ATI Radeon 32MD DDR - vs. - Asus V7100 Geforce2MX 32MB SDR ... which one is better?

[abu]

Hello guys,
Which video Card out of those 2 would you get?

I can get the Radeon for $219 OEM

or the V7100 for $219 RETAIL + .15% tax

Those prices are all Canadian...

What other goodies but the manual and the drivers does the V7100 provide?

Your input would be appreciated...

 

[Sugadaddy]

Radeon of course, but you can find an MX board for less than that (~180$ can.)

 

[JokerF15]

radeon BY FAR!

 

[RustyTucker]

Be careful, I have heard that the OEM versions on the radeon are not the same as the retail. I do not remember exactly what it was, but I believe that it was mentioned in the anandtech budget card round-up or whatever it's called. Could be wrong tho.......

 

[abu]

<< OEM versions on the radeon are not the same as the retail >>



Can anyone verify this?

 

[NforSa]

im not 100% sure, but im 99% sure I read in Anandtech's review that the OEM version comes with slower DDR ram installed, and a slower memory clock, thus slowing the performance of the card

 

[sciencewhiz]

The Retail 64 ddr is clocked at 183/183. Every other radeon is clocked at 166/166. This includes the OEM 64 ddr and all the 32 meg versions.

Edit: I would recommend the radeon unless you use 16 bit color or use win2k.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I'm a Radeon owner. Don't buy a Radeon! ATI truly has horrible driver support. I mean, I can't even enable fog in games! The GeForce2 MX may not produce as good an image or run as fast, but at least it does everything well.

 

[Taz4158]

<< I'm a Radeon owner. Don't buy a Radeon! ATI truly has horrible driver support. I mean, I can't even enable fog in games! The GeForce2 MX may not produce as good an image or run as fast, but at least it does everything well. >>



The Radeon works perfectly well for 1000s of people. Once in a while someone can't get something to work, and they tend to be the most vocal, but most people have NO problems. Fog works great here.

 

[GTaudiophile]

What drivers are you using? What version of DirectX? In which games does fog work? Did you have to tweak the registry? In what games does it work? Are you running them in OpenGL or Direct3D? Frankly, you're the first person I've heard to get fog to work.

Fog does not work for me in Need For Speed: High Stakes nor in Hitman: Codename 47.

 

[NFS4]

If your running anything but Win2k, I'd pick the Radeon.

 

[GTaudiophile]

How do you get fog to work, NFS4?

 

[Fant]

Heh..so pick the radeon if you never ever plan on running win2k? I've made the switch to win2k and the mx card works great...I'm glad I didn't pick the ati. But who knows, maybe ati will surprise us with win2k drivers soon enough...

 

[NFS4]

<< How do you get fog to work, NFS4? >>


I dunno, I use a 64MB Asus V7700 GeForce 2 GTS...fog works fine

 

[GTaudiophile]

Well, since you don't own a Radeon, I wouldn't expect you to know that fog doesn't work with it.

 

[NFS4]

<< Well, since you don't own a Radeon, I wouldn't expect you to know that fog doesn't work with it. >>


I never said that I DID know...

 

[CanadianBacon]

The Radeon also has a $30 MIR as far as I know. Make sure you inquire about it if its not included in the box.

And yes, get retail, its worth the added price. You can find good prices for lots of stuff at pricewatch. Just make sure you check if it has a good rep or not before you buy from the cheapest place (and also their shipping tends to be high when the prices get so low)

 

[RagingGuardian]

Get the Radeon. There is no difference between the Retail and OEM 32DDR cards with the exception of probably software.

And I do agree that people tend to be very vocal when they have a problem with a piece of hardware. I'm sure that after GTaudiophile switches to a GTS or whatever there is going to be one game that doesn't run perfectly.

 

[GTaudiophile]

I didn't say I was switching to anything! The Radeon is great and would be perfect if I had fog! I'm just trying to piss ATI off because I want them to post new drivers. You know they monitor these boards.

 

[teiresias]

I've had my Radeon 32MB DDR for a few days now and have been nothing but happy with it. True, sometimes it is quirky but nothing anymore annoying than some of the little idiosyncracies (sp?) I had on my TNT1 and TNT2Ultra cards.

Fog is a bit iffy at the moment, but in all the games I play I just disable it and it doesn't even affect performance.

I'm in love with the card, the 2D is a great improvement over my TNT2 and obviously the 3D is much better and the colors look alot better and saturated. Of course, I've never used a GeForce2 MX though so I can't really make a comparison, just give impressions of this one card. I'd buy it again definately though, especially for the price $130 (US price)

 

[TheMasterGhost]

Took me awhile to find this but here it is, &quot;For starters, there must be an understanding of OEM or ?white box? products versus retail products. An OEM or ?white box? product is one that, as the name implies, is used by an OEM such as Dell, Micron or any other such manufacturers, in their systems. A retail product is one that you?ll find on the shelves of retail stores, such as Fry?s Electronics, CompUSA, Best Buy and other such stores. Historically, OEM products have always required a bit more care since often times OEM versions of retail products carry slight differences. These differences can range from simple things such as not having any software bundles or not having any TV output, to much more serious issues such as different memory configurations or lower operating frequencies. The latter happens to be the case with ATI?s Radeon line.We mentioned earlier that the Radeon operates at up to 183MHz. The reason for the ?up to? disclaimer is simple, only the retail versions of the Radeon (cards you can find in retail stores) run at 183MHz, the rest run at 166MHz. This means that all OEM or ?white box? Radeon cards run at 166MHz.

Things get even more confusing once you take into account the different memory configurations available on Radeon based cards. The retail 64MB Radeon cards, which are only available with DDR SDRAM, run at a 183MHz core clock as well as a 183MHz memory clock (the Radeon core is clocked synchronously with the memory clock, so the two frequencies must be identically clocked). However, as we just mentioned, all OEM Radeons run at 166MHz, which means that the OEM 64MB Radeon DDR runs at 166/166MHz (core/mem). With the same exact card running at 183/183MHz in the retail box, you can start to see why there would be some confusion here.

The 32MB Radeon cards are much easier to deal with since all 32MB Radeons, OEM and retail, run at 166/166MHz (core/mem). This includes the 32MB All-in-Wonder Radeon cards as well.

And using that information it?s pretty easy to guess that the Radeon SDR, which is a 32MB only card, runs at 166/166MHz (core/mem). It also happens to be that the Radeon SDR will be sold as an OEM card only.&quot; if you don't beleve me here is the link



http://www.anandtech.com/showdoc.html?i=1334&amp;p=2

 

[shabby]

Abu are you sure that the radeon has DDR memory? The cheapest price for a 32meg ddr radeon i've seen is $275 @ PC Canada, while the SDR radeon is $225. They also have the visiontek mx w/ tvout for only $170.

Also skip the radeon if your using win2k.

 

[BFG10K]

My vote is the Radeon. But you should check out a V5 5500 too, especially with the recent price drops.

 

[arthurb1]

LOVE my 64MB VIVO runs 1280x1024x32 In UT in 2k just fine...same with hitman...its all lies, get the &quot;Special Purpose&quot; drivers (beta's) and you'll be fine.