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Geek Culture / New GFX card...

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Van B
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Location: Sunnyvale
Posted: 7th Dec 2005 15:10
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Hey, I always get good deals on stuff, but I reckon this is pretty good - I got a ATI 9800xt with a massive cooling add-on for £50.

Runs Q4 handsomely, comming from a FX5200 I'm sure you can appreciate how chuffed I am at the difference . I can finally hook up with DVI, had a supporting TFT for about 3 years and never been able to utilise the digital cable.


Van-B

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spooky
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Posted: 7th Dec 2005 15:28
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I remember buying my TFT screen a few years back - cost £650 but they didn't throw in a DVI cable, the cheapskates, so popped out to shops and was stunned to find they cost £25! DVI is much better though than normal video connection.

Boo!
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Nicholas Thompson
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Location: Bognor Regis, UK
Posted: 7th Dec 2005 15:31
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You sure its any better?! How? Why? I recently got a 7800GTX which only has DVI sockets, so I figured it was a good time to invest in a DVI cable. It looks and responds exactly the same! lol.

the 9800XT is a nice card. I got one when they first came out about 2 years ago and was so impressed with it! I imagine they've advanced them a little since then too (what with better cooling, etc).

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Van B
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Posted: 7th Dec 2005 15:40
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The cable I'm using now is home made, like 2 monitor extensions taped together, my DVI cable is spanking though so I should see a difference.

I'm surprised my monitor is still going, it must be one of the first available TFT's - I got it for £50 too!, that's my price range it seems when it's comming from my own pocket - now my work PC on the other hand...

I'm gonna upgrade my motherboard next, then my PC should be a bit more respectable, and my brother might stop mocking it.


Van-B

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Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 7th Dec 2005 15:43
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Whats your spec? Maybe if you kick your brothers PC he wont laugh at you anymore?!

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Van B
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Posted: 7th Dec 2005 16:13
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2.4ghz Athlon
512mb ram
40gb HD (upgrading soon)
SB128 sound card

I'm sorely tempted sometimes to give his PC a kick, everytime I use it the thing grinds to a halt, at least my PC does what it's told now and again . He's got a 64-bit processor and decent GFX card, it's a decent spec - all he uses it for is games though.


Van-B

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JoelJ
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Posted: 7th Dec 2005 16:46
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Quote: "2.4ghz Athlon
512mb ram
40gb HD (upgrading soon)
SB128 sound card"


That processor is actually rather nice, i have a 2600+ which runs at what? 1.9ghz? with Rad9800pro and 768megs of ram, D3 looks rather perty, and I haven't gotten Q4 installed on it yet.

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Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 7th Dec 2005 17:06
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@VanB - thats a pretty good spec. I'd certainly get a larger Hard disk - you can get 120Gb for about £50 nowadays... Probably even 160Gb if you look hard enough.

I'd also look into get 1Gb RAM. Windows loves you if you have 1Gb. 512 is fine if you use it for basic stuff, but as a developer you'd benifit greatly from 1gb in total (at least )

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Van B
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Posted: 7th Dec 2005 17:20
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Yeah, that's the plan for next year - new motherboard, new memory, new HD - the disk space is the biggest pain, especially when your downto your last gig .

I should'nt complain, I started coding in DB with a 466mhz P2 with a Voodoo2 and a monitor that could only display red and blue. Stoked was largely written on that - since then I've probably spent less than £200 on PC upgrades (my brother upgrades quite a lot, so there's always bits going begging). It's tradition for the Scots to be cheap - but I take the biscuit!.


Van-B

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Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 7th Dec 2005 17:50
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I started coding on the Amiga All of 7Mhz CPU power and 1Mb RAM (512Kb Chip + 512Kb Fast). Although technically, I had a little dabble on the Spectrum! That was a true beast

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Van B
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Posted: 8th Dec 2005 10:16
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Hehe, I started on the speccy, one of my neighbours was a respected speccy developer (Roy Carnell), he wrote a book called 'Spectrum Adventures' which taught you how to write RPG games on the spectrum, as well as tons of speccy games - arguably one of the first people to write a RPG . He gave me freebies and code listings to help me learn speccy basic. I eventually ended up coding on pretty much every 8-bit machine at some point - my favourite would have to be the Amstrad CPC, they were great machines to work with, when I got an ST I even went to the lengths of converting an old CPC monitor to work on it - a lot better than coding on a TV .

Has to be said though that I never finished very much until I found DB.


Van-B

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geecee3
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Posted: 8th Dec 2005 14:17
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9800XT is an great poly pusher. the shaders are nice and fast too, I think youll have much fun overloading your creations in DBP just to see how much you can get out of it. I know i did.

