thinking about ATI but heard it sucks...help?

[Nyanko]

I have a really old ATI aiw that's dying on me and i really need a new video card. I was thinking about getting a AIW 9700 pro beause i heard good things about it. On the other hand, i've had problems with my motherboards not liking the ATI vid cards...

Is there an alternative card to AIW that is just as good? I would like to have an TV-in and out but if it causes too much problem, i'd rather just have a really good video card for games.

The vid card needs replacing...and the motherboard only if i have to:

I have:
Generic Motherboard (unsure of specs) for amd athlon...and supports agp 4x

1024 gigs of sd ram
a DEAD all in wonder radeon vid card
Sound blaster Live 5.1
120 gigs maxtor harddrives
1 ghz amd thunderbird processor

Please help, Thanks~



All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts...<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by Nyanko on 08/06/03 10:53 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[Nyanko]

one of the possibilities that my friend just told me is to not upgrade to a 9700 pro...but just to stick to a GeForce 4 Ti 4400 which is AGP 4x. I really don't know what choose. I had another friend say that if ATI sucked for me before and i want to play games that are coming out later, then i should get the FX5900 (the newer GeForce one) I'm not that knowledgable when it comes to computer hardware, so I'd appreciate any help from anyone~ I really don't want to spend alotta money and find out that it doesn't work or is causing me alot more to fix than it was to buy.

=^^=

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts...

 

[phial]

your friend said ATI sucks, but he has no reasons


ATI makes the better cards on the market. in general cheaper, with better drivers and faster

look it up. read reviews.

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[Nyanko]

because of the reviews i wanted to get the aiw 9700 pro. I went and read reviews on the Geforce cards too, and they have good coments about them as well. There are just so many video cards to choose from. i'm kinda scared off by some of the comments my friend makes and some of the posts people make here. I'm also a bit scared because my all in wonder card that's currently in my computer caused me a lot problems in the past, causing errors left and right. i took it to different computer shops and no one really fixed it...they jus piled bandaids on top of each other everytime problems came up. I'm jus scared that i'm going to waste money because i don't have alot (poor college student). I've been saving since this computer was built to upgrade if necessary.

Just out of curiosity, would the plain 9700 pro cards be a lot better than the all in wonder cards in general?

since i start school in about 2 weeks, i really want my computer up and running. The downside to all this is i'm 900 miles away from my computer, so all i have to go off on is what i remember putting into my computer 3 years ago.

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts...

 

[phial]

ill respond when i get on break in an hour and a half

im at werk now

-------

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[flamethrower205]

Suggest downloading something like Sisoft Sandra to find more details about your motherboard as they may come handy. Look, if the Ati card has what you need, go out and buy it. If that slim chance that it doesn't work does occur, check your power supply (what is it by the way?) and if you cannot get it running return it and get the NV with lesser features and invest in an addon pci card.

It's not about good or bad, it's about which gets you rich and laid faster.

 

[Nyanko]

It's alot easier to return the card if i was remotely near a shopping center. Most of the stuff i will be ordering online, because the closest computer store requires me to hop on a bus and ride it for about 50 minutes to get to a shopping center. I'm hoping that If i can narrow down choices, the chances of me running back and forth during the school year will be slimmer.

My power supply is 400 watts. it feeds power to cd burner, dvd player, floppy, sound card (front panel), etc. my mother board is going to be replaced (with what i dont know yet) because a new video card with agp 8x isn't even supported by my old one.

i jus saw a ATI aiw 9800 pro on the website. wow...

I definetly would like to have an ATI aiw just because i can import clips from vhs and dvd, mostly vhs because i have one of those old camcorders that still record on vhs-c. It would be convient if everything was in one place. But if it's going to cost me a lotta money to fix errors or time away from studying for exams, then i'd rather cut out the convience, and stick to a graphics card made to put images onto the screen (enough to run half life 2 and Doom ) and nothing else.



All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts...

