Hear a whizzing noise? It's Nvidia soiling their underwear..
Written: Dec 12 '00 (Updated Dec 27 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Awesome card on ALL fronts from DVD to 3D. Ready for the future!
Cons: None
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| markhaml's Full Review: ATI Radeon 64MB DDR |
Updated Dec 27 - 2000 I guessed right!! Nvidia does have a major re-thinking going on... They just bought 3DFX's "Intellectual Property", my guess is to conjure up something that can compete with Radeon in (What Else) Open GL...
About Me
I am two things that apply to this situation... a technology executive (Director of e-commerce) and an avid gamer. I have an interesting opinion of what must be going through the executives at Nvidia's offices right now... How can I clean this up.... OH! yes I got it! One word... FEAR! The trembling, panicky, "where's my next meal comming from?" kind of fear that makes us do stupid things. At the end of the review I will comment on that loud corporate sucking-sound comming from Nvidia's wallet.
Something "snapped" at ATI last year...
My guess, is that ATI, tired of having their $85 4X AGP (40 FPS Quake III) boards get trounced by 3DFX and Nvidia, decided to get busy and deal out a nice little "reality check" to Nvidia. They haven't quite beaten them like red-headed step-children, but Nvidia has some bruises...
Years of quality products
If you ever owned an ATI, you know the picture quality is always top-notch, even if performance lags slightly behind the other offerings. Not so any more!!! Only the Geforce 2 and Radeon offer hardware T&L.
*** Tech term *** T&L - Transform and Lighting. In a 3D game or application, the "T" occurs when the textures or skins are applied and lined up (due to movement). The "L" is a big bonus, as there are hundreds (256 to be exact) of changes to be done to different areas of the textures to produce shadows. Rendering this in hardware, allows the same level of performance, while the quality remains on par with movie effects.
How does it stack up?
The Radeon comes in at just a few FPS behind the Geforce 2 DDR, but at about 150% of the quality (Yeah I know, it is a visual judgement. Read as "Much better quality at nearly identical speed")
Bag -O- Tricks
ATI has long mastered the unique challenges of TV output. The Radeon is only polishing their leadership position in this area, so anyone looking to blow up their buddies on their 50" TV would get infinitely more satisfaction from the Radeon cards.
The Radeon 64MB DDR
This card is competitive with the Geforce2 and will even sometimes even best Geforce 2 based cards from certain vendors who haven't spent the extra time to really tweak their drivers.
*** INCENTIVES *** Recently ATI has offered incentives on the 32 MB model that put the price around $150 ! It will spank and embarass ANYTHING in this price range.
Summary
All Radeon offerings are INCREDIBLE VALUES! The 64MB DDR version is the source of all the drool from gamers like myself... I am well pleased!
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Nvidia must be trembling right now...
The Radeon 64 DDR is uniquely qualified to educate Nvidia more in the discipline of "spankology". You see, ATI pulled a hat trick, and got an AWESOME product that is CHEAPER to produce (due to the chip advancements) as well capable of conserving memory bandwith... (Making ATI's DDR faster than Geforce DDR..) You see.... ridiculous amounts of R&D money are required for Nvidia to do anything about it.... and as the textures increase in games, the Radeon will actually SPEED UP!!!! What game uses 64MB of texture right now? Nothing.... But "Giants" is being developed and will utilize the full potential of the video memory.... the ATI Radeon already has that covered (it does not waste time rendering what you can't see...) Nvidia knows it, and will either conserve resources and sink back into mediocrity (not likely) or commence to sucking a steady stream of money into R&D to actually change something to give them an "Edge".... there will not be a "Geforce 3". They must change the chipset completely, or loose the title...
Shhh! I think I hear something.....
SSSSSSSSlllllllluuuuuuuuurrrrrrrrppp!
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 340
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Epinions.com ID:
markhaml
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Member: Lee Markham
Reviews written: 30
Trusted by: 14 members
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