I feel like buying a Video card right now

[Muted]

Should i wait for the new matrox card.. that's what i'm asking myself.

I've seen some articles on the Kyro2 , very impressive but the lack of any Directx8 Features is the reason i may be waiting for something else

any opinion on this ? anyone in the same boat ?

[NordicNINE]

I am. I just sold my G400. I'm getting a Radeon 64MB ViVo (retail) as soon as the online ATI Employee Store gets them back in stock.

[az]

just wait a while... the kyro II seems nice but if you can hold till summer/fall, there'll be something new and exciting i guess (has been hinted often enough, and summer is as good as confirmed)

AZ

[NordicNINE]

Alot of people said the same thing about last Nov and this month too and look what happened. Nothing.

I'm sure the Radeon II will be out this summer so that would be a good option if you're waiting.

[mdhome]

Hello Muted
Unfortunately no one here can answer that question simply because we dont know what Matrox has up its sleeve. The best advice I can give is this. If your need is great then dont wait on Matrox. As for DX8, at present there aren't many cards that fully implement it (just 1) and even fewer games.
As for the Kyro II, its probably the best non DX8 compliant card there is. Unfortunately for me I dont know what it's 2d is like at *High* resolutions and it doesn't have dualhead. Luckily I can afford to wait for a new for Matrox's nextgen.

regards Michael

[az]

so just because you're an ati fan now doesn't mean you're right

Aces has been a point for accurate and true computer information, be it x68, ppc, alpha, arm, you name it.. the bb's say wait a while... matrox says wait till summer... thei've never did that before...

so it's more than a rumor that matrox will indeed be releasing a gamers card this summer

AZ

[az]

well, you should really wait till summer, regardless of what you believe will come from matrox then...

reasons: gf3, radeon 2... when these become available, prices for current hardware should drop substantially...

AZ

[NordicNINE]

<font face="Verdana, Arial, Helvetica" size="2">Originally posted by az:
so just because you're an ati fan now doesn't mean you're right

Aces has been a point for accurate and true computer information, be it x68, ppc, alpha, arm, you name it.. the bb's say wait a while... matrox says wait till summer... thei've never did that before...

so it's more than a rumor that matrox will indeed be releasing a gamers card this summer

AZ</font>

When did I ever say I'm a Radeon fan?

Until recently I would have considered myself a Matrox fan. I had my G400 since they came out and just got rid of it last week. I'm looking for something that has good image quality yet is capable of doing good in newer 3D games. Radeon seems to be the best choice.

[Muted]

Well even with Geforce 3 coming the prices won't drop that much

so i really hope matrox will release a card this summer, guess i will wait and get something else ..

I'm not thinking about any Ati product right now ( even if the Radeon is good ) they're driver support are BAD , even worst than matrox's drivers a while back ( i'm still with my g200 here and felt all the pain ) , i use win2k , and the performance is 50% slower , So no Ati for now

Programmable GPU is something i really want
keep up with the technology

[az]

hehehe sorry, i didn't mean to offend you, i just found it funny how often you use the word "ati" in a matrox forum (but then again, i'd be considered a kyro II fan, which, admittedly, isn't entirely wrong even if i do not consider myself as a "fan" of hardware of any kind, i just like some pieces better and some not )

AZ

[NordicNINE]

Ya, technically I'm not a fan of any hardware either. Matrox has been the closest. I loved the G400 so much that I kept putting off purchases of other products to wait for their future products.
The Radeon seems the best choice at the moment even though Nvidia seems to own the gamer's market. I don't think I could stand going to a GeForce 2 after getting used the G400's image quality though.

The Kyro II looks really good. I hate to say that considering how bad some of their previous products stunk. I think the association with Hercules/Guillemot helped them alot in the gamer's market.

They haven't shown up anywhere for buying yet though. If the Prophet 4500 comes in stock before the Radeon 64MB, I might have to go that way instead.

[az]

yep... i like the kyro for its different approach... brute force is never the best way

and i like matrox for... being matrox *lol

i guess it's the reputation that once made me a matrox user (millennium 1, which is still my only card...)

AZ

[mdhome]

Hello Muted
I have heard that there is a win2k patch for the Radeon that speeds up 3d by 30%. Cant vouch for this because I have never tried it. I think Rage3d will have more info


regards MD

[Maggi]

I've seen the Hercules 4500, running a Kyro II on CeBIT and if they get their drivers fixed, it could be an excellent choice which will have an excellent reselling price ...

UT ran in D3D 1600x1200, delivering 50fps on average while the slowdowns were in the 30s, I cannot remember if it was 32bpp, but maybe one of the other guys that have been there could clear that up ?
OpenGL started off pretty fast (a bit faster than D3D) but slowed down, the longer the demo ran, so thereis a problem in there drivers.

I have no clue what driver's ethic and productivity the guys form Hercules have, but if they get 'em stable at that high performing level, it's an excellent gamer's card.

The monitor looked a bit washed out, but I suspect they had it not properly adjusted and also the hall itself was pretty bright, so better have a look on your own, before getting one.

There were some visual flaws in their drivers, which seemed to be related to the tiling base rendering, because there were some polygons from the very close polygons of some guns, that were drawn over the HUD.
They told me, they'd fix it in their drivers.
The remedeer had that problem in OpenGL a bit more intense than in D3D, ie. the very close parts of that weapon were invisible.

It has to be seen whether further driver releases are really just bug fixes and not to the cost of degrading performance or something.

Cheers,
Maggi

[edit]it was a long night, forgive me for typos ... [/edit]

[This message has been edited by Maggi (edited 26 March 2001).]