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hadocon · 12:24 PM

I have been wanting to upgrade my GF2 in my Dual 800 ever since I got it. Can anyone that has made the upgrade from a GF2 to a GF3 tell me what kind of gaming performance boost I will see? I am running @ 1024x768 only and the games I will be playing are RTCW, Ghost Recon(which is awesome after you get into it), JK2 etc...

Any dual monitor issues?

I have seen the figures @ xlr8 and elsewhere, but I am interested in your qualitative comments and overall satisfaction with the GF3 over the GF2

edit: for clarity

hadocon · Nov 14, 2002, 09:23 PM

Originally posted by hadocon:
I have been wanting to upgrade my GF2 in my Dual 800 ever since I got it. Can anyone that has made the upgrade from a GF2 to a GF3 tell me what kind of gaming performance boost I will see? I am running @ 1024x768 only and the games I will be playing are RTCW, Ghost Recon(which is awesome after you get into it), JK2 etc...

Any dual monitor issues?

I have seen the figures @ xlr8 and elsewhere, but I am interested in your qualitative comments and overall satisfaction with the GF3 over the GF2

edit: for clarity

No one has upgraded to a GF3?

Boochie · Nov 15, 2002, 09:07 AM

I upgraded from a GF2 to a GF4Ti in my G4/867. It was a tremendous boost in gaming performance. Where previously I could only run MoHAA in low detail at 800x600, I can now run it at medium or high detail at 1024x768. In Elite Force I went from medium detail at 1024x768 to max detail at 1280x1024.

So I'd expect that your improvement in performance would be somewhere in between. Since you have dual CPU you'll probably still be graphics-card bound in terms of performance, to the extent that any games can take advantage of the second CPU.

Guy Incognito · Nov 15, 2002, 09:09 AM

Hadocon...question...do you have Mac OS X 10.2? If so, have you had random freezes with your Dual 800 and GeForce 2 MX?

I've got the exact computer setup you do (minus all that storage space...daaamn!

). And this question is very important for me in order to troubleshoot my problem.

Guy Incognito · Nov 16, 2002, 08:01 AM

Hadocon...please...I need an answer.

hadocon · Nov 16, 2002, 05:12 PM

Originally posted by Guy Incognito:
Hadocon...please...I need an answer.

Sorry for the late reply (I did send you a private message but your inbox is full). I am sorry (and pleased) to report that I do not suffer from the random crashes you describe. All I have is the stupid finder icon bug.

CIA · Nov 17, 2002, 06:52 AM

I use a GF3 on my Dual 800, 1.5GB Ram, 240GB Level 0 RAID, ATA-100 (2 WD 120GB Special edition drives) 40 gig stock seagate on ATA66, WD120 non Special Edition on a Sonnet tempo 133 card, and a Maxtor 60GB ATA133 drive on the Tempo's other channel. (I do a lot of video work)
Running 10.2.2, Game performance is f**cking great. I upgraded from a Rev. A beige G3 tho... Seriously, Warcraft runs fine at 1280x960 with everything fancy turned on. JK demo is pretty smooth at high res with all the eye candy. Get this card if you can find it cheap. Otherwise, go for one of those flashed ATI 8500's. I've read very good things about them.

daydreamer · Nov 17, 2002, 10:29 AM

I have a Dual 800mhz G4 with GF2MX to, I am thinking of buying a Geforce 5 when it comes out. But i assume this card will be to heavy for the cpu..meaning i will not get full power out of it.. but if it does still perform much better then the GF4 Ti in older cpus. , I will go for it..

So im also interested in seeing dual 800 results with GF3 vs GF4 Ti..

hadocon · Nov 17, 2002, 11:17 AM

Originally posted by daydreamer:
I have a Dual 800mhz G4 with GF2MX to, I am thinking of buying a Geforce 5 when it comes out. But i assume this card will be to heavy for the cpu..meaning i will not get full power out of it.. but if it does still perform much better then the GF4 Ti in older cpus. , I will go for it..

So im also interested in seeing dual 800 results with GF3 vs GF4 Ti..

Well, actaully I would like to have an ATI Radeon 9700 over a GF4 these days, but alas I can afford neither. I am looking to purcahse a used GF3 on ebay. I really can't justify spending > $600CDN for a graphics card to play a few games on my Mac. I could just buy a PS2 for less than half that - and get a DVD player as well built in

.

I only run games @ 1024x768 so I am sure that the performance will be adequate (although it wold be better with a GF4 or 9700).

daydreamer · Nov 17, 2002, 11:59 AM

Originally posted by hadocon:

Well, actaully I would like to have an ATI Radeon 9700 over a GF4 these days, but alas I can afford neither. I am looking to purcahse a used GF3 on ebay. I really can't justify spending > $600CDN for a graphics card to play a few games on my Mac. I could just buy a PS2 for less than half that - and get a DVD player as well built in .

I only run games @ 1024x768 so I am sure that the performance will be adequate (although it wold be better with a GF4 or 9700).

I have read a real big test with the radeon 9700 vs the GF4 ti, and the radeon9700 performed much better in newer cpus but when they compared the 2 with a 700mhz athlon board- they especially did that to give pple idea with older cpus- the GF4 Ti was slightly faster.. again not if FSAA and all the high stuff was enabled , the radeon 9700 blew the GF4Ti out of the water..

for now I choose nvidia over ati because they work closer with apple and overall game support is bigger and better to me..

