ATI Did it Again... Wow
Written: Oct 30 '01 (Updated Jan 08 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Pure and simple speed and clarity always wanted in a vid card
Cons: Definitely not for older PCs
The Bottom Line: Great card, Great Price, Great Quality... just plain awesome only draw back is it isn't good for older systems.
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| ldwalker59's Full Review: ATI Radeon 64MB DDR |
Introduction
Well hello again I thought I would write another computer hardware epinion as it has been a while since I took a stab at one of these forgive me if I don't match up to my old ways. I had a computer guru buddy of mine go out and purchase a new video card around May of 2001 he was able to purchase this card for a little under 300 even then, and I know that now you can get the card for around 145 plus s & h at http://www.pricewatch.com
So he buys me this card when at the time I had asked for a 32 MB video card with the instructions "Anything ATI that is 32 MB or better". Boy did he surprise me when he came back with this card. I became a big fan of ATI when I purchased the ATI XPert 128 but my card finally died on me after almost two years of hard service and continued to lock up on some of the more stringent 3d games. Knowing what had happened with the old ATI XPert I wondered what ATI had been up to... I got everything full throttle at that time since this was the top card from them and still is a front runner for them.
Tech Specs
Some of the more obvious specs are the fact that this card has 64 Megs of DDR RAM built in which make for quicker storage and running of the more difficult graphics that your newer 3d effect games have. You also have 128-bit graphic stream and that makes for more enjoyment by comparison the Nintendo 64 had a 64 bit graphics stream. Another comparison is that this graphics card has the equivalent capabilities of the PS2, but as far as computer games there are not as many that match the programming of the PS2 games.
I still have an old 450 Mhz K6-2 with Windows 98 on it this is about as old as I would suggest you get and still go out ot purchase this card. Luckily I have the Asus P5-A motherboard which did include a 2x AGP (which basically is a quicker port for video cards than PCI or the older ISA slots) you must have a 2x AGP slot or better otherwise this card will not be able to function fully if at all. I would recommend that you look at your motherboard manual or system manual depending on if you built or bought the system any time before 2000 just to make sure that you have at least 2x AGP. Most systems after 2000 will have that at the very least although some of the cheaper stripped down systems may still lack that.
Other big hits on the tech scene are the fact that ATI does continually put out new drivers so it would be good for you to check their website every so often to see if a newer version of the driver has come out. I would suggest you use the fully tested driver since they tend to put out alpha and beta drivers from time to time which can cause a few bugs simply due to the fact that they have not been fully developed yet.
For more of the nitty gritty specs like the graphics engine that it runs on and such please go to http://www.ati.com/na/pages/products/pc/radeon64_ddr/index.html#features and check out the features of the card there.
Software
As far as software goes it comes with a couple of games which I personally have never played and probably won't play. One was Motorcross 2 and the other I have lost since the purchase. I know that it does come with some excellent DVD software which I actually use in preference over the software that came with my Creative Ovation DVD drive (the drives software I think is better with surround sound but I have yet to test and compare these two). The playback is clear and doesn't jerk at all even with my older PC so their claims to best DVD playback in the industry are probably not too far off.
The software also includes video capture (grab video and make pictures or record small amounts of film) and with the TV/VCR input/output jack you can do almost anything with it.
I do still play games like Diablo II, Fall Out and others and it still runs fine on my system. I have yet to have any software glitches with this card even when I use items such as Photoshop Pro and when I have loaded games such as Everquest.
Conclusion
I would recommend this card to anyone even today. I do know that the ATI Radeon card line has continued on to produce cards pass this point, but right now I see no use in purchasing anything stronger than this until software developers show an interest in producing computer games above and beyond the graphics scope of today.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 285
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Epinions.com ID:
ldwalker59
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Location: Plano, TX
Reviews written: 38
Trusted by: 13 members
About Me:
fan of sports, vid games, and computers Woohoo!!!
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