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zark

Upgrades

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I'm shortly going to be upgrading my computer. Current specs:
300 MHz Pentium-II
128MB RAM
16MB Voodoo3 3000

I'll be upgrading to:
800 MHz AMD Duron
256MB RAM

The only place where I'm stuck is my video card. I'm thinking about getting a 3D Prophet 4500 (64MB Kyro II), as it seems a nice budget card. That's what I'm looking for, a budget card. Round about the £50-£60 mark (that's about $70-$85 for all you Americans).

I was wondering, does anyone know if this card would be worth buying? I've had a look at some reviews, but I'd like to know what some of you think before I go shelling out my money.

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i would go with a Geforce 2 mmx 400, or the same card made by asus with geforce 2 chipsets. those are good cards for about $40-70 range. however there are many other cards and it depends on what u want out of it. if u want performance get a geforece 2 or 3. also i hope u know u will need a new motherboard. so if i where u i would save just a bit more and get a PC beyond the 1ghz range. they are not much more than what u will need to spend

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Does the Kyro II handles T&L? Because if it doesn't, I wouldn't recommend it. Even for budgets cards you'll have to look for the most feature-packed one if you wanna avoid being unable to play certain games at all.

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Yes yes, I'm getting a new motherboard with it. And no, the Kyro II doesn't do hardware T&L, but with a fast processor that shouldn't be too much of a problem.

I've seen some reviews and the Kyro II outperforms the GeforceII MX on almost all tests, and comes close to the GeforceII full performance.

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Yes yes, I'm getting a new motherboard with it. And no, the Kyro II doesn't do hardware T&L, but with a fast processor that shouldn't be too much of a problem.


Well, you said you want to buy a Duron 800. I've got a GF2 MX400 and it's a nice card for a Duron 800, a GF3 will probably be to fast for thie processor (i.e. not gaining that much more speed to justify the higher price). I can't say anything about the Kyro though.

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man i would get a 1.2 GHZ AMD, they are about 15 more than the 850 here. also i would sudgest geting a card that supports t&L as well as the other stuff. get the geforce 2 GTS, good card.

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I should've mentioned, processor, RAM and motherboard are coming from my brother - he's upgrading his system to a 1.8GHz Pentium-4. So I get cheap prices! (I still can't believe he's charging me for the bloody thing).

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Personally I wouldnt buy anything less than 1Ghz now, as its probably going to be obsolete RSN.

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Originally posted by fraggle`
Personally I wouldnt buy anything less than 1Ghz now, as its probably going to be obsolete RSN.

Stuff is obsolete as soon as it hits the shelf.

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sorry i though you where buying this stuff new. if i where u i would get a trident VESA 32bit card. very nice card for &.50, and doom looks grea on it. it will even play quake. or you could go with a nice duel support CGA/VGA card, but doom looks like ass. that card comes with a floppy controller too!

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A Radeon 7500 is the only budget card I'd recommend. The Kyro 2 was fucking excellent in it's time... but the Kyro 3 is beyond due. It most likely won't come out though, since nVidia just ejaculated pure concentrated shit right down Hercules' throat. =/

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After all this time I'm finally upgrading too.
I'm going to replace this:

EPoX EP51MVP3M motherboard
AMD K6/2 at 300MHz
192MB (64*3) of PC100 RAM
AGP Voodoo Banshee
ISA Sound Blaster 16
PCI Ethernet adapter, really generic one

With this:

MicroStar K7N420PRO motherboard (nForce 420D chipset)
AMD Duron at 1.2GHz
512MB (256*2) of PC2100 RAM

I'm discarding the Voodoo, the SB and the ethernet adapter and use the stuff integrated in the motherboard while my money isn't enough for a real solution. Yeah, I'm in a budget, but nowadays any new computer you can get is actually overkill if you only plan to play some (more recent) games and do some music anyway, so I guess 1.2GHz is enough.

BTW, with two DIMMs the nForce chipset enables this neat dual channel memory access mode which apparently has unbeatable memory bandwidth, even against the new VIA KT333. My only worry is that the shared memory for the video card might disable it. Any word on that, Kat? :)

deadnail: Thomson got rid of STMicro or PowerVR or something, so it's likely that the Kyro 2 has ended here :(

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WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!

WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT BUY A GEFORCE 2 MX!!! YOU WON'T EVEN BE ABLE TO PLAY QUAKE 3 WITHOUT IT CHUGGING!

I say again:

THE GEFORCE 2 MX IS A WORTHLESS PIECE OF TRASH.

Now. Phew. Glad I got thatIT SUCKS!!!- er...out of my system. ::twitch::

Yes, buy a Kyro II. No, it doesn't have T&L. No, it doesn't matter. The Kyro II is a tiler, instead of an immediate-mode renderer like the ATI, 3dfx, and nVidia cards. What does that mean? It only renders literally what you can see. It doesn't bother rendering geometry you can't see. So, it doesn't NEED T&L, because there's 3-4 times less geometry to handle.

I personally have seen the Kyro II outperform a Geforce 2 Ti. So, there you go. Since they can be had for $50US, it's an awesome deal. They even have Linux drivers now!

You might want to look into the Hercules 3D Prophet 4800. It's a Kyro II SE ("Ultra"), at 200Mhz/200Mhz, for pennies more.

I'm just curious as to what motherboard you're getting, Zarcy.

Now, as far as you, NunoC...yes, the onboard video takes up the second memory channel. Sowwies. >_< Just get an AGP card and that'll disable the onboard video.

There's no reason the Kyro III couldn't still come out - STMicro is selling Imagination Technologies, who owns the PowerVR line. PowerVR is still it's own thing, if you know what I mean, and regardless of who buys them, they can still release whatever they've been working on. Supposedly VIA is looking into buying them.

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I've just noticed that the new MicroStar KT333 mobo is now on sale on the site from where I'm going order and it's like €50 cheaper than the nForce I'm considering...

/me scratches his head

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And, you'll probably have less problems with it. nFarce boards are historically problematic.

Don't get me wrong - my main gaming box is an nForce. But they are really difficult to work with at times.

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Well, if you don't put the right kind of memory in the right slots, it'll drop to 100Mhz memory clock, and also, the onboard video can be problematic if you have an AGP card in - also, the onboard LAN is just finicky. (no other way to describe it)

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Originally posted by Katarhyne
WHAT THE FUCK!?!?!

WHATEVER YOU DO, DO NOT BUY A GEFORCE 2 MX!!! YOU WON'T EVEN BE ABLE TO PLAY QUAKE 3 WITHOUT IT CHUGGING!


Right, let's take a look at the script... Hmmm yes, this is the part where I walk in and say : ARE YOU OUT OF YOUR FUCKING MIND YOU CRAZY BITCH !? I have a 32MB GeForce 2MX/400, on a Pentium III 900 with 256MB RAM, and it runs like a fucking dream. I don't know what your definition of "chugging" is, but >60fps constant at 1024x768 at high detail is _not_ slow.

Hell, it even runs the buggy Unreal 2 Alpha decently with a bunch of tweaking.

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Oh, what the fuck ever. I've seen Geforce 2 MXes run Quake 3 at 800x600x32 and chug down to 30-40 FPS. It's pitiful!

I've NEVER seen a Geforce 2 MX run Quake 3 or Half-Life at a consistent 60FPS at 1024x768x32. Never. And I'd like to see you play Max Payne, or Serious Sam SE on a Geforce 2 MX. The Kyro 2 just takes those games in stride.

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What're you doing with that V3, ZarcyB? Wanna sell/trade? I'd be happy to trade that card for some RAM, or something. I collect older hardware. ^.^

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ya ya ya ya ya. my tnt2 64m can kick anybodys ass!! with the gpu oc'd to 500 mhz and the ram juat as fast, the card glows cherry red!!! now is that cool or what?? when i spray water on it, it sizzles!!! it didnt come with a fan for the gpu cus it dont need one!!!
( sarchasm )

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WTF? My GF2MX400 never goes under 60 fps in Q3/1024x768@32 except in the biggest Team Arena maps. And I'm talking about 45 fps minimum.

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God damnit...look what happens when I don't check out the forums at the right time; all the good stuff gets omitted......

Anyway, I'm just waiting for the GF3 to drop down in price before I do any more major upgrading.

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I've had a geforce 1 card sitting here for the last two months. I keep meaning to install it in my comp, but I'm to damn lazy. i wonder if it would help, anyway (compared to my current TNT2.)

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