Video Power Plus!
Written: Mar 30 '01
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Great performance and plenty of memory!
Cons: The price, slightly under $200.
The Bottom Line: It is one of the top of the line video cards today!
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| surferdude7's Full Review: ATI Radeon 64MB DDR |
This powerful video card was retailing for $399 and now if you click on “Check Latest Prices” through Epinions, you will find it for as low as $185.
This video card gives you 64MB of 5.5ns DDR memory running at 166MHz. DDR (Double Data Rate) memory provides a double memory bandwidth over your typical SDRAM SDR, (Single Data Rate) this means a faster performance. The original plan was 200MHz and the first ones actually came out with 183MHz and the new ones are all at 166MHz.
The ATI Radeon 64MB DDR is powered by ATI RADEON GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) with a 350MHz RAMDAC. This gives you 32-bit color as high as 2048 x 1536 pixels. There is more technical detail that most don’t understand so, the bottom line is, it has plenty of memory and you can set your monitor to a resolution of 2048 x 1536 pixels.
Installation
This is an easy to install card, first unload you old video drivers and then turn off the computer. Take the case of the computer and find your AGP slot, it is easy to find, there is only one and more than likely your old video card is in it. With a Philips screwdriver remove your old card and place the new card in its place.
Next place your case back on and plug in your monitor. Now turn it on and Windows will recognize the new card. You will probably have to install the drivers provided, Windows ME may have them, I’m not sure I still have Windows 98.
Then you set your resolution to what you like and you are ready to go. Here are some of the resolutions I use for different monitors. For a 13 to 14 inch monitor I use 640 x 480, for a 17 inch I use 800 x 600 or 1024 x 768 and for my 19 inch I use 1280 x 1024. The higher the resolution that you can use will show more on your screen and will give you less scrolling.
Requirements
You need and AGP slot for a 2x or 4x AGP. It is recommended best with a 4x AGP system but will work with the 2x.
For the AGP 4x (AGP 2.0 compliant) they recommend the following processors: Intel Pentium III, IV, Celeron II or the AMD Athlon.
For the AGP 2x (AGP 1.0 compliant) they recommend the following processors: Intel Pentium II, Celeron I or the AMD K6-2.
A CD-ROM for installation of the software and a DVD-ROM for VD playback.
A Color VGA Monitor with a 15-pin VGA connector. (Standard on most monitors)
Why 64MB? (Megabytes)
There was a time not long ago where everyone thought a 16MB video card is all that would be needed, now 16MB is the minimum on some games.
This card is not for all, if you are into games, I highly recommend a 64 MB video card. Most games run great with 16 or 32MB of memory but, the games are getting more high tech all the time and are eating up the video memory. So why settle for 32MB when for a little more you can get 64MB.
I play games but that is not my purpose for a 64MB card. When on the Internet I run anywhere from 3 to 7 browsers at a time (Plus MS Word, NAPSTER, AOL Messenger and more.) and my 16MB memory card is eaten alive, now with 64MB it runs so much smoother with power to spare.
Other Features
There are two versions, Retail and a non-Retail version. What is the difference? The retail version has Video capture and TV/VCR-output support, this is optional for the non-retail version. So if this is important to you, make sure you get the one you wish.
Full motion video capture in MPEG-1 and MPEG-2, plus still image capture.
HDTV (High Definition Television) Ready with the proper TV and software.
It supports DirectX and OpenGL
Great 3D acceleration
Overall
This is the Cadillac of video cards, plenty of memory and performance.
It has a 5-year limited warranty
I highly recommend the ATI Radeon 64MB DDR.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 189
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Epinions.com ID:
surferdude7
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Location: Elizabethtown, Ky.
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