Video card matchup

Discussion relating to Socket 7 hardware.
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Jim
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Posts: 1745
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2004 7:10 pm
Location: Toronto

Video card matchup

Post by Jim »

My 64 Meg ATI 8500 Radeon aiw showed up tonight, which means I now have on hand :
1) 64 Meg ATI Radeon 9000 aiw,
2) 64 Meg ATI Radeon 8500 aiw,
3) 128 Meg ASUS Radeon 9200 SE,
4) 32 Meg DDR ATI Radeon aiw,

and still on the way :
5) 128 Meg ATI Radeon 8500 LE.

Since I don't have much of a clue about these things, I am wondering which card to put in which machine. i.e.
SP2, (K6-3+ 450 ACZ on ASUS P5A-B Rev 104 @ probably 5.5x112MHz)
SP3, (K6-3+450ACZ on DFI K6BV3+/66 Rev B2 w/ 2Meg cache @ probably 6x 103MHz)
SPZ, (1.4GHz P3S Tualatin on FIC KA-6100 @ [maybe] 1.4GHz)

Really would like suggestions on this, as like I said, I don't have much of a clue about these things. Thanks.
Superpuppy 3
K6-3+ 450 ACZ (6x100)
DFI K6BV3+/66 Rev B2 (2 Meg) w/ 2x28mm Chipset Fans
2x256 Meg PC 133 Hynix SDRAM
1x 20G Maxtor (7200)
2x 80G Maxtor (7200) Ducted w/ 2x486 Fans Mount
52/24/52/16 LG CDR/RW/DVD
8/4/3/12/24/16/32 LG Super Multi
ATI 9000 aiw Radeon AGP
SB Audigy 1 MP3 Sound
CMD 649 IDE Controller
NEC USB 2 Card
Guest

Post by Guest »

8500 AIW is the fastest card in there, so I'd recomend it going on the tutalin, next fastest card is prolly gonna be the AIW 9000 or the 8500LE, slowest one out of the bunch is the 9200SE, anything LE, SE (special ed version) is gonna be slower than sin.
DonPedro
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Joined: Wed Jul 27, 2005 2:11 pm

Post by DonPedro »

I agree with what the "guest" above proposes, i.e. pairing the fast processor with the fastest graphic card.

this will give best results in gaming because the k6-cpus can not set free the power of fast graphic cards. but since you are not into gaming there might be some other things to take into consideration. the higher the graphic cards gpu and memory are clocked, the more heat they produce. if this is of concern then you should look for the card that does what you are into - and I think any one of the card you list will do - and grab a card that suits best in this respect.

also I would suspect that an aiw-model because of its extra tv-hw a) draws more current b) produces more heat and c) brings down your memory performance because of the higher load of drivers needed.
Jim
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Posts: 1745
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2004 7:10 pm
Location: Toronto

Post by Jim »

Thank you both. Much appreciated. If I understand this correctly then SPZ gets the 64Meg 8500 aiw, while SP3 & SP2 have to quibble between them who gets the 64 Meg 9000 aiw and who gets the 128 Meg 8500LE. Curious as to why the 64 Meg 9000, (which I thought was inferior to the 8500) should be considered equal to the 8500LE with twice the on card memory. Could someone enlighten me?
Superpuppy 3
K6-3+ 450 ACZ (6x100)
DFI K6BV3+/66 Rev B2 (2 Meg) w/ 2x28mm Chipset Fans
2x256 Meg PC 133 Hynix SDRAM
1x 20G Maxtor (7200)
2x 80G Maxtor (7200) Ducted w/ 2x486 Fans Mount
52/24/52/16 LG CDR/RW/DVD
8/4/3/12/24/16/32 LG Super Multi
ATI 9000 aiw Radeon AGP
SB Audigy 1 MP3 Sound
CMD 649 IDE Controller
NEC USB 2 Card
Guest

Post by Guest »

Because its an LE as opposed to a full 8500 128, which is still slower than a 64MB 8500, because no DX 8 game is really gonna need 128MB of Texture memory, but it was (and still is) a popular marketing gimmick to throw a bunch of cheap slow ram on a card instead of a smaller ammount of faster RAM.


Heat is obviously a consideration, but TBH, none of those cards are going to draw THAT much power, at least comparitively to modern hardware (this coming from a person who's running a X2 3800+@ 2.7, 2GBs of BH-5 and a 7800GT as his main machine).
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KGB
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Joined: Mon Apr 07, 2003 7:55 pm

Post by KGB »

:P You could have waited for the Radeon X1950 PRo 512MB DDR3 AGP 8X card to come out. For $200 americaine you could have prolonged the viability and power of AGP and AT system; against the intentions of intel amd et al.

