All ATI products are worthless garbage!

I've had problems with GeForce and I'm having problems with Radeon. It's not really card dependant, I guess it's a mix of Windows, DirectX and video drivers that tends to bite me in the ass whenever I expect a card to function like any other component you install.

Doom 3 is doing that "I can't hear you" thing on my pc where you start the game, stare at the hour-glass cursor which appears for a few seconds and then begin to go mildly insane as the cursor switches back to default and nothing happens although (optionally) the executable is still listed as running process in the task-manager.
Some other games did that thing before, but usually an update solves it.

Oh and trying to get multi-screen support work with a Radeon 9800 Pro in Linux is teh fun. What's so great about KDE anyway?
 
I can`t even install the ATI drivers on Mandrake 10, tried everything but still doesn`t work. Well at least hardware accelaration works for many with ATI, while nVidia doesn`t support Linux as it should.
 
This is really funny in my opinion. I've had two consecutive ATI boards, and both are absolutely great. Especially my old one, which had video in and out in all flavors of television standard; NTSC, PAL, SECAM*, and all variants thereof. Everything, I think, except the old British 405-line standard but it may have even had that. It was very fast for its day and enabled my 500MhZ box to run games that asked for a much faster processor.

Now I've got a true ATI in my brand new Dell and I couldn't be happier. I've kept my old machine around since XP won't run several of my old favorite games... like Fallout! (but it runs FO2 as we know...)

*Television standards explained!
NTSC: "Never twice the Same Color"!
PAL: People Are Lavender
SECAM: System Entirely Contrary to the American Method
 
Linuz support, while dear to my heart (for obvious reasons), is somewhat of a side issue. I've found it more fruitful to run dual boot, mandrake and XP. XP for games, mandrake for all else. Both companies have had driver issues. With both companies trying to rush out DirectX support, better user interface, etc. I'm not in the least surprised. Not sure about 3D games on linux, but I've had 6 ATI cards (all BB-ATI) and have had absolutely no issues (except for some buggy omega drivers, but that's not even ATI supported, or condoned). I bought 1 Geforce 2 ULTRA (albiet eVGA) and I've had artifacts on whatever machine it's been in. Mind you, I still recomend Nvidia cards, when they hold the perfromance crown at a given price point (see the 6800GT). I also, however, recomended the 9700/9800/9500(they were the same core, essentially) for 3 years.
Similar to the Intel/AMD fights, you have no choice but one of the 2. To say that either is crap is, to say the least, dumb. To say that because one card that you bought, not even made by their respective GPU core maker all of their cards are crap is like saying that because your pinto was crap, you'll only buy honda.
 
Guess what, I just got a response from the ATI Customer Care. As expected, the mail was full of useless brainturd, clearly a product of some defective auto-response script. On about three pages, I was sent their game issues FAQ (all of it, including issues that appear on Rage 128, Radeon 9700 and other card that I don't have), as well as excerpts from their other troubleshooting FAQs (mostly with broad and obvious "advice", like "install latest DirectX version", or "make sure you have the latest drivers for your card" or the ever-brilliant "run DXDiag to make sure Direct3D acceleration is enabled"). Never mind the fact that I already checked all of those, and when I finally decided to mail them, I submitted a very concise problem description where I explicitely stated that I had the latest DX version, the latest driver version, and that I had checked the DXDiag and seen that there is no Direct3D functionality whatsoever!

Though the entire response was such a giant pile of turd that my Inbox still reeks of it, I was treated to a good laugh at the beginning sentence, that stated the following profound and ingenious thought: It is our experience that most graphics issues are caused by system configuration.

I think no further comments are necessary.
 
Ratty and everyone else, I'm considering buying a Radeon 9800 Pro 256 MB to replace my probably malfuntioning Geforce 4 Ti4600 128 MB. Problem is, I don't know which version of the Radeon 9800 pro to get. Which one is the better one? There's a sale on Sapphire cards near where I live.
 
I have found the Sapphire Atlantis to be the best ATI Radeon 9800 Pro.

