Where's the ATI at?

Toggle sidebar Toggle sidebar
Z

zental

Distinguished
Jan 22, 2004
109
0
18,690
Hey I was reading through some posts and I also read the buyers guide for vid cards up top, and well I came to the conclusion that that person was very geforce biased lol.

I'm an ATI fan and I'd really like to stick with ATI... I want to know what the best ATI pci express card there is out there for $200-300. I want a good card that's going to last me two years or more.. just like my radeon9500pro is doing. I bougth it so long ago and it even plays Oblivion, obviously not on high.. but it still does, haha 😉

Anyways, just looking for some cards to look into if anyone can post some good ones for me.

Thanks!
 
In order to stay under 300 I'll have to get the 256mb sapphire version because ATI only has the 512 version for 370 on newegg. The 512mb version from ATI is 379, 329 after mail in rebate.

Any openions on this?
 
key word is yet.. I did see they have the 512mb version to 319, so it's an extra $45, but i mean i want to have a card that'll last me another 2 or 3 years... I'm not sure but with game advances in the future you think we will start using that ram? I think we will.. Because the best thing that ram is for is clip planing and storing textures. Which we'll start using massive amounts of. I'm not sure how long it's going to take for this to happen but hey, it's coming 😉 Especially with blue ray starting to come into it's own. Can you say mass resource files?

But anyways, yeah just looking into that card to see what's up with it. It sounds good.
 
I think the 1800GTO is a good card....it's about half price compared to a 1900XTX, but the 1900 isn't twice as fast.

These are good cards IMO...

7600GT
7900GT
1800GTO
1900XT....but hexy.

Bear in mind that most games are virtually the same as RTCW and Max Payne 1, so don't buy top end stuff when they keep developing such junk{Far Cry, Fear, Q4, COD2, HL2 are exceptions, but 1800GTO will handle all of them well}.
 
Heh so far her is my system, you guys can post on it if you want. I haven't looked into compatibility yet much, just threw some stuff together today. I still haven't found a good psu though, but it's about 100 i think. Comment on it please :) These prices are pulled from newegg, its where i buy everything.

Athlon 64 3700+ (San Diego) - $237 (2.2ghz 1mb L2 cache)
EP-9NPA+ULTRA - $94
CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC 3200 - $192
600W power supply - $100
ATI X1800XT 512mb pci express - $379(329 after rebate)
 
Personally, I prefer ASUS and DFI for mobo's.....the mobo is the actual heart of your system, you don't want to compromise ever on mobo or PSU..and at 600w, you should be well served.

IMO, your system specs are pretty good...powerful and at good price points.

I consider this a list of specs for a mid-high end gaming PC...

3500-3700AMD.
2 gig ram, 2 X 1.
ASUS mobo
1800GTO-1900XT{only 7900GT makes any sense atm if you go Nvidia}
550W-600W PSU{enermax, antec, OCZ....don't buy a cheapie}

Make sure you have one intake fan, and at least 2 extraction fans in your case, and don't buy a small case, as you risk overheating problems, and that will ruin your day, LOL.
 
Blue ray propably won't catch on, PH-DVD will 100GB storage and easy switch over to it. Blue ray is just too expensive and the disks might be good, but the PH-DVD had double to storage and a easier switch for manufactors.
 
try here.

firingsquad has a mainstream card bench on oblivion and they test frame buffer size.

The upshot is that on the lower end cards it is a detriment, on higher end ones it is a performance plus.

basically I am agreeing w/ stranger: with that 1800xt, I would go for the 512 if you can, it is high enough that it should make a difference.
 
Heh so far her is my system, you guys can post on it if you want. I haven't looked into compatibility yet much, just threw some stuff together today. I still haven't found a good psu though, but it's about 100 i think. Comment on it please :) These prices are pulled from newegg, its where i buy everything.

Athlon 64 3700+ (San Diego) - $237 (2.2ghz 1mb L2 cache)
EP-9NPA+ULTRA - $94
CORSAIR XMS 2GB (2 x 1GB) PC 3200 - $192
600W power supply - $100
ATI X1800XT 512mb pci express - $379(329 after rebate)
Click to expand...

On newegg, there are two versions of the 3700+, and one's for $219. No reason not to save $20. That's what I did :)
 
"Especially with blue ray starting to come into it's own. Can you say mass resource files?

"

Alas, you will not be viewing bluRay or HD-DVD titles at high res (1920x1200) using the 1800XT variant as a decoder, as the 1800 series were manufactured well before the necessary decryption keys could be incorporated into the gpu at time of it's making....
 