Dont mind nvidia is showing of its Geforce 5 on monday, it has ddr-2 memory, a bus speed of 1ghz !! , and a core speed of 400mhz or even 500mhz ,... this thing can render jurrasic park dinos in real time at 100fps, according to nvidia...

Guy Incognito · 05:54 PM

Originally posted by daydreamer:

... this thing can render jurrasic park dinos in real time at 100fps, according to nvidia...

Probably render 1 dino without any background environment. Whoopteedoo.

But when you have to start rendering entire rich environments in realtime, you have to sacrifice little dino polygons to get this same speed.

If nVidia started claiming to be able to render Monsters Inc. graphics in realtime, I'd spit out the orange juice I'm drinking at the moment in laughter.

hadocon · Nov 18, 2002, 12:02 AM

Well, I am the highest bidder for a GF3 on Ebay... And the same day I won an XBox in a raffle! Looks like the $ I will get selling the XBox will totally cover the price of a GF3.

It all evens out in the end.

Edit: spelling

Jansar · Nov 18, 2002, 12:54 AM

Originally posted by hadocon:
Well, I am the highest bidder for a GF3 on Ebay... And the same day I won an XBox in a raffle! Looks like the $ I will get selling the XBox will totally cover the price of a GF3.

It all evens out in the end.

Edit: spelling

What's the current bid? I remember when those mofos were going for $300. Rip.

iamnid · Nov 18, 2002, 08:31 AM

Seriously! The fact that the GF3 is the best performer/only card that fits easily into a cube has seriously inflated its price.

If you don't win that GF3, I'd recommend getting a Radeon 8500. It'll probably give you some of the best performance your CPU's can push and it's a lot cheaper than a GF4Ti and I think it's as cheap or cheaper than a GF3 and for the most part delivers the same performance.

hadocon · Nov 18, 2002, 09:11 AM

Originally posted by Jansar:

What's the current bid? I remember when those mofos were going for $300. Rip.

Well, with 1 day, 14 hours to go the price is @ $122USD.

Don't worry, I am not paying $300 for this card...

Jansar · Nov 18, 2002, 09:22 AM

Originally posted by hadocon:

Well, with 1 day, 14 hours to go the price is @ $122USD.

Don't worry, I am not paying $300 for this card...

Well that's good news.

Haha, didn't think you were going to pay $300 anyway. Who in the right mind would these days

Liquidity X · Nov 18, 2002, 07:13 PM

I have the ATI 8500 and its great. Amazing all around card. Dual displays works great, I have Quartz Exteme on both to!, something nVidia can't do i hear. DVD play back was awsome till jag, it brok the deinterlacing that helped clean up video on the Behind the scenes stuff on dvds, but that should be back soon, dvds still play great. maya runs like a breaze, no display issues at all, same with all my 2d art apps and video editing. and as far as games its almost perfect. I play with everything on max, and at like 1024x768 or higher. I hick up once in a while but thats due to the fact i only have dual 450's, and most games only use 1 of those. But wait till I get my dual 800 upgrades in a month

then i'll be smoking!

Boochie · Nov 18, 2002, 07:59 PM

What's the limitation that prevents nVidia cards from doing Quartz Extreme on both monitors of a dual-head system? Is it VRAM or some architectural issue?

Originally posted by Liquidity X:
I have the ATI 8500 and its great. Amazing all around card. Dual displays works great, I have Quartz Exteme on both to!, something nVidia can't do i hear. DVD play back was awsome till jag, it brok the deinterlacing that helped clean up video on the Behind the scenes stuff on dvds, but that should be back soon, dvds still play great. maya runs like a breaze, no display issues at all, same with all my 2d art apps and video editing. and as far as games its almost perfect. I play with everything on max, and at like 1024x768 or higher. I hick up once in a while but thats due to the fact i only have dual 450's, and most games only use 1 of those. But wait till I get my dual 800 upgrades in a month then i'll be smoking!

Liquidity X · Nov 18, 2002, 10:14 PM

from what i understand. When runnign dual displays off of 1 nvidia card, you get all the vram on one display and none on the 2nd hence no QE. My ati puts 32 on each, so i get QE on both when in the finder and in apps. And if the main displays one needs more ram Ie a game it gives it to it. kool huh

Boochie · Nov 19, 2002, 07:41 AM

Very cool indeed. Surprising that nVidia wouldn't make such a thing possible as well, their newer cards have plenty of VRAM. Well I guess I'll just have to suffer through with my GeForce 4Ti knowing that I'll never be able to run a second monitor with Quartz Extreme. Boo hoo.

Originally posted by Liquidity X:
from what i understand. When runnign dual displays off of 1 nvidia card, you get all the vram on one display and none on the 2nd hence no QE. My ati puts 32 on each, so i get QE on both when in the finder and in apps. And if the main displays one needs more ram Ie a game it gives it to it. kool huh

hadocon · Nov 19, 2002, 10:00 AM

Nvidia cards totally support QE on dual monitors. What are you talking about? I have a GF2 MX Twinview and QE works on both monitors no problem...

If all the vram was partitioned to only one monitor, how would the other monitor work? Duh.

Liquidity X · Nov 19, 2002, 11:03 AM

I talke dot some one with a GF4 and he said that QE only worke don one of his displays. And i know several cards out there only support 3d support on the main display. and hence is said "from what I understand" i didnlt not decailr a statment bub, so chill out.