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Miscellaneous Forums => General Discussion => Topic started by: Anonymous on 2001-07-27 20:10:00

Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: Anonymous on 2001-07-27 20:10:00
I just won out on an auction for a 64 meg Geforce 2 GTS card, and I need to convince My Fathor (yes, Fath-or) to pay for it. I got it for $140 plus a few bucks for shipping. He has no idea what it is or how strong it is.
"Well, we could have paid for something worse less" ^^; Geese! A 64 meg MX costs that much! I could also get an Ultra for under $200, but I'm pretty sure he won't buy.
I need perfect strangers like you tel just please post how we need this card because I'm trying to be a graphic artist and I'm using an old Savage4 card. Not to mention the compatibility with games.
Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: StrayWings on 2001-07-27 20:39:00
whoa...talk about tough situation~

Well, I am not matured enough to give comments..

Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: Aruthra on 2001-07-28 00:26:00
You got a WHAT for HOW MUCH????

Why don't you just send it on over to me now... :-p

Seriously, though, My comp has a 32Meg GF2 MX in it, I paid....oh say...$140 for it (retail), so...I mean...a deal like that doesn't come along very often...take it!
Geez...64Meg...

Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: Anonymous on 2001-07-28 01:17:00
Yeah. Ebay kicks ass, doan it?
I plan on getting an Acoustic edge for another steal, and maybe an SBLive! based card, for the MIDI. Then again I might not need it when he nForce motherboards come out...
Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: Threesixty on 2001-07-28 03:44:00
Yeah well, just remember you get what you pay for.....Is it still in it's unwrapped box? or is it used.


I don't know what brand of card it is...but you can find a MSI Geforce Pro 64meg for 150 dollars, shipping is around 15 dollars for 3day delevery.

Ledtech's 32meg version is 135 dollars.
Ledtech's 64meg is 170. All three are Pro cards which are a little faster than a regular GTS card.

The Gullemount GTS Geforce2 32meg Sdram card is going for 82 dollars.

Search around this site:
  http://direct.mwave.com/mwave/DeptVID.hmx?UID=&CID=&Back=  

I've bought a whole system...in components..from here. They could do better on the packaging, but they aren't crooked. There is a shipping calculator in the Shoping cart.


(There really isn't much difference between the 64meg and the 32meg....well at least not yet. Nothing takes advantage of the 64megs of ram yet, and you'll find that the resolution factors that the extra ram provides, will be limited by your monitor.)


BTW: the Nvidia cards are mainly for gaming....They're not as crisp as other cards. ATI cards, for example are usually crisper, but aren't as good for games.

The Ultra...Look under Creative. Going for 220 dollars, with one year warranty.

Ebay is risky....you never know who your dealing with.

[This message has been edited by Threesixty (edited July 27, 2001).]

Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: Anonymous on 2001-07-28 16:45:00
Brand new. Store had a surplus and did a dutch auction. It's called PC After Hours. Little hometown thing that went online for some retail. I do plenty of gaming as well, so the nVidia is just what I need. That and ATI has never been good to me.
Ever.
This is a DDR card, btw, so I'm pretty sure I'm getting a great deal.
I would go with ATI if they were just...grr...better...
Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: Anonymous on 2001-07-28 16:52:00
Oh yeah...getting this, unless I can get a good deal for a ultra or 3 later on, I'm looking at sticking with it for awhile.
At what I'm looking at right now, I may be able to get a Live! and an Acoustic Edge. So I can have one for the ungoldy gobs of MIDI, the other for the sound proccessing ability.
Also with DDR as cheap as it is I'll have no problem with that, and a new Athlon. Spiffy  :)
Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: J*** H******* on 2001-07-28 05:16:00
Message.
Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: Edea on 2001-07-28 07:20:00
ok just a note so i can work towards getting out of this newbie thing but I gotta be totally honest here. I would love to give some advice but I really have no idea what you are talking about! I'm still somewhat computer illiterate but I'm learning!
Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: Anonymous on 2001-07-28 20:35:00
Well, I'm getting the card, thank God. Really, not even FF games work well with this old thing. S3 had so much potentiol, too...
Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: Threesixty on 2001-08-01 05:21:00
Well FF7 with Geforce2 will work with the TNT patch...but you'll have the same limitations that the TNT patch has.....such as Odin's Summon not look very good when the enemy gets sliced in half.

And I guess that Graphic Artist stuff was just a line, huh....your really looking for a gaming card...not so much into Clarity.
(I was just trying to catch you in a lie is all....I'd never buy an ATI card, myself. I mainly use my PC for games.)

Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: Trilinear on 2001-08-02 16:33:00
Actually with the Detonator 12.4 drivers you don't need the TNT patch.  They finally enabled palletised textures in the driver set.  
Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: Anonymous on 2001-08-03 00:09:00
I meant FF won't work very well with the card I have NOW. I know sure as hell the Geforce'll blow it away.
I am, I don't require "clarity" as you're calling it because that's just a matter of how it displays things. I want power. Power to make things and power to run them. If I was a Pro in some kinda studio, I would still never go for a weak-ass ATI. I'd go ahead and get a Geforce 3 and have my fun...
Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: chowderhead on 2001-08-03 21:15:00
EdeaS:  They're talking about graphic accelerator cards.  My understanding of them isn't the best, but here's what (I think) I know:

