Low-end video cards compatible with Cube?

by Pxtl on 08/16/2004 16:03, 29 messages, last message: 09/21/2004 09:41, 20209 views, last view: 05/06/2024 15:58

Hey all, I'm looking for a new video board (I still use a tnt2 on a 2ghz machine) and I was wondering about recommendations. I'm looking to do this on the cheap. So far I'm leaning towards an ATI 9200 (yes, I know its not DX9 compatible) - but how good is the openGL compatibility on that board? Does it work with Cube?

Alternately, what about the old 9000 card? Ive seen all-in-wonder 9000s that come complete with TV capture card and PVR software, something I've been looking into, but I'm worried about using the older hardware. Problem is that I really can't afford to splurge for a 9600 like I'd want to use.

Any recommendations?

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#1: depends

by Aardappel on 08/16/2004 20:55

In linux you want to steer away from ATI, sadly.

For Cube you don't need that much... any card still being sold today is probably fast enough, however...

If you are going to buy a new card now, you'd be silly not to get AT LEAST a DX9 card. A lot of games are making or will make use of DX9 features, and DX8.1 (like the 9000) is a huge step back to DX9 in terms of technology.

I found a 9600 SE for 64$ on http://www.pricewatch.com/, really, that is the minimum you should get. Step up to a 9800 SE for 114$. If you have to get nvidia, go at least for a 5700LE at 79$ (or however much more you can afford), because the 5200 is just way too slow for anything.

if you can afford 180$, wait for the new 6600's to hit the shelves, most bang for your buck you will get.

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#2: Re: depends

by dcp on 08/17/2004 01:50, refers to #1

>because the 5200 is just way too slow for anything<

mine works perfectly with cube... ;-)

the last actual game i bought was painkiller and it worked very well too.

but i'm sure it will suck with half-life 2 or doom 3...

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#3: ..

by e:n:i:g:m:a on 08/17/2004 02:51

Personally, I use an ATI Radeon 9000 w/ 64 MB RAM. it was around 60 something dollars when I bought it, i think... Anyway, it works perfect except for the most DEMANDING of cube levels (DCP's map, and Spentron's CAMERA come to mind...). But even then you should get ~20 FPS which isn't THAT bad...

Anyhoo... a 9000 is the darn lowest that I would go with the larger levels that mappers are making now...

On a side note, I plan to buy a 9600 XT some time in the distant future (once it goes below $80), Until then, I'll just have to live with my 9000

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#4: Re: ..

by spentron on 08/17/2004 03:10, refers to #3

I use a GeForce2 INTEGRATED on the motherboard ;).

Other than certain "good practices" I generally don't worry about performance at all anymore when mapping normal sized levels. Camera did go beyond high wqd however, I estimated over a thousand ivy leaves in view at one point.

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#5: tnt2

by why wont it let me log in??? on 08/17/2004 03:56

Hey dude, you don't need to worry.

we have a 1.33 gHz machine, running a Riva TNT2 card, and we can run it at 800x600 at 30 FPS. No other gane runs so smoothly on such an old machine.

If you're getting anything better than my machine, you don't have to worry.

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#6: ..

by rtf on 08/17/2004 05:53

If you really want good OpenGL stick with the Nvidia cards. They aren't great performance-wise(at least, not the old FX line...the brand-new "6 series" is poised to dominate for the next year or so, but they haven't had their low-end released yet) but the drivers can't be beat.

I personally ordered my next computer's parts a few days ago off of Newegg. I'm using SiS integrated graphics....it should run Cube at a semi-playable rate, and I know that if I wait until around winter I will be able to pick up a cheap card in the next generation.

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#7: Note

by Lavaball on 08/17/2004 06:39

Here's a note:Many people had the bullet shooting and explode on their front/face i had that but wen i got XP it's not anymore happening but the gamespeed sometime's bug's like make the game crashes and mostly when i take an item it doesn't register that item i mean it will be ignored any item any help or can it be Fixed?

