Aces High Bulletin Board
General Forums => Hardware and Software => Topic started by: mrsid2 on November 25, 2001, 06:55:00 AM
-
Howdy folks!
I'm currently in the process of purchasing a new display card.. I'm balancing between the new (but buggy) Radeon 8500 or GF3 Ti200 (Leadtek which is built on identical platform with thier gf3 classic.)
The thing is, I've been hearing stories about horrible framerates in aces high when using radeon 8500.
So if you own 8500 and play AH, spill it out.. What framerates you get and are there other general problems with it?
Please include your other system info also such as CPU, motherboard, RAM and OS.
-
I own a Radeon 64Mb DDR invo , looks great in AH , beautifull color etc , TILL you get to any black smoke , 5in guns , smoking fields etc . Then the fps go to toejam and the game STUDDERS BAD . Yep I am shouting .
I changed the v card out for my old GF Pro 256 32mb card , now I get less fps flying in the clear , but HUGE increase in the smoke . WITH NO STUDDERS .
With the newest Radeon driver for my card 7189 the fps also droped 12 fps in AH .
Let me tell u this , I ain't a happy camper with ATI .
take care
spro
-----------------------------------
Operating System Microsoft Windows 98
DirectX Version 8.00
Mobo Manufacturer Gigabyte Technology Co., LTD
Mobo Model 7DXR
CPU AMD Athlon(tm) Processor 1400 Mhz
FSB 133 MHz
256 DDR RAM
3D Accelerator gForce 256 Pro 32mb
21.83 driver
--------------------------------------
-
Spro your radeon 64 is already old technology, it can't be compared to 8500 which is theoretically much faster than geforce3 ti500.
I just want to know how it does in practise.
-
hehe , yep I know that . BUT the one I replaced it with is older still and works better in AH . Go figure ?
I hope it works great , not trying to piss on anything .
I am waiting with you to see how they do with the AH smoke .
take care
spro
-
it aint gonna be any faster than a GF3 Ti500 in reality.
-
There was a good review of the Radeon 8500 and the VisionTek Xtasy GF3 Ti500 in hte latest issue of PC Gamer. Radeon would have been the editor's choice due to it's cost, but it was a lil buggy. VisionTek Xtasy's review said it was best card to date, and probably most expensive (starting at 300). It got the editor's choice. I'm still undecided. I need a new card, but I want high performance :) Still shaky on shelling out 300 bucks =]
oct out!
[ 11-25-2001: Message edited by: Octavius ]
-
The Radeon 8500 costs $259 at http://www.enpc.com (http://www.enpc.com)
Be SURE to get the RETAIL version.
RETAIL
RETAIL
RETAIL
[ 11-25-2001: Message edited by: Rendar ]
-
Oct
The Ti200 seems a way better deal then the Ti500. It costs less then a retail 8500 but outperforms it by quite a bit. It should cost around 200 US or so.
-
And if you choose a good Ti200 model, maybe you can overclock it to a level approaching the Ti500.
-
i have the 8500 64meg - the fr are lower around 28-44 but the graphics are clear and the game runs smooth.
the onoy touble i have are with network issues when too many people are on other than that its fine.
dont put too much stock in fr - its not all there is to good graphics.
if you are running 70 - 100 fr its about 30 more than your eye can distinguish anyway so faster isnt always better they just hook you with the logic that the bigger the number the better the thing is. theres a lot more to it than that.
i notice all kinds of subtle color grades that ive never seen before - purples in the distance - great blue in the sky and the mindanao map is extremely crisp - thats running with all the sliders up - it runs fine.
if you want big numbers to impress your nerd friends dont get a radeon 8500 if you want a good card its a great choice.
-
Originally posted by mrfish:
i have the 8500 64meg - the fr are lower around 28-44 but the graphics are clear and the game runs smooth.
the onoy touble i have are with network issues when too many people are on other than that its fine.
dont put too much stock in fr - its not all there is to good graphics.
if you are running 70 - 100 fr its about 30 more than your eye can distinguish anyway so faster isnt always better they just hook you with the logic that the bigger the number the better the thing is. theres a lot more to it than that.
i notice all kinds of subtle color grades that ive never seen before - purples in the distance - great blue in the sky and the mindanao map is extremely crisp - thats running with all the sliders up - it runs fine.
if you want big numbers to impress your nerd friends dont get a radeon 8500 if you want a good card its a great choice.
What resolution are you running, 1600x1200x32?
-
1280x1024
also should have mentioned i am running a pent iii 866 and 512 megs dram.
-
Originally posted by Pongo:
Oct
The Ti200 seems a way better deal then the Ti500. It costs less then a retail 8500 but outperforms it by quite a bit. It should cost around 200 US or so.
Argh! oct is thinking about the *future* :). I dont want to have to upgrade for a loooong time. since ya dont *need* the Ti500 now, why not get it just to have when the time comes for that kind of power?
-
mrfish
thanks, I'm eyeballing the ATI 8500 as the geforce2 ultra 64mb(leadtek) has great fps but doesn't have the "crispness" my ati 32mb radeon has at work. In AH its ok but not as sharp as my voodoo 5500 was but out on the desktop, the icons are slightly blurry. Almost like you need reading glasses or something.
in smoke, do you get any herky, jerky going on?
-
Oct, Hercules' Ti cards will cost more than the VisionTek's more than likely. Herc's are usually the most expensive of the nvidia based cards (at least when I was pricing 'em out recently)
Supposedly, ATI released new drivers that quells the bugginess experienced in the 8500's initial release. As always, YMMV when it comes to hardware in your system.
-
I bought finally Leadtek GF3 ti200 and it gives me 100-140 fps in mindanao/pony 1024x768x32 no fsaa.
240+ fps looking at the sky..