The graphics that you see on your screen whether they be 2D or 3D are "run" by the video card, or graphics accelerator card.  What you see (at least in a 3-D environment, I would assume the 2-D works in much the same fashion) like everything else comes down to processed information-math, really.  The 3-d graphics you see are triangles, which combine with other triangles to produce vertexes.  The processer crunches the math necessary to produce all these triangles, their placement, color, shading and whatever else.  At first, this was taken care of totally by the system processor and memory and to an extent, some of it still is.  Eventually, engineers figured out that you could increase levels of detail and free up system resources by creating a card that plugs into your system and could do some of it for you (some of the cards, or more rightly the "chipset" is integrated into the motherboards of your computer so you don't have another add-on card).  The graphics cards of today carry a processing unit and it's own memory not unlike that on your mainboard-but specifically engineered to drive your graphics to higher and higher details.  As graphic cards have gotten more powerful, the games that we play have become more and more complex-requiring more processing power and more memory to handle all the information being shoved down the system's throat. Graphic cards have also been set up to carry special features as well, with things like programmable vertex and pixel shaders (I don't know if any games are using this yet?), Transform & lighting, and a ton of other little details that make up more and more realistic graphics.  The system CPU still crunches a lot of the math necessary for our games (it describes the shape of the object being rendered, and then passes it to the graphics accelerator, I believe...then the accelerator "textures" it.), though I think the latest and greatest GeForce 3 bypasses nearly all of the CPU except for things like AI.

Anyways, there's a brief explanation of 3d cards-probably overly simplictic and not entirely accurate, but hopefully close enough to give you a basic understanding of what happens when start playing that game.  
As for Kojiro, he simply wants what we all want-More Power!

Oh, here's two links to some major card manufacturers, if you're interested... www.nvidia.com  www.ati.com

Hope this helps, and if anyone can clean up/correct what i've just said, feel free-I sure ain't any expert.

Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: ficedula on 2001-08-03 21:46:00
Pretty accurate, AFAIK.

The sort of thing the GPU (Graphics Processing Unit) on a really modern card does is 3d maths. EG:

I'm drawing a triangle at location (-3, 4.56, 6.5) in 3d space; the camera is at (0,-10,-10), looking in direction (0,1,0); the up direction is (0,0,1); where does that map to on the screen?

That sort of thing.

All 3d cards draw polygons; either colour shaded, or 'textured' (with an image 'wrapped' onto the surface). Most will multitexture as well (blend a second texture onto the first one; used to achieve effects like realistic lighting).

Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: MMiller8 on 2001-08-03 22:32:00
No it doesn't, Fice!  It makes pretty pictures, silly!  :P
Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: Edea on 2001-08-04 02:25:00
wow! thanx chowderhead and everyone else. you guys are cool! i can't believe after all this time someone actually replied to my remark. i never expected it. i felt like one of those noises in the background that everyone can hear but ignores!  :wink:
Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: MMiller8 on 2001-08-04 02:33:00
Don't be silly, Edeas.  You're not even close to being Joey!

Just kidding.  Ok, I'm sorry.  I'll go shut my ears in an oven door now.

Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: StrayWings on 2001-08-04 03:59:00
 
Quote
i felt like one of those noises in the background that everyone can hear but ignores! - EdeaS

Well, everything needs time  :) How about if I go out with you once? - Aeris  :wink:

Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: chowderhead on 2001-08-04 07:34:00
I have the feeling many of the people on this board might be a bit like me-we have a wee problem with procrastination...

Oh well!  I'll work on that next week...

Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: Edea on 2001-08-04 08:37:00
Now how old did you say you are StrayWings? :)
Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: StrayWings on 2001-08-04 10:40:00
..well, I'm quite young~ 14 years old.

Here's a nice Quote:

Quote
people judge you not by the size of your shoes but by whether your socks match.  - Srethron Askvelhtnod

Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: Edea on 2001-08-04 14:22:00
lol!you are so funny StrayWings. and so are the rest. i like you guys!  :D
Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: eerrrr on 2001-08-04 18:33:00
Um, StrayWings...

Quote
I am 15 years old now, from Malaysia...

That was from  a post you made in the 'I've seen a lot of new members lately...' thread. I'm getting a wee bit confused now.

Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: M0T on 2001-08-12 17:07:00
Thats a bit confusing, maybe he is getting younger? Generally I usually go by the idea that if a Graphics card has a 2 after it it must be better than the 1 before it.
Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: Threesixty on 2001-08-12 18:35:00
Well I don't know anything about V cards specs....

All I know is that the first major one that I used, which was Creative's Voodoo2. Is a stand alone Card, that pluged in to a PCI slot; that would only activate when needed. You still used your original 2d Card to see normal screen things, such as Windows, and about 90% of the other software that ran on IBMs. Acutal 3d games that actually used the card were few and far between.

It was also noted that the 3d Voodoo Cards was a lot more blurry than the 2d card. This was noticed on games that gave you a choice of 2d or 3D acceleration. The menus's were usually a lot more blurrier in the 3d mode than in the 2d mode....but the frame rates were increased four fold on the 3d Acceleration mode.

Later on they combined the 2d and 3d cards together...the first (I think) was called the Voodoo Banshe. And from there on forward the 3d chip and the 2d chip were put onto the same card.....

Maybe now the same chip does both 3d and 2d, but I still find the same is true with my Geforce2 card (just not as bad)....things just look clearer in the 2d mode than the do in 3d mode and the 3d mode is a hell of a lot faster.

So....I guess you can say I got my experience through actual usage.


Title: I need the help of perfect strangers
Post by: M0T on 2001-08-12 19:49:00
Yep same with me, I found out about it when I got my first Voodoo 2, It has a lot of filtering which blurs it all but it also was faster than my 2D matrox card(This wasnt bad as I used it to play through FF8 with as it made the graphics crisper and no slowdown at all, it was a good "D card with a small amout amount of 3D capabilities) Then I got a TNT2 Ultra which was a much faster card and it made everything look better, after that I got a Geforce 256 which is where I am now as I cant afford anything else :(