I just upgraded to an x800pro from a 9800XT and to be honest there ain't that much in it. now ATI have crossfire i can see nvidia having a tough time keeping up with their SLI which is nowhere near as efficient.

I defected fron Nvidia when the 9800XT was released, and i've never looked back.

Welcome to THE club.

grant.

Ohd Chinese Ploverb say : Wise Eskimo, not eat yerrow snow.
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Pincho Paxton
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Posted: 8th Dec 2005 15:36 Edited at: 8th Dec 2005 15:37
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Just upgraded my computer by using Ebay.

Windows XP pro .............................£28 new sealed.
1gb Ram ....................................£25 new
Asrock Motherboard with AMD 3000+ and Fan...£109 new
Maxtor 160gb Hard Drive..7500...............£61 new
DVD Rom read write..........................£12.50 old
Another DVD Rom -R with CD read write.......£16 new

Plus The Movies Game special edition........£38 sealed

The funny thing about Windows XP is that I had just lost a bid for £40
and the same guy posted again the same thing to buy for £25 + £3 p+p
So I was glad I lost.

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Killswitch
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Location: School damnit!! Let me go!! PLEASE!!!
Posted: 8th Dec 2005 18:08
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I've currently got an AGP GeForce FX 5200, but I want to upgrade (and as christmas is comming up....). If I do get a new card do I just need to pull out the old one and slot in the new one (so long as it's another Nvidia card)?

~It's a common mistake to make, the rules of the English langauge do not apply to insanity~
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blanky
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Posted: 8th Dec 2005 18:52 Edited at: 8th Dec 2005 18:53
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It's AGP, man. With AGP you just put other AGP cards in and it works perfectly.

Make sure your motherboard has an 8x AGP speed slot, or whatever... Otherwise your motherboard is going to be holding your (new) graphics card back.

16-colour PNGs pwn.
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Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 8th Dec 2005 22:57
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@geecee - since my 9800XT, I've have nVidia and "never looked back".. To be honest, for the average user that doesn't get turned on by having 1 fps more in Doom 3 than his best mate, it doesn't matter what card you have. They all do the same job withing a fraction of each other.

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JoelJ
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Posted: 8th Dec 2005 23:01
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in the recent years, I've noticed that nVidia has better support for things

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Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 8th Dec 2005 23:37
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depends on the game. Ever since game manafacturers have jumped into bed with a brand (either ATI or nVidia) then some games might run a smidge better/be more compatible with certain cards (eg Doom and HL2).

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blanky
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Posted: 9th Dec 2005 08:55
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Yeah, you're right there.

It *is* pretty much a stalemate atm... But I've been using ATi for a long long time, and I've never been disappointed with a card yet...

Then again, I only buy mid-range cards, not ridiculously expensive ones. Even my laptop has a ATI (Radeon) Xpress 200 card inside it... HL2 is playable, which is all I need

16-colour PNGs pwn.
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Van B
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Posted: 9th Dec 2005 09:26
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I try not to side with any particular manufacturer, I actually believe that they're see-sawing us, like nVidia has the best card, then ATI, then nVidia... so we're always having to upgrade and we keep spending money. I just grab whatever bargains come my way .

The shaders I've tried on the 9800xt all worked and looked great, that was something I was concearned about - the FX5200 is damn cheap but it does support shaders reasonably well, for some reason I always thought nVidia cards were better for shader support.


Van-B

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indi
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Posted: 9th Dec 2005 12:12
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nice one mate, my g5 currently has that card

ATI Radeon 9800 XT:

Chipset Model: ATY,R360
Type: Display
Bus: AGP
Slot: SLOT-1
VRAM (Total): 256 MB
Vendor: ATI (0x1002)
Device ID: 0x4e48
Revision ID: 0x0000
ROM Revision: 113-A14404-123
Displays:
910B:
Resolution: 1600 x 1024 @ 76 Hz
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Supported
Main Display: Yes
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Rotation: Supported
L70N:
Resolution: 1024 x 768 @ 75 Hz
Depth: 32-bit Color
Core Image: Supported
Mirror: Off
Online: Yes
Quartz Extreme: Supported
Rotation: Supported

If no-one gives your an answer to a question you have asked, consider:- Is your question clear.- Did you ask nicely.- Are you showing any effort to solve the problem yourself 
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Nicholas Thompson
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Posted: 9th Dec 2005 15:14
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Do you ever get the feeling your computer is giving you TOO MUCH information

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indi
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Posted: 9th Dec 2005 15:27
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eye lub da NFO

If no-one gives your an answer to a question you have asked, consider:- Is your question clear.- Did you ask nicely.- Are you showing any effort to solve the problem yourself 
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