Original Radeon Acceptable for New Games?

[justint]

I have an original Radeon Retail 32MB that I am passing on to someone for a low priced gaming box. Should it still be able to play games such as Battlefield 1942 decently? The machine is a duron 1.0ghz with 256mb of RAM. How much longer do you think this will be an acceptable gaming card?

 

[kurt454]

I have the original Radeon 64DDR VIVO card that I just pulled out of my machine. Newer games are beginning to want 128meg cards, so a 32meg card will be hurting badly. It will only be a good card for older games.

 

[CurtCold]

It will probably run the game at low resolution, but I did play the game with my GF2mx400 32MB card @ 800x600. It didn't like it too much, but once the map was loaded and I moved around for about 2 mins, everything was smooth. You'll be pushing it with that card, processor, and ram. Probably be alot better with 512MB of Ram, as that game is a friggn' ram hog like you wouldn't believe.....

 

[Johnbear007]

I have a 64mb radeon DDR and it is starting to poop out on games like ut 2k3 I need to upgrade it soon!

 

[queequeg99]

I've got an 1800XP w/ 256MB DDR and an original Radeon 32 DDR. My machine plays all FPS games now on the market fairly well at decent resolutions except BF1942, which I have to tweek the settings for (and then it does acceptably well). As noted above, BF1942 is a tremendous resource hog. I routinely get warnings (as do many others) about virtual memory shortages so it is possible that there is some defect in the game that can slow things down.

UT2003 demo is also not optimal (short pauses everyonce in awhile when the action gets fast). Based on my experience, I will probably upgrade to an 128MB 8500LE and overclock it. I hate spending more than $100US for video cards.

 

[shurato]

I don't think it will cut it for new games...I just upgraded from a radeon 32ddr to a geforce4 ti4600. The 32 was enough to run decently alot of games...but for the newer games out now, you will be pushing it.

 

[nardvark]

I'm running a P4 1.7Ghz with 384mb RDRAM and a Radeon 32mb DDR...
I'm able to run pretty much everything, and I can usually run at 1024x768 if I strip down details or textures, which I find preferable to 800x600 with details, because 800x600 just looks so darn blocky...
so I'm doing all right, but it's getting pretty close to upgrade time.
I imagine you'd hurt less if you got more RAM, which is pretty cheap and worth it!

 

[BFG10K]

No way - the original Radeon has been obsolete for quite a while now. Some modern games will struggle on it even at 640 x 480.

 

[blackhawk]

Obsolete is a matter of opinion. On a duron 1.0gz system with 256 of ram its a well balanced combination.

Make sure you update the drivers.

 

[rogue1979]

I don't know about all games, but my wife has an original Radeon 32MB DDR @180/180 on a Celeron 1.0a@1400MHz with 256MB of SDRAM. Running 1024 x 768 x 32 at 2XFSAA with 16-tap anisotropic here is what happens:

Unreal- 65fps average
Janes WW2 - 40fps
Mech 4 Vengeance/Black Knight - smooth in the most intense fighting action
Giants - smooth
NFS Porsche Unleashed - smooth with FSAA disabled
Mech Commander 2 - smooth

I am sure there are a few games that will cause major slow ups with the the original Radeon, but I think those will be fine at 800 x 600. Yes, the Radeon is getting long in the tooth and an upgrade might be in order. But it is in no way obsolete, it still can deliver smooth gaming. BFG10K, I know you are extremely demanding in your gaming framerates, but I think most people don't have the same high minimum standards as you. No disrespect meant.

 

[jiffylube1024]

Originally posted by: queequeg99
I've got an 1800XP w/ 256MB DDR and an original Radeon 32 DDR. My machine plays all FPS games now on the market fairly well at decent resolutions except BF1942, which I have to tweek the settings for (and then it does acceptably well). As noted above, BF1942 is a tremendous resource hog. I routinely get warnings (as do many others) about virtual memory shortages so it is possible that there is some defect in the game that can slow things down.

UT2003 demo is also not optimal (short pauses everyonce in awhile when the action gets fast). Based on my experience, I will probably upgrade to an 128MB 8500LE and overclock it. I hate spending more than $100US for video cards.

You won't be disappointed on the 128MB 8500LE if it's a Retail one . I just got one, and despite the fact that it has 3.9ns BGA memory (instead of 3.3), it runs @ 300/300 stably, and even 310/310!