WTF?!? No Win98 drivers in the box?!?

[Jon P. Inghram]

http://forum.matrox.com/mgaforum/Forum8/HTML/001259.html

What the hell are they trying to do?

[GT98]

Time to upgrade to an operating system that isnt' based off a product that came out 7 + years ago

For all you that are still using Win9X/ME please look at getting Windows 2000...its a hell of a lot better then Win9X core!

[VJ]

Perhaps the drivers will not be in the box, but available for download ?
(and yes, upgrading to W2K is definately worth it !)

Jörg

[Jon P. Inghram]

Better? Other than being more stable in some situations, I see no advantage or reason to switch to 2000 or XP when virtually all other modern software/hardware works just fine (if not better) on Win98.

[maharajah]

Getting on high horse on soap box...
I know most Windows users are still on 9x, but the Parhelia is a card for the present and the future, not the past
If your hardware is compatible with 2000 or XP, and you're looking into getting a Pornhelia (sorry, just had to say it), then an upgrade to XP will be worth it.
Getting off soap box, but staying on high horse... just because I'm a Matrox snob

[thop]

i would laugh my ass off if they wouldnt release 9x drivers at all long live the elitists

[VJ]

True, being forced to upgrade is not a good thing...

But W2K is more stable (e.g. with 3D Studio Max, or Photoshop) than W9x, and more up to date than WinNT (directX, game support, ...). Of course, if you don't need these features...
W2K does require more resources (memory, disk) and I've read that some games run slower (just a couple of FPS)...

Somehow, I doubt that Matrox won't release W9x drivers... Perhaps not upon initial release of the cards, but later on...?


Jörg

[Jon P. Inghram]

Haig's last non-comment about the chances of Win9x drivers ever being released is rather disheartening... If they don't even want to announce something that directly relates to the basic function of the card, i.e. what operating systems they plan on supporting, why did they even bother announcing the card in the first place? That's almost like saying "Only Intel chipsets will be supported out of the box", then when asked if it'll run on Via boards getting a "No comment" response.

[Joel]

I see no advantage or reason to switch to 2000 or XP when virtually all other modern software/hardware works just fine (if not better) on Win98.

I have not had any problems with anything I have tried under XP so far and in fact, for me, most things run just as well if not better under XP.

I was a diehard 98/ME user also and even complained when we were first told about this but now that I have upgraded and worked with XP for a little while I wouldn't go back.

Joel

[The PIT]

XP blue screens for me with infinite loop. So at the moment thats out. However I've got some old games that only work under 98 and don't like win2k. So if theres no 98 drivers there maybe no P for me. Win2k is my work OS.

[VJ]

I have some hardware-issues:

My bios gives problems under W2K during the installation (it is not fully acpi-compliant and locks the system). Forcing W2k to install without ACPI-support solves the problem (I believe pressing F7 at some point).

My AWE32 (the original !) locks the system when W2k tries to detect additional controllers. I suspect the Sony proprietary cdrom controller on the AWE32 to be the guilty one (there were 3 cd-rom controllers on the original AWE32: mitsumi, creative/panasonic and sony). I have to remove the soundcard during installation, and install it manually afterwards.

(but those are the only two issues )

I suspect these issues in a XP-installation also...
(haven't tried it though, not interested in XP )


Jörg

[Jon P. Inghram]

Ugh, I forgot about the other big reason why I don't want to upgrade to XP... I've got a UnCreative Noiseblaster Dead, with the worlds worst driver support.

[DGhost]

Live support in 2000 is decent, in XP it works, but thats about all i can say for it...

i personally have no problems with mine in XP... but then again, i don't keep track of frame rates or other things...

only thing i really have problems with in XP are the crapass ati drivers. never had an infinate loop error. never had half the problems people with via chipsets seem to have.

[Kruzin]

My SBLive! is running fine under XP. I had one problem with sound in UT at first, but that was fixed by a game setting.

[Jon P. Inghram]

What problem and what fix Kruzin? I can feel the evil seeping into my blood... may get brave and install XP.