What an upgrade!!!!
Written: Jul 03 '02 (Updated Jul 03 '02)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: Excellent 3D graphics and added bonus with Video-In, Video-Out
Cons: A few display driver bugs with some games.
The Bottom Line: Overall, this awesome card with all its features is worth the money, especially for moderate gamers and graphic artists.
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| korriek's Full Review: ATI RADEON, (64 MB) AGP Video Card |
Some of my favorite games included PC versions of Final Fantasy VII and VIII, but the 3D video hardware built into my motherboard was not up to handling the graphics in these and other 3D games. Movement was choppy and sometimes frustrating. Time for a major upgrade!
I searched long and hard (almost a year) for a video card that would give me the biggest bang for my student budget. After looking at many reviews and price searchers, the winner was ATI's 4xAGP Radeon 64MB DDR video card.
I got a new motherboard that supported AGP, and installed my new ATI Radeon 64MB DDR video card. Once installed, I noticed a drastic difference. My games were much more fluid and funner to play because of it. It was cool.
The drivers were a little difficult to install. First I installed the software and drivers that were included with the retail package. That was easy. Then I went to the ATI website for updated drivers and downloaded them. I had to uninstall the first set of drivers and reboot before installing the updated drivers. Later, I updated to Windows XP which includes basic Radeon drivers. I still needed to go to the website to get updated and enhanced drivers. The drivers say that they support OpenGL, but I haven't gotten my games to work in OpenGL mode yet. I've never used Glide programs, so I don't know much about how well it supports it. Remember that drivers are a continuous work in progress.
I was bugged by some bugs however. Particular to the PC versions of Final Fantasy VII and VIII, the 8-bit paletted texturing was unsupported, but easily worked around by choosing "software rendering" instead of D3D for the Display Driver in the setup for these games. Another thing that bugged was the grid that appeared in these games and in Sierra's Pharaoh and Cleopatra. It could possibly be that my video card was defective, or the display drivers. I only had one video card, so I couldn't tell. I think that when I switched Final Fantasy VIII from D3D to software rendering, it fixed this problem. (I left my computer behind for the summer, but I'm working on building another computer now with my radeon card. Once I get it up and running, I'll confirm this issue.) Updating the drivers can fix a lot of problems you may be having, like with the games "Homeworld" and "Indiana Jones and the Infernal Machine".
I also work with graphic programs like CorelDRAW 9, which, as far as I can tell, works great with this video card.
The retail package includes DVD player software, but I prefer using Cyberlink's PowerDVD sofware that came with my DVD-ROM drive since it has more features.
The Video In/Video Out feature was also a plus, allowing me to hook my computer up to a TV when watching DVD's or playing games. It also allows you to record your monitor to a VCR. Because the television screen is designed differently than a computer monitor, I noticed small text is very hard, if not impossible, to read. It is also best to be sure your computer is in 800x600 resolution before hooking it up to a TV screen.
I was dismayed when I got the ELSA Revelator 3D glasses and discovered that they were not compatible with my ATI Radeon video card, and required a card with an nvidia GPU. But that was ELSA's drawback for not producing compatible drivers. If you're looking for 3D glasses to go with this card, one suggestion is the Wicked eyeSCREAM PRO. http://www.wicked3d.com/products/es2pro/ Remember that compatibility depends on the games themselves as well.
Overall, this awesome card with all its features is worth the money, especially for moderate gamers and graphic artists.
If you're a hard-core gamer hungry for trying out the latest and greatest games and graphic 3D software out there and have money to burn, there are other cards like the ATI Radeon 8500 and Geforce4 TI4600. If you're looking into hooking cable up to your computer, there are ATI's All-In-Wonder video cards.
Best wishes in your search for the right card for you.
Recommended:
Yes
Amount Paid (US$): 180
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Epinions.com ID:
korriek
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Location: Wahiawa, Hawaii
Reviews written: 10
Trusted by: 2 members
About Me:
Masters student at Brigham Young University in Instructional Technology, Webmaster, and Graphic Artist
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