View Full Version : Whats your Hardwear?
wendyfoo
04-04-2002, 20:59
Hey tech question. Do you guys know what type of video card your running, and how stable/fast/compatible it is?
I'm thinking of buying a new one. Got a Matrox card.. the G400 MAX , but don't need the dual monitor support. But want a good card for gamming. This is for my gamming computer primarily.
1. name/moddle
2. reliability.
3. aprox. cost... (optional)
4. first respons to card
5. product support, (can you get the latest drivers easily)
6. anything other.. (like a scale of 1 to 10, ten being high)
Thanks guys and girls.
Wendyfoo
Well...My card has a GEFORCE 2 GTS chipset... QUITE FAST ! 32 MB DDR RAM...that means like 64 MB normal RAMs....I guess 150$...The Modell name is ASUS AGP V7700
High resolution...own cooler...and I can still play games with very high standards ! :tup:
But I will buy a new card in some weeks ...a GEFORCE 4....
Warspite
05-04-2002, 11:50
I have a 32mb PCI card - Hercules Prophet (don't laugh!)
It is not top of the range obviously, BUT -
1) it is CHEAP (50 quid!)
2) It is really reliable - it installed straight away with no trouble, and runs perfectly on evry game I've tried - Counter Strike runs fine for example, Civ 3, old games. Black and White etc.
3) they have 64MB and AGP versions of the same card, and also more advanced models.
4) they have lots of patches on their website - some general driver updates, but also some updates which are game specific. They actually seem to CARE!!!! :eek:
I move comrades... :angel:
..ah by the way...drivers are easy to download for my card !
Whitewolf
05-04-2002, 12:39
I have a......a........
a....
a....
tnt2??
*hides in embarrassment*
HAHA ! Wolfy ! And you are still able to play newer games ?
Whitewolf
05-04-2002, 12:46
it's 32 MB though,so,yeah :)
What RAM ? SDR or DDR ? I GOT DDR ! HAHA ! :grngrin: :grntngue: :p
Whitewolf
05-04-2002, 12:57
Erm.....
Outdated RAM?
I don't really know.It's not stated anywhere....
Well...DDR means---> double density ram, that means as good as 64 MB normal RAM ! :grngrin:
Understudy
05-04-2002, 13:06
1. ATI Radeon 8500 (agp) 64Mb DDR
2. seems reasonably ok.. a few teething issues with the original drivers, but the new ones are pretty good.
3. 210 squids
4. I like it so far....
5. ATI are bringing out new drivers frequently, and there are web site where you can get 'unoffical' drivers that community programmers have 'tweaked'.
6. I guess if you've got the cash, then go for a GeForce 4 ti 4600 which will kickass. Below that is the GF 3 ti 500 or the Radeon 8500 (ATI seem to be sorting the drivers out now).
Whitewolf
05-04-2002, 13:39
I need a better video card.....
Actually Diablo DDR RAM means Double Data Rate Random Access Memory, So its not twice the size but it is twice the speed :D
Most Matrox cards (Especially the G400 MAXX) are designed for CGI editing/Creation and 3-D rendering in programs such as lightwave. This makes the cards a little bit lacking in game performance and special effects. Personally I would recomend an ATI or Nvidia.
If you live in the UK and you want to get a good price for your new card take a look here................ www.aria.co.uk
I buy all of my parts from there and the prices are fantastic
1. My current card is a Cardex Nvidia GeForce II MX 400 64mb,
2. it is a very fast and stable card for the price.
3. Ģ60 half a year ago
4. Best card I have had so far, but i am upgrading to a GF III ti200/500 or a GF IV ti 4400/4800 within the next month.
5. Latest Drivers support most games perfectly, and new patches are released all the time.
6. I would have rated this card 10/10 when I first got it but with most up to date games i would rate it 8/10
I was interested to hear what Zrbyte said about Matrox cards, as my previous one was a Matrox G400. I was very pleased with it when I was using it for image editing at high-resolution (1920 x 1440 I have a 50cm monitor) but I found it didn't cut it when I got one of the new 3D games about a year ago, and replaced it with one aimed more at games. I got an:
1) ATI Radeon 32MB DDR
2) Completely reliable at 'normal' resolutions (up to 1600 x 1200). Had some problems with the highest resolutions, especially with graphics tablet support, but this wouldn't affect most people.
3) Ģ150 at the time, probably newer versions are available now...
4) Very pleased with the 3D performance compared to the Matrox... but it must be said it's not as good from a 2D point of view.
5) Had no problem downloading drivers from ATI's website.
