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Sorry, Just have to let it out: new HW stinks.
A few days ago I succumbed to a sudden urge to upgrade my aging hardware setup, so I bought myself a Connect3D 8500LE (it didn´t say LE on the box, of course) to replace my trusted Radeon32DDR.
I shouldn´t have done that.
After the standard driver installation woes, it was up and running. Well, almost. It turned out to be impossible to bring the damned thing to run at 1280x960, my preferred resolution. I know this res. isn´t enabled by default (what does Ati have against it, really?) but the registry hacks that works with my old Ati card simply doesn´t work with the new one. ARRRRGGGHHH. Tried a few other nifty tricks, but nothing worked.
But that wasn´t the worst thing, by far. The 2D was the worst that I have seen in many years. Nowhere near the impeccable 2D of my Radeon32DDR. This card was simply unusable. While it ran the 3D apps I tried with very good speed, the image quality made it impossible to keep.
No problem getting a refund though.
Determined to try something else, I yesterday went to another place and bought an ASUS GF4 4200 128 Mb. Why ASUS? Because I got a good price.
The good price seems to come for a reason.
Out with the old and in with the new.
2D okay, not as good as Radeon32DDR, but o.k. It´s just that @ 1280x960 it refuses to run at higher than 60 Hz. Ha ha, very funny.
I d/l the NV RefreshFix tool to get passed the XP 60 Hz thing. It doesn´t work, keeps telling it can´t find the chip in it´s database (it´s in there alright). But before crashing it actually sets the refresh rate in games to 70 Hz. Not much of a difference. Still 60 Hz @ 1280x960 though.
Most 3D benchies (except 3DMark) and games run slower/choppier than on the 8500LE, which they shouldn´t do. I shouldn´t say ”most”, since only a few run at all! The most hilarious thing is, that the bundled Aquanox crashes on load, saying there isn´t enough graphics memory. (At least DxDiag reports the full amount of mem.) And the UT2003 demo, which has a special nVidia splash screen, crashes in vaious places, E.g running the asbestos flyby always results in a crash.
MBTR benchmark has serious artifacts, which renders it unusable.
Intergraphs 3DExersizer won´t run at all, as doesn´t Indy3D! And so on, you get the picture.
And 3dMax 5 runs like a dog.
This is the second POS I have had to deal with in just a couple of days.
So, the 4200 is out of my box, and I will have my refund on monday.
Ahh, I don´t know how to install hardware, you might say. To that I just say: if I can´t get it to run properly after 4-5 hours of tweeking not many will.
I´m sure I could get further in resolving the issues if I were to give it a few days, or a week or two.
I just don´t think I (or anybody else) should have to. And I certainly don´t want to, taking into account that in e.g. Colin McRae 2 the difference is negligable; everything at max @ 1152x864 is unplayable. Don´t even think about using FSAA and AF here.
So what is my point? My point is, that if producers/vendors don´t get their act together and deliver equipment that at least work at a standard that have some resemblance to what is advertised, we shouldn´t buy their shitty products.
A second point is, that drivers haven´t really become any better. Fixing one problem creates another, likely.
I was thrilled with the 9700, and really planned to buy me one, when avaialble.
Having read about a heap of problems, and having seen the bad rendering in some screenshots on the web , I won´t though.
And the recent experiences really puts me off.
Get a Parhelia? Not at that price.
Seems I´m kinda stuck.
rubank
I shouldn´t have done that.
After the standard driver installation woes, it was up and running. Well, almost. It turned out to be impossible to bring the damned thing to run at 1280x960, my preferred resolution. I know this res. isn´t enabled by default (what does Ati have against it, really?) but the registry hacks that works with my old Ati card simply doesn´t work with the new one. ARRRRGGGHHH. Tried a few other nifty tricks, but nothing worked.
But that wasn´t the worst thing, by far. The 2D was the worst that I have seen in many years. Nowhere near the impeccable 2D of my Radeon32DDR. This card was simply unusable. While it ran the 3D apps I tried with very good speed, the image quality made it impossible to keep.
No problem getting a refund though.
Determined to try something else, I yesterday went to another place and bought an ASUS GF4 4200 128 Mb. Why ASUS? Because I got a good price.
The good price seems to come for a reason.
Out with the old and in with the new.
2D okay, not as good as Radeon32DDR, but o.k. It´s just that @ 1280x960 it refuses to run at higher than 60 Hz. Ha ha, very funny.
I d/l the NV RefreshFix tool to get passed the XP 60 Hz thing. It doesn´t work, keeps telling it can´t find the chip in it´s database (it´s in there alright). But before crashing it actually sets the refresh rate in games to 70 Hz. Not much of a difference. Still 60 Hz @ 1280x960 though.
Most 3D benchies (except 3DMark) and games run slower/choppier than on the 8500LE, which they shouldn´t do. I shouldn´t say ”most”, since only a few run at all! The most hilarious thing is, that the bundled Aquanox crashes on load, saying there isn´t enough graphics memory. (At least DxDiag reports the full amount of mem.) And the UT2003 demo, which has a special nVidia splash screen, crashes in vaious places, E.g running the asbestos flyby always results in a crash.
MBTR benchmark has serious artifacts, which renders it unusable.
Intergraphs 3DExersizer won´t run at all, as doesn´t Indy3D! And so on, you get the picture.
And 3dMax 5 runs like a dog.
This is the second POS I have had to deal with in just a couple of days.
So, the 4200 is out of my box, and I will have my refund on monday.
Ahh, I don´t know how to install hardware, you might say. To that I just say: if I can´t get it to run properly after 4-5 hours of tweeking not many will.
I´m sure I could get further in resolving the issues if I were to give it a few days, or a week or two.
I just don´t think I (or anybody else) should have to. And I certainly don´t want to, taking into account that in e.g. Colin McRae 2 the difference is negligable; everything at max @ 1152x864 is unplayable. Don´t even think about using FSAA and AF here.
So what is my point? My point is, that if producers/vendors don´t get their act together and deliver equipment that at least work at a standard that have some resemblance to what is advertised, we shouldn´t buy their shitty products.
A second point is, that drivers haven´t really become any better. Fixing one problem creates another, likely.
I was thrilled with the 9700, and really planned to buy me one, when avaialble.
Having read about a heap of problems, and having seen the bad rendering in some screenshots on the web , I won´t though.
And the recent experiences really puts me off.
Get a Parhelia? Not at that price.
Seems I´m kinda stuck.
rubank
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