ATI GFX Cards

Gamepro65 · Registered User Joined: 02 Dec 2001 Posts: 710

Hey well its getting to the 1 year mark of my GeForce2 MX 400 64meg video card and well im lookin into upgradeing for when hl2 and doom3 come out. From what i hear ATI is best but ive never used em and i really just wanna get away from nvidia. Any help for a good ATI card pricerange from like 100-150, 128 meg card would be nice. Ive heard that Radeon 9500 and Radeon 9600 are good.... ne suggestions?
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Meat Juice · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2003 5:46 pm Post subject:

Well GP, I don't know much about video cards but thought you might find the following at the very least an intersesting read. I replaced my video card a few weeks ago. The old one was identical to yours. I now have a ATI 9600 pro with 256 memory. I see no difference between the two cards performance wise with the most demanding application probably being TFC. I've actually experienced a decline in the quality. When I run in game, walls and moutains to the right and left of centre give the appearance of being choppy. Perhaps the card required pro tweaking. Which brings me to the point that at least for me it's not a plug and play card like the old one but a plug and a pain in the ass card. I've been tweaking for 2 weeks and still haven't found the solution. The company help forum was insufficient and phone tech support half assed. Although the guy I talked to is apperantly a pretty decent TFC player. They sell thousands so they must better than my 'unique' experience.

MJ

Potato-VS- · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2003 5:52 pm Post subject:

Yea Ive herad about that too MJ. I also heard that they didnt refund someone's card back a couple days after they got it - it died or something I suppose. Anyways, I also heard that Nivida cards are crappy in some instances too. I dunno what to say here - since I have a crappy 11 MB VC (dont ask how) currently. Anyways, Id go for 9600 or a 9700/9800 pro. Ive heard some nice reviews and comments on each - the higher up being more expensive but better.

<TVB>Potato

[HALO]cpt._Keyes · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2003 5:55 pm Post subject:

i found the ultimate card and will buy for my desktop...the ati/radeon all in wonder 9800 pro not just the 9800, not just the 9800 pro...but the all in wonder 9800 pro...128 meg...now i need to find the 256....OFF TO BEST BUY!!!! <superman like music> <fly's off>
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PondScum007 · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2003 6:30 pm Post subject:

meat do you have the latest drivers and the ati refresh fix?
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Meat Juice · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2003 6:59 pm Post subject:

Hey Scum, long time. I actually reinstalled the old driver at one point because their support said the latest driver was buggy. Spuddage, what things did you hear about the card? Anything to do with what I described?

I'm sure it's a perfectly decent card, but for a lucky chosen few, any hardware purchase turns to headaches once in awhile. I guess my time was up.

MJ

PondScum007 · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2003 7:03 pm Post subject:

ATi has a bad history of having crappy drivers for a while, sometimes new ones for mine (radeon8500) will really screw thigns up, if that happens jsut uninstall them and go back to the last good ones... try a few earlier releases too, you might get a lucky one ;>
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Bright Red Nipples · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2003 7:18 pm Post subject:

I just got the 9800 pro a couple of weeks ago. I was looking at the all in wonder card but for the extra $100 I didn't see myself using the extra features that it had. As far as performance goes I noticed a huge difference right off the bat.

With my old card, nvidia geforce2 440 64 megs, I would drop to around 7 fps when I encountered smoke on dod. The new card drops to 55 fps, not even noticeable in game. And this is when running at the highest resolution.

I have had very little problems with it at all. Once I installed the card I just found drivers for it and that was it. I tried a few other tweaks to see if it would improve anything and found that it didn't so I removed them.

For $350 it was money well spent. When/if HL2 ever comes out I will now be ready for it

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God Bless You Blue Ruler

Meat Juice · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2003 7:33 pm Post subject:

Glad to hear it's worked out well for you Nips. Based on your endorsement, I may very well replace this card if I can't get the bugs out. That 's about 500 loonies though! Going to have to take the Molson's bottles in that are piling up behind the shed to pay for that one.

MJ

Potato-VS- · Posted: Tue Oct 28, 2003 7:36 pm Post subject:

Lol MJ. Loonies hahaha... Good old canadian dollars we have. If your in the Toronto area then check out this site that JD sent me http://www.torontopcstores.com/.

<TVB>Potato

Gamepro65 · Registered User Joined: 02 Dec 2001 Posts: 710

MJ i must tell u. you have been jipped. even tho the 9800 says it has 256 ram it uses SDR single data processing ram stuff (im pritty sure). this is much slower than the ddr video ram that they use on some of the 128's. the 128 now is better than the 256 but still it doesnt matter because none of the games out now use newhere close to that. but still its good for the gaems out now and a reason u dont see a diff in between the 2 is because HL is very anchient compared to newer games. hl requires no gfx card and if u have a 32 meg card thats really considered over kill for the game

but im lookin into playin UT2k3 aswell (i do now but it laggs some) and other games like that.
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Bada Bing · Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2003 6:14 pm Post subject:

Yeah sounds like you just need to find the correct driver try http://www.ati.com/support/driver.html
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Are you threatening me ???

Blown · Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2003 6:29 pm Post subject:

Just dont use the newest ATI drivers. I believe its 3.7? Alot of ppl are having probs with that version.

Visit Rage3d.com and check out thier forums. Lots of good info there.

Meat Juice · Posted: Wed Oct 29, 2003 6:45 pm Post subject:

Appreciate the positive input guys. I'll look further at the possibility of it being driver related. Although I've tired a few now. But you never know so I'll check out the links you provided.

Thanx,
MJ

Clay Pigeon · Posted: Thu Oct 30, 2003 5:16 am Post subject:

I heard that the 3.8 drivers are awesome. Also, the 9600xt comes with a coupon for a free copy of hl2.