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Eric Coleman
Gladiator
USA
811 Posts |
 Posted - Nov 11 2004 : 5:09:22 PM
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I'm surprised that more people own ATI cards than nVidia.
Anyone going to be upgrading their motherboards and video cards to pci express? The specs look really cool, but it's going to cost a lot of money to upgrade, which sucks. 
Also, anyone using the 64bit AMD chips? |
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VBBR
Moderator
Brazil
617 Posts |
Posted - Nov 11 2004 : 5:54:34 PM
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From what I've read, currently PCIe 16x runs about the same speed as AGP 8x because all that nominal 16x isn't fully used.
Anyway I'm very happy with my (2 months old) ATI Radeon 9600XT AGP 8x. 
My CPU is an Athlon XP 1800 MHz. Not too fast anyway (probably my 256mb 266mhz ram tough), but I think it's good. I don't think 64-bit is necessary now. Probably just a waste of money (unless you want to say to everyone "hey look, i've got a 64-bit pc, that's double of yours!" so everyone thinks it's actually double the processing speed).
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Whatever. Who knows... |
Edited by - VBBR on Nov 11 2004 5:55:48 PM |
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Sr. Guapo
Swordmaster
USA
272 Posts |
Posted - Nov 11 2004 : 6:12:00 PM
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My computer (which is still in fundraising mode) will probably be an nForce 4 SLI setup with and AMD 64. With SLI, I could buy two 6600 GTs for less than one 6800 Ultra, and still get better performance. My current estimates put the total cost at just under 1700 USD (which is nothing compared to a comprable Dell setup).
Edit: Yeah, currently, the full bandwidth of the x16 PCI-e is not fully needed (No0 games use that many textures), so the preformance gains are minimal. However, as games progress, the need for PCI-e will increase and AGP will probably have a slow, painful drawnout death.
While The 64 bit architechture is not neccesary yet, the AMD 64s are still better at 32 bit processing than the P4s. The 64/32 bit hybrids will allow a smooth transistion from 32 bit to 64, allowing one to run both 32 and 64 biut programs at the same time. Supposedly, the AMD 64s are just scratching the surface of the 64 bit realm, and once fully 64 bit capable chips become widely available, they will probably be much better still. |
Edited by - Sr. Guapo on Nov 11 2004 7:44:45 PM |
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cbx
Swordmaster
Canada
296 Posts |
Posted - Nov 15 2004 : 6:13:51 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Eric Coleman
<br>I'm surprised that more people own ATI cards than nVidia.
Anyone going to be upgrading their motherboards and video cards to pci express? The specs look really cool, but it's going to cost a lot of money to upgrade, which sucks.
Also, anyone using the 64bit AMD chips?
Hmmm what can I say. I just upgraded my computer a few weeks ago and wow, I've been missing out! You can get the specs for my old system and my new system on the Help Bin page just look for my two entries with the user name of "cbx"
http://www.vbgamer.com/helpbin/browse.asp?cat=betatest
I made sure to do a Aquamark test before and after upgrading and the results speak for themselves
Old system
CPU: 3,704
GFX 339
TPS: 1,507,412 3.25fps
TOTAL: 3,253
New System
CPU: 10,153
GFX: 7,980
TPS: 17,245,650 57.29fps
TOTAL: 57,288
With the 3D Mark 2003 test I scored a lame ass 115 on my old system compared to my new systems score of 9057!
Oh, mamma! Those numbers speak for themselves!
I also recently purchased Doom3, FarCry, and UT2004, and can play all thoes games at hi res with all settings on high and still get awesome performance.
I was going to wait a couple more months for PCI-X to start taking shape and to see if any new graphics cards come down the pipe but in the end I realized that for the ammount of games that I actualy play the system that I got will do just fine.
The one thing I wished I had done differently was to get a BFGTech GeForce 6800 GT because my X800 pro only has 12 pixel piplines and the 6800GT has 16 giving it a sizable performance lead. I had also considered getting the X800 XT but seriously could not justify dropping $700 CAD a full $171CAD more then the X800 Pro. Sure 16 pixel piplines would have been nice, but for $171CAD more, no way! MaximumPC benchmarked the 6800GT and the X800XT and the 6800GT scored a 11330 in 3DMark 2003 and the X800XT only sneeked by with a scored of 11678. And the 6800GT Card is scaled down version of the 6800 Ultra!
Having always jumped into the deep end when new flavors of DX arrive I only wish my X800 Pro card could support vertex and pixel shader ver3.0 in hardware.
