last month, i bought ATI Radeon 9500 (non pro) 128MB graphic card! of course, i was aiming to softmod it into 9700 potentially!.
but, but, but, i failed. and for this reason, i got ill....upset! i really will not trust OEM product at all in the future! the hidden 4 rendering pipes are f*cked ...after activated them, i saw many artifacted....damn it! more, when i start a small game, it hangs,,,,kill me!
i spent 1 whole week to recover my broken heart! including went to Malaysia for holiday!..anyway, i finally felt ok...
however,,,last nite, i was shocked and sad again..,.(crying!)
i used 3Dmark03 to test my card. there are 4 testing games in 3Dmark03, in the 2nd game, my fps is never more than 10,,,,aiya, sometimes even 1 fps....ft!(of course, i know those games are too pre-aged,very detailed graphics)..and at last, i scored 1790! tian ah! after that, i never gave up, i then OC my core to 350MHz/300MHz...again, it scored my 2150...i dun satisfied, so further OC some more. of course, u know the concequences: when i overclocked Ram to 340Mhz, my PC hangs,,,ok, i restarted! when i oc Core to 400MHz, got many artifacts....sigh...
finally, the best and safest pait is 375MHz/300MHz..scored me 2252!...no suprise! it is just so so card..sigh, my $290...
ok,,lastly, i wanna say: if u guys, gaming bums, wanna pick up a good graphic card! \
1. pls dun buy OEM product(even though i should not blame OEM too much), i suggest Sappire;
2. Red PCB board (for ATI only) is most potential to overclock, and i suggest everyone should overclock own graphic card(of course,not too much. and u have to know ur card RAM capibility, for mine 9500, RAM is based on 3.6ns technology, so max speed is 300Mhz, if u overclock more, then card is in danger. for Core, i think at least 50-100Mhz u can overclock it)
3. pay attention to Rendering pipes of the card, 4 and 8 pipes are totally different in terms of performance!, and also memory interface bandwith, 128 and 256 Mb are also very different if u choose the 8 rendering pipes card. for Core, i really dun think it does matter much, (anyway, core is also potentiallly able to be overclocked !hehe)
4. best buy: around $350 one- Radeon 9500 pro, Geforce FX5600! of course, if u r rich, can also buy 9800 or FX5900!heheh. anyway, if just want a so so card, then buy Geforce4 MX 440 or Ti 4200, or Radeon 9200(if still got 8500 in market, then buy 8500) these cards have nice butget, less than $200, but not support DirectX 9.0, which is the trend of games!
ok,,,i stop here, and hope u gamers can choose a best card with ur gaming life!
