Video Card Questions for Sonic Adventure 2

[jessman1988]

Hey, I'm going to upgrade my card from a GeForce 2 MX400 to an ATI Radeon 9700 and I just wanted to know if Sonic Adventure 2 is playable with this card. I mean, it's REALLY awful using wireframe mode for games, and I know that this isn't the best card, but it's loads better than my old one. Also, does this card handle Anti-aliasing well? Thanks for your time!

 

[eggo]

ATI Radeon is fine, I use a 9100, and games run smoothly.

 

[jessman1988]

So.............you're saying that there's no trails on the screen? or clutter that covers the entire game? SWEET! BTW, for most games and n64 emulation, how well does an ATI card do with Anti-aliasing? thanks.

 

[aika-san]

I'm using a Radeon 9800 Pro after upgrading from a Geforce4mx and it constantly amazes me. I used the ati reference drivers for a short time but had slow frame rate problems with some of the tests in 3dmark 2003. Upgrading to the omega drivers fixed this and now i can't fault the card. everything that i used to run on geforce runs heaps better on the radeon. all the emulators work fine as well and there are no compatibility issues that i have found so far. i've tried epsxe,pcsx,pcsx2,chankast,dosbox/dfend,giri giri,winuae,visualboyadvance,snes9x and they all work as expected. even old dos games like daggerfall work fine.

in short, i'll never go back to nvidia unless they come up with a better card at the right price. just make sure you use the omega drivers, as the reference drivers didn't go too well on my setup. There's also a free program called DriverCleaner. Use that to clean out your old geforce drivers before you put the omega ones on.

 

[jessman1988]

ok! Thanks for the info. BTW, that's a NICE computer you have, lol. How much difference is there between the 9700 and 9800 anyway? They CAN use the same drivers, right? Mainly I'm concerned about anti-aliasing. Can it be enabled with a high resolution and still maintain good speed? That's my only main question. Also, I heard that Radeons had problems with n64 emulation. Is this true? For the final time, thanks again, lol.

 

[aika-san]

thankyou for the kind comments about my computer. damn thing nearly broke my wallett though.

about the high-res thing. you will notice that i only have the 128mb radeon. if you want to keep high frame rates at ultra high resolutions then i would suggest the 256mb version as bigger screen size means more gfx memory. having said that though, i run everything at 1280*1024*32 with virtually no speed loss compared to 800*600*32. i will do a 3dmark with/without antialising and post the results back in a few hours.

i can't comment on n64 emulation on my radeon as i haven't tried it yet. i do have the zelda ocarina rom though so i'll try getting that running and let you know how i go.

i'm not sure about the differences between 9700 and 9800. i do know that they can use the same drivers though. try looking up some reviews on both cards and comparing the benchmarks/prices. that's what i do when selecting all the major components in my system.

Heres a link to omega drivers:

http://www.omegadrivers.net/archive.php


back in a while....

 

[aika-san]

Heres a link to omega drivers:

http://www.omegadrivers.net/archive.php

 

[aika-san]

hmmm. seems i can't turn antialising off with my radeon. i can alter it between 2x, 4x and 6x though.

i couldn't find 3dmark2003 so i used 3dmark2000 instead. both tests were done at 1024*768. higher mark is better.

antialiasing 2x - 12469 marks
antialiasing 6x - 9787 marks

so it does make a difference, but not a huge one. now i'll try n64 emulation.

back shortly...

 

[aika-san]

I just tried zelda ocarina and pokemon stadium 2 on my system.

i used project64 v1.5 and nemu64 v0.8 emulators.

both games work fine under both emulators with sound in full screen. no modifications were neccesary. i just load the emulator and open the rom and i'm playing in seconds.

those people with issues may be using cheap sound/video cards or motherboards/cpu's or it's a known issue between a particular emulator and particular game. if people don't stick with industry standards and try to save money then they normally pay by sacrificing compatibility. both my pc's never get turned off, and they run everything without needing patches and hacks. i've seen plenty of systems run the latest popular games well, but they fall over when it comes to specialist stuff like emulation. as with everything in this world, you get what you pay for.

anyway, i hope ive helped make your decision easier.

