Standard GFX heatsinks suck!!

[phil]

Well, the fan on my Prophet II stopped working and locked my comp during an install of Red Hat 7.1. Being a Sunday, there is nowhere open that supplies suitable replacement parts. I had a quick look about and the only thing I can find is somewhat large:

http://homepage.ntlworld.com/phil.harling/images/gtshs.jpg


An Alpha PAL6035....I am just waiting for the Arctic Silver Thermal Epoxy to dry and then I am away :cool:

[verT]

Sweet! That looks so cool! I love overkill! You might be able to clock your core up even further now!:cool:

[pelligrini]

Don't agp cards face down?
Hope you have plenty of open slots :D

[phil]

It only uses the first 3 PCI slots....good job I only have an SBLive and NIC in this machine :)

[dnar]

!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!What......



Your gunna rip the chip off the board!!!!! :confused:

[phil]

It seems that the heat from the poor fan giving up fried it. I have just booted the system up and I get lots of purdy colours mixed in with the text...nice, but not very useful. I have swapped it for my other systems Geforce 256DDR and all is fine. Time for a new GFX card :(

[Rick_Deadly]

Wicked... My Prophet II may have to go under the axe hehe :)

[dnar]

Originally posted by phil
It seems that the heat from the poor fan giving up fried it. I have just booted the system up and I get lots of purdy colours mixed in with the text...nice, but not very useful. I have swapped it for my other systems Geforce 256DDR and all is fine. Time for a new GFX card :(

Dare I say it..... Bad luck comes in three's.....

2 down, 1 to go.....

[phil]

Thanks dnar, that makes me feel much better :p Anyway, I've just ordered a Matrox G450 32Mb. The image quality on the GTS at 1600x1200@85Hz was crap. My Radeon is beautiful and I had a G400Max a while back which was great as well.

[pelligrini]

I love my G400MAX, best card I've ever used. I have a couple 450's and just got a 450eTV last month. I haven't played with the TV much yet. I need to pull some more coax. It may be while yet, the attic was still 110 last night. Gonna have to wait for a cooler rainy day.

[dnar]

Originally posted by phil



Thanks dnar, that makes me feel much better :p Anyway, I've just ordered a Matrox G450 32Mb. The image quality on the GTS at 1600x1200@85Hz was crap. My Radeon is beautiful and I had a G400Max a while back which was great as well.







Thats what I have, very happy m8.

Here is the lastest Linux drivers and PowerDesk setup tool (http://matrox.com/mga/support/drivers/latest/home.cfm). This is neat! You don't have to edit your XF86Config file anymore, this thing does ALL the work. I could not beleive it, it setup dual-head, with both monitors running different res/scan rates 1st time!!!!

[phil]

Thanks dnar :) I will definitely use them!

[Martyn]

Sorry to hear about your GTS mate :(

Interesting what you say about the Radeon, I'd just decided on that very card for my PX box, the 64mb Vivo. Is this what you have? Howe does it compare to the GTS for games, quality etc?

[phil]

Yup, I am using the Radeon 64Mb VIVO....image quality is awesome! Much better than the GTS. Text is crisp at 1600x1200@85Hz where the GTS was blurry. When run at 32bit, it is easily as quick as the GTS. DVD playback is second to none. You will not be dissapointed with it tril. :)

[fizler]

sorry to hear about the dead of a badass card. thats got to hurt. wow this is sad, we are talking about computer parts as if they are human!

[Rick_Deadly]

Originally posted by fizler
sorry to hear about the dead of a badass card. thats got to hurt. wow this is sad, we are talking about computer parts as if they are human!

Of course we are. I'd cry like a baby if my GTS died. I can't afford a Radeon replacement and I'd have to use my old Rage Fury Pro. Very nice 2D and TV in/out, but the gaming ain't as fast.

[stall6g]

Gaming was a little slower on the Radeon for me but not noticeably slower and the picture quality is better in comparison to the Geforce family. Then again I am comparing an AIW with a Geforce2gts both 32meggers. Sorry to hear about you loss on the vid card. Now if only ATI could keep up with the driver support that Nvidia has they would be a heck of a lot better.

