I am thinking of upgrading my Stealth3 32 meg Video card to a 32 meg Radeon LE. I have an Athlon 600 w/ 256 meg ram. I play games like Undying and Deus Ex,and was wondering if I would be able to tell much difference. Or should I just wait untill I can afford something better. I'm a fairly new gamer so any advice will be appreciated.
Stealth3 S540 32 meg compared to Radeon LE 32meg
- Thread starter CarpetMan
- Start date
Not to bash your card or anything, but I have a friend that had that card and it had to be the buggiest card I have ever seen. It was an effort to get anything to work on it. The only thing it had going for it was the MeTal support for UT, even then it was too slow to enjoy the visuals. Most any of the newer cards such as an LE or a GF MX will be a huge improvement IMHO.
got a Diamond Stealth 3 S540 works great by being a great dust collector....I have one and I'm using one...it sucks Deus Ex single and multi....forget about it....quake 3 works ok though....it's like the only game that does work....btw this card does not work with the giants demo...serious sam...and a bunch of other game oh yeah drivers are last updated like 1-2 years ago optimized for direct x 6!!!...get radeon instead....if your going for a pci card I'd get a voodoo 5 5500 it's probably the best pci card out there....although I"m not sure how good the Radeon LE performs..
This is a moot arguement, so I'll just agree that I disagree with Tung on this one. The LE is fine, and a worthy upgrade from where you are now. Great 3D, great 2D.
Thanks for all the suggestions. I have been trying to decide Whether to go with the Radeon LE or the GEforce mx. I get the strong impression that either one would be a large improvement over what I now have. So now I know I need it, I only need to decide which one. Thanks again.
A Savage4 served me well for a long time. The last driver update was about five months ago -keep in mind that it is a seasoned chipset with little need for further driver changes. Like every other viddy card you have to use the reference drivers from the chip manufacturer, not the branded outdated ones from the board maker. It is still used in current integrated chipsets. I call it venerable and frequently find myself defending it and repeating the same things.
I don't know about those games specifically but essentially the S4 plays the large majority of games in W9x fast 'n' purty at 800x600. For Half-Life, UT, Q3, etc. it is killer though with the newer cutting edge games the S4 does start to show its age.
I did not find anything worthy of replacing it with until the Geforce 2 MX. But given that it lacks features and quality and only just managed to get into the next resolution (1024) at 32 bit color it was not a clear decision (I was not willing to settle for just faster 800x600x32). I waited for TwinView to pan out and it never really did. Then along came the Radeon LE, which settled the major problem with the Radeon, being price. The next potential problem was the drivers and now that I have seen them for myself I would say they are not bad but do need improvement as far as maximizing the chip's speed potential, especially in W2K. But I find it really is more than fast enough to play everything in W9x trouble-free at 1024x768 or 1152x864 32bit which is the range my monitor is limited to anyway.
I think in the next few months the drivers will probably make the Radeon even better. If you want a replacement in this price range now I would recommend it. If you wait a bit more the rollout of the Geforce 3, Kryo II, Radeon II, etc will only make it cheaper but I have not heard of anything else promising unless you are willing to consider a Geforce 2 as they come down in price.
I don't know about those games specifically but essentially the S4 plays the large majority of games in W9x fast 'n' purty at 800x600. For Half-Life, UT, Q3, etc. it is killer though with the newer cutting edge games the S4 does start to show its age.
I did not find anything worthy of replacing it with until the Geforce 2 MX. But given that it lacks features and quality and only just managed to get into the next resolution (1024) at 32 bit color it was not a clear decision (I was not willing to settle for just faster 800x600x32). I waited for TwinView to pan out and it never really did. Then along came the Radeon LE, which settled the major problem with the Radeon, being price. The next potential problem was the drivers and now that I have seen them for myself I would say they are not bad but do need improvement as far as maximizing the chip's speed potential, especially in W2K. But I find it really is more than fast enough to play everything in W9x trouble-free at 1024x768 or 1152x864 32bit which is the range my monitor is limited to anyway.
I think in the next few months the drivers will probably make the Radeon even better. If you want a replacement in this price range now I would recommend it. If you wait a bit more the rollout of the Geforce 3, Kryo II, Radeon II, etc will only make it cheaper but I have not heard of anything else promising unless you are willing to consider a Geforce 2 as they come down in price.
Thanks Auric for the very informative reply. Your words of wisdom hit home. Like been there done that! I now feel better equipped to make my decision. Which in the long run will most likely prove to be the wrong one no matter which way I go.
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