Image quality is WAY better than in my old elsa gladiac mx. The purchase was worth it just because of that.
FYI geforce line cards get blurry looking text and icons to aces high if trilinear or anisotropic texture filtering is in use, I don't know why. Maybe a bug?
Texture filtering disabled, text and icons are as sharp as any 2d text.
-
yeah i get the same thing in aces high text with anisotropic.. btw ripley what cpu do you have that you get 240 thats way higher than me!
-
Originally posted by Mr RiplEy:
I bought finally Leadtek GF3 ti200 and it gives me 100-140 fps in mindanao/pony 1024x768x32 no fsaa.
240+ fps looking at the sky..
Image quality is WAY better than in my old elsa gladiac mx. The purchase was worth it just because of that.
FYI geforce line cards get blurry looking text and icons to aces high if trilinear or anisotropic texture filtering is in use, I don't know why. Maybe a bug?
Texture filtering disabled, text and icons are as sharp as any 2d text.
is there a setting to improve 2D text with the geforce2 ultra? AH looks fine, it's when I go out of AH to the rest of windows the fuzzy text makes me eyes hurt.
-
Zigrat that was vsync off and looking at empty sky.. Normal fps offline with something in view is around 100.
Inside intense smoke fps drops online to 46 but I've never seen it go lower so far, except when I used 4xfsaa. Even then it never got to the point of stuttering. I hated FSAA (drops fps, makes lines look better yes, but causes vibrating lines when looking in the far distance textures.)
Eagler: yes there is something you can do but it requires voiding your warranty and soldering. :rolleyes:
Bad image quality in 2D applications is a general problem with geforce cards and it's caused by low-quality RF-filtering. There is a way to bypass those filters by soldering jumpers and resistors to the card but obviously this is not for the faint hearted.
The purpose of those RF filters is to reduce radio-frequency emissions from the card, too bad they destroy high-res image quality in the process.
I chose Leadtek because they use high-quality filters in all thier tdh cards and the image quality improvement compared to my old Elsa Gladiac MX is phenomenal. No more fuzzy fonts when going to high-freq!
And believe me, that pissed me off because I have a trinitron screen.. shouldn't be fuzzy. :)
Edit: You can try to get better image quality by trying to adjust your monitor color convergence and/or dropping display resolution to 1024x768 if you run it higher. The RF filter bug affects mainly high resolutions because the voltage delivered to the signal drops in comparison to the rise of the frequency.
[ 11-29-2001: Message edited by: Mr RiplEy ]
-
Originally posted by Mr RiplEy:
Zigrat that was vsync off and looking at empty sky.. Normal fps offline with something in view is around 100.
Inside intense smoke fps drops online to 46 but I've never seen it go lower so far, except when I used 4xfsaa. Even then it never got to the point of stuttering. I hated FSAA (drops fps, makes lines look better yes, but causes vibrating lines when looking in the far distance textures.)
Eagler: yes there is something you can do but it requires voiding your warranty and soldering. :rolleyes:
Bad image quality in 2D applications is a general problem with geforce cards and it's caused by low-quality RF-filtering. There is a way to bypass those filters by soldering jumpers and resistors to the card but obviously this is not for the faint hearted.
The purpose of those RF filters is to reduce radio-frequency emissions from the card, too bad they destroy high-res image quality in the process.
I chose Leadtek because they use high-quality filters in all thier tdh cards and the image quality improvement compared to my old Elsa Gladiac MX is phenomenal. No more fuzzy fonts when going to high-freq!
And believe me, that pissed me off because I have a trinitron screen.. shouldn't be fuzzy. :)
Hmm
I have the Leadtek WinFast GeForce2 Ultra card, 64 mb on a Sony 19" trinitron monitor. If it's good, I'd hate to see a Elsa card :)
Don't try an ATI card for 2D, it'll make you cry when you have to go back..
Where can I find the soldering instructions?
-
Eagler: To my knowledge the higher quality filters were first implemented to Geforce3 TDH and later models like my TI200.
Check it out here: http://www.geocities.com/porotuner/imagequality.html (http://www.geocities.com/porotuner/imagequality.html)
[ 11-29-2001: Message edited by: Mr RiplEy ]
-
Originally posted by Eagler:
mrfish
in smoke, do you get any herky, jerky going on?
sorry eagler havent read this in a while - yeah sometimes but only when there are a lot of people on. its very nice the rest of the time. real clear and the transitions are amazing
- like, if i do a roll, the mountain looks totally crisp through the whole thing and it doesnt kind of roll around with me or look hazy at the edges - it stays put - ya know what i mean?? hard to explain but its a great card imo.
its not just smoke - i get jerky internet every now and then wherever i'm at - relogging usually clears it up so i dont think its the card.
-
Originally posted by mrfish:
its not just smoke - i get jerky internet every now and then wherever i'm at - relogging usually clears it up so i dont think its the card.
I used to get this also . The easiest way to see it is to watch the planes taking off from the tower . They would "jerk" along taking off , I always thought they were in time time with the "host que" , if that bottom line was flat it went away , if it was going up and down .5 then I seen it .
The good thing is it's went away since I changed back to my old nVidia card . I do still beileve there's a driver issue with ATI and AH , it came with version 1.08 .
I checked offline to see if I had made any headway with getting the smoke to work better by ,
get in a field gun , set "protect objects" to 0 , then shoot up a vhanger . Once that was smoking good , would turn the gun in circles as fast as I could and see if the screen "jerked" on the way past the smoking hanger .
With my ATI card I got 8 jerks before it would be past the smoke . With my old nVida card I get one small one when the smoke just comes on the screen and another when it leaves .
As you say , the color does look better but it sure wasn't playable anymore near any smoke at all . Now it doesn't bother .
take care
spro