GFX card advice

Hello. Currently I have 256 Mb RAM, AMD2400+ and GF2 MMX 32Mb. I'm getting 40ish FPS in F1C at the moment. I've just looked around and found the following graphics cards, in UK pounds... 128MB ATI Radeon 9200 VIVO RTL (Sapphire) 74.09 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600 (Connect 3D) 87.25 128Mb XFX Geforce FX 5200 62.84 I'm leaning towards the GF FX, mainly due to price, but am wondering which the experts would recommend.. Can anyone give me an idea of the frame rate improvement I could expect? Thanks. R.

"Richard S Beckett" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:be3uac$ldt$[email hidden]...

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> Hello. > > Currently I have 256 Mb RAM, AMD2400+ and GF2 MMX 32Mb. I'm getting 40ish > FPS in F1C at the moment. > > I've just looked around and found the following graphics cards, in UK > pounds... > > 128MB ATI Radeon 9200 VIVO RTL (Sapphire) 74.09 > 128Mb ATI Radeon 9600 (Connect 3D) 87.25 > 128Mb XFX Geforce FX 5200 62.84 > > I'm leaning towards the GF FX, mainly due to price, but am wondering which > the experts would recommend..

I'd go with either - Radeon 9600, or Geforce 4 Ti4800 The the 5200 will be very dissapointing Looking at some anandtech.com reviews Unreal Torn. '03 at 1280 x 960 with no AA of AF Geforce FX 5200 Ultra 54.5fps Geforce 3 Ti500 67.3fps Geforce 4 Ti4200 85.7fps Geforce FX 5600 Ultra 89.1fps Radeon 9600 Pro 92.3fps Radeon 9500 Pro 112.6fps Geforce 4 ti4600 117.2fps Amazingly - despite being touted as the next big thing - only the very high end ( 5800 and 5900) geofrce FX's are infact any good!! Doug

On Fri, 4 Jul 2003 14:08:19 +0100, "Richard S Beckett" <[email hidden]> wrote:

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>Hello. > >Currently I have 256 Mb RAM, AMD2400+ and GF2 MMX 32Mb. I'm getting 40ish >FPS in F1C at the moment. > >I've just looked around and found the following graphics cards, in UK >pounds... > >128MB ATI Radeon 9200 VIVO RTL (Sapphire) 74.09 >128Mb ATI Radeon 9600 (Connect 3D) 87.25 >128Mb XFX Geforce FX 5200 62.84 > >I'm leaning towards the GF FX, mainly due to price, but am wondering which >the experts would recommend.. > >Can anyone give me an idea of the frame rate improvement I could expect? > >Thanks. > >R. >

None of the above. Spring some more cash and get the Radeon 9700pro.

"Peter Parker" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > On Fri, 4 Jul 2003 15:06:58 +0100, "Doug Ellison" > <[email hidden]> wrote: > > > >Amazingly - despite being touted as the next big thing - only the veryhigh

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> >end ( 5800 and 5900) geofrce FX's are infact any good!! > > > >Doug > > > > > > 5900 is still beaten by the Radeon 9800pro by a small amount. Nvidia > really need to bone up on their homework. Looks like hiring all those > ex 3DFX engineers was a big mistake.

I know - I have a 9800 pro :p Doug

Strange, F15 and SF run fine with my 9700 Pro. I did have to remove a few other games but not these. Mostly EA games - wankers! Everyone else's games made the move from Voodoo 3 to R9700 Pro just fine. E.g. had to scrap F1 2000 and buy F1 2002). "Peter Parker" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> On Fri, 4 Jul 2003 15:51:15 +0100, "Doug Ellison" > <[email hidden]> wrote: > > > >I know - I have a 9800 pro :p > > > >Doug > > > > Lucky bastard. But I still think I beat you in the compatibility arena > with my GF4 Ti4200. It's not just about speed and a fast vid card is > useless to me if it doesn't play all my games. I know for fact that > the 9700/9800 cards have problems with Jane's F15 and Strike Fighters, > two games I own and still want to play. But, I may take the plunge and > get a 9700pro soon.

Peter, I switched to ATI not because of speed, but because of image quality. Especially ATI's FSAA looks a lot better than Nvidia's IMHO. That's not to say I wouldn't switch back to Nvidia when their next card beats the Radeons, but currently, I think the ATI is the better choice, unless of course you know it specifically has a prob with a game you want to play. Achim "Peter Parker" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]... > On Fri, 4 Jul 2003 15:06:58 +0100, "Doug Ellison" > <[email hidden]> wrote: > > > >Amazingly - despite being touted as the next big thing - only the veryhigh

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> >end ( 5800 and 5900) geofrce FX's are infact any good!! > > > >Doug > > > > > > 5900 is still beaten by the Radeon 9800pro by a small amount. Nvidia > really need to bone up on their homework. Looks like hiring all those > ex 3DFX engineers was a big mistake.

