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Goodbye Nvidia....Hello Radeon! (long read)

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  • Goodbye Nvidia....Hello Radeon! (long read)

    A couple of days ago, I bought the new PC version of Thief Deadly Shadows and wanted to play it in my system. But for some reason, my old 8x AGP Ti 4200, just wouldn't play it at all. So I looked at getting a new video card the next day, as I know that I had plenty of processor speed, hard drive space, proper sound and RAM. So I went to computer deli and asked about a card they could reccomend for a couple hundred dollars. They showed me two models. The FX 5700 ultra and the Ati Radeon 9600XT.

    Now for some reason, I have always been a loyal GeForce follower, because I had such good service from my older GF Ti 200 and then a Ti 4200 later on. But earlier in the year, I bought a FX 5600 Ultra card brand new in the box. But I never could get it to display properly....EVEN when I reformatted my hard drive and put just windows on and tried the FX 5600 Ultra, it just didn't work. I kept getting these lines that I couldn't make dissapear, until I finally took it out and sold it and got another card. So, I settled for a 8x Ti 4200 and have been using that ever since until I wanted to play the new thief game.

    So, I decided that I would give Nvidia another shot and purchased the FX 5700 Ultra card. But when I got it home and opened the box and installed it.....the lines were back! Now, you have to realize something.....the time in between me buying the FX 5600 Ultra and the FX 5700 Ultra was about a year. And in between that time I had decided to upgrade my computer. That meant upgrading my old Soyo SY-K7VTA Pro motherboard to an Asus A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard. Plus upping the processor from a AMD XP 2000 to an AMD XP 2600. As well as a new power supply, from a 350 watt power supply to a 500 watt power supply. I also upgraded my old memory from 512 of 2100 to 1 GIG of PC 2700 DDR 333 mhz RAM (running in dual channel mode), as well as a new sound card. From a soundblaster 128 to an audigy 2. As well as a new monitor going from a 15 inch monitor to a 17 inch monitor.

    So basically, I pretty much had a new computer and yet, with all of those upgrades installed, STILL when I tried to buy and replace my old Ti card this time it was a repeat of what happened to me the last time. I got those blasted lines! I never figured out WHAT has made those cards give me those lines..... BOTH times!!
    Now on the FX 5700 ultra, I found out that it had a place on the front of the card that you hooked up your power supply to it. It had the standard 4 pin connection. But it made no difference with or without the power supply, I just could not get the card to work properly. I even did the trick I tried last time to trouble shoot. And that was to reformat my hard drive and ONLY put windows XP on there and NOTHING else but the video card drivers to see if it was a program that was causing it, but no luck! So I gave up, boxed it back up in the original box and went back to computer deli the next day and THIS time when I was asked what I wanted to do (either get my money back or exchange it for another card) I chose the Radeon 9600 XT ....it was a choice I wish I made long ago!


    In the first place, i had absolutely NO problems installing this.... smooth as silk. (NO power supply port in the front of the card, so Ididn't have to mess with that) just a regular AGP card.Then there were the little "extras" that also made a nice touch. With my FX 5700 Ultra, I got one game, a svideo cable, a driver CD and a manual. With the Radeon 9600 XT, I got about THREE different fullversion games, an svideo cable an adapter for a second monitor, A very informative manual and a full version win DVD cd. But to me, the extras are just that, what I was concerned with...was how well the card performed.

    So I installed thief on my newly formatted drive with all of my latest drivers installed and it played fantastic! I am very pleased with this card. Now I know it is a possibility, but the chances of me getting a bum card that has a bum display two times in a row with totally different computer parts, to me are pretty slim. Thats why I think I am gonna be switching to Radeon video cards from now on! Nvidia just lost a faithful customer. Don't get me wrong, I am not knocking Nvidia cards as I used to use them exclusively, but as for me, I just never could get thier newer cards to work. So I guess for me, now I am gonna go with Radeon. By the way, They guy that was exchanging the cards out at computer deli, sais something about 3 dollars and some change....I couldn't hear what he said the first time, but I assumed it was about me owing him an extra three dollars and some change. No problem, I thought and I went to reach for my wallet and he told me that HE owed ME three dollars and some change! So not only did I get a card that wotked, it was actually cheaper than the other card that gave me less extras! How cool is that?


