Simviation Forum - Looking at a new gfx card

Sep 29^th, 2003 at 9:44am

Maccers Offline
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Goodbye old friend
NEWI Campus, Wrexham. UK

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Ok i think its time to dump my MX440.

Things are slow and jaggy (AA takes up most of the power and slows down even more) and on fs half the features are not accessable.
I'm looking at a high-end card, lots of memory and dx9 complient (Price is also an issue, im a student dont forget Grin

) So far ive looked at the FX5600 256Mb and the Radeon 9800 128Mb. The reviews of the 5600 seem rather rubbish for the power and memory it has, and its very cheap for what it is. And the 9800 seems very good, but hugely overpriced.
Can anyone give me some info on these cards, or perhaps recomend another one thats just as good?

Thanks 8)

&&Athlon XP 1800+, 1GB RAM, Asus V9560 FX 5600 256Mb, 40Gb HDD

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Reply #1 - Sep 29^th, 2003 at 10:43am

Daz Offline
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in the morning im making
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id recomend the gf4 ti4200 card as this offers better performance than the 5600. read this review on the xfx version of the ti4200 and you will see why its still a good old card that holds its own against many new ones

http://www.beyond3d.com/reviews/xfx/4200/

another thing its cheaper than the 5600 aswell but much better performance check out the core clock and the memory rate on that card you will be quite astonished at what the ti4200 can still do i have mine overlcocked at 350 mhz core clock and 690 mhz memory on stock cooling.

not sure about the ati cards i have heard they give problems in fs but this is only a rumour not to put you off ati but id stick with nvidia Cheesy

AMD athlon XP2800+ @2.34ghz&&Epox 8RDA3G 400 fsb, 8x AGP&&1024MB DDR400 PC3200&&XFX 256MB FX5950 Ultra (oc 525/1.04)&&40 gig maxtor 7200rpm&&80 gig seagate baracuda 7200rpm&&

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Reply #2 - Sep 30^th, 2003 at 9:10pm

deadnight Offline
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Georgia, USA

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If I where you I would wait until the new drivers for the fx cards come out before you make a decision. Their performance are way below the newer ati cards right now. Nvidia say the new drivers will fix the problem though. The fxcards arent fully compatible with dx9 too. That might not be a concern for you if you don't plan on buying any dx9 games in the future though.. The fx cards 'emulate' dx9 compatibility. They aren't true dx9 cards. well for the pixel shader at least.

ASUS P4C800 Deluxe &&Geforce FX5900 Ultra(256 MB)&&1 gig DDR PC3200 RAM&&Pentium 4, 3.0 GHZ, 800 mhz FSB&&Coolermaster 550 watt power supply&&----------------------------&&<-3dmark03 =

6535

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Reply #3 - Sep 30^th, 2003 at 9:51pm

Iroquois Offline
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Ontario Canada

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The Geforce FX5200 is just as powerful as the TI4200 but a heck of a lot cheaper. A lot of people say ATI cards are good but I still don't trust them. They also seem to be quite expensive compaired to Nvidia's FX series.

I only pretend to know what I'm talking about. Heck, that's what lawyers, car mechanics, and IT professionals do everyday. Wink

&&The Rig: &&AMD Athlon XP2000+ Palomino, ECS K7S5A 3.1, 1GB PC2700 DDR, Geforce FX5200 128mb, SB Live Platinum, 16xDVD, 16x10x40x CDRW, 40/60gb 7200rpm HDD, 325w Power, Windows XP Home SP1, Directx 9.0c with 66.81 Beta gfx drivers

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Reply #4 - Oct 1^st, 2003 at 4:21pm

deadnight Offline
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I take back some of what I said.. I just realized that that thing about the fx cards not fully supporting dx9... It's being said all over the internet but I can't find any kind of proof about it. It started somewhere and somehow everybody is convinced that it is true without any facts to support it. I don't wan't contribute to all of this by just asuming that it's true.

But! I did run a benchmark test called shader 2.0.. That told me that all the dx9 shaders aren't supported. The new drivers are suppose to fix that according to Nvidia. (I emailed them myself and asked)

Well anyways, I'm not sure where I'm going with this...
Still I would wait for those new drivers (50.xx) to be releases before making a decision.