6) Slight smearing of fine detail on high-contrast boundaries show it to be inferior to the Matrox in that respect. You wouldn't notice when playing a game, but if you used your PC for serious 2D work you'd probably find it a bit irritating. I can't compare it with other 3D games cards because it's the first one I've had.
Originally posted by Zrbyte
Actually Diablo DDR RAM means Double Data Rate Random Access Memory, So its not twice the size but it is twice the speed :D
OOOoops... :eek: YOU ARE RIGHT...I ALWAYS CONFUSE IT... :grntngue: ..but itīs double as good as SDR, right ? :grntngue:
Diablo: yup, IT is twice as good as SDR ;)
wendyfoo
06-04-2002, 13:12
Thanks for the replys guys, My last two cards have been the matrox G200 and G400 MAX. Fairly desent cards. but the tend to lack on 3D.
The Nvidia cards have come highly recommened by others. even teh Gforce II w/64 is nice.. basicly the beer version versious champaign. :lolblue:
Champain ? One glass please ! :grngrin:
Whitewolf
06-04-2002, 14:09
One glass for me too please :)
The last card I got before the Nvida tnt2 I currently have,is a lousy,8MB video card......
I had a Matrox Millenium (2-D) and a Voodoo 2
Whitewolf
06-04-2002, 14:17
I upgrade my video cards each time I get a new PC.I never buy cards and install them myself.
Why ? It is so easy to install the cards ! Tse ! :wierdblu:
Whitewolf
06-04-2002, 18:32
It is,but they don't come cheap. :(
Cheaper than a new computer me thinks.
The_Hawk
10-04-2002, 16:51
APG slot ? Skys the limit Edge of Chaos was designed to play in the nNivida G-Force 3 enviorment but that was last year now it's G-Force 4 with highly sophisticated bump mapping (Dot3) achieving shiny and reflective levels never before seen in a consumer card. Their new engine supports up to 8 texture blend operations , dependent texture reads ,and programmable pixel shaders. The IW2 CD game uses a highly optimised vertex shader-based engine capable of rendering over 1 million textured polygons per frame including the ships built with as many as 300,000 polys themselves.
The API cards 32meg and 64 meg don't seem to mesh with this type of engine well and frequently crash . I know this from experience. I just bought a new PCI card GeForce4 MX 420 64MB memory 256bit graphics accelerator with 350Mhz RAMDAC processor and life time warranty ....
Best Buy $119.00 plus Tax.
Hawk :coolred:
Nick Shub
14-04-2002, 16:39
Originally posted by wendyfoo
Hey tech question. Do you guys know what type of video card your running, and how stable/fast/compatible it is?
I'm thinking of buying a new one. Got a Matrox card.. the G400 MAX , but don't need the dual monitor support. But want a good card for gamming. This is for my gamming computer primarily.
1. name/moddle
2. reliability.
3. aprox. cost... (optional)
4. first respons to card
5. product support, (can you get the latest drivers easily)
6. anything other.. (like a scale of 1 to 10, ten being high)
Thanks guys and girls.
Wendyfoo
I'm using Radeon 8500 and I'm very pleased with it. It has the best price/performance ratio of all available consumer cards. It is packed with features: crystal clear 2D (nearly as good as Matrox), extremely fast 3D, hydravision (ATI's name for dual-monitor support), TV-out, theatre features (DVD decoding &al.)
If you live in Europe, you can get one for 199.
Driver support hasn't been ATI's best field, but updates are now regular and the quality is getting better all time.
I'm running win2k with two displays 24/7 and haven't had any graphics card related issues (I use older 6014 drivers).
For more info visit:
http://www.ati.com/products/pc/radeon8500/index.html
I have a Geforce 2 64 and its nice enough. Haven't bothered to download a driver in 9 months, everything runs fine in top res with full detail. 1024x768.
Do you think we should have a seperate hardware forum? There's another thread on OT talking about PC specs already...
Whitewolf
23-04-2002, 21:42
It's cheaper than a new PC to just upgrade the graphics card,but for one thing,I don't know how to do it,and for another thing,my PC tends to mess up every time new hardware is added,so I want to take the risk.
Yeah Ive had my fair few mistakes when installing new hardware (I have even had old hardware mysteriously start acting strange on me due to a minor mistake wich I never noticed when I first put the hardware in)
Whitewolf
02-05-2002, 10:05
Yeah.
External hardware(modems,printers and the like) are still pretty much safe for me to install,but internal hardware,well....
Maybe I'll go get a custom made PC......
well....I changed the RAMs ,Videocard, Soundcard and Networkcard for myself....that was no problem ! But I will never change my motherboard of my own !:confblue:
Whitewolf
02-05-2002, 10:17
I make it a point NOT to even open the casing.
