Hey, ailuros, did you get your new card?? I did...

[longdog24]

A while ago you said you'd pre-ordered a new vga and wasn't letting on what it was, did you get it yet?
While you were away I got my new card, a Radeon32ddr, but ended up taking it back. No problems with the card, just with my mobo, so I took the radeon back and got a decent mobo, an Abit KT7a
Now I have a good mobo I should be able to get most any vga with no compatibility probs. I'm still thinking of a Herc 3DP 4500, but thre's no real rush as I'm borrowing my brother's GF2mx indefinately, so I'm getting a 1G AXIA T'bird at the end of the month
Not that my rig is slow! With the KT7a my 750 Duron is running sweet at 933 on a 266ddr fsb But I'd rather have an AXIA at 1.5G

[Ailuros]

I'm confused I was under the impression you still have a Radeon (sorry Dabby for the comment/joke in the other thread).

What do you have inside there now?


I didn't say what it was cause I told my buddy to place several cards in his orders, because I wasn't sure at the time which one to get.

I finally decided, after read various reviews and stumbled through numerous message boards looking for kyro1 user experiences to get the kyro2. Not only because of all the above, but my buddy can make the biggest deduction on it's price (I'll be practically getting it at what he pays for it) cause they're cheaper than others for him (no idea why). Around 20% off, but I still have to pay the VAT (18%) so it should cost me around $160US everything included. (not the TV out version of course)

I did some detailed research on compatibility with my P3V4x mobo, but there where null with kyro's as of yet. Expect to have it mid or end of May.

[longdog24]

Yeah, I did have a Radeon and I was REAL impressed with it (when it ran ). Like I said, there was a compatibility problem with my mobo. I'm sure I could of sorted it out, given time, but I was sooo pissed off with it (I've had many problems with my mobo in the past) I decided to get a DECENT mobo. So I took the Radeon back and excanged it for a KT7a.
I've got my brother's Hercules 3DP2mx 32mb in my rig at the moment as he's not using it, and won't be for a while.

I knew you'd get a Kyro2 I guess you can see it's potential just as much as I can (and the low price ).
One thing. You got a Intel rig don't you? I'm guessing you know about the problems on Intel platforms, are you hoping they get sorted out? or do you know something I don't?

[Ailuros]

according to anand it's a problem with the solano/i815 chipset (if that should be true).

I have the Asus P3V4x with has the via apollo pro A chipset, and as I said no problems sighted so far ( as in other p3v4x users and a kyro1).

But whatever the problem might be it should be sorted out after a 1.5 month delay. I don't remember on what mobo Dave tested the VividXS 32mb kyro2, but I don't recall him mentioning any issues with it. If you haven't read it yet, check at B3D the preview, it's on a 733P3 and not the usual 1,2 or 1,5ghz previews others post.

[longdog24]

Yeah, I remember Anand's reported problems were on a solano platform, I just wondered if it was with intel in general.
It was nice that wavey tested on a mid-range rig rather than the usual 1.2g ninja monsters. I still think it's stupid that reviewers test lower end budget cards on high end kit. Sure it's a good idea to remove the cpu bottle neck but it doesn't tell the mid to low end users (who will actually buy the card) how it'll scale to thier systems.
BTW: A nice comprehensive review Dave I wish we'd see more of them on the net.

[Ailuros]

I don't see mentioning anything about that MX. Your impressions, if you don't mind

May someone post a link on where I can purchase an AXIA, and how it differs from other Tbirds? I would like to purchase one this weekend so I need some details on its specs and what its compatible with. Thank you

[EvilEngine]

OOPS! Forgot to log in

[TheHip]

To get a rough idea of what other ppl. have been able to do with the different steppings of different CPU's head over here: http://overclockers.cssftware.com/cpudb/index.cfm

Will find a link to a place where I've seen they're selling TBird 1GHz AXIA stepping.

[longdog24]

Sorry ailuros, I was away yesterday.
Anyway, the MX... Hmmmmmmmm....Well, it's OK.
Not really hugely impressed but certainly better than a V3, though not by much speed wise (remember, my V3 runs at 200mhz).
The image quality is definately NOT as good as the Radeon IMO. I've never seen 32bit I/Q that competes with Radeon. The MX I/Q is just not quite the same, The colours aren't as vibrant, they seem a bit washed out and blurry, not razor sharp like the Radeon. And AA is not a viable option when combined with 32bit colour. The card is castrated by it's (relatively) low memory banwidth and fill rate. In a complex scene at 1024x768x32 it simply falls over. Forget 4xAA, it's just not worth it. The card should overclock very well, improving it's 32bit/AA perfomance but as it's not my card I don't want to risk killing it.
I'm definately NOT impressed with nVidia's drivers. The latest 7.52's have totally screwed up my monitor. The card tries to refresh at too high a rate and my monitor shuts off, thanks!! I've had to manually force all refresh rates at all resolutions to stop it happening. I've tried removing the monitor in safe mode and letting windoze re-detect it to reset all the refresh rates in accordance with my monitor drivers but it still didn't work. I've heard of many others having the same problem with different monitors and nVidia cards so you'd have thought nVidia would've done something about it. But NO!
Anyway, as I said, overall it's OK, but not outstanding.

[Ailuros]

longdog,

keep the following quote, it helped me out while trying any "finicky" vga in the past what monitor timings concerns:

The only noteworthy registry setting available relates to the monitor timing method to be used. Click on Start, Run type in regedit & hit Enter. Search for instances of UseGTF (In Windows 9x/Me there should only be 1, in Windows 2000 there can be several instances of this setting).

Right click on this entry when found & select Modify. Right click on the UseGTF entry & select Modify. Enter a Value data of 1 to enable use of the General Timing Formula (GTF) if you have a fairly new monitor or set it to 0 to use Discreet Monitor Timing (DMT) if have an old monitor (old being defined as more than 2-3 years). This refers to the ability to change refresh rate in Windows.

It worked for me each and every time, the setting as pointed out above depends on the age of the monitor. I had to use it with the 1.7.0.0 whql v3 drivers too. The memory timing problem though in these particular driver set got fixed though with the x3dfx beta set.

All it practically does is reassigning memory timings to the maximum ability of the monitor and not to the vga's abilities, forcing practically the drivers to adopt those settings.

If you want to give it a shot, go ahead it won't hurt. Just note down which registry string you altered.