Advice please-computer, video card, & games

....D. wrote:
This message is crossposted to 3 newsgroups I just subscribed to:
-microsoft.public.games.discussion-, -alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati-, &
-alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia-

Crossposting is generally not considered polite, but never mind.

I'll chime in with the others about the Athlon being a good CPU --
although assuming that it's not an Athlon 64, then it's a little
behind the times -- still decent, though. I'm running an Athlon XP
2100+, and it performs pretty decently in games (although naturally
far from the top processors do).

Regarding a graphics card, like others, I also largely agree with the
others -- Radeon 9800 Pro or GeForce 6600 are good. I'd lean toward
the GeForce, as it's a more modern architecture, but neither of them
are bad (I have a Radeon 9800 Pro). Skip the GeForceFX 5xx0 family, as
it's not very good for modern games (though they are okay for some).
I'd say that even going for a Radeon 9600 Pro or such will not be too
bad, if you want to save some money. You won't be able to reach the
same resolutions at good frame rates, but will still be able to run
the latest games decently.

You could go to www.digit-life.com. They have comparisons of many
graphics cards with quite a few games. This should give you an
indication of the relative power of the various cards. (Although the
latest roundup doesn't include Half Life benchmarks, and this is a
high profile game that you might want to get -- a web search will
likely find you such benchmarks.)

Regarding LCD screens, the best of them are decent for gaming these
days, but many aren't. CRTs are generally better for gaming, and as
someone said, DVI doesn't benefit you with them.

I hope this helps,

Eyal

On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 15:44:35 -0800, ...D. wrote:
I have an Athalon 3200+ computer,
Video - I also know my nVidia GeForce on-motherboard chipset that
steals 64 MBs of RAM, is not very good for the more advanced games.

Hey thanks all of you for answering. I know now that my computer is a
good enough gaming machine if I add the right video card. It looks like
the Radeon 9800 Pro is the way to go.

However I found a site that compared.. I didn't know more than one
company made the Radeon 9800 Pro video cards. There are at least 6 it
looks like. This site ran all kinds of tests. There were some
differences between them. Most desirable is something I think called a
Powercolor 9800 Pro. But the most expensive too. The choices below that
it recommended were either the HIS or the Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro.
ATI did not do as well as most others. But still any would be OK I
suppose.

What I am wondering is then why is the ATI so dominant? Were they just
the first? I have just looked online at all of the major store chains
around here (San Jose, Ca), and you would think a "tech capital" (ha - as
the mayor wants you to believe just because of silicon valley, yet parts
of the city still have no Internet cable or DSL) would have stores that
offered more than the one brand of ATI, wouldn't you?

Am I going to have to buy a Sapphire online then, or do any of you happen
to be from around here (San Fran bay area, Ca) and know of any places I
might be able to buy?
...D.

On Fri, 26 Nov 2004 04:41:34 -0800, ...D. wrote:

On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 15:44:35 -0800, ...D. wrote:
I have an Athalon 3200+ computer,
Video - I also know my nVidia GeForce on-motherboard chipset that
steals 64 MBs of RAM, is not very good for the more advanced games.

Hey thanks all of you for answering. I know now that my computer is a
good enough gaming machine if I add the right video card. It looks like
the Radeon 9800 Pro is the way to go.

Upon further review (ahaaa) I guess in the nVidia newsgroup, I see the
6600GT is a heck of a card too. Since my computer is full of nVidia
(audio.video, controllers even). I looked on Newegg, and there were about
10 different models. 5 were under 4200, a couple had Doom 3 as part of
their bundle. However the most expensive, and the only one that had it,
because someone touched on it in a few posts, was the AGP bus, not the
other PCI-Express buses all had. The AGP was $245. Ok. still
affordable. (by XFX, who also had the cheapest PCI Express at $182)

Ok I know I should get the AGP bus card. Someone care to explain a bit
more about AGP vs PCI Express so I can learn? Why is the AGP bus so much
better than the PCI-Express bus?
...D.

Someone care to explain a bit
more about AGP vs PCI Express so I can learn? Why is the AGP bus so much
better than the PCI-Express bus?

AGP is not better then PCI epxress. If you were looking at the AGP version of
the 6600GT the reason it is more expensive is because it just came out. The PCI
Express version has been out a little while longer and the price has dropped.

The differences between AGP and PCI Express are.

PCI Express has more bandwith then AGP, but 8X AGP is plenty for now.

PCI Express also lets you run two video cards in SLI mode for better
performance, AGP does not.

