ATI Radeon??

[AEboy128]

I have a ? i was wondering if an ati radeon would be a good choice for my system or if i wouldn't get much of a performance gain. I would get the 64mb DDR version. Do you think a cpu upgrade would make more sense?

Here is my system:
Amd Athlon 500mhz
fic sd-11 mb
3dfx Voodoo3 1000 AGP
192mb of ram
Kenwood 72x true-x
15gb 7200rpm hard drive
SB Live!
3com 905-b nic

 

[Pettytheft]

For gaming performance, in your case the Radeon will do wonders compared to what your currently running. If your running 3d games go for the Radeon. Do doubts about it.

If you take a truth and follow it blindly, it will become a Falsehood and you a Fanatic.

 

[tartarhus]

Definitely get a new video card over cpu; but i wouldn't waste my money on the 64MB version. Just pick up an Le version and save yourself the hundred bucks. Check out www.rage3d.com for radeon info before you go and spend your hard earned cash.

 

[AEboy128]

Do you think that a radeon would be a better choice than a Nvidia??

Intel sux, AMD is better

 

[rcf84]

yes, it is image wise. Heck it ran very fast when i had my celeron 533. Heck get a Radeon LE for $70 - $80 of pricewatch.com. Also upgrade your athlon 500 to atleast 700 or 800 and your set for a while.

Northwood P4 + i845(brookdale)+ 1gb PC100 SDRAM + SCSI3 640 +ATi Radeon 2 = Dream Team

 

[AEboy128]

what ati radeon do you have? You dont think that it is worth the money to get a ddr 32mb or maybe the 64mb?

Intel sux, AMD is better

 

[rcf84]

I have a 32mb DDR radeon. LE is the same but hyperz disabled. You can fix that in regedit.

P4 2.0ghz+i845+1gb pc100+Radeon2= Dream Team = palomino 1.5ghz+256mb pc2100+ radeon 32mb ddr

 

[AEboy128]

about how many fps do you get outta the radeon??

Intel sux, AMD is better

 

[rcf84]

I get

3dmark 2000 - 4900 marks
3dmark 2001 - 2800 marks
Quake3 1028 x 768 32bit- 50fps

on a P3 733 , 256mb PC133, ATi radeon 32mb DDR

not bad i have to start tweaking hehe

P4 2.0ghz+i845+1gb pc100+Radeon2= Dream Team =palomino 1.5ghz+256mb pc2100+Magik1+radeon 32mb

 

[Guest]

Man, if you can afford then buy yourself GF2 64MB Pro. The card is rock solid. It has extremely good graphics and frame rates are even high.

I had Radeon 64 MB and can tell you that some game arenot running so good as many say they do. The moment I shifted to Geforce 2 it was a whole different story. Now, I have GF2 Ultra and boy frame rates and even the picture quality is fantastic.

I am running AMD Thundbird 900 @ 1008, 256 MB PC133 7.5 NS CL2, ABIT KT7A , WIN98SE, 19" Sony E400 Monitor.

3D Mark 2000 - 7898
3D Mark 2001 - 3950

That with Detonator 3 version 12.00

 

[Guest]

Hmm, so let me see if I have this right...the Radeon LE is EXACTLY the same as a Radeon 32 meg DDR card, except for something that I can tweak in the registry? If I buy the card and apply the appropriate edit to my windows registry, I have a fully functional 32DDR card for less than 2/3 the price?

 

[JoeHead]

I have the Radeon vivo. Drivers suck. Gaming is alright. Picture looks great. Like the tv in and vid out on the card.

I would suggest a GF2 Pro.

<b><A HREF="http://www.seti.tomshardware.com/" target="_new">How fast is your PC</A></b>

 

[noko]

Pretty much so except the Le after installing a fan on the Heatsind for the Radeon chip seems to overclock better than the ATI regular 32meg DDR version. I have a Radeon 64 ViVo and I love it. Drivers now (at least for me) are good.

 

[AEboy128]

My Budget is around $180 so the GF2 64mb would be kinda
outa the question. I found what i think is a pretty good price on the Radeon 64mb. The price is 185. Since im not in a hurry ill probably wait for the gf3 to come out so maybe the other cards prices drop. I can get a GF2 with 32mb for $120. Would the GF2 be a better card??

Intel sux, AMD is better

 

[AEboy128]

my pc is a 500mhz athlon as described in my origional ?.

3dfx voodoo 3 1000 AGP
Fic sd-11
Kenwood 72x true-x
SB-live
192mb ram
3com 10/100 nic


Intel sux, AMD is better

 

[Guest]

Yes, the Radeon is a good choice. You can get the 64MB DDR for under 200 dollars.The 32 MB variant is even less than that, however in texture intensive games the 64 MB of memory comes in handy.This card visually kicks the crap out of my GF2 32MB that i had, and with the extra memory everything i currently play seems alot smoother.

 

[Guest]

Your cpu is too slow for a new graphic card.
My opinion is that you upgrade your cpu and your graphic card.
There is three choices depanding on your money:
*get a 3d prophet geforce2 gts (32 or 64mb ddr) and an athlon 1ghz.
*get a 3d prophet mx (geforce 2 mx) and an athlon 800mhz.
*wait for the 3d prophet 4500 karo2 and an athlon 800 mhz.