 

[jessman1988]

jeez... Thanks for all of your time. This is AWSOME! No, I'm not gonna use ultra-high resolutions, but I'm hoping to enjoy 1024x768 32bit with 2-4 anti-aliasing for a change, lol. BTW, do most Dreamcast games run full speed for you? They definately SHOULD by those specs.

 

[aika-san]

I have yet to find a dreamcast game that slows it down. at the moment i am archiving a few playstation iso's so i thought i would do a test. i fired up epsxe with chrono cross running in a window. then i fired up chankast with skies of arcadia running in a window. then i fired up project64 with zelda in a window. as i write this all three are running at full frame rate and the system is still super-responsive.

things that will make a system better are hyperthreading, lots of dual channel ddr ram, big raid hard drive system and nice gfx card of course. sit all this on a tried and proven motherboard with high specs and you can't go wrong.

one last thing. i notice you are running xp home. disabling system restore will get you a reasonable speed increase. it never bloody works anyway. if you want some kind of protection, try acronis true image. much better and does not slow your pc down like system restore does. also, if you run a virus checker then try getting rid of it, and using f-prot instead. it's also less of a resource hog than things like norton antivirus. you know that norton even slows my pc down. you wouldn't friggin' believe it but it's true

if you can, try to get xp pro as it's much quicker and more stable. xp pro(build 2600) is the quickest. reformat your hard drive to ntfs file system and put xp pro + service pack 1 on. you will get a 20 to 30 percent speed boost just by doing that. this is because xp home is based on win98/me(slow/buggy) whereas xp pro is based on winnt/2000(quick/stable). if you do this though, don't try to upgrade from home to pro because this method is fraught with problems. instead, reformat and install xp pro from scratch.

these are a few cheap ways to get a few more fps in anything. only thing is, i hope i don't get banned for this as it is off topic. i guess it all helps getting chankast running smoother though.

arty:

 

[jessman1988]

HOLY MOLY! :O That's a spicy meat-a-ball-a! And seeing as how I'm italian, I can make that joke, lol. what a mouthful! I can't believe that you're being so nice as to give me more than a one sentence reply. And, this IS my thread, so if it gets too offtopic it'll prolly just be deleted or moved, but who cares? lol. Anyways, you REALLY get full speed with Skies of Arcadia? SWEET! That alone is awsome, but along with 3 consuming emulators running?!?!? That is TOO much! Well, I can't afford XP PRO, so I'll just stick with XP HOME, but since I'm also getting a new laptop with a great processor and plenty of RAM to spare, I think I'll be safe. Now, ONE LAST THING...Does Sonic Adventure 2 run FULL SPEED with minor gfx errors for you? If you can play Dreamcast games full speed (that's the impression that I'm getting) including this game than my life is complete! Thanks for your time, and if I misunderstood anything, please let me know. THANK YOU FOR THE INFO AND THE TIPS!

 

[aika-san]

unfortunately i don't have sonic adventure 2. but here's a bit of a screenshot attachment. what you can't see is the frame rate :bouncy:

 

[aika-san]

i had all three emulators going at full frame rate simultaneously. whether you will get the same performance out of your laptop depends heavily on what hardware it has in it. just bear in mind that laptops are normally not as grunty as a well built desktop pc. you will be paying for the miniturization. be careful, as laptops can have very similar hardware to a desktop pc but give much less performance.

i notice your geforce is a pci card. make sure your radeon is an agp card and that you have an agp slot in your pc.

i do mobile computer repair here at moonta bay and i always build my own systems. thanks for listening and i'm only too glad to help. knowledge is power after all. if i can spend half an hour helping you and that cuts your learning process by days then it was worth it. i just wish when i learnt all this stuff, that i had someone to ask all the questions. it would have made things a lot quicker.

oh. i love all those 70's italian splatter gore horror movies. lucio fulci and dario argento are my favourite directors.

 

[jessman1988]

heh. Now that's TOO off topic, lol. and yeah, the ATI card is an AGP. Anyways, it may be a laptop, but I specifically told him that I want one good enough to run Doom III, and I'm not too sure if it will, but it's pretty awsome for a mini powerhouse, lol.

 

[aika-san]

good luck with your new laptop then.

make sure you see doom3 running on it before you pay any cash. salesmen are dodgy at the best of times.

i don't think you will have any problem once you got your agp radeon. pci cards are real slow.

seeya