On my Sapphire ATI Radeon 9800 Pro 128MB I can run HL2 with full graphics and 4X AA and 4X AF and get 40-80 FPS. It is mostly how you configure your system. For example, I get between 60-80 FPS on my 128MB Geforce Ti 4200 that is in my spare computer on high graphics settings.
 
rather go for a 6600GT AGP baboon. it should be about at the same pricerange as your choice, but with better performance on newer games.
 
I could only find PCI-express for 6600GT. You sure there are AGP versions of the card?

The sexiest versions of the Radeon 9800 pro 256 MB I've found so far are:

-Sapphire Radeon 9800 Pro 256MB DDR2 - TV-Out / DVi

-SAPPHIRE TECH RADEON 9800 PRO ATLANTIS256MB DDR AGP DVI/TVO L-RETAIL -

-SAPPHIRE TECH RADEON 9800 PRO ULTIMATE256MB DDR AGP DVI/TVO RETAIL

I really don't know which to get, when there are so many different versions. They're all around $300, give or take a few bucks.
 
Lord 342 said:
Now I've got a true ATI in my brand new Dell and I couldn't be happier. I've kept my old machine around since XP won't run several of my old favorite games... like Fallout
Click to expand...



Thats odd, I have XP with SP2 preinstalled from the factory, and FO and FO2 both run on my PC.
 
the first version you mention is the bulk version, second light retail & third full retail.
the differences are basically: the box & the software (games & such)

tbh it's not a good idea to buy such a card @ 300$ when you can easily find the 128mb version @ 185$ or a 6600GT @ 240$. (the 6600GT prize will probably fall a bit when there will be more available)

the difference in performance between the 256mb & 128mb versions of this card is small, and sure as hell aren't worth shelling out another 115$.
the 6600GT is less expensive than the card you are looking at and it is better in all newer games. it has exactly the same core as the PCI-E version but it is downclocked a bit without a good reason. basically you get some extra performance for free with this guaranteed overclocking performance. the 6600GT also has all the new nvidia features & shaders.

it would be silly to buy a 9800pro 256mb @ 300$...
 
Yeah, but isn't a 256 MB card more of an investment for future games? I still haven't been able to find any AGP versions of the 6600GT, and I can't use PCI-express. I don't know, buying a 128 MB card instead of a 128 MB card doesn't seem like a big change.
 
baboon, dont be fooled by numbers!

a 9800pro has DDR1 memory with standard rating of around 675Mhz.
a 6600GT has GDDR3 memory with a standard rating of 1 Ghz. (with a 128bit bus, but in the end you'll see that doesnt matter much)

anyhow, i got lazy and took THG as reference (yes, the hardcore hardware freaks wont forgive me for that):
here you see that the 9800pro 256mb barely differs from the 9800pro 128mb
here is the 9800pro head to head with the 6600GT AGP (dont forget that the XFX 6600GT that i posted is clocked just a bit higher than the standard 6600GT tested here)

Anandtech said:
Compared to the $200 - $300 AGP cards available today, the GeForce 6600GT AGP can't be beat. While the Radeon 9800 Pro offers close performance in older games, switch to any of the latest titles and the 6600GT truly spreads its wings.

For the first time in recent history our GPU recommendation is clear: the best bang for your AGP buck is none other than the GeForce 6600GT.
Click to expand...
 
No card can beat GeForce,
SuAside is right,
6600 wins without remorse
In a fair and brutal fight.

Even if you don't have PCI-E
Performance is guaranteed,
For new Pixel Shader 3
Gives it unprecedented lead.
 
Your attempt to be funny
Has miserably failed.
For the sake of this thread
It would be best if you bailed.
 
Wait dudes, you're saying that I can use a PCI-E card without getting a new motherboard? Just sticking it in a regular PCI port? I still wasn't able to find any AGP 6600GT, so... On a side note, should I get the 128 or 256 version? And what do you mean by "old games" and "new games"?
 
Suaside, you posted so many links, I was overwhelmed. Thanks for the help and info, but no need to go PMS on me. Also, 1024*768 on HL2 is pretty low. Is it the same as Radeon 9800 pro when choosing between 128 and 256 though?


Also, what's the international shipping cost on that site? Didn't find any info. Plus, buying from the states...


*EDIT* Wait, they don't seem to deliver it overseas.
 
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