It's just too risky......
Hey just open it...take out the screws and see whatīs inside...thatīs the way I lost my fears...:grngrin:
Whitewolf
02-05-2002, 10:28
I know,but it was scary enough seeing someone else install RAM into my old PC.
I might try it someday,but as for now.......
Well,the PC's interior is out of bounds....
well...I donīt think that a pc is that complicated....but IF you destroy something accidently...itīs really expensive...:bigeye:
Whitewolf
02-05-2002, 10:37
And I have destroyed such things before,so....
oops....ok now I understand you fears !:eek:
Whitewolf
02-05-2002, 10:40
Exactly.....
Well,I might go get a custom PC,so I'll probably need to conquer that fear first.
Hey..when you get problems....just ask me !:grngrin: :tup:
Warspite
02-05-2002, 14:03
Ha! I am so clever....
2 weeks ago I built a PC from scratch; it was the first time I tried it, and it cost me 200 squid!! I bought a second hand case, video card (16mb-ha-ha!) AND a 1 year old 15 inch monitor for 25 pounds, and a floppy disc and 24 speed cd-rom for 10 pounds.
Modem cost just 5 pounds.
The motherboard, 256 Ram, 1 Ghz processor and fan, and 20GB hard drive were all brand new, but only came to around 150.00GBP
I put it together in 4 hours, but it took twice that to make Windows work properly - it all works now though, and I am well chuffed with it.
Next stop is a network at home, to get all 4 pcs hooked up together:bounce: :D :D :D
Whitewolf
02-05-2002, 14:16
Whoa!4 PC's?
Man!
And a home network too?!
Warspite
02-05-2002, 15:08
..I still have to think of a reason to HAVE 4 networked PCs though - being able to play CS on a LAN against myself , is not realy good enough...:rollani:
Whitewolf
02-05-2002, 15:59
Well,with a home network,you could host small LAN parties :)
Originally posted by Warspite
..I still have to think of a reason to HAVE 4 networked PCs though - being able to play CS on a LAN against myself , is not realy good enough...:rollani:
Hey dude...Time to get some REAL friends out there....If you believe it or not....you CAN leave your house....YES it is not locked up ! LEAVE IT !:tup: :devil:
Whitewolf
02-05-2002, 18:01
haha!
I wish I could set up a network too,but the computers at my place have big differences in processor speed.
Warspite
02-05-2002, 18:16
I dont want to leave the house!!! I live in York, and the natives still speak bloody Viking:rollani:
lol "Viking"
I have only ever bought 1 Prebuilt PC and a Laptop both of wich suck bigtime.
I built the machine I am using at the moment 100% by myself and it runs rings around my friends Geforce 4 ti4400 + 1.4ghz machine
Mine is an old Athlon T'Bird 850mhz with a Geforce II MX400
Originally posted by Warspite
I dont want to leave the house!!! I live in York, and the natives still speak bloody Viking:rollani:
Sorry for that....ok then...forget what I said...lock up your room....protect it with mines....and wait for help....:eek:
Warspite
03-05-2002, 16:21
AAAAHH!!!
The shouts of "Skol!" are deafening....and they're trampling my plants:eek:
"SKOL"...is the same as "CHEERS" , right ?:grngrin: :tup:
WingCommander
16-05-2002, 11:00
Well, If whitewolf's Pc sounded outdated, wait to se mine...
Athlon 500 with 512 mb RAM and a state-of-the-art graphic card:
ELSA Erazor III PRO (TNT 2 Pro Card with 3 different video out ports and 2 different video in ports)
If you know the manufacturer, then you know what I am talking about and yes, new games still runs good with it like edge of chaos. But I have rencently spotted a game going to be released which is just going to not work on my pc :cry: ( I have not writted the game name bacause it is not an Infogrames game, it is a game mady by Cryo, but if moderators / webmasters allow me to do so I will post the name an a link to its page )
If I will have to reccomend a card, I will reccomend the new ELSA Gladiac 920 ( GeForce 4 with 128 DDR RAM, and the typical 5 year warranty ), but altough I do not know the exact cost, it must be EXTREMLY high :( :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry: :cry:
My next big upgrades to my machine will be..........
1. Liquid cooling for my CPU, Hard Drives
2. Adding 2 new water blocks for Mobo chipset and GPU chipset
3. New graphics Prob Geforce 4 or 5 (if it is out by then)
4. 120gb hdd to go alongside my 40gb + 60gb already (I also have another 40gb but i will be selling it to make space for the new drive)
5. a 350w ~ 400w PSU to power it all
6. A new amp + 2 satelite speakers 1 sub woofer and 2 LARGE primary speakers.
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