agn
10-26-2004, 02:51 PM
With Half Life 2 on the way and the Radeon 9000 just begging to get pulled, I picked up the X800 from ATI. I got the Pro version with 256 meggies and ran to the door like a 6 year old on christmas day when BROWN rolled up with my package.
The install went fine, how many menu bar and system tray icons do software and hardware companies think we want? The corner of my task bar is starting to look like a jar of marbles.
I fired up Doom 3, raised every setting possible and hit start. Definitely a better looking game with the X800 than the Radeon 9000, but jesus that game is dark. I know it's been beaten like a dead horse, but even todays poorest miners have lights attached to their helmets. The marine is also not smart enough to wedge the flashlight into some part of his outfit.
The big test was hooking it up to the TV. I want to use the 60" wega for pc gaming and the previous cards didn't support the resolution making desktop use unbearable.
The new card still can't do it. Sorta. The ATI card sends the sync signal through the green on an RGB cable that you have to use. I have a DVI switcher that lets the TV share its one DVI connector with Direct TV, Voom, and the PC. When you try to set the resolution with the DVI cable, it won't allow a custom resolution and keeps the top, bottom, and sides from being visible.
Apparently the new NVidia cards don't have this problem.
Once the cables were in, powerstril popped me into a beautiful 1152x648 resolution that fits nicely.
I played Counter-Strike Source and was happy to see a "widescreen" mode option that helped fill the screen with the game (although cutting off a bit of the side communication menus.)
Im not sure about anti-aliasing though, 2x 4x how many x is worth it before you get a hit.
Anyone using this card?
The install went fine, how many menu bar and system tray icons do software and hardware companies think we want? The corner of my task bar is starting to look like a jar of marbles.
I fired up Doom 3, raised every setting possible and hit start. Definitely a better looking game with the X800 than the Radeon 9000, but jesus that game is dark. I know it's been beaten like a dead horse, but even todays poorest miners have lights attached to their helmets. The marine is also not smart enough to wedge the flashlight into some part of his outfit.
The big test was hooking it up to the TV. I want to use the 60" wega for pc gaming and the previous cards didn't support the resolution making desktop use unbearable.
The new card still can't do it. Sorta. The ATI card sends the sync signal through the green on an RGB cable that you have to use. I have a DVI switcher that lets the TV share its one DVI connector with Direct TV, Voom, and the PC. When you try to set the resolution with the DVI cable, it won't allow a custom resolution and keeps the top, bottom, and sides from being visible.
Apparently the new NVidia cards don't have this problem.
Once the cables were in, powerstril popped me into a beautiful 1152x648 resolution that fits nicely.
I played Counter-Strike Source and was happy to see a "widescreen" mode option that helped fill the screen with the game (although cutting off a bit of the side communication menus.)
Im not sure about anti-aliasing though, 2x 4x how many x is worth it before you get a hit.
Anyone using this card?