ATI vs Diamond
John Mitch
difficult time deciding which graphics card to use. I have heard
some disparaging remarks regarding ATI in this newsgroup and I'd
like to request comments from users of ATI or Diamond graphics cards.
Which cards you are using; the pro's and con's you have experienced;
any recomendations from your experience. I am currently leaning
toward ATI's Expression card with 2Mb - performance vs price -
seems like a good buy.
Any advice is appreciated,
John
(mi...@iclil.kodak.com)
John Lam
I have had an ATI 2MB Xpression card for about 6 months. Its a very
good card, without much in the way of problems. What does happen
with certain MM titles, however, is that they do an auto-detect for
the presence of ATI Video Acceleration drivers. They then post a not-
so-reassuring message suggesting that you re-install the ATI drivers
before attempting to run their title. While I am aware that this was
a problem with some of the earlier ATI drivers, I haven't had these
problems with my Xpression.
Since I live in Toronto, I find that support for my video card is
excellent (via their BBS), and updated video drivers are readily
available. The 256 color acceleration is excellent, as is the
true colour acceleration (although not as fast as the Pro Turbo). The
only problem that I have had with this card is that the Lotus Screen
Cam generated tutorial for Corel Draw 5 doesn't work worth a damn.
Turning off the video driver is the only way to get this to work.
But, for the $$$, definitely the best buy.
John
Paul Blais
I'm using the ATI graphics Pro Turbo 4MB. I upgraded from the mach32 Ultra Pro 2MB.
The mach32 drivers had problems and the early drivers really were bad. They have
gotten better. The mach64 drivers on the otherhand were good out of the shoot
and there have been a few upgrades. For OS/2 drivers I think the ATI is better. (I
like OS/2). I have run the Win drivers and they are nice. The new desk top controls
have a lot of features and are common with all the Mach64 cards. The Xpression
is a very good value.
Paul M Blais - pbl...@mr.net - St Paul, MN
Issa El-Hazin
>In <3glm3t$e...@kodak.rdcs.Kodak.COM>, mi...@iclil.Kodak.COM (John Mitch) writes:
>>I am in the process of purchasing a new system and I am having a
>>difficult time deciding which graphics card to use. I have heard
>>some disparaging remarks regarding ATI in this newsgroup and I'd
>>like to request comments from users of ATI or Diamond graphics cards.
>>Which cards you are using; the pro's and con's you have experienced;
>>any recomendations from your experience. I am currently leaning
>>toward ATI's Expression card with 2Mb - performance vs price -
>>seems like a good buy.
>>
>>Any advice is appreciated,
>>
>>John
>>(mi...@iclil.kodak.com)
I've been using the ATI Mach 64 VRAM card since last March. I also used
a Graphite VRAM card here and there. You really can not go wrong with
either card. Speed wise, if you are going to go with DRAM, the ATI cards
have a little edge, if you are going with VRAM then the Graphite card has
a very slight edge overall.
I must have read about 10 different comparisons between all the different
cards out there in computer magazines. Usually, the Graphite or an ATI
64 card gets the best votting. Oh yeah, the ATI cards have more features
and better drivers.
The only reason I would go with a Graphite VRAM card is for the slight
speed improvment over all. On the other hand, the ATI cards are plenty
fast, have good driver support, great features, easy to install, work
better with enlarged [ie, doubled] AVI files, and the DRAM cards are
fairly cheap and plenty good if you don't wonder too often into the
16.7 million colors arena.
Again, you are not going to go wrong with either. It's like deciding
between a Vette or a TT Supra.
>I'm using the ATI graphics Pro Turbo 4MB. I upgraded from the mach32 Ultra Pro 2MB.
>The mach32 drivers had problems and the early drivers really were bad. They have
>gotten better. The mach64 drivers on the otherhand were good out of the shoot
>and there have been a few upgrades. For OS/2 drivers I think the ATI is better. (I
>like OS/2). I have run the Win drivers and they are nice. The new desk top controls
>have a lot of features and are common with all the Mach64 cards. The Xpression
>is a very good value.
>Paul M Blais - pbl...@mr.net - St Paul, MN
--
=======================================================================
Issa El-Hazin (is...@unomaha.edu)
University of Nebraska at Omaha
Education and Technology Coordinator
Chris Zamara
>I am in the process of purchasing a new system and I am having a
>difficult time deciding which graphics card to use. I have heard
>some disparaging remarks regarding ATI in this newsgroup and I'd
>like to request comments from users of ATI or Diamond graphics cards.
>Which cards you are using; the pro's and con's you have experienced;
>any recomendations from your experience. I am currently leaning
>toward ATI's Expression card with 2Mb - performance vs price -
>seems like a good buy.
>
>Any advice is appreciated,
>
>John
>(mi...@iclil.kodak.com)
I have an ATI Mach32 VLB card and am very unhappy with it and the service
from ATI. First of all, the card's address conflicts with COM4, making it
very difficult to use with my internal modem. But my main problem was that
in 8-bit (256-color) palettized mode, the colors would keep changing,
seemingly randomly, when a palette-using application was launched. Also,
the color-changing caused tones to be totally off and graphics looked
terrible; it was especially noticeable in flesh tones.
After trying all the newest drivers (installed with a primitive DOS-based
utility), I finally ended up sending the card back to ATI. They sent it (or
a new one) back, and I had *exactly* the same problem. So, either they sent
back the same card, which doesn't say much for their support, or they sent
a new one with the same problem, which doesn't say much for the hardware.
So, I am not using this card, and six months after I paid for it am still
not satisfied. Based on my experience, I would never buy another ATI
product.
On the positive side, if it *did* work, it would be a very nice card,
because it's super-fast and supports a lot of modes. So if it works for
you, fine, but it didn't work in my Pentium 60.
.------.
( AHA! ) < AHA! Software Inc. >
`------' O < Victoria, BC, Canada >
o
Chris Zamara (z...@islandnet.com)
