Radeon Owners...we told them(the other guys) didn't we?

[Dean]

Riva3d did a test on the radeon right here radeon review

here is a snippet:

<< Before I get into benchmarks and raw numbers I have another area that needs to be addressed: visual quality. Throughout my tests I noticed that the Radeon constantly produced superior visuals over the other cards tested, and frankly over any card I have had the pleasure to work with. This quality manifested itself in more vibrant colors, and noticeably sharper display in both Q3 and 3D Mark. I know most of you think I am just seeing things. I thought so too, but once I noticed this on my own I looked around and found mentions of this in other Radeon reviews including one here at Maximum PC that even has some pics. This is definitely something to take into consideration when looking over my test results >>

 

[Taz4158]

Don't worry....they don't listen!

 

[StickHead]

Yeah those Radeons have awesome quality...Those Blue Screens of death have never been crisper!!

 

[BW]

They do look good but have the least amount of game compatibility. Ive ben useing my 32 meg ddr for the past two weeks and im ready to put my 5500 back in.The only reason i have it in now is becouse im going to buy giants and i read it has inviroment bump mapping in it.Of course my luck ill probably have to disable it or somthing to get the game to run.

 

[pidge]

blah...blah...blah...blah (must close my ears and eyes and turn away)...blah...blah...blah

 

[Taz4158]

<< blah...blah...blah...blah (must close my ears and eyes and turn away)...blah...blah...blah >>


Most intelligent thing you've done in a while!

 

[Taz4158]

<< Yeah those Radeons have awesome quality...Those Blue Screens of death have never been crisper!! >>


These pearls of wisdom from a man who's never owned one. Thanks for this insightful truly meaningful post.

 

[AdamK47]

Did they test out 16-bit Quake 3? I almost hurled when I saw what the Radeon did there. The difference between 32-bit and 16-bit color on the Radeon is like night and day.

 

[Davegod75]

I love my AIW

 

[Taz4158]

<< Did they test out 16-bit Quake 3? I almost hurled when I saw what the Radeon did there. The difference between 32-bit and 16-bit color on the Radeon is like night and day. >>


Kind of like 32 bit between Radeon and nVidia. You go ahead and play in 16 bit and have a good time doing it.

 

[EvilDonnyboy]

You nerds are too fiercly loyal to the brand of video card u currently own.

BTW, Riva3D obviously hasn't seen a Matrox G400/450 yet. hehe.

 

[BFG10K]

Regarding the 16 bit issue, the Radeon's image quality at that setting is appalling. I play a lot of old games like Unreal and Quake 2 which have 16 bit colour support only. To me a Radeon is an unacceptable solution for those games.

But then again I don't like nVidia's unstable drivers and poor S3TC image quality. So as you can see, I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place.

 

[Hawk]

I thought Quake 2 runs at whatever color your desktop is set at, so it has 32 bit, right? Even Half-Life has 32 bit and it's based on the Quake 1 engine (right?).

 

[AdamK47]

Quake 2 and Unreal both support 32-bit rendering. I take it that you have used a voodooo all your life. Just set the desktop to 32-bit, run Unreal in D3D, or Quake 2 in Default OpenGL and it renders in 32-bit color.

 

[AdamK47]

Yep, Quake 1 and Half-Life (plus mods) can even run in 32-bit mode. Just set -32bpp in the shortcut and your all set (Of course you have to use OGL too).

 

[AdamK47]

I also want to make clear that it's NOT the nVidia drivers that are unstable. It's how the video board interacts with certain motherboards. VIA133A, AMD760, and older VIAKx chipsets have problems with nVidia boards and their AGP implementation. It's NOT the drivers. I can use just about any driver nVidia releases without a lockup or BSOD with my i815.

 

[BFG10K]

Just set the desktop to 32-bit, run Unreal in D3D, or Quake 2 in Default OpenGL and it renders in 32-bit color

My desktop is always set at 32 bit. Are you saying that all those games would run under 32 bit colour if my video card supported it? What about the original Unreal (not UT)? That only supports 16 bit colour does it not?

If these games really do run under 32 bit (and hence look fine on an ATi) then I guess my next video card will be the Radeon.

 

[Taz4158]

<< But then again I don't like nVidia's unstable drivers and poor S3TC image quality. So as you can see, I'm stuck between a rock and a hard place. >>


You're not stuck anymore.

 

[AdamK47]

Yep, I was refering to the original Unreal. UT has it own color mode selection.

 

[BFG10K]

Let me get this straight:

GLQuake, Quake 2, and Unreal run under 32 bit colour simply by having your desktop set to 32 bit colour (or by using -32 bpp), and look just fine on a Radeon?

 

[AdamK47]

Yes

 

[BFG10K]

Well I guess there's no reason for me to not get a Radeon as my next video card upgrade.
Thanks for your help guys.

 

[oldfart]

BFG, I play Q2, Half-Life and UT all in 32 bit color. I don't know for sure if Unreal uses 32 bit. I dont see an option for it. I can tell you it looks incredible on a Radeon. Q2 uses the desktop setting for color depth. In Half-Life you add a switch to your shortcut like this: C:\SIERRA\Half-Life\hl.exe -32bpp. All of these games look great in 32 bit color. I don't have a single game that I play in 16 bit color. I'm sure there are some out there however. You know I am far from a 3dfx basher, but I tell the truth. The difference is night and day. Playing Unreal, UT, Q2 on the Radeon in 32 bit color is like a playing a whole new game. The difference is really stunning. I guess I'm seeing what I was missing playing in 16 bit color all this time. BFG, if you want some screenshots from any of these games. LMK, and I'll send you some.

 

[tboo]

I switched from a GTS to a Radeon VIVO 64mb and I love it!! I have an athlon system and I have had no problems with it-no blue screens of death, no graphic glitches in games(Q3 Arena/Team Arena is beautiful on this card). The only problem I ran into is that I cant set enviromental bump mapping on in Colin Mcrae Rally 2-however the game makers have admitted that was their fault and it will be addressed in a patch. Even in 16bit- with the beta MS drivers-image quality looks fine-no better than my GTS. Granted, in 3dmark 2000, the GTS will smoke my Radeon in 16bit, but in 32 bit with my Radeon overclocked to 200/200 I can beat the GTS scores by 300 3dmarks. I am definately looking forward to the next-gen Radeon.

 

[pidge]

Oh