Is the original ATI RADEON 32 Mb DDR a good buy for $45.00 shipped?

[adlep]

Well I guess its already too late, I already bought it.
But how does it compare to GF2 GTS?
Is it much slower?
Which set of drivers should I get with it???
Is it superior to GF 2 MX 400?
Is it better than Radeon LE and VE?

 

[vss1980]

It compares well to the GF2. Anand did a review of the radeon a while ago and it performes in the general area between a Geforce DDR and Geforce2 GTS (although closer to the GTS most of the time).

Should definitely be faster than a MX400 in nearly all cases. At a price of $45, its good value. The LE was a cheap OEM version of the standard Radeon chip/card clocked slower, without fan, etc.
The VE is a cut down core with only 1/2 the rendering power and no T&L and is pretty much closer to a GF2 MX200 card in performance. At the time the LE's were great value as they were lots cheaper than a normal radeon, but if you find one and the price difference is only a few $$'s, then I would stick with the proper radeon.

 

[adlep]

Yeah, I saw the original review but back then,
the card just came up so thought that it was not that accurate cause of the driver problems.
I would expect right now this card to perform much better with a new set of drivers ??????????
Could you consider this buy an upgrade over Voodoo 5??

 

[adlep]

anyhow, vss your explanations were excellent and precise.
Could you tell me the diffrience between all these Radeons
Radeon 7000
Radeon 7200
Radeon 7500
Radeon 8500

It looks like they just came up couple of months ago, but it made them even more confusing

 

[vss1980]

Radeon 7000 = Radeon VE core
Radeon 7200 = Radeon SDR card
Radeon 7500 = Radeon DDR card (clocked higher)
Radeon 8500 = NEW Radeon chip with full DX 8.1 support, etc. 8500LE cards use same chip but slower clocked core and memory (only 25MHz slower so no big losses).

 

[adlep]

Vss, we understad each other perfectly, thanks!!!

 

[vss1980]

As for driver improvements giving more speed.... what one company does in drivers to go faster is countered by another. In all likelyhood, the Radeon has gained some speed on its competitors overall, but I doubt it will have changed much in overall speed performance/rating.

 

[Killrose]

You'll be more than happy with it, especially if your running Win98/SE with a 750-1gig CPU. I had problems with the 9016 drivers, but the 9005 beta's seemed to work great.

I have one in a second system at home running a 950 T-bird, and it does very well as long as you overclock it to 183/183.

 

[adlep]

Is it comparable with V5 in terms of 3d ?
What about XP support. I wil upgrade my good old 98SE to XP Pro soon, and I know that the driver support for my current Voodoo
is non existent. But what about the Radeons?
Many people were bitching about Win 2k/ XP driver support from ATI. Did it improve?
BTW, if you are a college student there is a good chance that your school has an agreement with Microsoft which alows students to purchase MS software at discounted price. I can get XP Pro/full, upgrade for about $45.00 which is an exceptable price for me to pay for a software
Going back to the discussion I will move to XP soon and I know that I will have to give up my Voodoo, but I do not want to have driver problems with my future Radeon.
Btw,
go to www.compuvest.com for excellent video card prices, the actuall price for my 32 mb DDR Radeon is $39.00 +7 for UPS shipment
so it is a deal

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< Is it comparable with V5 in terms of 3d ? >>


Superior, IMO


<< What about XP support. I wil upgrade my good old 98SE to XP Pro soon, and I know that the driver support for my current Voodoo
is non existent. But what about the Radeons?
Many people were bitching about Win 2k/ XP driver support from ATI. Did it improve? >>


It's pretty good now


<< BTW, if you are a college student there is a good chance that your school has an agreement with Microsoft which alows students to purchase MS software at discounted price. I can get XP Pro/full, upgrade for about $45.00 which is an exceptable price for me to pay for a software >>


I pay $0 for any MSFT software I have. I think I have the better deal.

 

[adlep]

Can you bypass the activation?
If you pay 0 for XP, you have the ultimate deal... There is no question about it...
adlep@mediaone.net
thanks,

 

[Daovonnaex]

<< Can you bypass the activation?
adlep@mediaone.net
thanks, >>

Win XP Corporate is the easiest way (no activation required), but a number of utilities are available to bypass it. I am not familiar with them, because I prefer Windows 2000 Professional.

 

[EdipisReks]

my school sells a completely unlocked version of winXP professional for $10.00 to staff and faculty, and a one time use version for $5.00 to students. as a student employee of the place that sells them, i got a nice employee version. $10.00 for a completely legal, unlocked no activation version sounds like the best deal to me. shame winXP sucks, though.

--jacob

 

[Krugger]

if tv out is a main concern, is the 32 mb ddr for 45 better or the VE 32 mb ddr for 49? i do a bit of gaming, only occaisionally and i current use a voodoo 3000 so im not spoiled.
thanks for ANY advice. thanks,
-----Krugger

 

[adlep]

Look above in the post
Vss wrote that VE core is a chopped down core of the original Radeon, therefore in this case card for $45.00 is faster than the one for $49.00.
Since the Radeon DDR is comparable with GF2 GTS, you can't really go wrong with this choice.....+ image quality + DVD support

 

[Wolfsraider]

<< What about XP support. I wil upgrade my good old 98SE to XP Pro soon, and I know that the driver support for my current Voodoo >>



my friend has the radeon ve and i have radeon aiw both using xp

i recomend first use only the drivers in xp then load the drivers (newest) from ati
as i loaded the disk drivers and Crash lol

but no problems with the new drivers out there

hope this helps

 

[adlep]

Thanks for all the info!

 

[drewdogg808]

i'm currently running the original radeon 32mb ddr and winxp, and it's been great. haven't had many problems, and dvds look wonderful. gaming is fine for me as well...no real lags unless going really higher resolutions. you could also consider the visontek gf2 gts-v at newegg for $49 if you do more gaming...people are really pleased with it.

 

[adlep]

Yeah!
I was plannig to get that card but I saw this Radeon for $39.00 so I could not pass that opportunity, dont you think
though that the Radeon would be slightly faster than GTS-V (?). Since it performs on pair with regular GTS in 3d it could outperform (?)
GTS-V since it is a slower version of GTS(?)

 

[Killrose]

Sorry to tell you, but the Radeon is going to be slower than the GTS (GTS-V?). But the 2D as well as the 3D will look far better. Some people claim that the Radeon maintains higher average framerates, which makes it better overall. But that's an old argument, and we should'nt go there.:Q

Also the Anandtech article was using a 64mb Radeon. The 32mb version will be slower.

When you get it, let us know if it does come with a fan, and what speed the ram is (-6, -5.5, ect.) and if it is in fact a made by Ati. There was a diclaimer about the product picture.

 

[adlep]

I dont know about the memory yet, but it looks like the card is made by the ATI itself... let you know

 

[vss1980]

It doesn't have to be ATI who makes standard Radeon cards anymore. ATI, apart from licensing the 8500 and 7500 chips, also licensed out the Rage 128, VE and standard Radeon chips also and you can now pick up non-ATI Radeon cards (which aren't LE). Originally this was how the Radeon LE came about (non-ATI manufactured Radeon's), but its not the case now.

 

[adlep]

Hmm, my Stat test in on the way!
Cya later!

 

[Quixfire]

adlep, where did you fine such a deal?

 

[BFG10K]

Can you bypass the activation?

You can change your video card as many times as you like and it still only counts as one hardware change, hence it will not trigger the activation process again.