Help - VIVO and Doom 3

Hi,

I'm (finally) building a new system - not high end, just from this
century. I'm using an Asus A7n8x mobo with 512 dual channel memory
and an Athlon XP 2700+ Barton chip.

The whole thing has cost about $250 so far, and now I'm looking at
video cards - HOLY CRAP! It seems any video card that can actually
play Doom 3 (kind of a benchmark for me) and has video in capabilities
will cost more than the whole damn mobo/memory/chip setup! My head
is spinning between fx5900 ultra, radeon 9800 pro/all in
wonder/whatever, six million manufacturers, 128 or 256 meg.

Any suggestions as to what I can get that will meet my needs - I just
want to be able to put some video tapes into my system (composite, my
s-video deck died and nobody sells reasonably priced replacements) and
I'd like to play Doom 3 in at least medium settings.

When I actually get it, that is.

I appreciate your time and responses.

- Russ

Hi Russ,

Just finished Doom3 on a P4 at 2.5Ghz and 512Mb RDRAM. Ran fine at
medium settings with a 2 year old Geforce Ti4600 128Mb (were expensive
in their day!). Very playable.

It actually ran Doom3 at Ultra settings (512mb texture ram required!) -
looked awesome - ran like shite about 5 fps I'd guess!

Not bang up to date with video cards at present, but my only advice
would be to ensure you buy a 'full fat' version of the card (not
necessarily an Ultra version) as opposed to a cut down version. For
example you can/could get a MX version of my current card - seriously
crippled for something as demanding as Doom3.

Others with more knowledge will chip in with specific cards so I won't
comment any further.

Have fun!

--
Steve

I have an Albatron GeForce 5900XT/128 MB that's VIVO that runs Doom in
High settings comfortably. They're pretty cheap now, I think. I got
mine in May for $200.

Hope this helps.


--
Cory "Shinnokxz" Hansen
http://coryhansen.com

Russell Alexander wrote:

> Hi,
>
> I'm (finally) building a new system - not high end, just from this
> century. I'm using an Asus A7n8x mobo with 512 dual channel memory
> and an Athlon XP 2700+ Barton chip.
>
> The whole thing has cost about $250 so far, and now I'm looking at
> video cards - HOLY CRAP! It seems any video card that can actually
> play Doom 3 (kind of a benchmark for me) and has video in capabilities
> will cost more than the whole damn mobo/memory/chip setup! My head
> is spinning between fx5900 ultra, radeon 9800 pro/all in
> wonder/whatever, six million manufacturers, 128 or 256 meg.
>
> Any suggestions as to what I can get that will meet my needs - I just
> want to be able to put some video tapes into my system (composite, my
> s-video deck died and nobody sells reasonably priced replacements) and
> I'd like to play Doom 3 in at least medium settings.
>
> When I actually get it, that is.
>
> I appreciate your time and responses.

There's no real benefit to having an all-in-one board unless you want to
have two video inputs. A separate capture board can be had for not too
much money that will work at least as well as one of the all-in-one boards.
The ATI multimedia center will even run some non-ATI boards with full
functionality (full MMC functionality that is, not necessarily full support
of all features of the board).
>
> - Russ

--
--John
Reply to jclarke at ae tee tee global dot net
(was jclarke at eye bee em dot net)

Thanks to everyone for their input. I decided to go with the MSI
FX5900XT-VTD128, which got stellar reviews from everyone.

I would not have found this if not for your help and the responses
here. Thanks!!!

russ@quickchange.com (Russell Alexander) writes:

> Thanks to everyone for their input. I decided to go with the MSI
> FX5900XT-VTD128, which got stellar reviews from everyone.
>
> I would not have found this if not for your help and the responses
> here. Thanks!!!

Isn't this one of the cards that sound like a vacuum cleaner and
require 2 power connectors and hefty power supply? (and not very
cheap either?). Because that is why decided to go for Radeon 9800
pro.
Otherwise, nVidia really has better drivers, so that is a plus.

Marcin

No, it isn't.

--
Cory "Shinnokxz" Hansen
http://coryhansen.com

Shinnokxz <shinnokxz@charter.net> writes:

> No, it isn't.

Good move on nVidia side then. I might have got one myself if they
were available earlier.
Marcin