quick question about video cards?

Albert Conklin

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Jun 10, 2008, 8:13:38 PM6/10/08

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I know this isn't the site to ask, but it is quiet here.
How good is a ATI Radeon X1950 PRO Video Card 256 MB DDR3 PCI Express
for $70?
Think it will handle the new games including Tomb Raider Underworld?
Hey, I had to make it on topic for this newsgroup. :-)
Albert

McG.

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Jul 5, 2008, 4:37:58 PM7/5/08

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"Albert Conklin" <acon...@satx.rr.com> wrote in message
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PCI express. Probably pretty good.
McG.

Thunderchief

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Jul 5, 2008, 7:44:15 PM7/5/08

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I'm a bit of an ATI fan, myself, and that spec is gonna be good. If you
could get it with 512 mb it'll be future proofed for a few months, too! :-)

Duncan

McG.

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Jul 7, 2008, 12:21:25 AM7/7/08

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"Thunderchief" <thunde...@gmail.com> wrote in message
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8800 GTX 768 megs. Been around for about two years now, aint' it?
McG.

Thunderchief

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Jul 7, 2008, 2:50:52 AM7/7/08

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Is that the one that was geared up for Vistas launch? I guess it has!

Duncan

McG.

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Jul 7, 2008, 10:09:19 AM7/7/08

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"Thunderchief" <thunde...@gmail.com> wrote in message

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Yep. Funny. Both ATI and Nvidia have new cards out now with completely new
and utterly different technology that are still not as fast. For instance,
though I don't know what it *means*, the new GTX 200 has 256 GPU cores? And
only 512 megs DDR3. Oh well. I figure I'll be getting left behind now.
What I have now is more than enough for any games I still play. But not
enough for the major 3D progs and serious rendering!
McG.

Thunderchief

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Jul 7, 2008, 2:13:41 PM7/7/08

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My card works great (Radeon X1650, with 512meg) and the 2 gig on board
memory is good, but the whole architecture is just slow now. I think its
probably got another year or so left in the box before its time for a new
machine.

I think I'm likely to go with an AMD/ATI combination again, though. I just
like how they work :-)

Duncan

jeffareid

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Jul 7, 2008, 10:48:24 PM7/7/08

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> I think I'm likely to go with an AMD/ATI combination again, though. I just like how they work :-)

Both ATI and nVidia cards and drivers have issues with games, but the list
for the ATI cards seems to be smaller than for nVidia, so I stick with the
ATI cards, even if they aren't the fastest.

McG.

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Jul 8, 2008, 4:07:08 PM7/8/08

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"jeffareid" <jeff...@hotmail.com> wrote in message
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NVidia and ATI have both always had their share of buggy drivers. The
problem for me is that I've bought three ATI cards in recent years that were
flakey, starting with a Radeon 9800 Pro. I didn't realize it for over a
year, but the cards ram had poor solder flow in three of the ram chips. It
would get hot and 'die' until it cooled off. Don't get me wrong, I've
always had ATI cards and loved them. My first video card ever was an ATI
VGA Wonder 512K v 1.0 ISA 16 bit bus. :-)
I stick with nVidia right now because of OpenGL. The 7800GTX in OpenGL is
just amazing. The 8800GTX will be too, when I get round to installing it
:-D
All the major 3D apps I'm using make a lot of use of OGL in their assembly
and preview windows. Some are even using Shaders in preview now. OGL 2.0+
needed. nVidia still does OGL better.
McG.