Radeon LE vs. MX?

[mrzed]

I am probably about to go pick up a Radeon LE $135 Canadian (about $85 US) Is still less expensive than the cheapest MX I can get up here. (Though not by much). I am leaning towards the Radeon for 2D quality, if the cards are otherwise nearly equal, then that will tip the balance.

Being relatively new to registry tweaking, is there someone who could summarize the process for me. I looked through the huge thread from a few days ago, but ended up with more than a touch of confusion. Is an LE tweaked out truly a near equal to a standard 32Mb DDR?

Any sense out there that not all LE's can be hacked succesfully? Or does it seema near sure thing.

 

[Taz4158]

These are the reg keys to add and yes the LE is far faster tweaked than the crippled MX.
"FastZClearEnabled"="1"
"DisableHyperZ"="0"
"DisableHierarchicalZ"="0"

 

[arod324]

Every Radeon DDR LE should be able to be "hacked". The performance is just about the same as a Retail Radeon. The first thing you want to do is to add a few strings and values into your registry. The second thing you want to do, is you want to install powerstrip and overclock it to around 166 or 183. Even at 166/166, a mild overclock, this card still beats the MX in virtually all areas. The only place that the MX will beat the Radeon DDR LE marginally is in 16 bit color. However, with Hyper-Z, in 32 bit color, the Radeon just kicks the MX's butt.

 

[nortexoid]

radeon LE for cheaper mutilates the geforce2 MX...

 

[Randyvxdx]

Can you tell me where to add those three lines to the registry to enable hyper Z with the OEM Radeon card? Thanks

 

[arod324]

It's in local machine.... software....ati....drivers...0001 (or 0000).....atidxha

 

[oldfart]

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ATI Technologies\Driver\0000\atidxhal]

"DisableHierarchicalZ"="0"
"DisableHyperZ"="0"
"FastZClearEnabled"="1"

Its not always \Driver\0000 could be 0001 or 0002....

 

[Randyvxdx]

I made those changes to the registry and it worked out fine. I'm getting something close to a 20% increase in performance with direct 3d applications......THANKS!!!!! That card is some super value.

 

[elSmoko]

I heard that hyperz remains disabled for all your opengl applications ie: quake3/halflife is this true?
I'm thinking about laying down 135 canadian myself

 

[Taz4158]

HyperZ is enabled in the OEM and retail versions and has been surmised it is enabled in the LE. These are the keys if you wish to experiment:
REGEDIT4

[HKEY_LOCAL_MACHINE\Software\ATI Technologies\Driver\0001\OpenGL\Private]
"enableFastZMaskClear "=dword:00000001
"enableZCompression "=dword:00000001
"ZCompForAllConfigs "=dword:00000001
"enableHierarchicalZ"=dword:00000001


0001\OpenGL\Private 0001 should be verified to match your path.

 

[oldfart]

No, HyperZ in OpenGL is enabled on all cards by default. Only the LE cards have it disabled in D3D and need it turned on.

 

[Techie333]

Is it enabled by default in opengl or do you have to make the changed that taz says???

I don't have a /private directory....are you supposed to make one?

 

[oldfart]

It is enabled by default. No changes are needed.

 

[Taz4158]

<< Is it enabled by default in opengl or do you have to make the changed that taz says??? >>


It's worth experimenting with. A friend who bought the LE added the keys and got an improvement in Quake. Yet for some people it doesn't seem to make a difference. Does this point to a variability in these cards? Hard to say but worth looking into.

 

[Shudder]

It had better be better dammit. I'm scrapping my trusty 1 1/2 year old V3 3000 for this Radeon LE.

What can I expect to suck.. Deus Ex and UT? Or maybe not even UT..

 

[oldfart]

You will be pleasntly surprised. My biggest shock when I went from my trusty V3 3K to the Radeon was how much better UT looked and ran. I have a 64 meg card and the extra texture memory helps quite a bit. It will also run good on the LE. I've never tried Deus Ex. I've heard it sucks in anything but Glide. Let us know.

 

[arod324]

oldfart,
Do you know how to enable something called &quot;antiscroptic&quot; or something?..... I've read that it will make your images look smoother and clearer, but I couldn't find that in the regedit or in powerstrip. (No I don't think it is the same thing as anti-aliasing)

 

[RaynorWolfcastle]

Regit &amp; elSmoko, where did you buy your LE from ? i'm trying to get one but i seem to only find the retail...

 

[Taz4158]

<< Do you know how to enable something called &quot;antiscroptic&quot; or something?..... >>


It can be enabled in the drivers from the advanced/open GL settings.

 

[masterc]

Did I choose the wrong video card??
I bought a Geforce 2MX with TV out. It works well with games but the video is not as sharp and clear as the Radeon cards I saw (on the same system).
Should I try to replace this with a Radeon LE??
Can you get this with TV out?? The ATI tv out feature looks far better than Nvidia's.

 

[Randyvxdx]

Check out Pricewatch.com for the low cost Radeon video card. They're listed as Radeon 32 Mbs. DDR Sdram OEM model. I purchased several from United micro. Do not buy the VE model or &quot;Sdram&quot; Radeon. Performance with both leaves alot to be desired.

 

[Shudder]

Go to Newegg and it's on the front page for 82 bucks, free shipping.

 

[oldfart]

I think masterc is looking for a video out feature. The LE does not have this.

 

[Regalk]

So far it appears to be neck and neck with the GF2 MX. I have the ASus V7100 GF2MX which I ran some benches on (o/c to 198/205)
3DMark 2000 = 5245
Quake 3 - 101 103 (800x600 16bit)

RadeonLE o/c to 188 (powerstrip) with HZ hack
3DMark 2000 - 5209
Quake 3 - 105/110.
At 1024x768 32bit it ran at mid 60s in Quake 3 Arena.

Really pleased with this card.

 

[kimcheeboy]

I just upgraded from a Geforce2 MX 32Meg to an ATI Radeon LE 32Meg DDR card this week. I had the GF2MX card running at 200Mhz Core / 180MHz RAM and now have the Radeon LE running at 200MHz Core / 400MHz RAM (blue orb and ramsinks attached). Overall, I'm pleased with the upgrade. I sold the GF2MX card and basically paid $50 Canadian to make up the difference. In 3DMark, the Radeon is slightly slower, but that is to be expected. The Radeon seems to perform better than the MX at higher resolutions (16 bit color) in Unreal Tournament. But I do have one concern. I play UT Tactical Ops a lot. I got decent performance with the MX at 1024x768x16 bit, about ~50 fps. Now with the Radeon, at 1024x768x32 bit, I get about ~40 fps, but it seriously dips down to about 15 fps when a few players are displayed on screen. Seems like the card can't handle a big fire fight in UT at 32bit. Perhaps, it could be my Celeron 950 slowing it down too. Anyways, it's a good card. Drivers a bit buggy. Don't use the included drivers so grab the betas over at Rage3D.