Topic: Graphics cards

[Camstop]

Hi all
After installing rallisport challange on my pc i have discovered that my ati radeon 7000 graphics card isn't up to the job.
Can anyone recommend one of the latest cards thats not overpriced and would be up to the job of playing the latest games.
Any links to reviews would be nice.  

[bat69]

I'll see what I can do camstop.

I'd certainly recommend the GeForce4 cards, you can get a MX460 with 64Mb RAM or more for around £60, and there are cheaper ones. I'm not sure if this is your price range

You don't need state of the art cards unless you are an avid gamer and want the absolute best performance, ohh and are rich too   So something along the slimmed down GeForce cards will do. ATI also do nice Radeon cards, not sure if their slightly outdated performance cards have dropped sufficiently in price yet.

I'll have a snoop and see what I come up with

[bat69]

HERE is a review of the MSI GeForce4 MX440 8xAGP card

HERE is another review on the MX cards

The Radeon 8500 seems a reasonable price, and if you have a little bit more, then the GeForce Ti4200 and the Radeon 9000 start to come into the market ... just depends on how much you have to spend and how much performance you want/need

[bat69]

I'll list a few more reviews here

Albatron Ti4200P Turbo Video Card Review

Asus V8420 Deluxe Geforce4 Ti4200 128MB DDR

MSI MX440 8x

Abit Siluro Geforce 4 Ti4200-8X OTES

SiS Xabre 600 Graphic Card Review

GeForce4 Ti 4200 8x shootout 12 cards on review  

Thats all for now ... keep looking as I'll add more as I get a chance to look and find them ... happy reading  

[Camstop]

Thanks Bat
As i haven't told my wife yet i'd reckon the lower the price the better  
just as long as it plays the latest games for a while, thats all i ask for.

[Camstop]

Hi Bat
my motherboard (K7AMA) has 1 AGP4x slot for AGP 2.0-compliant interface.

Dose this mean that i can't use a AGP8x.

[bat69]

You can run 8x cards, just you won't be able to get the benefits of the additional bandwidth (speed)

You should be able to pick up 4x cards going a lot cheaper now as most are converting to 8x ... so shops will be trying to get rid of the old stocks

[Camstop]

According to the spec for the game my graphics card should be ok.
So i downloaded the latest driver and the latest direct x, I also tried with lower resolution and 16 bit colour instead of 32 bit.
but when i try to start the game i get a box saying hardware transform and lighting req'd. can i solve this problem without renewing my graphics card.

[Sandra]

I cant find anything yet about how to do it but I found this article that explains what it is  

http://www.reactorcritical.com/white-s3-tnl/white-s3-tnl.shtml

[Sandra]

Just looked on :

http://www.ati.com/support/infobase/4034.html


Its not the same game but sounds like the same problem.It loks like your card doesnt support this function unfortunately and needs one of the later 7000 ones to run it  

In some instances, when attempting to launch Spider-Man: The Movie, the game will display the warning message:

"You must have a TNL capable 3D card to play this game."

Spider-Man: The Movie requires a 3D graphics card that fully supports Hardware Transformation and Lighting (T&L).  

With the exception of RADEON VE and RADEON 7000, all RADEON series products (RADEON, RADEON 7200, etc.) support this feature.

Products based on the RADEON VE/RADEON 7000 or earlier ATI graphics chipsets, such as the RAGE 128 PRO or RAGE 128, do not support Hardware T&L and can not be used with this game.

If you are using a graphics card which supports Hardware T&L, the warning message may occur for the following reasons:

Desktop Color Depth is set too low
Graphics hardware acceleration slider is not set to full
For further information please refer to Activision's support site and reference Answer ID 8293.

INFO-BASE file # 4034

Keywords: ALL PRODUCTS for PC ACTIVISION SPIDER-MAN THE MOVIE T&L

[Camstop]

I think it's gonna be an upgrade.  

And this looks like the fav so far.

only £43 + vat from savastore.

  for all the help.

[Adept]

They are supposed to be bery good for the price camstop and at only £43+VAT they must be even better!

Let us know how you get on

[Camstop]

Just ordered my new video card from dabs.
After a bit of research i found that the one getting the great reviews was the pro version and not the £43 model.
but hey £60+vat from dabs  .
 
Lets hope i'm still smiling after the installation.  

[Hitch]

Avoid any MX card period..the actual performance of these cards is terrible..if you need a force card get a ge force 3 Ti..there out there at resnable prices and floor the MX 4's.

If you want true power then plum for a Radeon 9700 or if you can afford it a 9700 Pro..the Pro being the fastest card on the market today..and only very slightly slower then the new GeForce FX..but you can overclock the 9700 Pro and make it faster than the FX <grins>

The 9700 is only slightly slower than the 9700 Pro but has all the extras that make the card the best in the market.

[bat69]

I know you've got your card sorted now Camstop, but for the benefit of anyone else looking for a graphics card, I'm adding more reviews here.

Albatron MX480

MSI G4 Ti4200 TD8X

XFX GF4 Ti4200 video review for those with broadband

Crucial Radeon 9700 Pro

MSI GF4 Ti4200 TD8X

MSI K7N2G-LISR essentially a mainboard review but it does give some useful information about the Integrated Graphics Controller built into the nForce2 chipset

3 GF Ti4200 boards on review

ATI Radeon 9500 Pro

ATI Radeon 9500 Pro

ATI Radeon 9700 Pro

Leadtek WinFast A180 GF4 MX440