Radeon any good?

[Emporius]

I plan on ordering THIS computer fairly soon, and upgrading the graphics card to the 1GB Radeon HD 4890 GDDR5 PCI-E card. However, I seem to remember hearing bad things about Radeon cards.

Is it any good?

 

[Krynn72]

Radeon cards are just ATI's brand of video card. Like Geforce is to Nvidia. Nvidia fanboys dont like them just because they're ATI cards. Thats all.

And yes, that card is very good. Especially for $165.

 

[Emporius]

Well, it's $165 more than the default card.

And thanks, that's exactly what I needed to hear.

 

[Wanted Bob]

Atta go, you finally decided on a PC, and what looks like a good one

 

[Krynn72]

Oh... well...

You should build your own computer btw. I know you've probably heard this several times, but seriously... you should.

 

[3ssence]

The 4890 is a great bang/buck card according to all reviews i've come across, so a good choice imo.

 

[AtomicSpark]

Radeon cards are just ATI's brand of video card. Like Geforce is to Nvidia. Nvidia fanboys dont like them just because they're ATI cards. Thats all.

And yes, that card is very good. Especially for $165.

This.

 

[Pi Mu Rho]

I'm currently using a 4890. It's excellent.

 

[bam23]

current ati cards have great value and you get a lot out of your money. the 4890 is one beast of a card and a definite must at $165.

the only faults you could say they have are the lack of Physx (which really isn't needed), software drivers aren't always perfect, and faulty multi-card support. but those are only issues that i've seen from reading ati's official forums, not any issues that i've ever experienced myself.

 

[Dinnesch]

I'd recommend the GTX 275, which is slightly more expensive, but performs much better in demanding games(Crysis, GTA IV etc).
Yes, the 4890 outperforms the GTX 275 in some games, but that is mostly in games where you already have 50+FPS performance, not games where you would buy a new graphics card for. Plus the 4890 seems to have troublesome drivers, from what I've heard.

 

[Krynn72]

The driver have been pretty well ironed out at this point. There was some weird stuff early on in the 4*** series drivers, but not anymore.

Also the 275 isnt offered as an upgrade item for his PC.

 

[huntingbear]

ati is WAAY ahead of nVidia right now and prly next year too

 

[VirusType2]

ATi cards do not work with Visual Pinball which is the only software that can currently use PinMAME for real pinball ROM emulation. But, I'm probably the only one here that cares.

So ATi can't use these:

http://gethome.no/jpsalas/

or these:

http://www.scapinosvpins.com/VisualPinballHome.htm

or these:

http://www.pacdude.pinballnirvana.com/

etc...

 

[Asus]

Sounds like they have it backwards. You don't program how you want and then when you get to the hardware go "Oh, it doesn't work like I want it to." (regarding acceleration off by default).
You look at the hardware in your market and program for it.

Obviously I just looked at the page for a minute but they say here "Its not the reels, its not your CPU, its not even your Video Card.".

 

[VirusType2]

First time I'm reading that Asus. From what I've read, VisualPinball was created about 5 years ago, designed around Nvidia. Then the guy quit working on it soon after, but over the years some people have taken over working on it from time to time. I don't even know if the core is open source. I don't know all that much, just what people are saying on forums, including staff that continually say, "VP does not work with ATi."

 

[Asus]

Yeah, I read some help posts about people saying there are just a few people using ATI on those forums and to ask them for help. /shrug
Sounded like some got it to work but most just rolled over and bought a new card. Odd.

 

[VirusType2]

I just realized it may have sounded like I was faulting ATI, that's not the case at all, just giving a heads up that it will be a problem, if you even get it working at all.

I've been trying to get more people into playing freeware and indie games instead of supporting consoles and steamrolling mega-corporations like Activision and EA.


EDIT: There's still Future Pinball, which is another Pinball emulator with better graphics, true 3D, and the software is still being heavily updated. The only thing is the physics are arguably not quite as good, and it doesn't support actual ROMs for the scoring, sound, light control, etc. So that needs to be hand coded to mimic it as best the author can, though it may support it in the future!

 

[Krynn72]

You do realize you're talking about pinball right? I'm Preeeeeeeeeety sure hes not buying a top of the line PC to play god damn pinball.

<3 pinball

 

[VirusType2]

Yeah, that's why I said, "I'm probably the only one who cares."

Well, I would. I'd build one of these 2 or three monitor bitches here:

Visual Pinball:








Future Pinball:



A real arcade machine that runs Visual Pinball and Future Pinball:



There are actually much better looking cabinets out there, I can't be assed, but there's an entire society dedicated to the cabinets, mostly conglomerating at http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/ but also somewhat at http://www.vpforums.org/


(running hyperpin front end)

Anyway, have a look at this video preview using Hyperpin frontend (can use either emulator):

http://www.hyperspin-fe.com/index.php?pageid=previews2


If this doesn't inspire you, then forget you:

Spoiler

 

[kineaesth]

Congratulations on totally derailing the thread with some bullshit about pinball?

 

[VirusType2]

I'm sorry, "Is Radeon any good", I only added one comment on topic, but then just replying to the responses.

If you would like to destroy my nice collection of painstaking image searching, I will forgive you. I thought about putting in another thread or something, but honestly, if I was going to make a thread about this stuff, it would be all inclusive and more epic.