Okay gurus, how about that Radeon?

[Futuramatic]

I am in the market for a new card. This TNT2U is tired. I need some feedback from Radeon owners past and present. Its been 4 months or so, how is performance? Any conflicts/issues? Worth the cash you put into it? How are the drivers? Constructive feedback might be rewarded with cash

 

[Radboy]

Just installed 32MB DDR version today. Very nice. Replaced V3-3K.

Link 1

Link 2

2D is crisp & sharp

3D Mark 2000 scores:

640x480x32 triple: 6623
800x600x32 triple: 5743
1024x768x32 triple: 4434

P3-700 @938 (1.75v) 256 PC133

 

[sandorski]

I haven't used one, but so far I haven't heard anything bad about them. In fact, I've seen guys who ditched their Geforce2's after using a Radeon for awhile. Me thinks that ATI is turning into the new Nvidia and Nvidia is becoming 3dfx.

 

[oldfart]

I just replaced my trusty V3 3000 with a Radeon 64. I'll be putting up a mini review when I get time to put it together. A quickie...2D is every bit as good as the V3 and my old Matrox. 3D is great. Fast, and beautiful. Tried it with Q2, Q3, HL, UT, Serious Sam, ST Elite Forces. All work perfectly. Driver install was a piece of cake. One surprise was UT in DirectX. After running it in Glide and hearing how crappy the Direct is, I was ready for a disappointment. Was I shocked! UT in DirectX rocks! Very smooth and looks great. Better than Glide! Must just be a problem with other <*cough Nvidia cough*> DirectX drivers. So far, I'm very happy with the card.

BTW, I got mine from Hawk on the For Sale/Trade board. I got a new retail shrink-wrapped 64 meg version for $250. He may have a couple left. He is going to stop selling them at the end of the week.

 

[Bobstopper]

Futuramatic,

Had a Geforce 2 GTS 32 MB card. 2d was terrible. It also caused conflicts with my system all the time.

I Bought a Radeon 64 MB last week. I have had no stability probs, and the 2d is excellent. 3d games seem to run just as fast as on the Geforce, if not faster at high resolutions. DVD quality is excellent.

I definitely would recommend it.

 

[Bobstopper]

By the way, found mine for $225 w/ free shipping on another site

 

[AMDfreak]

Bobstopper, shoot me a personal with that site =)

 

[RagingGuardian]

I'd love to find that site too because I'm getting me a 64Mb Radeon to replace my V3 next week.

 

[BenSkywalker]

If I was buying a gaming board right now, I would definately go with a Radeon.

Oldfart-

So you decided on the Radeon? Glad you are enjoying it, one quick tip-

&quot;Was I shocked! UT in DirectX rocks! Very smooth and looks great. Better than Glide! Must just be a problem with other <*cough Nvidia cough*> DirectX drivers. So far, I'm very happy with the card.&quot;

You haven't seen anything yet, dust off that second CD and start playing with S3TC textures(and better performance), click here for details.

UT looks and plays like sh!t on Glide or D3D in comparison to this.

 

[oldfart]

Ben, thanks. Now that you mention it, I was going to ask you about that. I tried it with very little success. I'm running 4.28, put that hacked opengl file in my UT/system dir set it to use opengl. I deleted my old ut.ini file, started the game, made a new one. Put in the settings from your page in the OpenGLDrv.OpenGLRenderDevice section. Cant get it to work. If I fire up the game, its soooooooooo dark, I cant see a thing, even with the brightness all the way up. Most of the time if I try to move the brightness slider, instant crash (bigtime). I know people have this working. What am I missing here? Something in the Radeon OpenGl settings wrong?? Thanks again for the help!

 

[seewhy]

Have anyone use radeon in Win 2K?? Based on firingsquad, Radeon perfromance under win2k is bad, can anyone confirm that??

Win2k Video cards roundup

 

[CQuinn]

From what I have heard, there is a slight performance difference
on some tests (less than %7), between Win2k and Win98/ME;
but you should make up for it with more system smoothness / stability.

