Prosavage!

[raiden_nrl]

Hey when half-life 2 comes out i am going to buy it but i need help becuase i need to know my specs for my S3 Prosavage 8 graphics card i cant find it anywere. Becuase if it is to low i am going to need to upgrade. Thanks for the help

 

[Martin]

I haven't been able to find any specsheets, but the core of it is very similar to the Savage4 (which was already an entry level graphics chip when it was released in 1999). Also, being an IGP using shared RAM further downcuts its performance.

Couple that with having only 8 MB of video memory, you are in serious need of an upgrade if you hope to play Half-Life 2 (even your current graphics subsystem won't be able to handle it at the lowest detail level; logical since that card can barely even handle most DirectX 7 games).

 

[raiden_nrl]

yeah thanks for that. I looked at future shop and i am going to buy ATI Radeon 9200 128MB for 150$ ca and free shipping so i guess that is a pretty good deal.
Hey and thanks for clearing that up thats prob the reason when i upgraded to direct x 9 some of my games have black gaps in the screen cause of my video card. *-_- should have been smarter when buying my computer*

 

[Martin]

If the Radeon 9200 Pro or the 9100 are not much more expensive than your current choice, then I suggest going for those. Or wait until prices for the Radeon 9600 cards (excluding the SE) drop.

 

[raiden_nrl]

what is better about the pro's? would it be worth the buy?

 

[Martin]

9200 Pro - higher core/memory frequency (275/550 respectively, as opposed to 250/500 on the regular). The benefit is anywhere from 2-5 fps, though the only reason I suggested it is if there is a very miniscule price difference between the regular and the Pro.

9100 - Operates with 4 rendering pipelines with 2 texture mapping units per pipe (as opposed to only 1 on the 9200) - in plain English, games which utilize multi-texturing (laying more than 1 texture/texture element map on a given surface area) will defintely benefit from this (resulting in higher performance), especially FPS games such as HL2 - only "downfall" to the 9100 is lack of AGP 8x support.

 

[raiden_nrl]

here
I was just wondering this is for 80$ on sale would this be a good buy or is it worth the money for the other?

 

[Martin]

Avoid the SE at all costs (64-bit memory bus cuts its performance into half that of the 9200). Stick to the regular, Pro or 9100, or another of your choice.

 

[raiden_nrl]

Just one more question does your motherboard have a max about how much it can support?

 

[Martin]

The only real limitation to your motherboard is the AGP slot itself.

Most newer cards only handle 1.5 volts/0.8 volts carried from the slot to the card. In other words, only motherboards with AGP 2.0 and 3.0 slots will be able to use the card. You will be safe for the most part if your motherboard sports either an AGP 4x-only (or 4x/8x only), or universal AGP slot.

If you have an older motherboard with an AGP 1.0-only slot (usually of the AGP 2x/1x variety), then check the product details first to make sure that it is compatible.