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#8: Re: ..

by spentron on 08/17/2004 08:52, refers to #6

rtf, I'm sorry to hear that. I'm not aware of any SiS graphics that can run Cube (even though I hear the lowly Intel graphics can) and I've had two different SiS mobos die on me.. once losing 3 weeks of Cube mapping in the fiasco. Currently running ASUS/nForce (1)/AMD, all three have been the now harder to get micro-ATX size. Only problems with the ASUS is the "soundfix" is incompatible with Win98 so no onboard sound (no prob. here) and it's incompatible with PCI graphics cards, which means I now have an nice GF4-MX DDR as well as the old TNT sitting unused (make offer?)... yeah a GF2 AGP is probably as good or maybe better, but I bet the reason I can't use the PCIs is that's what's integrated on the board ;( .

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#9: Re: ..

by staffy99 on 08/17/2004 10:27, refers to #6

rtf a sis 661 fx will get 40 fps at 1024 by 768 in cube. if you are getting a mid range system the sis graphics chip should be fine (they are only software direct x 9 compatable though).

i can run red faction 2 and some other games nicely at 1024 by 768 or more on high quality with mine.

i want a nvidia 6600 le though.

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#10: ..

by staffy99 on 08/17/2004 10:28

oops a 6800 le

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#11: Re: ..

by spentron on 08/17/2004 15:13, refers to #9

Well I stand corrected, although your own posting disagrees: search for sis and after this post the relevant results are #17 and 19.

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#12: ..

by staffy99 on 08/18/2004 08:20

-i found out that the sis graphics card is worthless. it won't run any game made after 2001.

-it is an sis video card. about the same a geforce 4.

-my new computer also has a cheap 64 mb integrated video card. in cube the sky doesn't show on any map (there are no error messages and the files are still there.) and the particle effects make big black squares.


....dodgy drivers.

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#13: well

by rtf on 08/18/2004 08:36

If it turns out bad I can just wait :P But performance outside of video isn't really the issue, it's an A64 system, and one of their newest boards. Most of the boards for A64 are identical outside of featuresets because of the on-core memory controller, but because I was getting an mATX myself I had a limited choice: there were the older first-generation chipsets of VIA and nV, which respectively had an ancient 3d IGP and no IGP at all, and then the slightly more recent SiS, which had a stronger integrated option.

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#14: ..

by staffy99 on 08/18/2004 08:48

yours should be a sis 760. this is what it says about it:
Ultra256 2D/3D Graphics DirectX 8.1 compliant; Pixel Shader ver. 1.3 supported.Flexible Design for Display memory Support UMA and LFB (local frame buffer) up to 128MB for display memory.

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#15: ..

by rtf on 08/19/2004 01:58

That's the one. :)

These are the benchmarks I found previously that led me to get it:
http://www.ocworkbench.com/2004/gigabyte/K8S760M/k8s760m-6.htm

It does OK in 3dmark2001 and Q3A, lousy in 3dmark2003. I think I'll be fine.

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#16: slow machine ???

by aLf on 08/22/2004 20:29

You guys are so lucky with your machines!
I am playing CUBE on: AMD K6 500MHz, 150 MBRAM and TNT2 on 32 MBRAM !!!

But I am going to buy my self a new machine: AMD64 on 3200+ (everything is in that range)

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#17: tested it on an integrated S3 card of a laptop

by D.plomat on 08/22/2004 22:29

with a 1GHz CPU

I was even surprised that this card has a -not good, but at least a- real OpenGL accelerated driver

...bad performance (10-15fps @800*600) and awful looking colors but at least playable, but not enough precision and too buggy (lines and some particles disappearing and such) to be used for mapping

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#18: Re: slow machine ???

by e:n:i:g:m:a on 08/26/2004 06:26, refers to #16

woah, I feel lucky...

AMD Athlon Thunderbird @ 1000 MHz, 256 MB SDRAM, ATI Radeon 9000 w/ 64 Mb DDR Ram...

My next PC is an AMD Athlon64 3000+ w/ AMD Radeon 9600 XT and either 512 or 1024 MB DDR SDRAM, but that is waaaay in the future...

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#19: Re: slow machine ???

by pushplay on 08/26/2004 07:38, refers to #18

It doesn't make sense to buy less than a gig of ram these days.

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#20: Re: slow machine ???

by staffy99 on 08/26/2004 08:19, refers to #18

if you want a new computer and have a monitor and all that and live in australia get one of these: http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/index.php?redir=http://www.auspcmarket.com.au/show_product_info.php?code=SYS-AM646800

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