Author Topic: Athlon/Radeon (Read 963 times)

Manedew · « **on:** August 06, 2001, 04:56:00 PM »

looking into Athlon 1.2GHz on an Abit KT7A/RAID ATA/100 266MHz
Found an ATI 64mb RDR Radeon for 200$ to go with it.

Anyone have a similar system that runs smoothly at 1600X1200/32-bit in AH?
Because if it can't run ah well, no reason to buy it

[ 08-06-2001: Message edited by: Manedew ]

AKDejaVu · « **Reply #1 on:** August 06, 2001, 05:09:00 PM »

I'm currently running the Radeon with a 1GHz P3. Max resolution in AH is no problem.

One word of advice: Make sure you get a 300W power supply with that setup.

AKDejaVu

Fatty · « **Reply #2 on:** August 06, 2001, 05:30:00 PM »

Should be fine Manedew. I run 1600x1200 with only a 750 athlon and 64meg radeon. No probs.

bloom25 · « **Reply #3 on:** August 07, 2001, 02:38:00 AM »

Might I recommend going with a DDR ram board instead of the old SDRAM (Abit kt7a uses old sdram). DDR sdram is maybe 1 dollar more expensive than sdr sdram and will give a 5 - 15% performance boost.

I'm not too familar with Abit models, but a good Asus board would be the A7M266 or if you can find it the A7V266 (<- brand new), the A7A266 is OK, but there are better ones now.

Go to www.anandtech.com and find one of their CPU, MB, etc price guides and look up the AMD760 or VIA KT266 chipset boards. (The Sis 735 is good too, but no boards have it yet.)

MrBill · « **Reply #4 on:** August 07, 2001, 02:50:00 AM »

I am running a AMD 1Ghz with a 32 meg Radeon and it works fine in top res. You must remember that your monitor must also support the res. with a Hz high enough to take advantage of the cards throughput.
And take Bloom25's advice on the board.

-lynx- · « **Reply #5 on:** August 07, 2001, 04:16:00 AM »

Followup to MrBill's: If you see your screen completely crapped out after you install you vid card it's not necessarily a daft card.

For whatever reason my Radeon after installation decided to fire itself up in a max refresh rate which my monitor could not handle. I'd had exactly the same problem before with V5 so I wasn't worried but it may take a few re-boots in safe mode (correct refresh rate -> re-boot -> system ignores what you've just done -> safe mode -> correct...) to get it going.

Never had a single glitch after this initial bummer on both V5 and Radeon 64...

Manedew · « **Reply #6 on:** August 07, 2001, 05:37:00 PM »

Only reason i was going for the SDRAM is because i have 384mb's of SD to strip from my existing board ... can i just put SDRAM in a DDR socket with no bugs?
(i do want to go with ddr someday but right now i have board with no AGP).. and that ain't good.
This is why i was gonna buy the bigger DDR 64 radeon instead of cheaper 32mb DDR

The DDR board i looked at was a bit cheaper than the SDRAM board.
So would I be better off with the 32MB ATI Radeon DDR with a DDR board or 64MB ATI with the SDRAM board.(Just hassel and cost of selling and replaceing current ram, that holds me back from the DDR board)

bloom25 · « **Reply #7 on:** August 07, 2001, 05:50:00 PM »

You would be FAR better off with the DDR ram Motherboard and 32 MB radeon. For the most part spending extra money for 64 MB of video memory is at this time pretty much a waste of money. There are no games yet available that need that much video memory and unless you have say a 21 " monitor and plan at running at ungodly high resolutions, don't bother.

You must also consider that in a years time sdram may not be available (or very expensive) and DDR ram is cheap. DDR ram will also give better performance now, and more so in the future as processor speeds increase. My advice is to sell that ram to somebody and get yourself a DDR ram board. (Asus A7M266 and A7V266 would be good choices. If you wait until the end of next month the Asus A7N266 will be available and be likely FAR faster than the other two. It will also be expensive (approx $200). )

If you must buy a system before the end of September, get yourself an AMD 760 chipset based one if you want top performance and proven stability. The Via KT266 has two advantages though over the AMD 760, it is much cheaper, and supports overclocking. Performance is also pretty good on the kt266 (within 1% of the AMD 760). Early reports indicate it is also very stable.

Basically here's how I see it:

For people who like to overclock - VIA kt266 board.

For people who don't overclock - AMD 760 board.

For those who won't be buying a system until end of September / mid October - Nvidia nForce (not yet available).

(Btw: You can't use SDRAM in DDR ram slots.

)

Manedew · « **Reply #8 on:** August 07, 2001, 06:27:00 PM »

http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1418
What do you think of the FIC AD11?
for what i want to spend right now it's that or the Abit KT7A
And yes i have a Sick 21" montiar tho only goes to 1600x1200

look at this test, seems like they used both SDRAM & RDRSDRAM http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1418&p=6

[ 08-07-2001: Message edited by: Manedew ]

SunKing · « **Reply #9 on:** August 07, 2001, 08:18:00 PM »

Quote

Originally posted by Manedew:
Found an ATI 64mb RDR Radeon for 200$ to go with it.
[ 08-06-2001: Message edited by: Manedew ][/QB]

I just bought the retail version of the RAdeon 64DDR video card for $160 after shipping. Hit pricewatch.com for a better deal than 200, save that 50 bucks and get the 1.3 t-bird!

bloom25 · « **Reply #10 on:** August 07, 2001, 11:46:00 PM »

FIC is a good brand and I'd recommend one of their boards without too much hesitation. (If you want to save money, take a look at some of EPox offerings as well, they are known for their reliability.)

As for this board, it seems pretty good. It does make use of a VIA southbridge, which does mean the use of VIA 4 in 1 drivers are probably necessary. I also should mention it only has 2 ram slots. Since 512 MB chips are not yet economically available you are going to have to buy 2 sticks of 256 MB PC2100 DDR ram, meaning for now that 512MB ram is the most you are going to have. (About $120 US total for 2 crucial 256 MB sticks. www.crucial.com ) Not a huge deal, but worth mentioning.

This is a pretty good board overall, with a few minor things I don't like. ( They put the CPU socket close to the powersupply, where the air is very warm, for one.)

On the plus side this board does have lots of overclocking features, which are rare on AMD760 boards.

If I had to decide between this board and ANY regular SDRAM board, I'd say go with this FIC board. SDR SDRAM will be gone very soon, so for future upgradability DDR ram is the way to go.

bloom25 · « **Reply #11 on:** August 08, 2001, 12:08:00 AM »

Might want to read this too Mandedew. http://www.tomshardware.com/mainboard/01q3/010806/index.html

MrBill · « **Reply #12 on:** August 08, 2001, 12:10:00 AM »

Quote

Originally posted by Manedew:

for what i want to spend right now it's that or the Abit KT7A
And yes i have a Sick 21" montiar tho only goes to 1600x1200

[ 08-07-2001: Message edited by: Manedew ]

It appears that you are looking for a thrifty interim upgrade?
check out the PcChips M817 LMR board, Socket A/DDR. It accepts 2 SRD or 2 DDR sims and up to a 1.3 amd cpu. bout 80 bucks last time I looked.
Also don't spring for a lot of vid card if your monitor is only going to do 1600X1200 @ 54Hz you will just be wasting money.