The first choice will cost you more than 200 $, but the other ones will cost <200$.
Trust me and don't get a rodeon especially with an athlon, because the rodeon run better with a pentium but the geforce run better with an athlon.

 

[noko]

He can get a Radeon LE for less than $75 and clock it up to perform like a 32meg DDR Radeon and Unlock HyperZ. As for a MX, I say throw it in the trash. With the money saved, upgrade the cpu or buy a gold finger card and overclock current cpu up to 700mhz. Chances are very good to be able to overclock current CPU to 600-650mhz with out a problem. All of this could be done for less than $100. Less than the lowest cost GF2.

 

[AEboy128]

how would i overclock the cpu, when the bus speed wont go any higher. Would raising the voltage work?? The only problem is the mobo is a fic sd-11. So the fastest cpu i can put in it is an 800mhz. It would be higher but it is a Slot A.

Intel sux, AMD is better

 

[Guest]

Well, yes about the Voltage. But I seem to remember something called a Gold Finger Device, that unlocked the K7 Athlon Multiplier, much like the Pencil Trick with todays Thunderbirds. You would remove the casing on the CPU, and then put this thing on a little slot on the CPU or something like that, you wouldf have to look around and see if u could find some more info.

P.S. I'd suggest you just make sure your Mobo has the Latest BIOS, with a BIOS update u might be able to go up to 1GHz, the highest Slot A Athlon.

 

[noko]

A gold finger card connects to your Athlon slot A test connection. Huh? Where is this test connection on my Athlon classic? you may ask. well if you are looking at your athlon on the plastic side with the cpu connection on the bottom it would be the right upper side under the plastic cover. Most people take off the plastic cover to overclock their classics with a goldfinger(GF) card. You don't need to do that because I have another method that works better. What this GF card does is manipulate your cpu multiple and voltage to your classic by using a series of dip switches. Meaning it can fool your motherboard in thinking it is a higher speed Athlon. How fast depends on the Athlon. Yours will probably go up to 700mhz and then a L2 cache speed limitation comes into play. You need to check the web for GoldFinger devices, they should be real cheap to get now days since slot A Athlons are no longer made.

 

[noko]

Here is a link where a GF card took a 500mhz Athlon classic up to 800mhz. <i>Note: this is actually a step beyond a typical GF card.</i>

<A HREF="http://www.hothardware.com/hh_files/CCAM/OLAfterburner!.htm" target="_new">http://www.hothardware.com/hh_files/CCAM/OLAfterburner!.htm</A>

<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by noko on 04/30/01 08:02 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[noko]

Some links still selling GF devices:

<A HREF="http://www.highspeedpc.com/" target="_new">http://www.highspeedpc.com/</A>
<A HREF="http://www.powerchips.co.uk/pcharger.htm" target="_new">http://www.powerchips.co.uk/pcharger.htm</A>
Here is one for $29 on a rather cool site.
<A HREF="http://www.powerchips.co.uk/pcharger.htm" target="_new">http://www.powerchips.co.uk/pcharger.htm</A>
$39
<A HREF="http://www.k7oc.com/pictures.html" target="_new">http://www.k7oc.com/pictures.html</A>
<A HREF="http://www.ninjamicros.com/freespeed.html" target="_new">http://www.ninjamicros.com/freespeed.html</A>

Now faster speed Athlon classics are still available so you have to consider overall costs. Plus there is no way of knowing how fast your classic will go until you try. Now you have a AMD 751 chipset meaning a Slot A T-Bird will work in your motherboard. A 800mhz T-bird slot A goes for $80 now while a 700mhz slot A T-bird goes for $56. You are looking at a slightly higher cost by using a faster CPU then a GF device. My recommendation is to upgrade your cpu to a slot A T-bird. $56 will increase your you computing power up 40% while $80 60%. Plus it is a T-Bird which is faster then any classic Athlon clock per clock.

<i>A 750mhz slot A T-bird can be had for $58</i>


<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by noko on 04/30/01 08:56 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[noko]

You are probably getting tired of all my responses but here is the scoop.
Buy Radeon LE - $70 (lowest price on Pricewatch.com)
Buy 750mhz T-Bird slot A - $58 (lowest price on Pricewatch.com)
<b>Total - $128</b>

Much better deal then just a GF2 card for virtually the same cost, get much faster cpu <b>50%</b>, much better 2d quality, much better video quality as in DVD, after unlocking the Radeon LE it performs similar to a GF2 in 32 bit high res gaming. You will have a gaming machine that would last at least 1 year. Not bad at all I say, lucky that you have the AMD 751 chipset.



<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1><EM>Edited by noko on 04/30/01 08:57 PM.</EM></FONT></P>

 

[AEboy128]

No, your posts i have found helpful. That is probably what i will do. Does anyone kno if i can just bump up the voltage with out a gf card to pick up some speed??



Intel sux, AMD is better