Also, ATI is still working on newer Win2k drivers, so the performance
might get tweaked in the next rev.

 

[AMB]

If I was getting a new card, it would defintly be a Nvidia GeForce 2 GTS 64Mb

 

[rowcroft]

I just ordered a RADEON AIW but haven't gotten it yet. One thing I have heard is that the clock speed on the cards aren't accurate, that a lot of them are actually slower then what is stated. I heard they can be bumped up to spec speeds easily though. Probably a settings glitch more than anything. If you run 32bpp I guess nothing comes close to them-
Row

 

[Robor]

Futuramatic: One note of caution... Some (myself included) Radeon owners are having problems with Trinitron monitors. The 2D display quivers/shimmers. It's an ongoing problem with Radeon/Trinitron combos that ATI is investigating.

Here's a link to a good ATI/Radeon site: Rage3D Home

Here's a link to the forum: Rage3D Forum

Here's a link to the thread discussing the problem: Radeon/Trinitron problem

Looks like they don't have an answer yet.

EDIT: I made a mess of those links - fixed. Try again!

Rob

 

[oldfart]

I have a 19&quot; Mitsubishi Diamond Pro 900U with a &quot;Diamondtron NF&quot; screen. Its an aperture grill monitor like a Trinitron. Clear as a bell all the way up to 1600 x 1200. No problems here. Much better than a GForce card.

 

[Radboy]

Have the Iiyama VM Pro 450 - Mits 'Naturally Flat (aperature grille) tube - no probs (Radeon DDR 32MB).

 

[Remedy]

My Radeon 32mb serves me well in UT with all the settings on high all i can say is, you have to see it to believe it. Although the drivers are immature i think when some exclusive drivers come out that it will show the true the performance of this card. I keep hearing about even the SDR version Radeon is faster than the Geforce MX. I hope Matt does a Review with Radeon verse the Geforce MX soon.

 

[culex]

I was thinking of buying the RADEON AIW card but now I hear there's Trinitron problem with these cards... I have a Sony G400.

Anyone have problems with Radeons and Sony G400?

Must... rid... my... crappy... geforce sdr... it... sucks... refresh... rate...

 

[CQuinn]

rowcroft:

What do you mean &quot;slower than what is stated&quot;? The 64MB Radeon VIVO retail
card is specc'ed at 183Mhz for memory, all the rest are set at 166Mhz
AFAIK. (Word has it there are some OEM 64s that are also @183, but those
are the exception).

Where'd you order the AIW from? I've been trying to get my hands on
one too.

 

[Comp10]

culex:

Yes, people have reported problems with the shimmering on 19+ inch Sony's. It seems the larger the trinitron or diamondtron, the more apprent the problem becomes. Personaly I would not let the flickering stop you from buying a Radeon, I have a 21 inch Iiyama and I dont notice the shimmering unless I get about 6 inches from the screen.

 

[culex]

Guess I'll sit back a while and see what ATI does about this... I'm having enough frustrations of not being able to use this monitor to it's fullest with the crappy RAMDAC on my Geforce SDR

 

[Futuramatic]

Okay, thanks a whole bunch you guys!!

No Trinitron monitor here. I will be getting a 64DDR flavor. No real negatives yet with tthat one. eems like the 32MB version had some early hiccups, so I will stay away from it.

 

[BenSkywalker]

Oldfart-

The problem you are having is a known bug, the brightness slider doesn't work(anyone feel like fixing it? I can probably get the source code if anyone here can do the task).

How I deal with it, I set the gamma in display properties to 1.5-1.6 before I start the game(painful on the eyes for the desktop, but sweet in UT with this patch). That is with a nV board so your results may vary, but adjusting the gamma settings should take care of your problem and get you running properly.

Feel free to email me with any sort of problems you are having, I've been troubleshooting various problems on fairly large scale for this patch and have heard of pretty much everything that can go wrong Most people it works fine for with the exception of having to adjust the brightness and also the bug when switching between 16bit and 32bit.

 

[oldfart]

Futuramatic, be sure to look HERE for a great deal on new retail cards!