New GFX Card AT LAST!

[Nemisis]

Well i just thought i'd let you guys know that i have finally ordered my new Graphics Card, Due for delivery on Monday 16th!

It's a Hightech Radeon 9800 ICEQ Pro!

http://www.ebuyer.com/customer/products ... _uid=55198

The link above is the card i'm getting, and i am looking forward to finally playing Lomac with planes that are rendered and not just black shapes.

And also it will mean i will be able to finally join you guys OL with Lomac.

I have missed being on line with you lot since Lomac came out, Been playing a lot of BF1942 of late (great fun) but have missed the flying side of things since there has not been a lot of Falcon flown recently and the nights you have flown Falcon i have not been available.

So i'm going to do a complete reinstall of XP again so that the new card has a fresh system to be put in and i will be doing some tests as well that some of you might find interesting.

Anyway hope to be flying with you guys soon. Hope you're having fun!

[Jedi Master]

Been doing OFP some, actually.
I can't believe the cooler on that card! Say goodbye to PCI slot #1!

[Hudson]

I was mad when I saw the price was only $169.00 after I payed 400 for mine (256 MB Radeon 9800 Pro); a couple seconds later I realized that was in £

Those fans kill me. I cannot fit them in my case even if I want, but I bet it moves quite nicely. I can vouch for the Radeon 9800 Pro line being pretty damn sweet. And that comes from a former total and complete ATI hater (from past experiences I swore I'd never buy another ATI card again, but because of my choice in case I really had no choice to use the new Nvidia's; so here I am, a happy camper nontheless...)

[Nemisis]

Yes the Cooler is reminiscent of the Nvidia FX5800 LeafBlower(So called due to its extremely loud fan) but this model has been revamped and in a recent review in one of the british magazines they say that even when the fan is turned up to it's high speed (it has 2 speed settings) it is not any louder than a stock 9800 Pro fan!

As for the loss of my first PCI slot well that's no problem since i always left that clear for better air circulation for my present GFX card and i only use 2 PCI slots anyway so i might just move the 2 PCI cards i have (1 network card and 1 sound card) down a slot again to make sure there is plenty of room for the radeon to breathe!

Price is actually £198 including VAT (Value Added Tax) a tax that is put on everything sold in britain from GFX cards to food Which stands at 17.5%. So this makes the cards value in Dollars $300.

But all the 9800 Pros are dropping in price here anyway to round about the £220 mark but this card was reviewed as the fastest 9800 Pro out at the moment and its official retail price is £295 or $450 so it's a real bargain! at the price i got it. Luckily the Online store i use to order all my Pc stuff is the only one selling this particular card at the reduced price, all the rest are still selling it at full retail!! I guess it was meant to be mine LOL.

Now all i need is a new mobo and one of those new 3.4 gig 800mhz FSB Pentiums and another Gig of ram and i'm set for the next 2 years! before i need another major upgrade.

Oh well i can but hope

[Hammer]

new toys...

i have a new laptop... AMD 64 with a Radeon 9600, 15.4" wide screen and DVD burner...

[Hudson]

I've read a few reviews that say the new Prescott 3.4's are faster for things like mpeg decoding, video authoring, and what not while the 3.2 Northwood edges it out in the gaming arena.

It seems Mathematica, Lame, and most 3D shooters are worse off on the new Prescott systems. Of course, I'm mostly trying to convince you to go with the 3.2 GHz, because in my head, where my world is perfect, no one has a fast processor than me.

[Nemisis]

LOL Well Hudson, i am sure your 3.2Ghz crown is safe for just now anyway, since it will be a little while longer till i get the cash together for another upgrade since it would involve a new Mobo and CPU.

Of course i could go the cheap route and get either a barton XP2500+ and overclock it to XP3400+ speeds (this is done all the time from what i can see, the XP2500+ is a great overclocker) or get a 2.4Ghz Pentium with 800Mhz FSB and over clock that to 3.6 GHz with a good heatsink+fan (also a popular choice as the 2.4 Ghz 800Mhz FSB pent is seemingly the best overclocker out of all the pentium 4's).

Or just wait a while save my cash and get a 4GHz Prescot that will probably be out by the end of the year! and of course overclock that to 5 Ghz LOL!

100 Frames per second in Lomac anyone!!! :lol:

[Jedi Master]

Having just read that ATI's next video chip, the R420, will have DOUBLE the fillrate and mem bandwidth of the 9800 Pro...I can't wait for 2Q!!

As for CPU, I'll wait on that until I probably get an AMD 64 of some flavor with a PCI-express-enabled mobo and say goodbye to AGP! I got my first AGP mobo (classic BX chipset for the P2!) in early 98, and its day is over.