03-12-2003, 06:20 AM
As you mentioned, ATI currently owns the performance crowns in the consumer markets. You also can pretty much only get video in on the All-In-Wonder cards so if you want an ATI and you want VIVO you pretty much get an All-In-Wonder.
ATI driver support is much better than even just a year ago (and it has been decent since the Radeon line came out, not super great, but decent), and continues to improve as well.
Personally I don't think DX9 compliance is a big deal now, and probably won't be for at least another year. I also agree that staying a generation or so back on video cards is usually a better use of your money. Unless there is some specific game/app that you know will be out soon that DX9 will make that much of a performance difference with get a cheaper card now, put the rest of the money in the bank (or some other short term investment), and get your DX9 compliant part a year later with that money you put away. Use the earnings you got on it to pay shipping or go to dinner.
Bleeding edge with computers is mostly pointless, even for gamers. Look at what you play now, and what you are likely to play in a year (most of what you will get in a year is already benchmarkable now) then get the cheapest card that can handle it and save the rest of the money for next years card (which is probably going to be whatever the hottest card out is right now since you will be about 2 products or 1 generation back, note that NVidia and ATI both try real hard for 6 month product cycles and generally release 2 products per generation).
In your case if you VIVO and will be using it a lot, get the card with the best VIVO features first (probably an All-In-Wonder, ATI has pretty much always been better at the TV stuff than NVidia) then look at the games you actually play and get the best performance you can afford there. If you don't play the newest FPS you can easily get by with a much lower end card right now.
ATI driver support is much better than even just a year ago (and it has been decent since the Radeon line came out, not super great, but decent), and continues to improve as well.
Personally I don't think DX9 compliance is a big deal now, and probably won't be for at least another year. I also agree that staying a generation or so back on video cards is usually a better use of your money. Unless there is some specific game/app that you know will be out soon that DX9 will make that much of a performance difference with get a cheaper card now, put the rest of the money in the bank (or some other short term investment), and get your DX9 compliant part a year later with that money you put away. Use the earnings you got on it to pay shipping or go to dinner.
Bleeding edge with computers is mostly pointless, even for gamers. Look at what you play now, and what you are likely to play in a year (most of what you will get in a year is already benchmarkable now) then get the cheapest card that can handle it and save the rest of the money for next years card (which is probably going to be whatever the hottest card out is right now since you will be about 2 products or 1 generation back, note that NVidia and ATI both try real hard for 6 month product cycles and generally release 2 products per generation).
In your case if you VIVO and will be using it a lot, get the card with the best VIVO features first (probably an All-In-Wonder, ATI has pretty much always been better at the TV stuff than NVidia) then look at the games you actually play and get the best performance you can afford there. If you don't play the newest FPS you can easily get by with a much lower end card right now.
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It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.
It's all just zeroes and ones and duct tape in the end.