....D. wrote:

On Fri, 26 Nov 2004 04:41:34 -0800, ...D. wrote:

On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 15:44:35 -0800, ...D. wrote:
I have an Athalon 3200+ computer,
Video - I also know my nVidia GeForce on-motherboard chipset that
steals 64 MBs of RAM, is not very good for the more advanced games.

Hey thanks all of you for answering. I know now that my computer is a
good enough gaming machine if I add the right video card. It looks like
the Radeon 9800 Pro is the way to go.

Upon further review (ahaaa) I guess in the nVidia newsgroup, I see the
6600GT is a heck of a card too. Since my computer is full of nVidia
(audio.video, controllers even). I looked on Newegg, and there were about
10 different models. 5 were under 4200, a couple had Doom 3 as part of
their bundle. However the most expensive, and the only one that had it,
because someone touched on it in a few posts, was the AGP bus, not the
other PCI-Express buses all had. The AGP was $245. Ok. still
affordable. (by XFX, who also had the cheapest PCI Express at $182)

Ok I know I should get the AGP bus card. Someone care to explain a bit
more about AGP vs PCI Express so I can learn? Why is the AGP bus so much
better than the PCI-Express bus?

AGP isn't better. The price difference is because (a) with the chipset used
in the 6600 they have to add an additional chip to support AGP and (b)
there are a lot more machines out there with AGP than with PCI Express, so
anticipated demand is higher.

The deal with PCI Express is that it has a higher transfer rate than AGP or
regular PCI and in theory it's cheaper to make machines with PCI Express
than with PCI-X or AGP, the two real alternatives. In practice there's not
much out there that needs the higher bandwidth--the only place it would be
really useful right now is in servers that have enough disk performance to
fill a gigabit pipe, and PCI-X is already well-established there. It's
becoming popular mainly because Intel quit making chipsets with AGP and
started making them with PCI Express and kind of put the computer
manufacturers over a barrel--they could either abandon Intel or abandon AGP
and most of them decided that they needed Intel more than they needed AGP.

So, which you go with is not really a performance issue, it's a matter of
which fits the machine you have.

...D.

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

Ok I know I should get the AGP bus card. Someone care to explain a bit
more about AGP vs PCI Express so I can learn? Why is the AGP bus so much
better than the PCI-Express bus?

PCI Express is a newer bus. It's supposed to be better for graphics,
and newer cards, like the GeForce 6600, are designed for it, and
retrofitted back to AGP. It's kind of like PCI graphics cards, which
are more expensive than AGP, because the bus is older (although market
rationale is a little different here). The PCI Express version of the
6600 preceded the AGP version, and I imagine that given a bit more
time, there'd be more AGP cards and lower prices.

Eyal

On Fri, 26 Nov 2004 01:34:52 +0200, Eyal Teler wrote:

...D. wrote:
This message is crossposted to 3 newsgroups I just subscribed to:
-microsoft.public.games.discussion-, -alt.comp.periphs.videocards.ati-, &
-alt.comp.periphs.videocards.nvidia-

Crossposting is generally not considered polite, but never mind.

Actually I always heard that do not post individually in several
newsgroups - cross-post if you are going to put it out into more than one
newsgroup.

...D.

On Wed, 24 Nov 2004 18:37:42 -0600, "MikeC" wrote:


6800gt oc, etc etc, ranges. Theyre all ninjas.

6600GT is a better card than the 9800Pro and a helluva lot cheaper. It's
probably the best bang for your buck card out there right now.

Just found this in another post. Those that were waiting for the $249 AGP
model to come down, here you go. If true, a 6600 GT for $149:

http://tinyurl.com/5p4tn

...D.

Crossposting is generally not considered polite, but never mind.

Actually I always heard that do not post individually in several
newsgroups - cross-post if you are going to put it out into more than one
newsgroup.

That's true. However, it's better to pick just one relevant group in
the first place, and post to others only if you don't get a
satisfactory answer. This can lead to less clatter. I can see why you
chose to post to all these groups, though.

Eyal

"Eyal Teler" wrote in message
...
Crossposting is generally not considered polite, but never mind.

Actually I always heard that do not post individually in several
newsgroups - cross-post if you are going to put it out into more than one
newsgroup.

That's true. However, it's better to pick just one relevant group in the
first place, and post to others only if you don't get a satisfactory
answer. This can lead to less clatter. I can see why you chose to post to
all these groups, though.

Eyal

Ok
Cross post when the content is related to the group(s).
Reason - it will save time for individual that reading / answering that post
/ follow-up.



Not Ok
Individual post to all group that is related.
Reason - Waste time for those reading the post and those have answer to the
post.
Cross-posting with content that do not apply or related to the group.
Reason - Certain user will consider rude / trolling / spam.

CapFusion,...