Recommendations On A Pixel Shader 1.1+ Card

[Andrew D. Gable]

I picked up Deus Ex 2 tonight, finally, and sure 'nuff got an error message as soon as I tried to launch it that I couldn't because I needed Pixel Shader 1.1 or greater. Now, I did some digging and found out which video cards have that capability (so I know for certain it's a problem with my GeForce 2), but I was just wondering on which of those cards are best.

Applicable Cards...
Geforce 3
Geforce 4 TI
Radeon 8500-9800 line
Geforce FX
Matrox Parhelia

 

[frugal]

Applicable Cards...
Geforce 3
Geforce 4 TI
Radeon 8500-9800 line
Geforce FX
Matrox Parhelia

Gefore 3 is probably not worth it because it already does not support a lot of the common features of new games. So you will probably be in this situation again in a year if you buy one.

Matrox Parhelia does not have a very good bang for the buck. They have some really nice features but they are no where near as fast as a similarly priced GeForce / Radeon.

Gefore 4 is again coming to the end of it's life. To the extent that when my Fiance's Gefore4 TI 4200 blew a capacitor after 3 months they sent us a GeForce FX5600 Ultra to replace it.

the Geforce Fx has some serious problems with older motherboards. I am using the replacement 5600 as the 5600 I buoght for my PC will not even fit (it is too long and the memory gets in the way). I have a farily common AMD motheboard (KT7A) and I can not run 3d unless I halve the clock speed on the card. No matter what drivers I use the card will hard lock teh machine in 15 minutes. From the reasearch I did afterwards it would appear that the FX series was rushed to market and has some serious bugs. Now it may well be that in the past 6 months they have been sorted in hardware, but the hardware I have is fairly flaky.

I have heard nothing but good things about the Radeons, they seem to be taking the 3d gaming crown from NVidia.

 

[Silvanos]

GeForce cards have lost ground to ATI's over the last few years, in both cost (Bang for the buck) and features.

I have a 9800 pro, and have not had any problems with it.

 

[Psionicist]

I picked up Deus Ex 2 tonight, finally, and sure 'nuff got an error message as soon as I tried to launch it that I couldn't because I needed Pixel Shader 1.1 or greater. Now, I did some digging and found out which video cards have that capability (so I know for certain it's a problem with my GeForce 2), but I was just wondering on which of those cards are best.

Applicable Cards...
Geforce 3
Geforce 4 TI
Radeon 8500-9800 line
Geforce FX
Matrox Parhelia

Well, it really depends on your computer. If you have a GF2, i guess you don't have a 2.4 GHz A64 "I-compile-Mozilla-before-breakfast" computer in terms of speed.

Now, if you have a Pentium 3, AMD K6, Pentium 4 Willamette or the like you won't benefit much from newer video cards such as the Radeon 9800 or GeforceFX 5900, you will not even take advantage of the slower models such as the Radeon 9600 or GFFX 5700. I'd suggest a Geforce 4, perhaps the Ti4200 (you can get them for less than $100 nowadays).

If you have a faster computer, such as a P4 Norhwood, Athlon XP or such you WILL benefit from the faster video cards. A Radeon 9800 Pro is about $200 and a great buy. If you don't want to spend that much, we have the GeforceFX 5700 Ultra and Radeon 9600 XT. The 5700 Ultra is slightly faster.

Hope it helps a little.

 

[Breakdaddy]

I'm using a 9800xt and LOVING it. I've recommended ATI cards to my father and some friends and all of them that purchased one have thanked me for the suggestion. Having said that, the Deus Ex 2 engine is a system hog. You will want at least a 9600 128 meg and preferably a 9700 pro or better if you want to get the best out of this game. If your motherboard doesnt support 8x AGP it might be time to upgrade to a new mobo. Let's also not forget the cheapest and most oft-overlooked upgrade: ram. If you are not sporting at least 512 megs, upgrade NOW! This will invoke a mighty performance boost on almost any newer game. Going up to a gig of ram will also increase performance, but nowhere near as dramatically as the initial boost to 512 (which is the current "sweet spot" for gaming). Processor isnt as important as the video card and ram, but the newest games would be best served on at least a 1.5ghz platform. I know, I know, WAYYY more information than you asked for. I talk too much, it's a curse...

