - Ray Dream Studio 5). See the Graphics cards page for links to reviews of IXMicro cards all based on the same IX3D chip (the ProRez, Ult. Rez and MacRocket) that all use the same drivers. (IXMICRO Driver Sources: - See OWC's tech center page for mirrors of the IXMicro software, also noted in the Video card section of the FAQ here.) Other Net News: MacsOnly has posted a Hands-On Review of the iPort from Griffin Technology, Inc. The iPort provides an external video port and an Apple serial port on the iMac for only $70. Thinking In The Box (Apple Webmate comments) [MacOpinion] The Death of the Beast (AOL/Netscape Deal) [MacOpinion] Yesterday's News Summary VST ready to ship PowerBook G3 expansion bay Superdisk drives Slagman's MacQuake site URL Reader report of errors flashing PC Millennium with Mac bios Unreal news page updated. MacMagic/Carmageddon 3dfx Issues reported For other recent site news/features links, see the Recent Site Features page. Note: Before sending tech support related questions please check the Freq. Asked Questions, Site Contents, CPU Card reviews/articles, SCSI reviews articles, Graphics card reviews, Tips/Misc, Message Boards and Help pages - in many cases the answers to your questions are there and they have far more detail than I can list in an email. For Apple G3 system info - see the G3-ZONE. News and guest reviews that don't require a reply are always welcome. I hope to catch up in the next few weeks. Thanks. Looking for past articles? Check the menu frame topics links (CPU Cards, SCSI, Graphics Cards, Systems) under the logo above or in the menu frame below or check the Recent Features page. Make a Difference: Be the Difference Randy Mita, Brad Lau and I came up with a new slogan and theme for Mac advocacy - "Make a Difference: Be the Difference". We're asking that all Mac owners take advantage of every opportunity to let others know the Mac advantage. It's a grass-roots approach that will surely help.