[Martyn]

Originally posted by phil
Yup, I am using the Radeon 64Mb VIVO....image quality is awesome! Much better than the GTS. Text is crisp at 1600x1200@85Hz where the GTS was blurry. When run at 32bit, it is easily as quick as the GTS. DVD playback is second to none. You will not be dissapointed with it tril. :)

V.cool, I pondered on a Prophet Kryo 4500 for a while, but a lot of folks have commented on the quality of the Radeon, and as I do a lot of Graphics work as well as play games, this got me interested in preference to the Kryo.

Anyone got a GF3? Fast, I know, but what about quality?

[stall6g]

Ask Hemi he has one. From what he has told me the image quality is great but the drivers are still a little buggy.

[Martyn]

Will do Stall ;)

About the drivers and such, you sound unimpressed, or is it just impressed with all the detonator releases?

BTW, have you found any neat OCing tools for the Radeon?

[stall6g]

Tril,
It's not that I am impressed with all of Nvidia's updated drivers since many of them do have a lot of bugs in them but the mere fact that they are trying to constantly improve their product. Now I am not one of those Nvidiots that think there is no better company to make a video card but in high end gaming they are king right now until ATI releases the Radeon2 which will hopefully give them back that competitive edge like the Radeon did for them. I look at it like Intel vs. AMD in that which a strong competition between 2 companies can only mean a better, faster and cheaper product for we the consumer.

As far as Radeon tweaking utilities there are several to choose from. There are Raid-on tweaker, Radtweak, Radeon Tweaker and R3d tweaker just to name a few. I haven't used many of them due to the simple fact that it is in the wife's comp which about the only games that she plays are Civilization and Age of Empires so it is pointless unless you are trying to eek out the extra frames for a multiperson online FPS. You can get all of the ones that I mentioned above along with Powerstrip and a few other video o/cing programs at: Tweakfiles (http://www.tweakfiles.com/video/). Hope that helps you out some in answering your question.

[Virus]

Yep, Hercules has replaced 2 3D Prophet DDR's. I still have the 2nd one in shrink wrap. I'm ready to build another system. Too bad they aren't still sold in the stores. I'd love to swap it out.

[phil]

I have just installed the Matrox G450 in the TBird and am running at 1600x1200@85Hz. The image quality is AWESOME!! Text is pixel perfect and extremely sharp. Visibly better than my Radeon on the other system at the same resolution. Colours are also great. If you don't use your machine for games, then the Matrox really is the ONLY choice....I have used many gfx cards, and none match the Matrox G400/G450 in 2D image quality. I am well pleased for what can be considered a budget card :D

[dnar]

Originally posted by phil
I have just installed the Matrox G450 in the TBird and am running at 1600x1200@85Hz. The image quality is AWESOME!! Text is pixel perfect and extremely sharp. Visibly better than my Radeon on the other system at the same resolution. Colours are also great. If you don't use your machine for games, then the Matrox really is the ONLY choice....I have used many gfx cards, and none match the Matrox G400/G450 in 2D image quality. I am well pleased for what can be considered a budget card :D
Oh yeh! I was also pleased, this card is good value, the best 2D image I saw in the price range and even higher. Are you using it under W or L ?

[phil]

Originally posted by dnar

Oh yeh! I was also pleased, this card is good value, the best 2D image I saw in the price range and even higher. Are you using it under W or L ?


I have a basic Linux install (Redhat 7.1's Workstation option). I am making some boot disks to install RH onto my RAID array using the AMI controller. I don't know if it is going to work yet, but fingers crossed ;)

[Jodie]

Originally posted by tril0Byte


V.cool, I pondered on a Prophet Kryo 4500 for a while, but a lot of folks have commented on the quality of the Radeon, and as I do a lot of Graphics work as well as play games, this got me interested in preference to the Kryo.

Anyone got a GF3? Fast, I know, but what about quality?

I'm really really happy with my GF3. It's not tremendously well support in the real fun arena (pixel shaders) but quality at 1920x1440 on my Vison Master Pro 510 monitor is insanely good, and it runs up in the 120 neighborhood at 1280x1024 beautifully.

But then, I mainly use it for simulations, too...