ASUS P4C800 Deluxe &&Geforce FX5900 Ultra(256 MB)&&1 gig DDR PC3200 RAM&&Pentium 4, 3.0 GHZ, 800 mhz FSB&&Coolermaster 550 watt power supply&&----------------------------&&<-3dmark03 =

6535

->

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Reply #5 - Oct 2^nd, 2003 at 12:52pm

Maccers Offline
Colonel
Goodbye old friend
NEWI Campus, Wrexham. UK

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Thats an interesting point. But I've had a look at some prices of the 256mb FX 5600 and they go for about £130, which is too good to be true. ???
The other thing about them is the standard nvidia coolers, which take up a whole PCI slot and make too much noise, many companies dont say which coolers they use, all i know is gainward have their own quiet coolers.

&&Athlon XP 1800+, 1GB RAM, Asus V9560 FX 5600 256Mb, 40Gb HDD

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Reply #6 - Oct 2^nd, 2003 at 1:17pm

Silent Exploder Ex Member

my usual recommendation:

ATI 9500pro (or a 9600pro, but those cards are a bit slower than the old ones).

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Reply #7 - Oct 2^nd, 2003 at 3:58pm

zeberdee Offline
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Sunny Bradford Yorks uk

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Hi I am also looking to up grade gfx card from Matrox 32mb G550, I have tried ATI 9600 this kept locking up in COF and 2k2 Cry

then tried Nvida 5600 this lost cockpit view in COF Cry

but ok in 2k2!

can anyone help shed light on these Iam runing Athlonxp1600 256mb ram 40gb hard drive windows 98 thanks

If your not part of the answer your part of the problem! &&I've often wanted to drown my troubles, but I can't get my wife to go swimming. &&&&

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Reply #8 - Oct 2^nd, 2003 at 5:06pm

4_Series_Scania Offline
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I ditched my 64MB MX440 for a 128MB Asus 9560 FX5600, its very good IMHO, sadly, its somewhat strangled by my Celeron CPU Roll Eyes

Despite this, it's still 100% ! faster than the old MX in most cases! - Considering the MX coped reasonably well, I'm well pleased with my FX and would highly recomend one.

Posting drivel here since Jan 31st, 2002. - That long!

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Reply #9 - Oct 4^th, 2003 at 9:50am

Maccers Offline
Colonel
Goodbye old friend
NEWI Campus, Wrexham. UK

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It looks good, and cheap (£130 for the 256Mb model Grin

)... One question... how loud is the cooling fan on it? Wink

&&Athlon XP 1800+, 1GB RAM, Asus V9560 FX 5600 256Mb, 40Gb HDD

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Reply #10 - Oct 5^th, 2003 at 1:39pm

Silent Exploder Ex Member

louder than you can imagine!
you should better buy an ATI-card... Wink

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Reply #11 - Oct 5^th, 2003 at 4:28pm

4_Series_Scania Offline
Colonel
He who laughs last, thinks
slowest.
Stoke on Trent England U.K.

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Quote:

One question... how loud is the cooling fan on it? Wink

Quieter than on the old MX440 !

Its the FX5800 thats the noisy beastie, The Asus FX5600 has active fan speed, thus it only starts to spin fast when its under load - If I turn off the TV, stereo Mrs & Kids...... I can just about hear the tone of the fan change as D3D or OpenGL kicks into gear....

Working with Paintshop pro, or browsing, it seems to switch the fan off, its not audiable at all.

One thing that tells me my MX was past it, I tried GTA Vice City 8) with the MX back in my machine (whilst I cleaned the dust etc off the fan) with FRAPS, I saw single figure FPS, despite lowering the graphics settings, once the FX5600 was back in, 60fps @1280x1024 was a common sight.

Alas, CFS3 ,when in one of its moods, Angry

still reduces the thing to a crawl from time to time, as every other title I posess seems un-affected by this problem, I sadly play CFS3 less and enjoy the rest of my collection, "the way its ment to be played!" Wink

Paul.

Posting drivel here since Jan 31st, 2002. - That long!

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