Which Card Should I plan on?

[Dracas]

I've decided its come down to one of three cards, the nVidia GeForce 4 Ti4600 128MB from Leadtek (Winfast), the Matrox Parhelia 128MB Surround gaming card, or waiting for the new ATi Radeon 9700 to release, and building up extra funds to get that, so what do you guys think?

[AllGamer]

Check out the links in this other post
http://www.sysopt.com/forum/showthread.php?s=&threadid=112821

in case you people are lazy, here are the links

LOOK at these 3D render Eye Candies

This is an eye candy brough to you by ATi RADEON 9700
(it's not a picture, it's a 3D render)

http://image.com.com/gamespot/images/2002/hardware/radeon9700/radeon_screen005.jpg

And check out the 128 bit colors!!
(a small quote from the whole article)

"The 128-bit internal color range will allow for a much wider dynamic range for colors."

http://gamespot.com/gshw/stories/flat/0,12880,2874779-3,00.html

Here you can compare the difference between normal and improved 32 vs 64 vs 128 bit color

http://www.tomshardware.com/graphic/02q3/020718/radeon9700-06.html

it's simply too cool to miss out, can't wait for the All In Wonder version of the RADEON 9700.

[InnovaZero]

Honestlly, it's best to wait for the Radeon 9700 to come out, then get the Ti 4600 because prices will drop. Then later on get the Radeon 9700 or NV30 when their prices are droped and when that type of performance is really needed.

[AllGamer]

have you checked the Differences??

can the GF4 Ti 4600 or say GF5 Ti 5700 do that??

[Dracas]

Nice to spam that bit in there AllGamer, yet I haven't heard a lot about the new Radeon 9700...and your URLS don't work in any way except Error 404, so get me some working links to look at, and I'll consider. Then again, thats the point of these poles

That said, I don't give a rats ars what the 9700 can do, the idea of 3D Surround gaming with the Parhelia sounds kick tail. The Leadtek GeForce4 Ti is simply what I can afford (and is the cheapest). etc I'm still using a Voodoo 3 2000, so anyhting is an improvement (Not knocking 3dfx, still the best cards in my opinion, too bad they got mulched).

[AllGamer]

Try Again, they should work now.

[Dracas]

but...wanna bet? they still don't work :rolleyes:

Prolly because they get foreshortened or something, I'm fdoing some manual searching on Google for the new cards, no sweat, I'll find some eyecandy of my own =)

[dyurdz]

Huh? It works for me... all I can say is.... "... " ****... Allgamer's "(it's not a picture, it's a 3D render)" was appropriate. I hated what the Bump mapping did to the car's hood though...

[AllGamer]

Originally posted by dyurdz
Huh? It works for me... all I can say is.... "... " ****... Allgamer's "(it's not a picture, it's a 3D render)" was appropriate. I hated what the Bump mapping did to the car's hood though...

all you talking about the Comparison in Toms hardware with the Split screen??

the left side is the normal render, no 128 bit color, the right side is the one with 128 bit color

[Dracas]

Did I read that wrong??? Is the price tag going to be $399 on the 9700 when it hits the market? If so, Da-yum, thats what I was budgetting for a new card *anyhow*.

Holy Sh*tz :eek: :eek: :eek:

I want it I want it I want it I want it...

...but only if ATi releases a good driver set this time. ATi has a poor track record when it comes to past product support and software drivers, at least personally. So if they provide good drivers, I'm game

[AllGamer]

read about the CARALYST drivers on ati.com

[Dracas]

Looks interesting, but I'm still not sure -

That said, if anyone thinks the "Xabre" is a nice competitor, vote 'other' considering its a SiS Graphics GPU, it doesn't look half bad, and it was first off the line with 8X AGP support, with AMD in second, and nVidia lagging behind for some reason....they'll probably wow us later, if not, good, I hope they go under like 3DFX did so the snobs get a good taste of what they did after they bought 3DFX's assets and dropped support

Hmm, I think I'm leaning towards the ATi 9700 or the Xabre personally...I never was one to buy mainstream.

:) :) :)

[AllGamer]

if 3DFX still exist, as a company of its own, and had good tech support.

I'd have voted for them.

cuz i'm still very happy with my 3DFX Voodoo 2

too bad they are DOA.:(

[Dracas]

For being so far behind current 'Graphics Processing Units', I'm still very happy with my Voodoo and Voodoo Based Graphics Card (3DFX Voodoo3 2000 in current use and an Intergraph I3D Voodoo 2 TV/out/3D-Steroscopic Port) as a matter of fact, with Drivers like those provided by the 3DFX Underground and CAirey (CAirey's in Particular...) they've shown what these cards are still capable of, and better yet, what they were capable of back when they were released and no one realized their true potential (well, everyone did, but this card performs a lot better these days then when I first bought them with the reference drivers, go fig).

I have to be curious and wonder what the yield would be if the old 3DFX Team got together, and started a new company to release Graphics cards.

I even considered trying to find a Voodoo 4/5 and trying to see what I could do by borrowing the chipset and trying to remanufacture them with a Pre/Post processing engine to expand their capability


Gee, that'd be something to see, a 3DFX Card with Cinematic Quality effects, DDR Memory (in a quaint 128 MB Package) and all the works

I think it'd be on my christmas list, thats for **** sure

[Dracas]

Wheres'it?

So far its down to the Radeon 9700 (and I'll probably grab a TV Wonder while I'm at it, since I like to buy video functionality from the same company as the videocard retailer - eg, the WinFast TV2000XP, if I got the GeForce4, TV Wonder if I bought ATi, etc) - I do-not-want an ATi All In Wonder. They're okay, but performance is always on the low end for some reason when it comes to those, so I've "X"'d them from my list.

So whose got dirt on the NV30 to have a glance at?

[AllGamer]

Well it's understandable the slight Power loss on an
All -In-Wonder vs the Normal
cuz of all that circuitry on the same board, some how they have to compensate for each other.

when you but a stand alone 3d card, it has nothing extra, so it works as fast as it can.

but since i don't mind, i always go for the All In Wonder, now i'm using the All In Wonder 8500 DV, as soon as the 9700 comes out with the All In Wonder model, i'll get that one.

like wise, the normal Radeon 8500 is faster than the AIW Radeon 8500

[Dracas]

Its a bit more expensive, but by buying a Radeon 9700 or Geforce4 (what have you) with VIVO/DVI and then buying a TV-Addon, you get most if not all of the same functionality of a Personal Cinema or AIW Radeon, with more flexibility for ripping out cards that get outdated, EG, you keep your AIW'esque functionality of the TV card but can still go get the latest 3D card with VIVO,DVI, the works and save a few beans in the process

I wonder why ATI or nVidia doesn't just package the Secondary Addon Cards for TV in/Out as an option instead of the AIW/Personal Cinema.

Hmm...in a way it almost pays for itself in the process - guess theres a method to my madness :)

[AllGamer]

is true, now in days more and more Video Cards comes with TV Out.
and the TV Wonder, or whatever, will take care of all the iNPUTS

my reason for using the All In Wonder, is the Slot i'll save, since i've totally maxed out all my 8 slots in my tower case.

so if i did it that way, i'll have to sacrifice some other board, that i need. :(

[Dracas]

You have all your Expansion slots filled?


With what? I'm having a hard time even finding a use for the spare PCI slots in my system, I have them all mapped out for things I'll be buying later and there is still two left over

Only thing I've managed to max out on my system is the IDE channels, and I've got five drive with four open, dah X_x...think I'll invest in a RAID card