Just slap that baby on a AGP4x motherboard (either the FIC or Giga-byte if you decide to jump ships) and with the hynix PC150 768MB + 200 GB HDD + 1.4 PIII+ Radeon 1950Pro (HDCP compatible :wink: )+ USB 2.0 card, Serial ATA 3.0GB PCI, DVD-RW DL + Blu-Ray+Firewire+ATi HD-TV tuner (HDMI compatible :wink: ) WIfi- USB 2.0 memory card and you're set.

Your 300watt IBM AT power supply is sufficient enough to power the ATi card, since the P3 does not produce that much heat nor use much of the +12 rail. (My Delta 185watt +12 rail that produces 4 AMPERES is enough for all the stuff I throw at my Celery)

Now to the question at hand, the cards you have are all very clocked differently. Even the newer 9000 series do worse than the "older" 8500. In order of superiorty (high to low) here is MY list of the order of the cards.

Card: Core/Memory
[dream]x1950PRo: 585/1.6 DX9c (Pixel Shader 3)[/dream]
8500 AIW: 275/275 DX8.1
8500 LE : 250/250 DX8.1
9000 AIW: 200 to 250 / 200 to 225 DX8.1
9200 SE: 200 to 225 /175 to 200 DX8.1
Radeon AIW: 180/180 DX7
-K6-2 550 Gigagyte GA-5AX (5.2) 1x512MB GeForce 2 Ti500 64MB
-Pentium III 933 Asus P3C-L 2x128MB GeForce 4 Ti4200 128MB DDR
-Pentium III 750 Asus P3B-F ATi Rage128 GL 32MB
-Celeron 1.2 Asus TUSI-M 2x128MB
-Pentium IV 1.5 DELL 2350 1x128MB
-Athlon 900 Asus K7M 1x256MB 2x128MB GeForce 3 64MB
-AthlonXP-M 2400+ Asus K7V880 2x512MB HIS Radeon HD3850 512MB DDR
Jim
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Posts: 1745
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2004 7:10 pm
Location: Toronto

Post by Jim »

Thanks Everyone, and on this specific question especially you KGB for the 1-5 rating of all the cards; but also thanks to Leper Messiah for the explanation re the marketing ploy of "a bunch of cheap slow RAM". Finally thanks Peter for your contribution.

It would seem then, that the route to take is : SP2 = 8500LE; SP3 = 9000aiw; & SPZ = 8500DV.
Superpuppy 3
K6-3+ 450 ACZ (6x100)
DFI K6BV3+/66 Rev B2 (2 Meg) w/ 2x28mm Chipset Fans
2x256 Meg PC 133 Hynix SDRAM
1x 20G Maxtor (7200)
2x 80G Maxtor (7200) Ducted w/ 2x486 Fans Mount
52/24/52/16 LG CDR/RW/DVD
8/4/3/12/24/16/32 LG Super Multi
ATI 9000 aiw Radeon AGP
SB Audigy 1 MP3 Sound
CMD 649 IDE Controller
NEC USB 2 Card
Jim
K6'er Elite
Posts: 1745
Joined: Wed Jan 21, 2004 7:10 pm
Location: Toronto

Post by Jim »

Well its not that simple!! I have been struggleing w/ trying to get the Radeon 8500LE working in SP2 all weekend. No fun at all.
1) The P5A-B's AGP slot works right off the bat when I put an old NVidia TNT2 Sniper in it.
2) The Radeon 8500LE works right off the bat when I try it in a FIC KA-6100. (VIA Chipset board)
3) But try to get the 8500LE to work in the P5A-B!! HA!! (ALi Chipset board)
4) Have had problems before trying to get an ATI AGP card to work in a P5A-B; but nothing like this, - no matter what I try, - No Video!
5) Have managed to get the 32Meg DDR Radeon working in a P5A-B, also managed to get a Radeon 7500 aiw working in a P5A-B; both of which took some monkeying around w/ PCI cards; but that doesn't seem to work in this case.

@ KachiWachi: Could you please check the specs involved to see if the P5A-B's AGP slot is capable of providing enough power to run an 8500LE? Me, I wouldn't know how.
Superpuppy 3
K6-3+ 450 ACZ (6x100)
DFI K6BV3+/66 Rev B2 (2 Meg) w/ 2x28mm Chipset Fans
2x256 Meg PC 133 Hynix SDRAM
1x 20G Maxtor (7200)
2x 80G Maxtor (7200) Ducted w/ 2x486 Fans Mount
52/24/52/16 LG CDR/RW/DVD
8/4/3/12/24/16/32 LG Super Multi
ATI 9000 aiw Radeon AGP
SB Audigy 1 MP3 Sound
CMD 649 IDE Controller
NEC USB 2 Card
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