 

[LightPhoenix]

I'm looking at an ATI 9600XT as my next card... it's generally cheaper than the 9800XT (also a very good card) and while a lot of people will say the video card makes the system, I'd prefer to spend a bit less on that and a bit more on RAM and the processor. I pretty much agree with Breakdaddy otherwise - you can get a cheapy GeForce 4 card and save some money to upgrade processor and RAM.

 

[Psionicist]

I'm using a 9800xt and LOVING it. I've recommended ATI cards to my father and some friends and all of them that purchased one have thanked me for the suggestion. Having said that, the Deus Ex 2 engine is a system hog. You will want at least a 9600 128 meg and preferably a 9700 pro or better if you want to get the best out of this game. If your motherboard doesnt support 8x AGP it might be time to upgrade to a new mobo. Let's also not forget the cheapest and most oft-overlooked upgrade: ram. If you are not sporting at least 512 megs, upgrade NOW! This will invoke a mighty performance boost on almost any newer game. Going up to a gig of ram will also increase performance, but nowhere near as dramatically as the initial boost to 512 (which is the current "sweet spot" for gaming). Processor isnt as important as the video card and ram, but the newest games would be best served on at least a 1.5ghz platform. I know, I know, WAYYY more information than you asked for. I talk too much, it's a curse...

1) The difference between AGP 8x and 4x is nonexistent. There is no reason to buy a new motherboard just for 8x AGP. Of course, 8x AGP usually means the board is new, and a new board is often better than an old one, so that might actually be a good advise.

2) I agree with the 9800 XT, it's a fine card. I have three of them here, from ASUS, Abit and Hercules. The Abit one is by far the best of those three. However, I wouldn't recommend 9800XT to anyone, rather I would recommend the Radeon 9800 Pro which is far more reasonably priced. The 9800XT is one of those thing you buy because you know you need it, not because someone else tells you.

3) Gigs of RAM wont help you if it's, say, PC100 SDRAM. If you have a motherboard that supports (dual channel) PC3200 DDR for instance then the speed will help you more than the amount. Otherwise yes, 512 MB is usually sufficient if you just play games.

4) The CPU _is_ important. Look here for instance.

This is 640x480 so a FX53 will not automatically give you 140 more FPS, but if we compare, say, an Athlon XP 1600+ with an Athlon 64 3400+ and the same high-end video card the XP proc will be the bottleneck.

 

[Breakdaddy]

As a long time computer technician, I based my opinions on real-world experience. I could show you lots and lots of benchmarks that say all kinds of things (like p4's smoke athlons) but when it comes down to enjoying a nice bout of ut2k4 you will see little difference. While I agree with the 4x/8x agp statement from psionicist, I never meant it as a 4x to 8x conversion, merely a generalization that an 8x board will tend to be newer tech and support a more robust hardware config (without getting too technical!). I will disagree with your
statement about ram a bit, however. While you are correct in your statement that pc2100/2700/3200 ddr is superior to 100mhz sdr, the amount of ANY type of ram will make a difference ON THAT CONFIGURATION. That is not to say you wouldnt be well-served by investing in some nice dual channel pc3200 400fsb, however, as you will see a very marked improvement over even pc2100 ddr, much less 100mhz sdr. While I dont disagree with your generalization that processor speed is important, it isnt nearly as important as your video card. I have taken baseline p4 configs that played say, serious sam 2, at 30 fps and added nothing more than a video card upgrade (in this instance from a geforce 3 to a radeon 9600xt) and seen a 120% framerate increase! Now if all I had changed was the processor (in this case a 2.4 ghz p4 533) to a nicer proc (say a 3.06 533, the board doesnt support 800mhz fsb), my performance increase would have been far more modest. But as always, any major purchases should be thoroughly researched by the prospective buyer.

 

[tburdett]

I picked up Deus Ex 2 tonight, finally, and sure 'nuff got an error message as soon as I tried to launch it that I couldn't because I needed Pixel Shader 1.1 or greater. Now, I did some digging and found out which video cards have that capability (so I know for certain it's a problem with my GeForce 2), but I was just wondering on which of those cards are best.

I really like my Radeon 9800 Pro. Drivers are pretty solid and the card is very fast. The next gen video chipsets are just around the corner (mid April), so you might see prices drop a bit more on the current gen stuff, but with the recent $50 price drop on the top end Radeons, it might not happen right away.