The FX 5200 is the entry level FX. Basically the idea is to offer DX9 support for the cheapest price possible. It's basically a replacement for the GF4 MX cards, and will be stuck in budget PCs for the next year or so. It is comparable to the Radeon 9200 in performance. If you're looking for an FX, look at the FX 5600, which is a *much* better card - comparable to the GF4 Ti cards - much better quality. The FX 5600 compares to the Radeon 9600. (Notice the 2nd digit is pretty much equal: 9200 = 5200, 9600 = 5600). The 128Mb 9600 is therefore a much better card than the 9200 or the 5200 (both of which will be quite disappointing), and at �90 isn't that bad a choice. I personally would go for the FX 5600, which is about the same price as the 9600, but has the massive benefit of not being ATI <g>. Or, go for a top end GF4 Ti card, but I wouldn't because they don't support DX9. Basically, from the 3 you mention, go for the 9600 every time, but try to find a FX 5600 and you'll be sorted :-D.

Peter, DONT DO IT!!! Get the AIW. The AIW is superior in every respect for TV viewing/recording. I have the Pinnacle Studio PCI and NO STEREO at all although its been promised for over a year, worst support of any company Ive ever dealt with (I do this for a living). Good luck if you run XP. Maybe run on over to the Pinnacle forums to get an idea of how bad their products are. Things may have changed in the last couple months but I really doubt it as I waited almost a year with no help from pinnacle. I would try the Haupage before the Pinnacle any day. AIW is head and shoulders above the Pinnacle TV card period. Mitch "Peter Parker" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:[email hidden]...

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> On Mon, 7 Jul 2003 10:40:39 +0200, "Joachim Trensz" <[email hidden]> > wrote: > > OK, thx. I was going to order the AIW9700pro but the place I order > online form is out of stock so I have decided to scrap that idea and > have now purchased a Pinnacle Studio PCTVpro so I can stick with my > GF4 and still have stereo TV and FM. I'll wait a bit on my next vid > card upgrade.

I think ATI makes a Tuner card also, maybe check that out but avoid the Pinnacle. "Mitch_A" <[email hidden]> wrote in message news:GALOa.331$[email hidden]... > Peter, DONT DO IT!!! Get the AIW. The AIW is superior in every respectfor

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> TV viewing/recording. > > I have the Pinnacle Studio PCI and NO STEREO at all although its been > promised for over a year, worst support of any company Ive ever dealt with > (I do this for a living). Good luck if you run XP. Maybe run on over to > the Pinnacle forums to get an idea of how bad their products are. Things > may have changed in the last couple months but I really doubt it as I

waited

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> almost a year with no help from pinnacle. > > I would try the Haupage before the Pinnacle any day. > > AIW is head and shoulders above the Pinnacle TV card period. > > Mitch > > > "Peter Parker" <[email hidden]> wrote in message > news:[email hidden]... > > On Mon, 7 Jul 2003 10:40:39 +0200, "Joachim Trensz" <[email hidden]> > > wrote: > > > > > OK, thx. I was going to order the AIW9700pro but the place I order > > online form is out of stock so I have decided to scrap that idea and > > have now purchased a Pinnacle Studio PCTVpro so I can stick with my > > GF4 and still have stereo TV and FM. I'll wait a bit on my next vid > > card upgrade. > > >

On Wed, 09 Jul 2003 03:07:29 GMT, "Mitch_A" <[email hidden]> wrote: >I think ATI makes a Tuner card also, maybe check that out but avoid the >Pinnacle. It's not stereo.

On Wed, 09 Jul 2003 03:01:58 GMT, "Mitch_A" <[email hidden]> wrote:

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>Peter, DONT DO IT!!! Get the AIW. The AIW is superior in every respect for >TV viewing/recording. > >I have the Pinnacle Studio PCI and NO STEREO at all although its been >promised for over a year, worst support of any company Ive ever dealt with >(I do this for a living). Good luck if you run XP. Maybe run on over to >the Pinnacle forums to get an idea of how bad their products are. Things >may have changed in the last couple months but I really doubt it as I waited >almost a year with no help from pinnacle. > >I would try the Haupage before the Pinnacle any day. > >AIW is head and shoulders above the Pinnacle TV card period. > >Mitch

Too late, and I have stereo. Do you mean your card isn't stereo or they don't provide drivers that give you stereo? You have to get the Pro model to get stereo. They have out now version 5.5 drivers that work in XP fine. Anyway, there is an Open source TV card prog called Dscaler that is more powerful than any card maker provides and I am using that too but it is just in an alpha stage so is not fully functional yet. Biggest problem I had with the card was that it forced my USB and soundcard to share an IRQ so had to screw around with that for a day or two. I don't want to be stuck having to buy expensive AIW cards the rest of my life. Thx for the concern though. But I have found that by hooking up a VSR to the cards input I can get TV qualtiy superior than any PC TV card because PC TV tunder cards suffer from loss of quality due to RF from inside the PC case. I did read reviews and the Pinnacle cards are considered good quality, although I did read some grumbling about the drivers at the Pinnacle forums.

On Wed, 09 Jul 2003 03:01:58 GMT, "Mitch_A" <[email hidden]> wrote: >I have the Pinnacle Studio PCI and NO STEREO at all although its been >promised for over a year, Hmm, now you have me thinking. I thought I was getting stereo but I see in the manual it says that if you don't see the option to set mono or stereo in the Audio tab of the Pinnacle software it is because your card is not stereo. I don't have that option and yet the card is stereo. Are you saying they sell a stereo card with drivers that don't give you stereo sound? Is your card the Pro model or the non-pro?