KyroII or Radeon LE...image quality?

[arcas]

Hi. I figure it's about time to upgrade the video card in my Windows box. Currently running a Leadtek TNT2 Ultra. I've pretty much narrowed the decision down to a Radeon LE or a KyroII board.

I only play games on that box maybe 50% of the time it's in use so 2D image quality is important. I've seen a number of posts mention Geforce2MX's generating fuzzy images at high resolutions so that pretty much eliminates the MX from consideration. The Geforce2 GTS is becoming affordable too but I've read that it too suffers from fuzziness at high resolutions. Is this true?

I have a Matrox G400 in my unix box so that's my 2D quality baseline. Great image at 1600x1200.

My questions:

1) I've read that the Radeon/Radeon LE is roughly comparable to the Matrox in 2D quality. Maybe a notch below but still head an shoulders above the rest of the crowd. How does the KyroII compare?

2) How's DVD playback on the KyroII? Remember, I'm coming from a TNT2 Ultra which so far as I know has no built-in DVD support so I suppose even the KyroII's motion compensation would be a step up. Suspect the Radeon LE wins here but by how much? I don't watch many DVDs on the computer but I do from time to time.

3) I'm running Win98 now but that's because I haven't gotten around to installing Win2K. How are the Win2K drivers for these two chipsets? I recall reading in the past that the Radeon's Win2K drivers were pitiful. Has this been fixed?

4) I've read that OEM Radeon cards are clocked lower than retail. Is the same true for the Radeon LE cards? How about the KyroII? Is there any hardware difference between the OEM Hercules Prophet 4500 and the retail version?

I'm not terribly concerned about which card is more future-proof than the other. As I see it, I'm in the market for a low-end card so I really don't expect either to perform well on the next generation games. But if I can get 12-15 months out of it before upgrading, then it's a good deal.

Any other issues that I might have missed?

 

[ukDave]

AHHH! TOO LONG! CANT HANDLE LONG PARAGRAPHS!

urm. Kyro II. Not Radeon.

thats it. short but sweet.

dave!

 

[X14]

The Kyro II seems to be a hit or miss card. It either does really well on some games and really poorly on others from what the early owners of this card are saying.

In particular, Tribes2 and Counter Strike seem to giving people the most problems. If you play either of these 2 games, I'd wait till they get the problems ironed, hopefully they do, or I'd get something else.

I myself have a Hercules 4500 coming today but I don't play either of the games mentioned or any other FPS for that matter. I like sports and racing games but frames do matter in those games as well. Hopefully the Kyro II works well for me. If it doesn't, in all likelihood, I will return it to Hercules and plop down the $400 for a Prophet III.

As for image quality, the Kyro II is better than any Geforce2 card, but may not be up the level of a Radeon.

 

[PeAK]

For more info on Radeon ...click here

 

[powervr2]

Tribes2 and Counter Strike is getting good results even with kyro 1...
there are many tweak options on the drivers (this is not an traditional card), that could give a boost on those games.
but maybe it's something wrong with those systems... (some irq conflict or something)

 

[X14]

The truth is, right now the Kyro 1 is giving better framerates than the Kyro II in those games.