"Alas, you will not be viewing bluRay or HD-DVD titles at high res (1920x1200) using the 1800XT variant as a decoder, as the 1800 series were manufactured well before the necessary decryption keys could be incorporated into the gpu at time of it's making....
Click to expand...
i don't understand why that would be the case. surely if a gfx card can support something like windows at that res it could show movies too.
Click to expand...

BluRay movies will require an HDCP (high definition copy protection) compliant monitor AND graphics card AND operating system/player software in order to output their video at full HD resolution of 1920x1080 ... if such hardware is not available, then the system is programmed to default the resolution to something lower like 1280x720 or something.

As it happens, unless I'm much mistaken, neither the Radeon X1900 series nor the GeForce 7900 series have HDCP compliant outputs either! (And you need a HDCP monitor anyway... and an HDCP OS - like Windows Vista, which is the only HDCP compliant OS at the moment, I think - pity it's not released, huh?)
 
The reason for HDCP is that movie studios don't want people making perfect digital copies of their hi-def disc releases. So the video standard is designed to provide a secure and trusted (trusted by the movie studios) pathway for video stream data to travel from your disc, through your OS and video card, straight into the trusted HDCP monitor without you or a program being able to intercept and rip the encryted data to make a copy.

It's pure evil. I have zero interest in participating in such pre-recorded discs. If I get Blu-Ray it'll only be for my personal storage and unencrypted videos.

So, basically, it's not a pay per view licence fee thing. If you want to watch HDCP protected content, you need HDCP compliant OS, video card, and monitor... or you could just get a HDCP compliant HDDVD/BluRay player and hook it up to your new HDCP compliant TV.

There is one more thing - I think this restriction may actually NOT APPLY for the first lot of hardware because they know that folks will be using old non-compliant equipment until later down the track when they've all upgraded their stuff. So, you might be lucky at first for a while. But I could be wrong about this.

And if you want a laugh, I'll tell you that I play games (Oblivion) at 1280x720 on my 24" screen cuz my GPU can't hack it above that!! (But I'm not upgrading til R600 comes out - that should be HDCP compliant, not that I care)
 
The reason for HDCP is that movie studios don't want people making perfect digital copies of their hi-def disc releases.
Click to expand...

The stupid thing is, a) I believe it's already cracked, and b) no-one in their right mind would copy disks by capturing the DVI output in the first place. As usual the movie studios are butt-raping their customers for no good reason other than a desperate desire for control.
 
word is that at least for the first revs of new HD movies HDCP is not on there. They are realizing that gen 1 HD tv's are analog (component) only and do not even have the hdcp connection. If they required the hdcp compliant or else it lowers the res, then most early adopters would be screwed... and they are what made the manufacturers see that HD was what we all want. Even vista seems to have dropped the requirement for monitors b/c there just are not enough of them on the market, and like you said NO video cards have it.

for now it looks like that requirement is on hiatus for now... not that they wouldn't enable it later... bunch of crooked wankers.
 
I'm not sure any card will last two years not with DX10 coming out. I think most games will be DX10 and DX9 for some time but you wouldn't get the crazy eye candy there saying we will see in DX10.
For Xmass we can all get new gpu's and 4gigs of ram to run vista. Most likely we will need watercooling just to use the gpu's if there any hotter then the ones out now.
 
When DX9 came out, there were no DirectX 9 games for a few months, and we really didn't see Directx9 being a must have for a year or two.

This is likely to repeat itself with DX10... games are in development for years. The titles that come out were feature locked for a year or two in many cases.
 
Very true but I think we'll see DX10 games abit faster cauze it's tied in with vista.
The key word is most have, for alot of people thats the day it comes out no matter how buggy it is. Sure you will see most games run DX9 for sometime to come but the teck moves so fast now your gpu is off the benches two months down the line. I'm sure ATI/NV have a DX10 gpu sitting in the lab right now and alot of those how can afford it will buy it day one. I'll be stuck with may x1800xl for a while.
Just wondering if you have after market cooling on yours and what kind?
 
I'm going to water cooling and got a zalman zm-gwb vga block. It looks kind a crappy so I may get another air cooler. Thats a nice OC, I hope I can get over xt speeds too.
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

TRENDING THREADS

Latest posts

Moderators online

Share this page

COMPANY
RESOURCES
FOLLOW
Top Bottom