05-18-2004, 01:33 PM
Woo, my new video card arrived by FedEx last night, an ATI 9600XT.
Installation went ok. I had two extra installs and reboots more than necessary, but that was
my fault. BTW, if you've never replaced one before, it's not that hard, even for a relatively
inexperienced hardware person (like me). Remove the old driver, install card physically (the easy part),
install new driver that came with the card and reboot. (There may be an AGP driver/chipset driver update)
Optionally: i) download a newer driver from your card manufacturer's site (I did, was easy) , ii) use overclocking utility to get even more punch from your system (I'll play with this a little).
It was either MongoJerry or Thenryb who was asking how this went - and so far I'm quite pleased with the card and the installation process (frankly, I expected it to be harder, especially given the problems ATI used to have with drivers, but it went without a hitch)
Results from limited testing last night, going from a 7200 32mb card to 128MB 9600XT:
- "Benchmark" using 3DMarks2003 - I went up from 106 to 3443 (wowza!)
- "Call of Duty" demo went from slideshow to "OMG! Now I see why this game is considered to cool. The immersion is now amazing!"
- A few other games/demos of not-quite-new games was similarly VERY impressive
- World of Warcraft... a little better. Things looked nicer, my FPS doubled or tripled (even though I pumped effects to max), but really, the game was the same. It was like getting your old glasses prescription renewed and going from 20/30 or 20/40 back to 20/20, but NOT like a 20/200 person getting glasses. That FPS increase would have been far higher but I was able to pump all the settings up to maximum and increase resolution.
While you might say that's disappointing, this is excellent news! (?!) Well, if I bought the card just for
WoW I would be disappointed, but what this means is that the game 'degrades' for slower cards/systems VERY WELL. My 1.3Ghz P4 and the old card PLAYS JUST FINE, smooth, and looks good, and the new video card plays fine, smoother, and looks better. That's good for people with systems ~2 years old - they should be fine (unless their original video was 'integrated', perhaps).
On another note, I'll echo the comments of other folks on the nVidia cards. The FX low end introduces a NEW level of budget that bang-for-buck is quite nice... just don't expect it to be as good as a card 3x-4x as expensive. The FX5200 and 5600 are underperformers, 5700 Ultra a step up, and the 5900/5950 solid. If you're looking to get a new nVidia, the FX line is a better choice than the MX line. If you're on a budget and can find an old TI4200 that's cheap, it's still a good card.
Charis
Installation went ok. I had two extra installs and reboots more than necessary, but that was
my fault. BTW, if you've never replaced one before, it's not that hard, even for a relatively
inexperienced hardware person (like me). Remove the old driver, install card physically (the easy part),
install new driver that came with the card and reboot. (There may be an AGP driver/chipset driver update)
Optionally: i) download a newer driver from your card manufacturer's site (I did, was easy) , ii) use overclocking utility to get even more punch from your system (I'll play with this a little).
It was either MongoJerry or Thenryb who was asking how this went - and so far I'm quite pleased with the card and the installation process (frankly, I expected it to be harder, especially given the problems ATI used to have with drivers, but it went without a hitch)
Results from limited testing last night, going from a 7200 32mb card to 128MB 9600XT:
- "Benchmark" using 3DMarks2003 - I went up from 106 to 3443 (wowza!)
- "Call of Duty" demo went from slideshow to "OMG! Now I see why this game is considered to cool. The immersion is now amazing!"
- A few other games/demos of not-quite-new games was similarly VERY impressive
- World of Warcraft... a little better. Things looked nicer, my FPS doubled or tripled (even though I pumped effects to max), but really, the game was the same. It was like getting your old glasses prescription renewed and going from 20/30 or 20/40 back to 20/20, but NOT like a 20/200 person getting glasses. That FPS increase would have been far higher but I was able to pump all the settings up to maximum and increase resolution.
While you might say that's disappointing, this is excellent news! (?!) Well, if I bought the card just for
WoW I would be disappointed, but what this means is that the game 'degrades' for slower cards/systems VERY WELL. My 1.3Ghz P4 and the old card PLAYS JUST FINE, smooth, and looks good, and the new video card plays fine, smoother, and looks better. That's good for people with systems ~2 years old - they should be fine (unless their original video was 'integrated', perhaps).
On another note, I'll echo the comments of other folks on the nVidia cards. The FX low end introduces a NEW level of budget that bang-for-buck is quite nice... just don't expect it to be as good as a card 3x-4x as expensive. The FX5200 and 5600 are underperformers, 5700 Ultra a step up, and the 5900/5950 solid. If you're looking to get a new nVidia, the FX line is a better choice than the MX line. If you're on a budget and can find an old TI4200 that's cheap, it's still a good card.
Charis