One thing I would like to mention is that the game FarCry is going to have a patch comming out to support the Athlon64 64bit extentions, which is (in part) why I bought the game, so I could see what the before and after differences would be when the game starts taking advantage of 64bit code.
Other then that going from a Athlon XP 1800+ and a ATI AIW Radeon (The original radeon!) up to a Athlon64 3500+ and X800Pro is a awesome speed boost! Had I upgraded last year I would not have apreciated just how slow my old system really was getting to be. |
Created by: X
http://www.createdbyx.com/ |
Edited by - cbx on Nov 15 2004 6:14:47 PM |
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Eric Coleman
Gladiator
USA
811 Posts |
Posted - Nov 15 2004 : 6:28:56 PM
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| Your "slow" computer is still faster than mine, LOL. I'm surprised that more people don't have nVidia cards. As I write this it's 25 for ATI and 8 for nVidia. |
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cbx
Swordmaster
Canada
296 Posts |
Posted - Nov 15 2004 : 6:37:57 PM
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quote:
Originally posted by Eric Coleman
Your "slow" computer is still faster than mine, LOL. I'm surprised that more people don't have nVidia cards. As I write this it's 25 for ATI and 8 for nVidia.
I have always chosen ATI over nVidia, just like I will always choose an AMD chip over a Intel chip. No AMD = no competition = higher prices. This was the first time I was even considering getting a nVidia card. I tend to stick with what I know works for me.
BTW I now feel really sorry for you. My old computer is faster then your current computer,... lol Dude, what ever it takes, upgrade, and upgrade soon! Although I know how you feel, When the Pentium 3 was the hot item I was still using a 486DX 80Mhz! Ouch! |
Created by: X
http://www.createdbyx.com/ |
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Lachlan87
Moderator
USA
160 Posts |
Posted - Nov 15 2004 : 7:12:02 PM
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I bought what could be considered a good machine earlier this year, and it came with an 128MB ATI RADEON 9800 PRO. Since I don't have a steady income (still in highschool), there's no way I could justify upgrading to a more recent card. I really don't even play games that often myself. My siblings actually get a lot more use out of my hardware than I do! Watching them is usually enough to satisfy my cravings for computer games, and any time I have left I would rather be using to program.
Eric--You could save enough money to upgrade your computer a bit just by going on a one week fast! Occasional fasts are supposed to be healthy, so you win both ways! /JK
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Edited by - Lachlan87 on Nov 16 2004 09:46:41 AM |
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Almar
Moderator
Netherlands
192 Posts |
Posted - Nov 16 2004 : 01:55:54 AM
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AMD 500 / Voodoo3 \o/
:)
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Eric Coleman
Gladiator
USA
811 Posts |
Posted - Nov 16 2004 : 09:51:52 AM
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quote:
Originally posted by Almar Joling
AMD 500 / Voodoo3 \o/
If you have a voodoo3, then why haven't you voted in the poll yet? 
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Scorpion_Blood
Warrior
Portugal
118 Posts |
Posted - Nov 16 2004 : 11:18:51 AM
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lol i got an Ati R9800XT 256mb and im very happy with it :D it came with and ati voucher for downloading HL2 free... AND TODAY IS HTE DAY... i will play it :D
anyway ati still make gfx cards that combines price/quality, nvidia is more price/price lol |
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Zarneth
Knave
Australia
62 Posts |
Posted - Nov 16 2004 : 1:41:13 PM
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I went for a nvidia card. Mostly because latly everyone seems complely obsessed with ATI. I hear the newest series of nVidia cards are going to blow ATI's latest away. Supposedly what my friend is planing to get will be cheaper and better than the ATI alternative too
quote:
Also, anyone using the 64bit AMD chips?
The only thing special my computer has is 2x PATA 7200rpm 40gb hard drives in a raid 0 striped array. Double the sustained transfer speed loads windows way faster, but I think the seek time isn't any faster. Need to make sure I get SATA when I next upgrade in 5 years.
I have two friends running 64bit amd processors though. One of them also runs 2x SATA 10,000rpm 36gb hard drives in a raid 0 striped array. I havent' seen it myself but I hear the speed of that machine is rather extreme.
I just love my PSU with it's 4 power out thingies on the back. >;)
Anyone else got a monitor that can do 2048x1536? (Though the specs say it should only be able to do 1920x1440)
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"VB is gay because it's simple, stylish, functional, and simply works as expected." |
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I need to add a "comments" section for the polls.