    __________________
    System Specs: ATX generic case with Power Tech 500 watt- switching power supply. ASUS A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard. Western Digital 7,200 RPM 40 gig IDE Hard Drive.(FAT 32- file system) AMD Athlon XP 2600 processor.(standard fan and heatsink-Thoroughbred Core-standard speed-NO OVERCLOCK) 1 gig of Samsung DDRAM(PC 2700- 333 mhz....2-512mb sticks running in dual channel mode).Ati Radeon 8x 9600 XT (8x is enabled on motherboard). Soundblaster Audigy 2 sound card. Motorola sb 5100 cable modem (Insight Communications-Cable Connection) Sony DRU 500 AX DVD- RECORDER.(records -R/-RW or +R/+RW and CD-R formats-4x-24x-4x) LG 52x32x52 CD Burner. Zip 100 internal drive and a generic 3.5 floppy drive. Windows XP Professional Operating System. I also have a bearpaw scanner, HP Deskjet 3520 inkjet printer and a KDS X Flat 17 inch CRT monitor.
    Here are my specs:
    System Specs: ATX generic case with Antec 550 watt power supply. ASUS A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard. Western Digital 7,200 RPM 40 gig IDE Hard Drive.(NTFS- file system) AMD Athlon XP 2600 processor.(standard fan and heatsink-Thoroughbred Core-standard speed-NO OVERCLOCK) 1 gig of Samsung DDRAM(PC 2700- 333 mhz....2-512mb sticks running in dual channel mode).Ati Radeon 8x 9600 XT (8x is enabled on motherboard). Soundblaster Audigy 2 sound card. Motorola sb 5100 cable modem (Insight Communications-Cable Connection) BenQ 16x DVD- RECORDER.(records -R/-RW or +R/+RW and CD-R formats) LG 52x32x52 CD Burner. Zip 100 internal drive and a generic 3.5 floppy drive. Windows XP Professional Operating System. I also have a HP Deskjet 3520 inkjet printer and a KDS X Flat 17 inch CRT monitor.

  • #2
    Welcome to the Family! :group:
    Old age and treachery will overcome youth and skill
    My Toys

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    • #3
      Originally posted by Darthtanion
      Welcome to the Family! :group:

      Thanks! I think I am gonna like this new card. I was always skeptical about Radeon cards for some reason... even though I can look back and see it was probably unjustified and I admit I was rather biased twords Nvidia, but all that seems to have changed with the newer chipsets. You see in the early days of the Radeon cards, that was when I heard people complaining about them not being able to run their games properly and Nvidia was the way to go.....now it seems just the opposite has happened. I just wonder how much of the market Radeon now has compared to Nvidia in overall sales?
      Here are my specs:
      System Specs: ATX generic case with Antec 550 watt power supply. ASUS A7N8X Deluxe Motherboard. Western Digital 7,200 RPM 40 gig IDE Hard Drive.(NTFS- file system) AMD Athlon XP 2600 processor.(standard fan and heatsink-Thoroughbred Core-standard speed-NO OVERCLOCK) 1 gig of Samsung DDRAM(PC 2700- 333 mhz....2-512mb sticks running in dual channel mode).Ati Radeon 8x 9600 XT (8x is enabled on motherboard). Soundblaster Audigy 2 sound card. Motorola sb 5100 cable modem (Insight Communications-Cable Connection) BenQ 16x DVD- RECORDER.(records -R/-RW or +R/+RW and CD-R formats) LG 52x32x52 CD Burner. Zip 100 internal drive and a generic 3.5 floppy drive. Windows XP Professional Operating System. I also have a HP Deskjet 3520 inkjet printer and a KDS X Flat 17 inch CRT monitor.

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