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Radeon or G-force..choices, choices.


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Well, I'll tell you right now. Radeons don't support Fog Table Emulation. Which means you won't be able to see Fog in CM.

I'd definately go with a Geforce. I've got a 64MB Geforce 2 GTS Pro Platinum and I love it. But you're board has to have an AGP Pro slot to use a AGP Pro card. And only some of the newest boards have AGP Pro slots, so you're probably stuck with a normal AGP card

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ATI has a very long history of releasing crappy drivers and never really fixing them without at the same time add new features, bwhich are in turn broken. Enough that I will never buy an ATI card again and I am not amused what the ATI rage mobility does in my notebook under Windows.

The only reason for ATI is that you get drivers for Linux/FreeBSD with source code.

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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Abbott:

Mainboard is ASUS P3B-F:

Looking for information on its slots now. Anyone know off hand what slots it supports?

[ 04-17-2001: Message edited by: Abbott ]<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

The P3B-F won't support AGP Pro, but I would go for a regular Geforce 2.

http://www.asus.com/Products/Motherboard/Pentiumpro/P3b-f/feature.html

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Also check the Kyro II graphics board coming out this May. Check Hercules.con (Guillemott). It's a budget card for $149 and supposedly outperforms a geforce2. As always though check for tech reviews from more than one source (the reviews at Sharkeysextreme for example) before you make a purchase on anything.

http://us.hercules.com/products/video/3dp_4500_64mb/index.php3

-Tiger

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Wow, a 64mb card for $149.00. Thanks Tiger!

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"At a price point of $149, we were not expecting much from the 3D Prophet 4500. Considering the memory bandwidth of 2.8GB/s and a fillrate of 350Mpixels/s, these beliefs were duly justified. Imagine our surprise when the KYRO II-equipped 3D Prophet 4500 blew past all competitively priced cards on the market. So, when all is said and done, we are left with compelling performance, solid drivers, and game compatibility unlike any other iteration of the PowerVR architecture. For $149, the 3D Prophet 4500 is able to best both NVIDIA and ATI's top efforts in the value market. Guess it really pays to work smarter, not harder."

Chris Angelini, editor

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"The performance of the Kyro II based 3D Prophet 4500 is nothing short of stunning given its price: a mere $149.99. With its tile based rendering algorithm, the Kyro II provides blazing fast performance considering the price and was actually able to beat products almost $200 more than the cost of a Kyro II based board. Throughout the benchmarks, the Kyro II based 3D Prophet 4500 simply dominated everything else in its price range. The Kyro II was ready and able to tackle any game we sent its way."-

Mathew Witheiler, Anandtech

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Some stunning reviews (from link above, Tiger's post).

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<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Maximus:

But you're board has to have an AGP Pro slot to use a AGP Pro card. And only some of the newest boards have AGP Pro slots, so you're probably stuck with a normal AGP card<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

Maximus,

Looking over NVIDIA's specs on GeForce2 GTS and the ULTRA I see no requirement about having a AGP Pro slot. Considering the GTS consumes less then 10 watts I don't see why any standard AGP 2.0 complient slot wouldn't support a Gerforce2 GTS card.

Jeff

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One tidbit of info that may / may not be relevant depending on your full reasons for upgrade:

I recently looked at upgrading my graphics card (a V770 ultra) to a Geforce2 GTS or something similar. I came to the conclusion that the improvement in frame rate would be minimal. As I recall the increase in pixel throughput would be about x2 or a little more with a x4 AGP motherboard but my motherboard (a Abit Be6 II v2) only supports x2 AGP transfers so the net effect would be close to nothing (I beleive). Looks like your motherboard is from the same era and also only supports x2 AGP. However if you have a straight V770 without the ultra chipset you will see a tiny improvement, maybe 20%, i.e. not much.

There is some useful info here : http://arstechnica.com/reviews/graphics.html

A related point, that I'm less sure of, is whether CM supports x4 AGP at all. I think x4 hardware was not widely available when CM was released but I don't know if software support is required to see the improved pixel transfer rate. Can anyone answer this?

Another issue is that you need a processor capable of keeping up with these high end graphics cards - something roughly equivalent to a 700MHz Pentium III is about the minimum otherwise you won't see all the potential of these cards.

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Thanks Kwacker,

I have thought of the same issues. I am running a standard V770 from Diamond with a PIII 600. My board will support a 933mhz, which may be my next upgrade along with a new video card. I am also thinking of just over-clocking my 600 if things slow down.

Actually my current set-up runs just fine with today's software. My girlfriends system is lacking. PII 350mhz with on-board sound and video (Gateway). My choices are kick my current system down to her and buy a new AMD system or install a 933Mhz PIII and new video card in my current system. Leaving my PIII 600 and V770 for her system along with a new Main board.

So I am looking at a CPU, Video card and sound card plus a new mainboard (GF/sys) or a new AMD system. Upgrades would probably run about $500.00 or so for both systems. Compare that to a new AMD system and I am right where everyone else finds themselves every year or two.

[ 04-17-2001: Message edited by: Abbott ]

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I would go with the Geforce, hands down. Their driver support is excellent, and now that their the big kids on the video card block, many games will be optimized to work with Geforce cards.

Also, they are very easy to overclock, just add a couple of registry entries and the overclocking options are available in your display properties. FYI, go to http://www.pricewatch.com to shop around for different card options, very, very good prices. I've ordered from several different companies thru pricewatch, and always received great service.

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Guest ckoharik

<BLOCKQUOTE>quote:</font><HR>Originally posted by Martin Cracauer:

...I am not amused what the ATI rage mobility does in my notebook under Windows.

<HR></BLOCKQUOTE>

What problems are you having with the Mobily chipset? I run CM and a few other progs under WinME (yeck) and have had no problem with the small exception of Black & White which causes a flicker.

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