 

[flamethrower205]

If it doesn't work you could also check out possible bios updates and or wait for a newer driver and hope it solved the problem. Yeah, the ordering online thing is rather annoying, up to you in the end. I'd say check what other users say about your motherboard and that card, and order away if all seems good.

It's not about good or bad, it's about which gets you rich and laid faster.

 

[phial]

the 9700pro will take yor TI4400 and spank it harshly.


the 9700pro still competes with teh 5900ultra in certain games. like WC3, and GTA-Vice City.. all these games perform better on the 9700pro

the AIW adds a hefty price to the card. you could look at a used TV-Tuner card on ebay for 40 bucks if you want.. or a new one, they go for about 90 bucks Canadian.. less US obviously

-------

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[Nyanko]

would the AIW have more potential for problems?

As for the 9700 pro and the 9800 pro, i hear that the 9700 pro does the job and the 9800 pro is excessive...I did see the 9800 pro get modeled in Best buy and the demos that it runs are sweet. I've been shopping around online and the the AIW 9800 pro (380)and the AIW 9700 pro (300)runs at a price difference of about 80 bucks...and the 9800 pro at 328 while 9700 pro at 300

If the AIW doesn't really effect the hardware compatibility...then which would be good AIW 9800/9700 pro or ATI 9800/9700 pro?

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts...

 

[TheGreatGrapeApe]

What about the new AIW 9600 Pro? That would be a nice choice if you aren't <b>too</b> interested in gaming, depends on your level (it will definitely do better than your old card).

Otherwise you may want to look into the AIW R9800 Pro, or get an AIW 9700Pro on sale.

Another good solution as previously suggested is the combination of the R9700/9800s with seperate cards. The AIW allows easier integration, but a FINE choice is the Radeons coupled with a Hauppauge card, or just a Pinnacle Video Capture card, depending on whether you need coaxial-tv in to change channels and act like a PVR.

If you don't need the PVR/TV features you can buy R9700/R9800/R9600 cards with VIVO from some of the partners (HIS usually put VIVO in theirs). That would allow you to pass cable tv and such trough your VCR into your computer, and let you do all the importing and exporting.

My personal recommendation: Go with the SEPARATE tuner/VIVO card, that way if you upgrade in the future you will not have to worry about having a card with those features. <A HREF="http://www.hauppauge.com/index.htm" target="_new">Hauppage</A> is a good brand, but stay away from the basic <b>'Go'</b> products (sorry avout your budget), but they are crap IMO.
So an R9700non-pro and a Hauppauge card will give you the best bang for your buck. I you are worried about heat and power then substitute the R9600Pro.

<b>HOWEVER</b>; you have the AIW R9700Pro and the regular R9700Pro at the same price. In that case go for the easily integrated solution of the AIW 9700Pro, if that's your only available choices.

Hope that helps.


- You need a licence to buy a gun, but they'll sell anyone a stamp <i>(or internet account)</i> ! <A HREF="http://www.redgreen.com" target="_new"><font color=green>RED</font color=green> <font color=red>GREEN</font color=red></A> GA to SK

 

[RRAMJET]

ATI does suck, they sucked the wind right outta Nvidias sails!!!!

If he doesn't die, he'll get help!!!

 

[daddywags214]

Don't get me wrong, the AIW 9700/9800 Pros are GREAT cards, but your processor will bottleneck their 3d capability to a noticeable extent.

These days, no matter what company you like, be it <b>nVidia, ATi, or whatever,</b> no matter how logical your reasons, you're labeled an <b>idiot</b> or a <b>fanboy</b>, or <b>both.</b>

 

[Nyanko]

thanks for all the info It has definetly been a great help !!!

I'm thinking on going for the AIW 9800 Pro and hopefully i'll find a motherboard that gets along well with it

Daddywags, i'm going to be upping my processor to at least a 2 ghz...would that be better?

All the world's a stage,
And all the men and women merely players;
They have their exits and their entrances,
And one man in his time plays many parts...